The coughs wracked her body, causing her entire form to shake as the breath was expelled from her lungs. It wasn't fair, it just wasn't. After everything she had done to secure her health, betraying that silly blonde girl, trading with a demon, she was sick again.
Travis, her father stepped into her room, carrying a steaming bowl full of some attempt at soup that she would no doubt retch up the moment it was swallowed. "I'm sorry you feel bad Viola." Travis, the man who was utterly convince she was his daughter, smiled sadly down at the young woman as she lay shivering beneath the piles of blankets. "Don't worry though, the doctor is going to on his way soon, and then we'll get you fixed up before you know it."
Bending down to plant a kiss on the young girl's forehead, Travis made his way out of the room leaving her to her thoughts. It wasn't fair. She had only been in this body three weeks, and now she was sick again. Just three weeks of freedom and energy, of being able to live rather than just survive, and know it was back to her arms being made of lead, and her legs of stone. Compared to her old sickness, this was preferable, but she could feel the difference in them. The one that had inflicted itself upon her original self was a wasting sickness, something that took years to finish something off. This was not the same. She could sense it with the experience that only someone who lived with disease can, that if she didn't recover within a few weeks, it would claim her.
But there was nothing to worry about, right? As father just said, a doctor was coming. She knew of him, Mister Wolfgang from the small cottage next to the windmill. He was smart, shrewd, and more than willing to work on any case. The only issue was his greed. He craved money like most men did air, and charged exorbitant fees for his attentions. Ellen, looking outward through Viola's eyes, sighed as she felt exhaustion settle on her. Travis will handle it, to be sure. He wouldn't let anything happen to his precious daughter.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Ellen awoke an indeterminable amount of time later to heated voices from the next room, one belonging to her father, and one belonging to the miserly doctor. "I don't care if she's the heir to the English throne, if you can't pay I'm not wasting my time." That was the doctor, his nasally, reedy voice almost drowned out by the deep-chested bellow Travis responded with.
"That's my daughter in there sick, and I swear that if anything happens to her that you could have prevented, I'll beat you until doctors in the future will pay to study your corpse! Now get out of my house!" There was a thumping of boots upon the oaken floorboards, before the door was opened and then slammed. Ellen heard Travis pace for a moment, before slowly walking over to her bedroom door. The worn hinges groaned in protest as Travis peeked in, only to see his daughter Viola staring at him with wide-eyed fear.
"Is it true? He won't help me?" Ellen could barely get the words out the lump that had formed in her throat. Why? Why did this happen to her? Hadn't she preemptively paid for any sins she had committed? Hadn't her suffering up to this point been enough to make up for what she had done? Travis came over to the bed and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, allowing her to feel the slight bit of wetness falling from his cheek.
"Don't worry Viola, I won't let anything happen to you. You're my little girl." Ellen's smiled, happy in the embrace of her father. "Listen, there's a doctor about two days ride from here. They say people can get treated for free if they don't have the money. I'll borrow a horse and cart, and we'll go there, just you and me. We can make a trip out of it. Once you're healthy, we can stop on the way back and have picnic. How does that sound?"
Ellen snuggled her head deeper into her father's embrace. "I'd like that, dad. I'd like that a lot."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The trip had been unpleasant at best for both participants, with every little jostle making Ellen groan and repress the need vomit the small amount of crackers she had managed to eat. Travis sat in the driver's position, sending sympathetic looks toward the young woman who wore his daughter's skin, never seeing in the poor, queasy face the true person hiding underneath. Finally though, the comfortably little home came into view, causing Travis to reign in the horses. "We're here Viola, I'll go get someone, you stay in the cart."
Swinging himself off of the uncomfortable bench, Travis made a brisk walk toward the door, rapping on it with his knuckles, sending spikes of pain through the cold digits. Pulling his scarf up a bit higher, he watched the door open to reveal a woman somewhere probably in her late thirties, maybe early forties if she was well preserved, wearing traditional maid garb. "Is this the home of the doctor?" At the woman's nod, Travis continued, "My daughter is sick, and I don't have the money to hire anyone. Can you help her?" He did not even attempt to hide the pleading in his voice, if saving his daughter required him to beg, then beg he would.
"Do not worry, the mistress treats anyone, regardless of circumstance. Help me bring your daughter inside, and I will alert the mistress she has a patient." Travis could barely walk back to the carriage on his knees weakened by relief, but he managed, and pulled his shivering daughter, blankets and all, into a bridal carry to bring her into the warmth of the house. The maid, holding open the door, allowed him to pass before quick-stepping past him to open another door, this one revealing a room full of doctor's tables. "Please place her on a table, the mistress will be with her soon."
Travis did so, and was then escorted back to the living room, and told to sit. The maid disappeared for a short time, before returning bearing a tray with a steaming mug on it. Setting it down, she bowed herself out of the room just a young woman entered.
Her dark hair was cut to shoulder length, and her round face seemed perfectly cherubic. "Greetings, I am Dr. Aya Drevis." Travis' eyes opened slightly upon learning that this young woman was the doctor, but made no comment. Anyone willing to help his little girl was alright by him, no matter who they were. "I need you to tell me about her symptoms, the circumstances around her falling ill, along with any other pertinent information." Drawing in a long breath, Travis began to talk.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Ellen lay on the bench, swaddled in sheets, listening to her father recount the decline of her health to the doctor, who was obviously female by the tone of the voice. Ellen breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. Everything was going to be alright, this Dr. Drevis was going to cure her, and then she could continue on with her life like this had never happened.
Eventually, the pretty doctor stepped in, and walked to the cabinet on the side of the room. Removing a medical mask and placing it over her nose and mouth, she turned toward Ellen laying on the table. "Are you really going to cure me Dr. Drevis?"
The older girl's eyes crinkled to reveal her hidden smile, and something strange flickered in the depths of her pupils. "Of course, Miss Viola, beautiful name, by the way, your father told me it. You have nothing to worry about, I'll make sure you never have to hurt again. I'm a friend to all my patients, so that makes me your friend too, and isn't helping each other what friends are for?" Ellen smiled as she heard that, but something sounded odd. She knew of a speech very similar to that, but where? It had something to do with that odd flicker of something she saw in the doctor's eyes…
Suddenly it hit her, as her own eyes shot open. That speech was remarkably similar to the one she had given Viola, just before stealing her body and leaving her with the butchered and sick one she had left behind. She remembered that flicker, she saw it in her own eyes every time she looked in the mirror, it was a flicker of madness. She heaved herself off of the table and onto the floor just as the needle descended. Had she not moved, it would have been buried into her arm as opposed to just being stuck in the wood side of the table. "You're not really going to help me, are you?"
Dr. Drevis' eyes crinkled even further, showing her delight, and the madness sparked brighter. "But I am, Miss Viola. I am going to take away the pain, the sadness, everything. I am going to take away all of the evil deeds you've done, and don't try to lie and say you haven't, I see it in your eyes just as I'm sure you've seen it in mine. We are two of a kind Viola, and that is an amazing thing, but I don't care about any evil you've done, or tragedy you've caused, all I care about is how beautiful you are. Your face is gorgeous, the only thing wrong is the eyes, much too plain. I know, I met this lovely girl named Jean, her eyes will fit perfectly in your face."
Ellen saw her chance as the doctor was caught up in the fervor of her speech, and dragged her protesting body forward, pushing the older girl off balance and bursting into the next room, "Father, we have to-" Ellen cut off as her mouth fell open in horror. There, in the chair, sat her father, blood coating his front from the grouping of knives puncturing his chest. Ellen turned to see the maid standing at attention in the doorway to what she assumed was the kitchen, hands held primly in front of her.
"I'm sorry you had to see your father like that, Miss Viola." The doctor's words turned Ellen around, as she beheld the girl walking toward her, a strange device clamped in her right hand. "I asked Marie do away with him after I went to attend you. Don't worry though, his face is just as handsome as yours is beautiful, and it will be preserved, so I had kind Marie made sure it would not be damaged."
Ellen only got two more steps before the impossibly fast maid had caught her and wrangled her arms behind her body, immobilizing her. "It's not fair." It was all Ellen could think of, forcing out the thought in-between sobs. "IT'S NOT FAIR!"
The doctor reached her left hand to the instrument she held, pulling a chord causing the device to roar to life. "It rarely is, Miss Viola." And then the device plunged into her stomach, and the ripping noises seemed to peak for a moment, blotting out everything else before the pain hit, and then everything went black.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
With a final bit of taxidermist's glue, Aya placed the last eye in the doll, completing her latest work. Standing up with a contented sigh, she smiled, observing the beautiful face that finally had the eyes it deserved. "What do you think Maria? Such a lovely doll, isn't it?
Marie continued placing the jars of embalming fluid back on their appropriate shelves as she nodded. "Yes Mistress, very lovely, perhaps your best yet."
Aya nodded as she picked up the human-sized doll and set it against the wall to be placed on display. "I think so too, but I still think there's a few flaws. See how the ears are too small? It is cute, but not beautiful. I think we'll need more resources."