When Barbie Takes Over

44- The Telling of a Secret

Chapter Forty Four:

The Telling of a Secret:

In the morning, I woke up before Alice did. She was still cuddled up to my arm and I didn’t want to disturb her by moving, so I stayed still. I only turned my head and watched her sleep.

Alice was sleeping peacefully. Just looking at her face right now, you couldn’t tell she had been crying last night. There was no way to tell that she had been trying to blame the whole freak thing that happened with the plane yesterday, on herself.

I don’t know why she had even thought to blame something like that on herself. Nearly no one had control over what happened with planes, let alone a six year old girl! It was just crazy that she would think to blame herself.

Alice shifted against my arm and let out a little sigh. I made sure to stay extra still so I didn't disturb her. Alice was still for a second before her eyes fluttered open and squinted against the soft morning light that managed to slip in from under my blind. She rolled onto her back and started to rub at her eyes.

"Morning Cutie," I said softly. I gently stroked Alice's cheek as I brushed away the hair that had fallen in front of her face.

Alice stayed quiet and focused on removing the sleep from her eyes. When she was done she lowered her hands and stared up at the ceiling.

Just as I was about to ask her if she was feeling alright after a couple of minutes of her staring up at the ceiling, she finally spoke up.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Alice whispered to me. It was so quiet I wasn't even sure if I had imagined the words, or if she had really said them. But when she looked at me expectantly, I realized that it hadn't been my imagination.

"Sure, Alice, you can tell me anything," I promised her. Since she was no longer using my arm as a pillow, I rolled onto my side so that I could see her better.

"My barbies.... They make me...." Alice lowered her eyes to the bed so she wasn't looking tat me. "They make me do bad things," Alice said softly. Her bottom lip quivered slightly. "Really bad things."

"What do you mean your Barbies make you?" I asked her. Maybe someone at school had said that the Barbies were bad just to see if Alice would believe them. Alice always brought her Barbies to school so it possible someone else had teased her.

"When I'm playing with them, they make me do things," Alice said, her words not clearing up anything at all.

"I don't understand Alice," I said.

"The Barbies, they tell me what to do."

"How do they tell you?" I asked her.

"They... I'm playing with them and then... I hear a voice... And then I... I..." Alice whimpered. "I listen to it. I try not to, but I have to!"

"What does this voice tell you to do? Where does it come from?" I asked.

"They tell me to do bad things, Bridgey. And I don't know where it comes from, I just hear it," Alice said.

"What kind of bad things?"

"It didn't use to be bad things," Alice said. A single tear fell down her cheek. "It used to be fun things. It used to be things I wanted to do. But now... Now they tell me to do evil things. They tricked me into thinking they were nice, but they aren't. Bridgey they are really mean."

"Who is 'they'?" I asked. 'They' was the voice she was hearing, but who was it?

Alice looked around, like someone would hear us talking. But there was no one else in the room with us and Alice was speaking so quietly, even I had to strain my ears to hear her.