Maggie was supposed to be the one dancing.
Not Dolli Mae Jensen, the skank from the small town of Elmore.
Maggie had crawled with Vinnie on the ceiling, following him, watching him. Wanting more than anything to reach out and touch the red curls.
She looked at the red string on her pinkie.
The bond was severed.
His end was tied to someone else's now...
"What the actual hell?!"
"C'moooon, I came back for ya!" He yelled, "why can't you recognize me?"
"Because!"
"It's me! William! Your boss!"
Dollface stopped dead in her tracks. No more backing away.
"Is this some sick game?" she asked, looking up at him as he closed the last yard of space before things got more uncomfortable.
"No, I just came back. Lost some weight, cleaned up a bit… You know, what you'd want to do for your good friend!"
"I'm not your friend!" Dollface insisted, sounding a little whiny, "I'm still not sure how you did it, but you did!"
"You really trust vigilantes?" William said, thin lips sneering across his face. He looked intoxicated.
Something golden rolled behind her. No notice was taken at this moment.
"Well, generally speaking-" Dollface put her hands together, backing away again. He pushed her down into a chair by her shoulders.
"No, you don't." William said, "Now, do you trust me?"
"Uuuh," Dollface said, trying to stand, but he was practically on top of her now.
"Yes, yes you do." He scooped her up like when he was posing her on a muscle car last summer for promotionals and stood her on a chair. She looked over his dry and crusty hair on his papery scalp, "So c'mon girlie, dance with me a bit, it'll make up for the month in the river and the week in storage."
"Don' fuckin' touch me!" She slapped his hand away, the one tipped right under her sharp chin.
"Hey, don't be mean," William cooed, "Or I'll be rude and go away!"
He brushed his hand down Dollface's body, starting at her collarbone as she squirmed, then pulled her and dipped her down in one motion, like an experienced dancer. He leered down. William restrained her arms, trying to keep her from moving in his cradle.
"Stop it!"
Willaim's smile turned into a grin showing yellow teeth as the smell of Jonestown, a place Grampa and Mike would talk about behind closed doors after a beer or two, came burning out.
Dollface struggled from his grasp.
He lifted his arms up with a laugh, "Oopsies!"
"Ugh!"
Black dribbled around his too-many-teeth smile. He rubbed an arm over the rotting liquid, smearing ink over his face.
"What is your fuckin' deal?"
"Well, when I first saw you, I felt my need beginning." William said, no longer a fat middle aged man with weird fetishes but a dry corpse, "You can call it a crush, maybe. That's what you'd call it right? But you were led astray. I wanted you to be perfect."
"Is that what you call it?" Dollface asked, genuine disgust finally in her voice.
"Well, you're here now, aren't you?"
"I'm not dead!" Dollface insisted, "Yer ab-so-lute-ly bonkers!"
"Oh, sweet girl, look down at yourself, look in a mirror!"
William grabbed her hands, "Look!"
Dollface, now forced to look at her arms in the golden light and gasped.
There were scars.
So many scars that looked nearly purple in the foggy light of gold stars. They were jagged and slashed across pale skin, bruisey and circular. They were perfectly symmetrical, curving at curves and stretching around her arms.
"Remember what it's like for springlocks to activate?" He asked, the smell of humanity's faults on his breath, "To have circuits and wires and hydraulics ripping through your organs, embed themselves in your skin?"
"N-no…
"You really are a forgetful little bitch, aren't you?" William let go, and started to circle her.
"N-no..."
The searing pain of Freddy as he tore the mask gifted to her ripped it off and slammed her like a ragdoll against the wall. Crawling away, only to feel her shoulder ripped out of socket as the big brown bear dangled her and waddled to a backroom as she screamed.
Dollface fell to he knees, convulsing uncontrollably as more scars appeared, as she remembered hearing her breath too loud, her heartbeat drowning all sounds out as she'd wailed to no avail.
To no safety.
She remembered now.
Dollface had died alone as the last girl standing.
She'd been the final girl.
She now remembered the feeling of penetration, how quickly cold metal turned warm.
Her fingers turned cold as open slits revealed in front of her widening eyes.
Joints, joints, JOINTS!
Dad really hadn't saved her.
Dad didn't love her, that's why he acted so weird at the hospital!
Dollface touched her face with numb hands, unable to feel, to register.
"How else could you survive every accident, every fall. How else could you go without food or sleep some days?" William Said, bending over to put his chin on her white shoulder with scars, eyes glowing purple.
She couldn't take the smell anymore, she couldn't take the rudely appearing patterns and joints. Dollface's plastic pink and yellow wig hair fell into her painted eyes and tangled in the cheap, thick, gray lashes.
Before another utterance, Dollface vomited red and black streaks of rot on the tiles…
...Maggie dropped in a clattering mess on the floor.
She hissed, second head rioting on her shoulder.
Maggie wanted to scream when she watch Vinnie put his bare metal hands on Dolli MAe's shoulders.
Why the Hell would he want someone like Dolli? She was so…
Basic!
Maggie was pretty!
And punk!
Why would Vinnie want a basic bitch like her?
Maggie howled in rage.
Dolli Mae gritted her teeth.
"It's showtime! And not a moment too soon!"