Star memories

Dolls

Starr sat in the room and pondered her next move carefully, the scraping at her door was getting louder, and she started to hear something scampering through the vent. She had little time left, she needed to act now. She opened the door and backed away quickly, ready to kick any dolls who poured through. To her surprise however, the six or seven dolls there were just stood in the door frame watching Starr, not moving at all. If they hadn't been scraping at the door beforehand, Starr would've assumed they were normal dolls.
Starr felt something, she couldn't quite describe what she felt with any of the five senses, but she felt it nonetheless. The dolls too reacted to this sensation, all of them turned and walked the other way down the hall towards the front of the house. The sounds from the vents also grew more distant. It was clear that whatever they now wanted, Starr was not a part of it.
A scream echoed down the hall, the scream was older and feminine, and by the sound of it, it came from the room next door. The very same room where the adults had been arguing earlier. Not too long after an adult masculine scream came from the same place. Starr poked her head out in the hallway, she didn't see many dolls, but the ones she did see were heading toward the room where the screams came from. Starr snuck her way out into the hallway, being extra sure to keep an eye on all dolls in the hallway, but they didn't show any interest in Starr as she walked by. The hallway felt longer then ever right now, the walk that once took her a minute was now taking her five. The door to the room next door was wide open. The floor leading up to the door was stained red, the smell rose off the carpet and made Starr nauseous. Starr reached the doorway and took a peak around the corner, immediately she regretted it. Dolls lined the outside of the room, more then she had seen in any other part of the house, none of them moved however, they just sat facing towards the center of the room. In the center of the room sat a bed, a very nice elaborate bed, one of the very few pieces of furniture Starr had seen in the house. Sitting on the bed like a centerpiece were the bodies of the two adults Starr had met earlier today, they were covered in blood, as was the entire room. The nauseating smell was at its strongest in this room, Starr had to do everything she could to keep her self from puking. Upon closer inspection Starr noticed something odd about the bodies, all of their limbs, no, all of their joints appeared as if they were removed then sewn back together. Sitting in the middle of the two was Lucy, the young girl was resting her head on the corpses laps. Lucy seemed perfectly unharmed, Starr was relieved, if nothing else she wanted to at least save Lucy.
But why
Starr still struggled to grasp any of her memories, why should she help her. It was obvious this kid was happy now that the adults were gone. Starr recalled the papers she had seen in the office, Lucy had been through adoptive family after adoptive family. Even without her memories, Starr felt that she and Lucy were in very similar situations. Without realizing, Starr found herself at the foot of the bed. It was highly likely that the cause of the dolls and the massacre in front of her was somehow Lucy, but even still Starr felt she was doing the right thing as she reached out and gave the sleeping girl a good shake.
"C'mon, we need to go." Starr gently lifted Lucy off of the messy corpses.
Lucy rubbed her eyes and then looked up at Starr. She said nothing.
"It's dangerous here Lucy, let's go find somewhere nice and safe."
The little girl looked around the room, the dolls were still inactive. She examined the two behind her that she had just been laying on. "Mom and dad are nice and quiet now. It's nice and peaceful here now, no danger."
Starr felt certain of one thing now. "You did this didn't you?" Starr didn't sound scared, or even angry at the girl, she just asked as simple as one would ask a friend how they've been.
"I did."
"I see." She held the girl tightly in her arms. "Why did you do it?"
"I created the perfect family, there's going to be no more fighting, and no more mess. From now on I'll live happily here. Would you like to be a part of my family Starr." Lucy looked up at Starr's face. "You can be my big sister." The dolls started twitching slightly, none of them moving from their position, but all of them very much alive.
Starr let go of the girl and took a step back, she got down on one knee so she was the same height as Lucy. "I'm sorry Lucy. There's something important I need to do. I can't stay here with you. You can come with me."
The twitching of the dolls grew more intense, some starting to rise and make their way towards the center of the room.
"Not again." The little girl looked away from Starr. "Not again, not again." Her voice changed deeper as if something dark was possessing her. "Nobody will help Lucy create her forever home, but I will. Anything that makes Lucy unhappy I will erase." A dark figure rose from the girl, and for a brief moment Starr could see it's long tentacle-like arms reaching across the room to all of the dolls. Lucy's voice went back to normal for a bit, "Starr is nice, playing dolls with Starr is fun. Don't leave me Starr."
Starr stood up, the little girl in front of her didn't scare her, just filled her with a twisted sense of regret. A regret that she couldn't quite place, one that must've been hers at some point, but was now distant and lost to her. Starr wasted no time with a response, she stood back up turned and ran. As much as she wanted to stay and help the young girl, Starr had things more important to her. She got to the door before Lucy could react, except it wasn't Lucy's voice that Starr heard behind her. The deep dark voiced echoed behind her as Starr ducked into the hall.
"So you too would leave Lucy. I won't let you leave her alone." The dolls all rose and made their way towards Starr. Their plastic catching and tearing with each other as they moved much faster then any human. A pair of dolls were at the door in front of Starr, but she was ready, with one great leap she was over the dolls and out the door. The shadow beast born from Lucy let out a howl from back in the room. Starr took a quick look around the hallway to get her bearings, it was physically bigger then when she was in it just before, and along with being bigger it was longer, much longer. She heard footsteps coming from the room she had just left, they started slow but picked up quickly in intensity.
"Duck." A voice spoke to Starr, a voice she recognized, but couldn't quite place. Without questioning it Starr obeyed. Starr dove onto her stomach, moments before the shadow beast came crashing through the wall straight over her. The beast had assumed the form of some kind of massive feline monster with Lucy, who was currently unconscious attached to the back of it. Starr could make out the things tentacle-like arms a lot more clearly as they reached all around and attached themselves to the various dolls. Just as the beast had entered the hallway, thanks to momentum so did it exit. Crashing through the second hallway wall into a room Starr hadn't yet seen. Starr was not feeling very adventurous, and decided to head back the way she knew would lead her back to the front door and exit to this house. The beast didn't stay down for long, Starr could hear it get up and begin moving again. The beast wasn't Starr's only concern however, she could see it's arms up ahead in the hall reaching into different piles of junk raising the dolls from them. Also there was the army of dolls moving in from the room she had exited. Starr did her best to keep moving forward despite all that was happening. The hallway was like a minefield, one wrong step while running and a doll hand would get ahold of her. She did figure out something advantageous to her however, the beast itself had difficulty navigating the hallway due to its size and preferred to stay just outside the hallway and reach in to attempt to grab Starr.
"Duck." These instructions from the mysterious voice continued, and Starr followed them seamlessly each time narrowly avoiding danger. Starr came to a point in the hall where she could see the turn to the front door, the only issue was the hallway was completely clear, meaning the beast could follow and easily catch her once she left here. She heard the footsteps of the beast come to a stop, it was just on the other side of the wall. Behind her dolls were piling up, getting ever closer to reaching her. Her leg ached from its previous injury, and her chest hurt from all of the running, but what hurt most of all was her scar. The big scar that ran across her stomach burned with a searing unnatural pain that increased in intensity the longer she was here.
"Go." Ignoring all pain Starr ran, straight for the exit as fast as she could. She didn't look back, with the sole purpose of escape she ran.

She wasn't fast enough.
The beast easily caught her moments before she reached the exit. It hit her on the side sending her flying across the room. Starr landed on her back, and before she could recover the beast was already over her it's claws digging into her arms holding her in place.
It spoke, but it's words were incoherent and sounded more like a feral animal then a human. "Lucreee, aneeetheeng forr lucreee."
It's claws dig deeper and deeper as Starr was slowly crushed by the weight of the beast. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip.
She heard the voice once more, the one that guided her before. This time she could clearly tell that the origin of this voice was from her subconscious, something within attempting to guide her.
"Concentrate..... Focus on what you want, and dispose of what you don't need."
What I want to keep, thought Starr. She thought about the girl, Lucy, if she could she would like to show Lucy a happier life one away from this place. Now, what she could do without, well for one this crushing feeling, and the pain in her arms, they were making it hard to focus, she could definitely do without those. She focused on her arms, and imagined them feeling relief.
A few seconds later relief was there, followed by a screech of pain from the beast, but Starr was focused now. She remembered the beast, and how it was enabling Lucy to commit such atrocities, she imagined the little girl without the beast, so young pure and innocent. The beasts screeching stopped entirely, and Starr felt something fall and land on her gently. Starr had one more thing she could think of right now that she didn't want. This house, the messiness, and the uneasy halls, Starr could do without all of it. Starr heard an explosion to her right, followed by the sounds of a fire. Starr opened her eyes for the first time during all of this. The beast was gone, or more accurately in pieces. Bits and pieces of the shadowy monster lie all over the room, none of them moving. The dolls as well had stopped moving, showing no trace of the arms that had controlled them before. The explosion to her right had started a fire, slowly engulfing the place. On her lap sat Lucy, still completely unconscious. Starr stood up and scooped up Lucy, Starr felt exhausted, and the pain in her stomach was reaching an all time high, but there was one thing she wanted to do before she rested. She wanted to get Lucy to safety. Starr made her way to the door moving slowly, she took one last look at the house burning behind her. She could hear sirens off in the distance, and saw the blaze growing quickly, engulfing and removing everything in this house from existence, exactly as Starr had wanted. Starr opened the door to leave, and almost immediately collapsed through it, with her last bit of consciousness she made sure Lucy made it out too.