I carry the doll carefully, almost afraid that I'll drop it and break it even more. Almost. But heroes don't break things. Well, I mean they break stuff when they need to in order to do something heroic, not accidentally. But that's not the major issue.

The point is that for some reason, I feel kind of attached to the little doll. It looks sad, all busted up like this. Which is why I want Braginski to fix it for me. I'd fix it myself, but I don't know how, as lame as that sounds.

So I'm taking it to Braginski's now, to ask for his help. I feel a little un-heroic by asking him to help me. Maddie says even heroes need help sometimes, and I really do feel bad for this doll, so I'm just gonna ignore my own opinions for now.

Instead I try to concentrate on not dropping the poor thing. I gently brush the doll's blond hair out of its small face. Its eyebrows are seriously huge, and in a weird way it looks good. The doll has a nice face, even though it's broken. "It must've had some jerk for its original owner, leaving it all busted up on the ground like trash." That kinda pisses me off, so I stop thinking about that.

Y'know, I think Maddie told me a story where a ghost possessed a doll and used it to murder people and left their bloody remains where it killed them as a warning… that's totally creepy… maybe that's why the doll got all busted up and stuff. I shiver, but I don't let go of the doll. 'Cuz, hey, if the doll got all broken, the ghost wouldn't have anything to control, so it would've gone away and found a new home, right?

…Right?

"I'm going to stop thinking about that now," I say under my breath, starting to freak out.

I've almost reached Braginski's place, it's just up that kinda big hill. I walk faster, not running because of the doll. And I'm yelling, too. "Braginski, I need your help! Hey! Braginski!"

By the time I reach the top, he's already at the door, having heard me calling out to him as I climbed the hill.

"Hey, Braginski, I need your help with something."

"Da," he replies blandly, "you said that already. What is this problem that you need my help with?"

I hold out the doll to him slowly, "can you fix this for me?"

He carefully takes the doll from me and examines it, seeing where it's broken and how it was built. After a few minutes he nods. "Da. I can fix it. It may take a bit, but I can fix this. You come back later to get it back, da?"

I fidget a little. I don't really want to part with the doll, even though I know that Braginski will fix it faster than most people can. I don't really know how to explain.

"… Da, I see, you do not want to leave without it." Wow, it's like he's reading my mind. "You may stay in my house while I fix this. It won't take too long."

"Thanks, man!" I exclaim happily. He smiles in reply, not one of his creepy smiles but an actually nice smile. "Don't think I'll start to consider you my future brother-in-law, though." I say quickly.

"I assumed that would be the case," he nods, still smiling.