Forlot: Welcome to the Dummy House - Book Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Three

Even though that I was not in the mood to see Jetzid, I was relieved that he had come. He was in the form that I fell in love with. He was human and handsome. But I did not care now. I wanted nothing to do with him. We could never be together. He could not be my boyfriend. After what he, Matita, and their buddies put Alexis and those other misbehaved kids through, we would not be a couple. After he lied to me - lied to my face - I needed to cut him out of my life.

But something was telling me not to. A faint, unknown voice in my mind was encouraging me to not leave him in the dust. He was different from Matita and the other puppets. He believed that what he was doing was right. Teaching bullies and spoiled brats a painful lesson. But there is such a thing as taking things too far. Shrinking them down to lifeless dolls and hiding them in the attic while their families worry sick. They are human beings who must be punished like humans. They are not some collection. They are not dolls. Even greedy people have feelings - unless that they are psychopaths.

But psychopaths would not wish to be trapped in a doll version of themselves - for eternity. That is the greatest place for them to be. If they are fine with torturing and murdering innocent people, they deserve to be trapped in a plastic doll.

Why could Jetzid and his friends have not done that?

I sat up and gazed into his sparkling eyes. "Jetzid."

Jetzid was not alone. Right behind him were Anita and Owen.

"Owen." I raised my voice. "Anita."

Anita was okay. At least, she looked okay. I would have ran to her and Owen if I was not stuck in bed.

"Janice!" Owen and Anita hollered in unison. They ran to me with big smiles.

I grabbed their hands. "Owen. Anita. Oh, I am over the moon to see you guys."

Owen noticed Matita. The knife was still in his leg. "Oh my gosh!"

Jetzid squeezed between my friends and took the knife out of Matita's leg. He grabbed the unconscious doll by the neck. Matita's arms and legs swayed. A gaping hole was in the front of his leg.

"Are you over the moon that I am here, Janice?" Jetzid asked.

I did not get a chance to respond. Anita and Owen gave him glares that could have killed.

Owen said, "After all the trouble that you and your tiny cronies have caused, you think that Janice will want to take you back? She does not want to be your girlfriend, let alone your friend."

Sadness twinkled in Jetzid's eyes. "Janice, can we talk? Please. I will leave you alone after our talk. I promise." He walked to the window across from my bed.

"Have you forgotten just how ticked she was when you visited her house? Her face was bright red. Thank gosh that she did not explode."

"When was this?" Anita asked.

"Last night. Before she was shot."

I forgot that I was shot. Shot by Matita. So this is why I was at the hospital.

Jetzid pushed up the window and threw out Matita. He shut the window and turned back around. "I will never forget the pain that I caused you guys, the victims, and your families. My pals and I wanted to make the selfish world a better place. Or a bit more bearable, at least. It never occurred to us how worse we were making it."

Owen had returned to my bed with a couple chairs. He sat. "It never occurred to you because all that you were thinking about was what you would get out of it."

Jetzid's eyebrows narrowed. He pointed to the ground. "We wanted to protect generous people like you three." He pointed at himself. "I was protecting you."

Anita plopped in the other seat. "Protecting us? Do you call keeping me and Owen in your basement protecting us?"

He clasped his hands together. "We apologize for...that and scaring you. You were inching close - too close - to our secret. We could not let you blabber it to the world - and make me lose my Janice." His eyes moved to me. I felt him staring into my soul. "I will die without you."

"You should have considered that before it got this far, Jack," Anita snapped.

"My real name is not Jack. It is Jetzid. J-E-T-Z-I-D."

"I could care less about you or what your name is." She pointed at the open door. "Now get out before you give us more pain."

I reached a hand out for her and Owen and finally said, "I want him to stay."

They stared at me as if I were out of my mind. "What?"

"Are you out of your mind?" Anita demanded. "He lied to you more times than I can count on my fingers, even his own name."

"He changed his name because his real one is strange," I defended him. "He did not want suspicion thrown on him."

"You are giving him a free pass?"

"Oh, no. I am explaining why he changed his name. If I was given an odd name, I would probably do the same. But the name Jetzid is a cool name." I smiled at him.

Jetzid smiled back and took a huge step forward. Anita and Owen did not notice.

"Janice," Anita said. "There is a big difference between humiliation and suspicion. But the name change is just a speck of dust compared to all the other things that he did. I would make him turn all the kids back to normal and turn himself and his accomplices in."

My only friends and I were startled. Jetzid hurried to a table on my other side and knocked off full pill bottles. He snarled at us.

"I am not going!"