All Dolled Up!

Charlotte

Fresh tears fell from my eyes. May... I knew, deep down, of course, that she was likely dead. To be told so bluntly however - by that man of all people, who said it without the slightest hint of decorum or sympathy, made it worse.

I had wished at one time that we could all stay just the way we had always lived, in this house, forever, and that May wouldn't have to leave. While I was not against getting married, I simultaneously did not want to leave this home- I wanted a way to stay here, surrounded by those people, forever.

Did May leave though? I didn’t remember a wedding, and I might've passed away before it happened - as a matter of fact, I might've not been invited given how sickly I was towards the end.

However, I tugged on this memory, and something began to return to me. A memory of something important - and with a jolt, I dashed off to another part of the house. If I remembered correctly... it should still be there!

Charlie

I did my best to try and avoid her as much as I could the next two days. I left for work early before the sun set, and arrived after dawn.

I was keenly aware that she was still around, of course. She had returned the ring I had stupidly given her by keeping it on my dresser, and whenever I went to go check on her I'd notice that she would be in a slightly different position than the last time I'd seen her. Not enough for anyone who was just casually checking up on her to notice, but if you knew that she was sentient you would be hard-pressed to not notice once you began to really pay attention to her.

This system of avoiding her worked, and I did feel better after finally getting some sleep. Some work even got done on the house, with all the windows now fixed and most of the wiring optimized, it was two things that I could cross off my list.

Still, I knew that this game of hide-and-seek couldn’t last forever. I always slept with the door locked in case she did have some malevolent intent and tried to give me an involuntary tracheostomy in the middle of the night, but I otherwise left my room unlocked. Which is how I returned one day to see a written note from her.

'I have a favor to ask of you, can you please stay by a bit longer tomorrow night before leaving?'

Her handwriting was pretty good considering the fact that she didn't have real fingers - though I guess during the times she was 'alive' her fingers must've worked good enough. I still didn't fully understand the complexities of how she worked, but she seemed to gain a lot of functions in the night which she didn't have during the day.

I had half a mind to 'ignore' this little request of hers, but another part of me felt sorry for her, and now that I was less moody after getting some sleep and getting accustomed to the night shift, I decided to play along. This time, instead of leaving early like I did the other two days, I waited downstairs until I heard her telltale footsteps.

"There was something you wanted?" I asked her. "But, I have to leave for work soon so if you could make it quick..."

"This won't take much time at all," she said. "Please, follow me!"

She led me to the West Wing, to the second floor, where she opened up the door to a room, and pointed to a dark corner. "There!" she said.

"What's there?" I asked. All I saw was an old dresser and a lot of dust.

"There's something behind there," she said.

"Behind where?"

"The dresser - but I can't move it on my own," she said. "I've tried before, but it's too heavy. I need help moving it."

I sighed. "Alright," I said and got to work. It was quite heavy, but with a grunt, I was finally able to slide it over a few feet.

"That's good enough for me!" she said, and then slid into the gap I had made. I looked to see what it was that she was looking for, when I saw that there was an alcove just behind it, into which she crawled. "There's a hole here - it should still be here..." She crawled down on all fours, rather unlike how she would usually behave, and then crawled back out cradling various things in her arms.

All of them were covered in dust - as a matter of fact, she was now completely caked in it, but she didn't seem to mind as she held her prize high in the air. "Aunt Emily's necklace!" Though it was nearly so soiled as to be unrecognizable, I saw on closer inspection that it was a necklace made of gold with two small and one large emeralds in its center. "I thought I'd never find it - or that someone had stolen it!"

"Why was it there of all places?" I asked her. She turned away shyly as if wondering whether or not to tell me, and seemed to eventually decide that I could be trusted with her story.

"So, some time ago, my cousin May and I... we decided to go see this play somewhere where we wouldn't normally be allowed to go," she said, a tiny smile playing on her face all the while. "I was a bit too scared, but she convinced me to go along with her... it was kind of disappointing when I think about the actual play, but our mothers found out. Mine wasn't too strict, but Aunt Emily, her mother, who was usually a sweet lady, flipped her lid completely and forbade May from going out of the house until she was married. May was so angry about this that she hid this- Aunt Emily's prized necklace, here, and told no one about where it was hidden, and denied that she had taken it - though I always thought she was lying. I thought it might be in here, it was a hiding place she used to use to hide books she didn't want her parents to know that she was reading. I tried to search this spot before, but I couldn't move the dresser."

The necklace wasn't all that she had found. There was a book, though upon further inspection it was entirely in German. "Can you read German?"

"No."

"Neither can I," I said, though I recognized some of the words enough to know what language it belonged to. "Was this one of the books your cousin would've been reading?"

"No, she didn't know German either," Charlotte said, and shrugged.

I combed through it, but it would need to be properly dusted off if I were to get an idea of what it was about. I saw odd diagrams and figures drawn inside - but ultimately I didn't think much of it, lost interest, and handed it back to her.

She also discovered a pair of earrings which May had likely hidden there as well, though Charlotte was far less attached to them than the necklace. I was going to ask if that was all and that I was leaving for work when she started tearing up again.

"Ah.... what happened?" I asked her.

"It's just... Aunt Emily..." she said, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her dress, smearing grime over her cheek in the process. "She... I knew she was probably dead... and that May was probably dead too... but when you said it... and the way you said it... it kind of hurt you know? To know that they were really, truly, forever gone. That I hadn't had a chance to say- to say- to bid them farewell." I felt a wave of guilt rising up in me.

A thousand justifications for how I had spoken came up in my mind- I was tired, she had no right to complain when she had done worse to me, I didn't owe her a thing, etc. But, I found that I couldn't voice them. In that moment, there was nothing more that I wanted to do other than give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

I could no longer see the kind of evil sentient doll you'd see in horror movies when I looked at her now - all that was before me was a young woman who had realized that her entire family had long since died. Someone who was trapped in a doll's body and didn't know why. Someone who had every right to be scared. Someone who needed a shoulder to lean on. "I'm sorry about that... I didn't mean to cause you pain. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

She tapped her chin. "There is actually something... no wait... give me until tomorrow night, okay? Then I'll let you know if I really want it," she said. "But, other than that, could you get this necklace polished? I know it might cost a bit, but you can sell these earrings to make up the cost, I don't mind."

"Okay, I'll look into it, but it might take a while," I said, accepting the jewelry, not even knowing if the earrings would pay for the cleaning and polishing costs for the necklace. After all, the earrings could be fake for all I knew. "And what about your dress?"

"Huh? What about my dress?"

"Don't you need that cleaned too? And you'll need a bath."

"Oh, no, don't worry," she said. "I've gotten this dress quite dirty over the years, many times, and even torn pieces of it. It always repairs itself by the morning."

"Really?"

"Yes, I've never washed it, and it never remains dirty or smells."

That sounded incredible and difficult to believe - but at the same time, so did everything else about this and getting hung up on this small point barely made sense. "Alright. Let me know what you want tomorrow then, okay?"

"Sure thing!"

I then drove off to work.