Four liars sit around and draw cards.
You want your bottle
Emily drops the card in the pile before taking a deep breath.
"Wah wah wah wah." She says loudly.
Soon a slot on the only door in the large room opens and a baby bottle filled with white liquid drops through.
After retrieving the bottle, a new card is drawn.
Three liars look at the reader with growing concern. Why real tears? The three think to themselves.
The game is actually pretty simple.
Eating baby food is not so bad. Its food and it has been days since they last had anything even close to substantial. Same with having to drink from a bottle. It tasted like baby formula instead of milk, but it was liquid and had calories, so again, preferable to nothing. Yes, the pacifier and bibs were humiliating to wear. Of course, not as humiliating as the diaper.
The diaper...oh no.
Spencer snatched the card away from Hanna and read it. She then turned sympathetic eyes to her best friend. She felt Emily and Aria move closer to her, so she looked back at the card and read aloud as Hannah's tears slipped down her cheeks.
"Almost time for a nap. But first, you need your diaper changed."
There was no judgement when they looked back at Hannah knowing what she must do. Any of them could have drawn that card and who was to say there wasn't another one in the pile?
But this was still better than the alternative.
A always gave them a choice. And while none were ever good, there were choices that were definitely better than the other one. They found that out the hard way when for A's game it was a choice between playing puppets or Barbies.
The gas filled the room a moment after Emily held up to the camera the card that said puppets. When she woke an unknown amount of time later, it was to Aria screaming. She watched helplessly as the hooded figure brought a mallet down onto a hook in Aria's hand.
When Emily instinctively turned away from the horrible sight, she was met by her other two best friends already strung up on a platform. Their labored breathing and red puddles at their feet, led Emily to believe they had been propped up their long enough that they were either all screamed out, in shock from the pain and anguish they must be feeling, or too weak from blood loss.
The clank of the hammer brought Emily's attention back towards Aria just as A was turning away from their handiwork. Emily still doesn't clearly remember what followed. None of the girls do. The trauma of being turned into A's marionettes was too much for their minds to process. Even looking at their scars doesn't jog their memory of that day.
Nevertheless, they did remember to never choose puppets again when given the choice. They always chose the alternative. And so far, the alternative was always better. Whether they were GI Joes having to crawl through rat and cockroach infested tunnels. At least they had BB guns to shoot the really big rats if they got too close. Whether they were mermaids that had to stay in freezing cold water for hours. Whether they were Thunder Cats or Pokémon or Teen Titans who had to run through a grueling obstacle course, it was still better than being the strung-up puppets.
Today's choice was puppets or baby dolls.
The sound of a lullaby alerted the girls that it was their cue to put down the cards and crawl to their cribs.
As soon as they were lying inside, they all did feel quite sleepy.
"More drugs." Spencer mumbled as her eyes became heavy. She figured it was part of why the milk in the bottle tasted so god-awful. She gave a lazy smile.
Their lives were a constant nightmare, but there were some things A did that she almost looked forward to. The dosage wasn't enough to knock them out; so, she could enjoy the feeling of floating and the dopiness of it all at least for a little while. In this state, it was easy to keep the thought at bay as to why A wanted them pliant instead of unconscious.
But then she heard the door open and knew she'd have her answer soon enough.
Real live baby dolls were so much fun to play with, A thought as they made their way to each crib; burping Aria, brushing Emily's hair, tickling Spencer, and then finally changing Hanna's diaper.
Still better than puppets they all thought as they slowly drifted to sleep. The gas seeping through the vents would insure it was a dreamless sleep which meant they were given some peace before tomorrow's choice.
The end
Another's Note-This one shot is dedicated to Boris Yeltsin for giving me the idea to have the liars made to act as babies in the dollhouse.