All Dolled Up!

Charlotte

I had trouble understanding what was going on.

It was a bit hazy, as all of my memories were from when it was daytime and I wasn’t really paying attention - as if I was viewing things through a misty glass, or if I was only half-awake. In a way though, I was only half-awake during the daytime.

However, even with that clouding my memories there was no mistaking what I had seen.

I was used to a variety of reactions when people saw me.

I was usually called 'creepy', 'frightening', or 'unnerving' by them. Thrice, people had screamed at the mere sight of me when they had stumbled upon me for the first time.

There was a small ray of sunshine in those memories however - that of a young girl, who couldn't have been older than six, who had admired how pretty my dress was and verbalized so. This was tainted by the memory of her mother yanking on her sleeve, warning her not to touch me as I was likely 'filthy and had germs on me.'

How rude! I was quite proud of my dress - and while I still harbored a tinge of regret at what I had done to that girl who had praised it, I had to do it in order to get rid of them.

One person had called me 'Chucky’s Bride'- I did not know who this 'Chucky' was but based off context he sounded like some kind of monster.

Despite all the years that had passed - I was still a young maiden at heart, and was self-conscious about my appearance. A young lady was all I would ever be, with this body of mine unable to age any further. While such comments did hurt - but in a way, they were helpful. It was gratifying that people were scared of me, for that made it all the easier to chase them away.

This man though...

I turned my head towards my hand and examined what had been placed on my finger. A simple twitch and the ring fell off, rolling through the open door of my display case and onto the floor- of course it did, it was made for a finger far larger than mine.

Gorgeous. That's what he had called me. I had never been called that before, and it did not seem to be a sarcastic remark either as I could see the genuine admiration in his eyes. Perhaps he was a doll collector? It would pose a problem if he tried to whisk me away to add to his private collection or tried to auction me off.

But that wouldn't explain the ring.

It had been a long time since I had last had interacted with people properly, but I still knew what a ring on that finger signified.

I stepped out of the glass case and found the ring. If I wasn't wearing it in the morning, he might've become suspicious. I would have to keep it for that reason alone.

I examined it a bit more closely - the metal was either platinum or sterling silver, and the stone was a ruby. My first thought was that it matched my dress quite well, though there was no way that this ring had been bought for me. If it had, it would've fit my finger better.

I turned around to keep it in my case, so I wouldn't inadvertently drop it somewhere.

It was now time to get to work.

This was either the first or second day that man was here in my house. My plan on the first day was straightforward.

I made my way down the steps to the kitchen. There were no signs of anyone moving around the house, and when I was sure the coast was clear I went to grab the biggest knife I could hold from the kitchen.

To my dismay however, I could not find the man regardless of where I looked. A peak out the window showed that his automobile wasn't there anymore.

I was rather frustrated as I had hoped to get this over with as soon as possible. Where on earth had he gone at this late hour? Did he intend to use my house as his own personal storage bin?

I turned my attention to his luggage. I could damage it… but I felt it would be unproductive if my goal was to get rid of him. All it would do is cause him to come back later with more stuff, and I wanted him in the house continuously if possible so it would be easier to plan to eventually scare him off.

'One cannot hunt a deer if one is impatient,” as my uncle would say. I would have to wait for now- ah, perhaps he would come back later at night?

I got back into my glass cage, and it was only after about half an hour sitting in there that I realized that I was still holding the knife! I had to return it- it was too early for me to show all of my cards, but I realized far too late that I had dawdled on for too long, and that it was probably summer, meaning the night was shorter than it would have been otherwise.

The first heralds of the sun's rays taunted me through the window as I could no longer move, stuck in the glass cage, still holding the knife.

Charlie

A lot of people don't like working the night shift- I used to be one of those people but I got used to it, I guess. The extra cash was always welcome, and the nights were always... quieter. Put simply, if there wasn't anything unusually off going on at night- by default, you didn't even need to do much. Of course, things were almost never this simple and nearly something went wrong every single night, but it was still quieter than the day shift.

I had switched from nights to the day shift after my engagement two years back - while the night shift was nice in its own way, it wasn't conducive to a proper family life. Though now, with my engagement broken off, and a desire to keep to myself and ignore annoying social gossip around the office - the night shift sounded perfect. The extra pay was a nice cherry on top.

The only issue was how I was going to try to stay awake all night. If habits remained true- doing nothing would no doubt put me to sleep in the middle of my shift, which I wanted to avoid.

After I had gotten some supplies, called my mother to apologize for my earlier behavior and had an actual conversation with her, I went to the local movie theater. They were showing reruns of both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes. While this would normally be good enough, I think I fell asleep by the end of the second movie and one of the theater staff had to shake me awake to make sure I was alright.

It was still a few hours before dawn, so I decided to go to the local park.

Sitting there, on a bench, watching the nearby creek, brought a sense of tranquility that you could only find at night. No noise, no people, with the world looking as if it had been created just a few hours ago. Granted, there was a downside to this as well, and if you were particularly jumpy you might find that the shadows seemed oddly shaped as if something was ready to jump out at you. Whatever, I was in a small town - what were the odds that I'd run into a knife-wielding maniac somewhere out here? Practically zero.

But the air was so fresh! Kind of like the early morning air, though without annoying joggers all around.

I sat there, in contemplation for who knows how long, sipping a huge cup of coffee, when I saw that the sky was beginning to lighten, and I decided to head home.

I got home and skipped the usual things I would do like making dinner or showering. I collapsed right onto my bed and went to sleep.

I woke up after what felt like an eternity, though it was only six hours. My phone showed that my mother and sister had both called me, but it looked like I was too deep in dreamland to have noticed.

I started to get ready- as I went to the kitchen something caught my eye- one of the knives was missing. I had bought the whole set a while back, and to see that the biggest one was gone... had I just forgotten it somewhere?

A quick sweep around the kitchen revealed no sign of it. Very strange - it was too big to be easily missed and I certainly would've remembered it if I had dropped it. There was no way that even my current sleep-deprived brain could've missed something like that.

This train of thought was interrupted by my phone ringing. The caller ID revealed the culprit, someone who I had wanted to have a word with anyway- my sister.

"Hey..." I said wearily.

"What's with you? You didn't pick up when either of us called?"

"Ah, right sorry.... I got called for night shift today, and so I decided to invert my sleep schedule and stayed up most of the night and then... I fell asleep. So, what's up?"

"Oh, don't you start next week?"

"That's what I thought but they needed someone and..."

"...and you couldn't say 'no' when asked, like usual?"

"Hey, I am getting paid extra for it," I retorted.

"Oooo, which is why you joined them, isn't it? The fat paycheck they were offering?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

I snorted. "I don't want to talk about money from someone who got through half of college borrowing money from me."

"Hey!" an indignant voice answered. "I'll pay you back just once I've paid off the last of my student loans-"

"That was all a gift," I said dryly. "I never expected it to be paid back, and you don't have to. You are my little sister after all."

"Aww..." she said, pretending to sound endearing with her voice going up an octave - though more likely than not she was just happy that she wouldn't have to pay me back. "So, how are you handling the move?"

"It has its challenges, but it's been going well," I said. "Still doing good." I then frowned. "Didn't care for your little prank though."

"What prank?"

"With the doll," I said. "Didn't you come here a month before me?" My grandfather had offered to sell the place to her first, probably not knowing that she didn't have any money, though what he had told me was that she didn't like the look of the place. I completely understood why she wouldn’t have now.

"Uh... I was going to, but then Cathy announced her engagement and there was a party and I couldn't go," she answered. "I've been wanting to drop by sometime, but things keep coming up so I never actually went. What doll?" She sounded pretty convincing - and if I didn't know her better I would've believed her.

"There's this weird doll upstairs," I said.

The moment I said this she began laughing loudly. "Have you been having nightmares again? Like after you saw The Ring or Child's Play?"

"No... it isn't scary or anything just... whatever, it's nothing," I said. The doll was odd - someone had clearly paid a lot of money for her, and she was being well kept given the lack of dust on her, and nothing else in the house seemed to be like that. As for my sister, she genuinely sounded like she didn't know what I was talking about - and even though my threshold for calling her a liar was low, it strangely enough seemed like she was telling the truth this time. "Well, feel free to drop by anytime you feel like it. Just give me a heads-up."

"Okay- give Mom a call too, would you? She might be worried the roof fell on you or something," she said.

I snorted. Well, given the state of the house, that wasn't too unlikely, but whatever. I wasn't going to say that out loud to either her or Mom.

"Yeah sure."

"Gotta go, bye!"

I looked for the knife for a while longer, only stopping when I knocked over a tea pot, hitting my shin with it feeling far more painful than I would've otherwise thought it would be. I did give my mother a call after that and reassured her that everything was alright.

I wanted to do something to improve things around the house, but I became drowsy again, and knowing that I had night shift that night, I went back to the embrace of my bed for a quick nap before it started.