Dollface's eyes lay bleary and heavy lidded.

Dreams unwound, like spider silk in the wind.

She'd been sitting, awake, for only seconds before the sounds of the world settled in around her.

The AC unit on the wall.

No, that was a heater.

Dollface was tempted to rip her shirt off, it felt like a hundred degrees in her damp sweatshirt.

Sweat.

She was sweating.

Dollface didn't do that very much.

Not anymore.

When she escaped that cool summer morning, Dollface felt no breeze, no heat of the day. Just one standard, background temperature she was never fully aware of.

Not even freezing cold winters like some asshole threw her into an iced-over lake really effected her as much as they used to.

No sensation.

Dollface could even wear sweaters in the hot Juli und August sun as comfortably as Princess.

Dollface's breaths were heavy, like an anvil on her chest weighing her down. Slow and mechanical, even making a whirring sound as it rose and fell.

Out of habit, she tried to listen for the midnight train.

Nothing.

Oh.

Yeah.

Riiiiiiiight...

She wasn't in Elmore anymore.

That was unfortunate.

Very unfortunate.

She missed the train.

It even lazily chugged through the streets like a car sometimes.

She even knew the people working on it.

The heater stopped heating.

Dollface still suffered. She sat up, trying to orient herself.

Where was she?

Not home.

She patted the floor.

Carpet.

Car-pet.

Cold.

A chill crawled up her spine like a million tiny spiders.

She bit her lip, eyes stinging, all sleep gone, tears replacing sand.

Wait, a grain.

It was just a highly polished hardwood floor, like at home. With a shag rug too, just like her bedroom before she started sleeping in her attic.

But this wasn't home.

Oh waiiiiiiit, she was at a sleepover.

In Laura's dorm.

How silly!

She looked over at the elevated mattress and heard Laura shifting at Dollface's eye level.

(start-task)

(taskmain): takecaketochildren

(obj); cake

(local); cryingchild

(end-task)

The world wound down as the heater quieted, unleashing the foul silence of noise.

Snuffles and snorts, shifting, normal noises of the sleeping world as well as the ones outside.

And then?

Nothing, the true and total silence drowning her out like a wet blanket.

And then, she heard whimpers.

(start-task)

(taskmain); takecaketochildren

(obj); cake

(local); cryingchild

(end-task)

Dollface plopped onto her hands and knees, eyes wide open, unblinking, glazing over like black donuts.

She set one palm in front of her, wandering aimlessly in the dark, eyes calibrating and adjusting until she was where she needed to be.

(start-task)

(taskmain); takecaketochildren

(obj); cake

(local); cryingchild

(end-task)

"Anit?" She whispered, lowering her head.

Anit let out a muffled squeak and stiffened at Dollface's freezing touch on her shoulder.

"Hey, chill."

Anit's breath was shaky and shallow, as unsteady as the river that flowed past Elmore.

"Hey, hey, hey," Dollface breathed, "What's wrong?"

Anit whimpered like a cowering dog. Dollface cocked her head, holding onto the blanket. She flomped onto her butt and sat, cross-legged.

"Go away…"

"Nope." Dollface whispered, "Not until you can sleep."

"This doesn't concern you."

Dollface cocked her head, "But I can't sleep knowing you can't either."

Anit said something in a language Dollface didn't understand.

Probably an angry rant.

"Do you wanna talk 'bout it?" Dollface asked, "Might help?"

"No!"

Dollface was knocked onto her back at the sharp blow. She didn't feel it though.

But Anit did, as more rapid fire speech in unknown words soon streamed out.

Dollface sat on her haunches, arms at her side and leaned into Anit.

"I-" Anit stuttered, "I hate the dark."

"Me too." Dollface leaned in, rolling her head back.

"Laura always insists on going to bed early." Anit said miserably, all pride lost.

"And she can't sleep without the dark." Dollface finished the train of thought, "But she is your friend."

Anit grumbled, "What does friendship have to do with this?"

"Well, sometimes friends don't quite agree or like the same things."

"Is this some country-ass hoe moral?"

"...No…" Dollface blushed in the dark, wanting to tell someone about her friends. She'd spent way too long going through their insta and tiktok accounts, even the corporate ones to be justified, without telling someone.

"Anything else you need?"

Anit shook her head very slowly in the dark. Dollface could see as her eyes adjusted very acutely that Anit's head was covered with a blanket like the rest of her.

"It's okay."

"Do you think he's cheating on me?"

"What?" Dollface asked, quietly, resting her head on Anit's shoulder.

"Deuce."

"Who's he?"

"My boyfriend."

"Oh." Dollface said, "I've never had one."

"Duh."

Dollface didn't hear that. "What do you think."

"He won't respond."

"It happens sometimes. Sometimes people need space."

Dollface probed the pain from where she stabbed the soft fleshy part of her lower jaw with her cautious tongue. Felt like an accident with a toothpick, but she hadn't used one since last summer.

Anit leaned into Dollface, "I hate you so much."

"I know you do."

Anit sighed.

Dollface listened, feeling Anit's breathing. "Set the phases to rot, what has got'cha distraught? It's negative attention, at best…"