Shadows House: Two From One

A Pair of Stolen Dolls

"Mistress Charlotte …is all this necessary?" Arla asked as she tried to move against the restraints.

"It is. Charlotte wants to make sure of something…so you must drink." Charlotte said as she poured a glass of water and raised it for Arla to drink. It continued for a while before Arla soon started to jolt.

Charlotte hurriedly picked up the bucket and let Arla vomit inside.

*Bleugh!*

"Mistress.. Charlotte…" Arla groaned and Charlotte took her face to see her eyes were still blurry with soot.

Lord Grandfather's soot…It truly is an unsightly thing. Charlotte thought as she started to bubble in anger.

"Arla…drink." Charlotte said getting another cup and another and another until all Arla did was vomit soot and water.

*Bleugh!*

Arla vomited another mouth full of water and soot into the bucket.

"It's enough…It's enough, you can… stop giving me water...I'm back!" Arla said as her voice was raspy from all that vomiting.

"Arla?! Arla, she's sorry Charlotte is so sorry!" Charlotte exclaimed as she rushed and gave her a hug. 

"...ngh!...uuu…" 

Arla was trembling in Charlotte's arms and Charlotte just hugged Arla tighter.

"Arla, what's wrong?" Charlotte asked.

"Brainwashing….truly is…a terrifying experience." Arla sobbed. "I felt like I was losing so much of myself, like the me that grew up then and now was going away completely and replaced with some…with some–"

"Doll?" Charlotte said.

"Yes, like some doll…" Arla sighed as she soon started to relax.

"Kyu!"

"Mu! Mu!"

Arla seeing the dolls worry over her as they held her hands made her smile despite her dismal appearance. 

"Thank you." She sighed.

After that Charlotte insisted that Arla lay down as the dolls put a warm towel on her head.

"Are you feeling better Arla?" Charlotte asked as she sat beside her, holding her hand the whole time.

"I'm fine, but I should probably return to my room." Arla said, getting up.

"Not yet, you have to eat something and Charlotte won't let you go back to your room to eat a fairly edible piece of bread." Charlotte said as she went over to the table and grabbed a tray of food and a hot cup of hot chocolate.

"When did you find the time to get these?" Arla asked.

"Charlotte got these while you were sleeping…She… Charlotte loves you Arla, I hope you never forget that" Charlotte said, which caused elda to freeze as she was about to eat a piece of bread.

"That came out of nowhere, is everything alright?" Arla asked.

"Nothing…everything is fine Charlotte just wanted to tell you just how much you mean to her." Charlotte said as she fidgeted embarrassedly in her seat.

"Aren't you just the cutest…but I love you to Charlotte, I'm glad we were born in two separate bodies, because even if we're here, we're here together and that's one thing I can thank the administrators for." Arla said as she hugged Charlotte.

"Arla…Charlotte feels the same way." Charlotte beamed as she hugged back.

After Arla felt better she went back to her room and rest some more before she'd come back and as usual she met with some resistance from Charlotte and the dolls but she assured them with a lot of convincing that she's fine.