Chapter 10

What Doesn't Burn

After hiding the Camel's remains, Rotten Sam and Sandy left to search the house

while they still had the chance. On entering the front parlor, Sandy noticed a loud pink! pink!

coming from the glass ceramic flower vase sitting atop the decorative nightstand to her left.

"Sam!" she whispered, hardly able to contain the adrenaline, "Someone is behind that vase!".

Behind the Gruelle family portrait sitting beside the vase, cowered the two Penny Dolls,

covering each other's mouths to prevent any screaming. One of them peered around the frame

and jolted at the sight of Rotten Sam and Sandy barging in to search for the others.

Smirking with anticipation, Sandy began to inch herself up one of the legs of the table,

towards the Penny Dolls. Sam remained behind, watching with a cruel eagerness. "After this,"

he thought to himself, "We shall finally take a break and begin work on the final steps of our

plan.". Sandy was just pulling herself up onto the table behind the vase when both Penny Dolls

shrieked and scattered, too blinded by fright to keep track of one another. Unamused for once

with the spectacle, Sam left into the kitchen to find a pair of scissors for the quilt.

Sandy, on the other hand, had only just begun with her romping about. However, she

was only one doll and only managed to corner one of the twin Penny Dolls. She had seen the

other one scamper off into the kitchen without thinking. When she gazed upon the fearful

expression of the doll she had cornered up close, a few stitches in her face broke to create an

even bigger, more hideous smile. Seeing this, the trapped Penny Doll looked around frantically

for anything in sight that might be able to defend her. She found that she was within arm's

reach of a Bible and she took the first chance she got to open it right up and begin reading

passages. Words came from her mouth unbearably slowly, as Raggedy Ann had been the only

one of them who had been taught to read.

Rotten Sandy pealed with vile laughter at the stupidity of the cornered doll. The words

were sluggish and in her new condition, they could do nothing to make her fear or obey them.

Sandy caught the doll by the arm mid-sentence and began gradually snapping it in half so she

could just enjoy the tortured, painful wails and tears of her target. In the kitchen, meanwhile,

Sam had his back turned to the other wondering doll as he dug in a drawer for scissors. "If she

thinks I am distracted," he thought to himself, "She will least expect it when I finally jump on

her." and he let out a little giggle. Little did he know, the other little doll had happened upon

Mrs. Gruelle's bottle of Holy Water, and was sneaking up behind him, prepared to throw it all

on him before he even realized she was standing there.

He felt around the drawer for a moment longer until "Aha!" he exclaimed as he pulled

out the scissors. At that moment, the little doll behind him yelled out, "Take this, you

monster!" and drenched him in the stuff. He sat there, silently giggling to himself, slowly

getting louder, letting the liquid drip from his hair and his hands. "You think that purified water

would stop us? Bullshit!" he screamed in her face as he whipped around and pinned her to the

wall, both hands crushing her little wooden neck and causing it to slowly splinter. The little

Penny Doll could think of nothing now that would help her escape his evil grasp. She gasped for

breath, but it was of no use. She was about to open her mouth to try crying out for her sister,

when she heard a piercing, heart-crushing bawling noise shatter the air from the other room.

She suspected that Rotten Sandy had already gotten to her sister now, so she gave in

to unconsciousness and eventually death, thinking that she would instantly be together and

safe with her sister. She could not have been more wrong. As Sam was increasing his strangling

grip on her, as she was thinking about seeing her sister again soon, Sandy was still preoccupied

with leisurely ripping apart her prey, ligament by ligament, limb by limb, toe by toe, finger by

blood splattered finger. Now, the last little Penny Doll no longer even had enough energy to

scream in pain it was so awful and draining. But Sandy was loving it all, even after her victim

had ceased screaming and wiggling.

She kept her mouth open, smiling and laughing maniacally as showers of blood flowed

right up from all of the open wounds on the Penny Doll and onto her tongue. "Oh, Sam! You're

missing out on a wonderful feast!" she shouted friskily in Sam's direction. But there was no

response. Sam had no cares, for he was busily enjoying a new ecstasy. Back in the corner of the

kitchen where he had murdered the other little Penny Doll, he sat there licking blood from his

lips and openly tearing right into her carcass which had gruesomely turned to flesh and blood,

but saving the most important pieces for their materials.

When she gained no response from Sam, Sandy became very upset, screaming out,

"Alright, fine!" and turning back to her feast, muttered to herself, "Sam's just a careless,

heartless little shit, anyway…". But she was still so distraught by this that she walked right on up

to her target, who was already long gone, and straight away ripped off the head of the doll.

Sandy was surprised when this did not cause another outburst of blood and so, took her first

look inside of the head she was now gripping by the hair. When she peered in through the neck

hole, she found a very appealing little snack, much like the stuff Sam was eating now in the

kitchen.

Rotten Sandy stuck her hand right into the blood-covered glob and taking out a chunk,

popped it right into her mouth and devoured it with vigor. It was so exquisite to her that she

decided to keep eating the thing until she had scraped all of it right out and none was left.

When she had finished, she took the empty head in one arm and hoisted the body over her

other shoulder, then made her way over to the kitchen to meet with Sam. When she had found

him, a whole mess of gruesome goodies she had never seen before met her eyes all over the

countertop in the corner, all over the windows, and all over the walls. There was Sam, bent

over the other doll, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and beginning to get up to meet

her.