Beauty of The Grotesque

Chapter 6

There was silence for long minutes while you stared down at the doll before she turned back to the woman and then to you.

"Don't you talk or something?" The doll asked again and you shook your head, you had never made an attempt to learn how to speak since it was never a necessity of yours.
The doll walked around you, seeming to inspect you as she did so.
You looked up as the woman snapped her fingers and watched as the doll ran back up to her.

"I was only looking Donna, I swear!" The doll said, balling her fist and holding it over her wooden chest in promise. You heard a sigh come from the woman in response and her veil turned towards you again.

"Oh yeah!" The doll shrieked again, "I'm Angie! And this is Donna!" She said pointing to the veiled woman and you took a second to understand, looking from each of the two before Angie continued to speak as Donna began to walk down the hall while you started to follow behind them

"Im guessing your that same being that was at the meeting not too long ago! Right?" Angie asked and you nodded while they continued to walk

"How did you get away from those three, I've never seen anyone do that before!" She asked and then stopped

"Oh wait.. You can't talk, I forgot about that"
You shrugged as she peered over Donnas' shoulder

"Maybe I can convince Donna to let you stay for a while! It sure beats the silence of being in here by ourselves!" She said again and you watched as Donna brought her hand up and flicked the doll in the shoulder while you descended down the stairs

"Ow! Hey! It wasn't a bad idea. At least I didn't think it was." Angie said before jumping down from Donna's arms and running to the door, having to jump in order to try and reach the doorknob. Donna eventually walked over and opened it herself before walking out as you followed. You didn't exactly question where she was taking you or where she seemed to be going. You didn't feel like you were in danger so you decided to see what was happening.

"I was gonna get that" Angie said, crossing her wooden arms while she walked behind Donna who stayed silent.
You all eventually stopped near the elevator shaft that held a small grove of colorful flowers. You stood nearby as Donna knelt down and carefully picked a handful of different kinds before standing back up. Angie was small enough to zoom around the patch without damaging the flowers and you watched her run around to pick her own before catching up to you and Donna as the elevator creaked open.

"Donna and I do this every morning in the spring when the flowers bloom!" She said, looking up to you and you tilted your head, slightly confused
"We pick out some of the flowers and we take them down to the graves up at the front of the trail!" She said as the elevator came to a halt and the three of you stepped out. Angie decided to run ahead of you both after you left the elevator and you watched her set the cluster of flowers down by the large gravesite and Donna doing the same after you both caught up to Angie. Donna stood and you could tell she was looking down by the way her veil was tilted forward. You could hear a meek voice come from behind the veil as Donna seemed to mutter an incoherent sentence as she stood next to the large grave.
You looked at the doll for some kind of explanation. You had seen people visit the gravesites of their loved ones, but you failed to understand why. That wasn't going to bring them back, was it?

You could recall the times where you wondered if you ever had some kind of life before you had become the monster you were now. Feared and hated by pretty much every person you could see for miles. Did you ever visit gravesites of anyone you had known or loved in your past life? Through the many, many centuries you had roamed these areas and mountains, the one thing you found hard to understand was human emotions. You weren't sure why they did the things many of them did, but you could only make guesses. You had seen on multiple occasions the effect death seemed to have on people. You had seen people kill each other over death and what you could assume to be sadness or grief. Everyone was quick to keep the ones they loved close to them at all times, but it seemed as if you were the only one who could see the worsening of the effects those same deaths could have on the ones they loved.
You were snapped out of your thoughts when Angie walked up next to you and gently pulled on your dress. You knelt down to her level and she began to speak in a whisper.

"Today marks another year since Claudia passed away" She said

"Donna was Claudia's mother, and Donna always warned Claudia not to go over to the edge of the cliff or down past the estate by herself. But Claudia was always curious and loved to explore and one night, Donna and I woke up from hearing her screaming outside. Donna was the first one out of the door but by the time we had found where Claudia had been it was too late.. The edges of the cliffside can be real brittle and if you aren't careful they can end up collapsing right from under your feet.... Poor Donna was already distraught and trying to get over the death of her parents and her older sister, but after her daughter went too, she truly shut herself in from anything and anyone.. she hardly even spoke to me.."

Angie said, finishing her sentence just as Donna began walking back to the elevator and back up into the house.

(I am unsure if Claudia is actually a child of Donna or not, but I heard of it to be a theory and I liked the idea and figured it'd make for an even more saddening backstory to poor Donna)