Circus Baby had NOT liked the large new toy Charlie sent her at first.
No, not at all.
The large new toy was a big disappointment.
Circus Baby had expected a lot of fun with this large new toy, that the large new toy would last a while, that the large new toy would give her and the children a merry chase through the dark carnival that was "Circus Baby's Pizza World", Circus Baby's private kingdom come one minute past midnight.
The large new toy let her down with the new playmates she'd sent to greet him: when the large new toy tried to run, he screamed untouched, holding his back, falling to his knees, gasping with pain.
Circus Baby was so disappointed she'd turned away, letting the children do as they pleased as the large new toy lay screaming and unable to move as they held him down to pull trifling pieces of meat from him, first his ears, then his tongue, and then lower, lower in a sudden spurt of blood – those screams had been extremely gratifying to Circus Baby.
So she'd allowed the children to stuff the large new toy into a suit as what was left of it lay curled up all bleeding and weeping in a sludge of blood, vomit and excrement, unable to move.
Only the large new toy had been too big. So they got out the bear.
Even the bear wasn't big enough until they made the large new toy fit, breaking his arms and legs one bone at a time as his blue eyes glazed over, crumpling him, folding him, biting off his fingers and his toes, packing away all the leftover bits before standing back and laughing at him as they activated it.
The expression in the large new toy's eyes as the endoskeleton slowly slammed shut made up for Circus Baby's disappointment - individual pieces of titanium killing what was left of him by inches – the large new toy had made a lovely pet after all, so Circus Baby personally put a red collar around his neck.
A red collar that made the large new toy, her own personal dancing bear, prance and caper to her dark heart's delight, easing Circus Baby's boredom – Circus Baby was frequently bored.
So as a mark of special favor, Circus Baby knocked out the large new toy's sharpest teeth because it amused her.
As to no fun and games that week, there would be others.
Charlie always saw to that.
Charlie never disappointed.
She'd given Circus Baby the lovely box with the button on it and the collars, hadn't she?
Those were lovely toys. Oh, such lovely toys indeed!