The Awakening of the Dolls

Chapter Eleven

Rosemary let go of the girl's leg. Akira winced as she fell to the carpet, banging her head against the bedside table. The lamp fell off and landed on the carpet next to her with a thud, the dim light flickering off.

The soft, faint voice called out again. "Leave her alone! Please..."

For a brief moment, Akira felt hopeful, thinking somebody had come to her rescue. But it wasn't her stepmother or father or brother. It was soft and desperate, a young girl's voice. More natural than Rosemary's low, menacing tone. Akira vaguely wondered if a child walking past had somehow seen the commotion inside.

Then, she raised her head - and gaped in disbelief.

It was Amelia. The plain rag doll that looked nothing like a human, that Akira had been sure was just an old toy. Her sewn mouth moved as she spoke, her eyes rolling around in her cotton face. Somehow, the image of the plain, worn doll moving was even more eerie than the realistic, human-sized one.

"What are you doing here?" Rosemary voiced Akira's thoughts, her voice lowering. "I was happy when the girl threw you out. We both were. I thought you never wanted to see me again."

"I didn't," Amelia admitted. "I felt betrayed when I realized that I could never be fully alive like you would be. You were just using me to help end your owner's life."

Akira's head was spinning. This was too much to take in. She knew she should've taken the opportunity to run, but she just lay there, unable to draw her gaze away from the surreal sight. She had always dreamed of what it would be like if her dolls were alive, and now it was happening right in front of her.

"I don't want to see you again, either!" Rosemary snarled. "So why don't you go away? I'll be alive once I finish this girl. And you'll be nothing! You were right. I only wanted to use you." Akira winced at her low, angry tone.

"But you created me," Amelia protested, her button eyes seeming to shine with a kind of sadness. "I was nothing until you brought me to life. You helped me think and move."

Akira gaped in shock. She didn't know if it was more or less comforting to know that the rag doll hadn't always been alive. The revelation that Rosemary could bring other dolls to life definitely wasn't. In a way, she was the rag doll's mother.

Rosemary looked surprised for a moment, before her face hardened again. "Only so I could use you. When the girl decided to separate us and gave me to her mother, I needed to find a way to kill her faster."

"And I helped you!" Amelia pointed out. Akira winced as she remembered how her face had been pulled into the fire. Rosemary had been telling the truth. That hadn't been her after all. "You promised that once the humans were gone, we'd be together. But you lied. You only cared about yourself, didn't you? I was just a tool for you."

The dolls stared at each other, their eyes glistening with a kind of anger and bitterness. It reminded Akira of the fight she and her mother had, how she had felt betrayed and screamed and thrown the rag doll away. The dolls seemed like mother and daughter, too.

"You were just a tool," Rosemary agreed, though her voice strained as if she was forcing herself to say it. "And I no longer have use for you."

Akira finally snapped out of her shocked state while Rosemary spoke. She pulled herself to her feet and slowly backed out of the room. Rosemary was too busy speaking to Amelia to notice. As soon as she was out of the room, she ran at full speed through the house, not even sure where she was going. She just wanted to be as far away from the eerie living dolls as possible.

She fell to the ground as she bumped into somebody, her heart racing. She glanced up to see her stepmother staring down at her with concern. "Akira, what on earth are you doing?"