Chapter 27: The Doll Maker
A giant spider made entirely of gummy candy crawled out of a major hole in the ceiling, and spit out a ball of sticky cotton, blocking the exit. The monster was huge, bulky, fat, and rather pink in color. Its six eyes were made out of gumballs, a massive jaw opened to display several rows of monstrous fangs made of sharp end candy canes, and a sticky tongue that bared a resemblance to a rattlesnake. It walked on unusual gummy legs, crawling above the pink cobwebs.
"It's a candy spider!" Grace cried in horror. "What do we do?"
"Unless one of us has water here, we're trapped," Nurse Bear replied, holding onto Grace's leg. "Water is its weakness."
"Maggie, the water gun!" Mrs. Calloway shouted. "Can you use it?"
"Right away Calloway!"
She called upon the water gun, and dodged an oncoming pink ball that the spider spit out. Then it came charging at the group with the speed of a train. Everyone dived sideways as it crashed into the wall, the impact causing the whole candy room to shake violently, various sized pebbles breaking off from the ceiling and hitting the ground.
"There's not enough water in this thing," Maggie said anxiously, pointing out the minimal of water left inside the water gun. "Is there another way to make this room into a water tank?"
Before Nurse Bear could point out another solution, they watched some of the fallen pebbles transform into water bottles for some much needed fuel.
"Well something just read my mind," Maggie said with relief, grabbing a few cans.
They watched the spider reverse and turn to face the group, rearing back in anger like a maddened horse, revealing a strange, red like spot, looking swollen and twisted. The gang scrambled to their feet and rushed across the floor, dodging the pink cotton, the spider trundling after them, catching up to them quickly on its eight legs. Maggie stumbled and fell flat on her face. Recovering quickly, Maggie seized the water gun and looked up to see the creature towering over her, its fanged mouth smirking. Wiping sweat from her face, Maggie crawled away backwards but the spider continued to come.
"Maggie, get out of the way!" Grace called out to her fearfully.
Maggie managed to get up and move again before the spider had a chance to pounce on her. As it was prepared to make another pounce at the group, she held aloft the water gun in front of her, begging that it would cause great damage against the monster. As if having a will of its own, the water gun glowed bright blue, and suddenly, a blast of water shot right into the candy spider, straight into its swollen gut. Feeling a severe amount of pain, the spider reared back and roared in anger. Taking advantage of this, Maggie put all fears aside and moved closer for a full blast, filling the monster up like an overgrown balloon, squirting out grotesque colored liquids from parts of its body.
"He's gonna blow!" Maggie warned everyone, rushing over to her companions. "Take cover!"
The gang took cover in time behind a fallen table and didn't see the monster lose its balance and topple over like a building, bursting into a million candied pieces, staining the walls and floor everywhere. The impact with the ground and blast shook the loose cement boards from the ceiling. Peeking out from their hiding place, the nurse bear watched as the boards came down on the monster, crushing it for good. When it was safe to come out, Maggie used the water gun on the blocked exit, melting the cotton candy into red liquid.
"Wow, and they tell us that too much candy can make you sick," she joked lightly, watching her step to avoid slipping. "Now I understand why."
"You saved us Maggie," Nurse Bear thanked her, giving her leg a hug. "Maybe not all is lost as we had thought. We might stand a chance against the doll maker if we band together and win back our souls. Now let's get to that laboratory."
"Wait for us!" Grace called out to Nurse Bear, chasing her down the hall. "Don't go running off."
Later, the girls waited in the science lab for Nurse Bear to finish up that concoction for Maggie's condition. It was only a matter of time before her leg would lose control again once the effect from the needle wore off. The items were tossed into the condenser, doing its magic, a Bunsen burner heated the ingredients which were reduced to a purple liquid and shot down into the beaker.
Nurse Bear took the beaker and signaled for Maggie to come over to she can help her drink it, consuming every last drop. The antidote was bitter and unsweetened, yet gave a feeling of relief in her infected leg, no longer in pain. The effects left her dizzy and lightheaded for several seconds, and she looked at the doll bite on her leg fading away instantly, no longer a puppet's limb.
"Hey look, my legs all normal again," she said with relief. "Thank goodness for miracle cures in whatever sanity is found in this world."
"Yes Maggie, but would it be enough to avoid getting bitten again?" Mrs. Calloway asked with worried expression. "We'll have to watch out if another toy attempts the same attack."
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that Miss," Nurse Bear assured. "The antidote not only heals the bite wound caused by the evil toys, it is a vaccine that lasts a lifetime. Even the doll maker himself injected it in his system as a precaution if any of his inventions turned on him."
"So, what now?" Grace asked, dreading what was to be heard next. "Does he have any weaknesses for us to use against him? We have to know."
"Fire does the trick in destroying any killer toy he throws at you, if it's made of wood, fluff, or plastic. But if it's metal, remember to use lightning and water together. You want me to write this down?"
"That would be appreciated," Mrs. Calloway replied surely.
With a small pen and paper in her tiny pockets, Nurse Bear quickly wrote these things down and once finished, handed the paper to Calloway, placing it under her purple hat.
"Thanks Nurse Bear," Grace said gladly. "Can you take us to where we need to reach the top?"
Nurse Bear nodded her head, and sighed reluctantly. "I can. However, once I take you to a certain point, you're on your own. It's as far as I can go. And you needn't worry about me being discovered, I know the secret way back to the other lost toys."
Before leaving the lab, the girls stepped one at a time into a golden fountain to rejuvenate their health and strength for the next upcoming battle ahead.
Holding the next key aloft that the Nurse Bear handed, the girls couldn't help but feel a slight sense of worry in them. When they open the final door, what would they find in there? The horrors of the evil, corrupted toys and candy were terrifying enough. But what other nightmares would they find within the dark recesses of the Doll Maker's lair?
"This is where we part ways now," Nurse Bear said sadly. "If the Doll Maker tries to use his wand on any of you, find a mirror to reflect the spell."
"Piece of cake sister," Maggie said jokingly, trying hard to make light of the situation. "Couldn't have done this without your help. So thanks. And tell the other toys we've made it this far."
Nurse Bear had opened up a vent and gave a sign of thanks, before disappearing. If she insisted that she could find her way back safely, the girls had no need to worry about her.
Turning their direction toward the long corridor, Maggie felt some kind of slight hesitation to go forward.
"Maggie, what's wrong?" Grace looked at her friend with concern. "Why are you not moving?"
"Something is telling me that we can't do this," Maggie replied with a hint of shame. "Like we're no match for…"
"We're not backing down again!" Mrs. Calloway cut her off firmly. "Was it not you Maggie that put that other monster in its place? If you're still scared, well so am I. And so is Grace. And that's alright. But you were still brave enough to take on that beast regardless of that fear. Now we have to be strong and brave to overcome this nightmare, together. Is that clear?"
Maggie put aside her doubt and fear that had plagued her mind and gathered her courage.
"Then let's get to that lair and save the children!" She said with determination and confidence.
She marched forward the corridor with her friends by her side. The monsters from the nightmares of children may be real, but the girls knew they needed their help to be set free. There was no more time for self-doubt or self-pity. Mrs. Calloway was right. Giving into fear and doubt was what Willie and all the monsters of this world wanted. Their strength and power was their friendship and staying together. No evil force in this world was going to take that away from them. If Alameda Slim couldn't do it, then neither will Willie.
Moving on, the girls reached the end of the corridor and rounded a corner, finding another hallway, but this one was lined with doors that had barred windows. Maggie peered inside one of the barred doors and thought she saw mice in cages, some alive and some already dead. One table was littered with wheels, tools, gears, and other mechanical devices sitting next.
"Girls, I think we might have found the family of mice," she whispered to her companions. "But I'm not sure how we get in. The door is stuck and there is no key."
"Maybe this sign here can tell us what to do," Grace suggested, pointing to the sign on the wall.
The Doll Maker found other eerie, twisted ways of creating the most disturbing of toys involving live rodents and insects, turning them into half robotic creatures and replacing their organs and brains with artificial wires and computer chips, obeying the Doll Maker's every command. Other than trapping the children's souls into toys, the next plot was to create robotic machinery to guard the halls and prevent intruders from entering his domains. These doors are sealed with a magic spell and only the Doll Maker knows the key to opening them.
"So that's what the Doll Maker has been doing with all those poor mice," Grace said sadly, feeling sympathy for the creatures trapped in those cages, unable to help them right now. "Now I'm glad we rescued Mr. Mouse in time before he joined the others in there."
"Why does it feel that we have reentered the asylum back when we discovered what the mad doctor did to those animals?" Mrs. Calloway moaned, sickened by the condition those mice were in and turned her head away from the barred window. "I never would have thought such an act could ever be the work of a twisted abomination hiding behind the name DOLL MAKER!" Her shouting echoed throughout the hall and she prompted. "Let's get this over with."
Knowing they would be unable to open the door and help the mice, Grace moved on to follow her friends with a mouthing of "we're sorry" as she went, hurrying down the corridor.
After navigating their way down the corridor, the three encountered some more horrifying creatures. One was a child sized doll wielding a knife and an ax, its expression one of insanity and evil as it attempted to pounce and chop up the girls to pieces. They also encountered toy robots that were not made of plastic, but real metal, with some moving on single wheels, steam shooting out of funnels built into their shoulders. Lasers would shoot out of their eyes, and their arms resembled automatic rifles and opened fire on the intruders, forcing them to take cover behind what they could find. After being attacked by lasers and rifles, Maggie became fed up with it and blasted away with the water gun enough to order Grace to call upon lightning and fry their circuits enough to explode and fall into pieces.
Tired and annoyed from the killer toy encounters, the girls approached a pair of doors and another golden fountain right next to it for some serious healing. They burst through the doors altogether, entering a room with a staircase leading up to another level, and two faces chatting and giggling in the middle: two life-sized dolls joined at the hip like identical, Siamese twins, wearing red cotton dresses, white socks, black shoes, and brown hair tied braided into pigtails. The twins turned around when they spotted the girls coming up the stairs.
"Oh look here Bonnie, someone has finally come to play with us at last," said the left twin, breaking into a gruesome smile.
"Play with us, Connie? Nobody is allowed to pass this place," said Bonnie in a cocky tone. "The Doll Maker will be furious at us for failing to kill them."
"Who cares? As long as we get to have fun," said Connie sadistically.
"Do you suppose they brought a picnic basket with them?" asked Bonnie. "I haven't eaten anything all night."
"Not a chance Bonnie," said Connie scornfully. "No basket in sight. However, there are other ways to create our own fun picnic. Let's play a new game called KILL THE COW and I go first!" The evil doll took out a miniature ax from behind and held it up.
"So you little spine tingling, despicable, killjoys want to play rough is that is?" shouted Maggie, instantly irritated by the fake friendliness and creepiness of the Siamese twins. "If it's a game you want, then let's play. Starting with our own rules."
Do not underestimate the twin dolls. Being cute is a rather dangerous form of deception. Miriam's voice said to them.
"We get the picture. Anything we should know about how to defeat them?" Maggie asked, glaring at the where she thought she heard Miriam's voice in the air.
Try to stay focused on their pigtails.
Maggie and her friends dodged an oncoming attack from the ax thrown by Connie, flying back to her. She moved in to attack with the fire stones, only for Connie to wag a scolding finger at her as she threw her head back and opened her mouth to stick her hand in, much to the girls' disgust. After some sounds of gagging, Connie produced a slingshot of her own and casually tossed it to Bonnie. The twins lumbered over towards the girls, moving the slingshot back and then letting go of something slimy, missing Maggie as she dodged, and instead hitting the wall, revealing to be some kind of slime. Maggie attempted to shoot the fire stones into Bonnie, only for it to be dodged when the doll bent backwards.
"What?!" Maggie cried out in alarm.
"Surprised much?" asked Bonnie. "I played the dodging game."
To the girls' horror, Bonnie managed to open her mouth wide and spit out fireballs.
"I don't think fire is going to work against them!" shouted Grace, running across the room to avoid getting burned severely. "Try using water."
"Now why didn't I think of that?" Maggie almost slapped herself silly, and stopped running. She called upon the water gun and waited for Bonnie to open her mouth wide again, and blasted away before the wicked doll could finish them off.
Bonnie choked and gurgled terribly, coughing and hacking as her throat was not dried up and empty, unable to conjure up any more fireballs.
"Hey, no fair!" roared Connie, clenching her fists. "You used water on my sister. You big meanies!"
"And now it's your turn Pipsqueak!" Maggie retorted, turning the water gun on her.
"Maggie, stop!" Grace pleaded, blocking Maggie's way.
"Grace, what are you…?"
Before Maggie could ask, she saw why Grace stopped her when witnessing Mrs. Calloway having to sneak up from behind and grab onto one of Bonnie's pigtails with her teeth, and use her strength to swing the evil Siamese twins around until she finally let go. The twins let out a horrified roar, crashing into the wall, their porcelain faces breaking apart like glass plates, pieces scattering across the floor. The evil dolls fell backward, breaking more of their limbs all over. Inside where the faces used to be, were circuits, gadget, and wires, short circuited and fried.
"Looks like we win this game," Maggie said in triumph.
"BONNIE, CONNIE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" roared a sinister voice from above a balcony of some sort.
Following it, the girls glanced upwards, seeing the hideous features of who appeared to be the Doll Maker, like the one in the portrait. Somehow they felt a bit ill just looking at the pale, disfigured face and lurid grin of the gruesome monster that victimized children. And his silvery eyes glared back at them with a look of malice. Suddenly the Doll Maker laughed gleefully.
"Well, well, looks like you're in time for the next part of my game," he sneered, acting like he was welcoming guests into a normal party.
"We're not here to play games with you Tiny Tom!" Maggie hissed, putting all her negative emotions into that one sentence. "We're here to save the children that you stole away from their parents." The Doll Maker's smile faded for a brief moment, clearly disturbed and offended by that accusation, but he quickly resurrected the smile.
"Stole? You got it all wrong," he protested, waving his hands slightly. "All I've done is offered them paradise, a land of dreams where they will live forever among the toys and forget all their troubles in the real world."
"Why am I not surprised by the lies you tell to cover your puny rear end!" said Maggie sarcastically. The Doll Maker's grin widened even more, and he covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing.
"I speak from the bottom of my heart," said the Doll Maker, and he counted his fingers. "I give children the opportunity to escape from the harsh realities of everyday life. No rules, no bedtimes, and no school for example, not even any responsibilities. They wanted to stay here forever, and I made sure to keep it that way."
"By disposing of their bodies to hide your secrets!" Maggie finished venomously. "We know what you've done and there is no denying that!"
The other two girls looked away, briefly lost in thought and in so much disgust at the Doll Maker's lack of empathy and without a conscience.
"I can give you the same thing," said the Doll Maker cryptically.
"What?! What are you talking about?" Maggie said suspiciously, looking up in shock, unsure of what to make of his next words.
"Surrender yourselves to me, and you'll never have to grow old. The moment you entered my factory, I had already finished three new toys that are just your style." From out of his unnatural small pocket, he pulled out three plush toys that were identical to the girls, same body size and same colors. "Do you like them? There is just one thing missing from all three…your souls!" He laughed sinisterly, sending Maggie's blood boiling.
"Over my dead body!" She roared, all of her anger spilling out in protest.
"Mine too!" Calloway joined in, fury setting in.
"Uh…what they said," Grace added dumbfounded when she couldn't think of any other words of protest.
"My, my, such fire I sense within your very hearts," laughed the Doll Maker, putting the three toys back in his enchanted pocket. "But why don't we take this matter up to where I make the finest of dolls any child has ever dreamed of?"
With a snap of his fingers, the floor under the girls suddenly collapsed under their hooves. They screamed in terror, floating through the air when they landed on the floor of a dark corridor.
"Maggie, wake up, wake up," Grace whispered sharply, shaking an unconscious Maggie until her eyes slowly opened.
Maggie opened her eyes and groaned in pain, feeling a hard wooden floor beneath the side of her face. Lying on her back wasn't very comfortable. The air was thin and smelled foul, like dirty laundry, and it felt like she was breathing and snorting out fire.
"Where are we?" She asked, coughing up a bit. She looked to her left, her neck in some pain.
"In the factory of doom and gloom," Calloway replied, staring out at their surroundings. "Look for yourself."
Rubbing her eyes, Maggie found that they were in some kind of dark workshop, judging by the towering cabinets, lifeless puppetry hanging in midair by tangled strings, with endless screws and nails sticking out at every angle of the drawers. Waiting for her vision to clear, Maggie forced herself to her feet and rose, taking in the horrifying sight of the nightmare they landed in. Words could not describe the endless factory floor, made by someone with a creepy, disturbing obsession for delivering unimaginable agony on prisoners that were held here against their will. There was no roof or ceiling, more like it was made entirely of blackening smog, darker than thunder clouds.
Beneath the black clouds were rows of dolls and puppets, hanging on meat hooks, wires, ropes, and strings, moving from one hole in the wall to the other. Some of those hooks carried arms, legs, abdomens, heads, and stomachs. It was as if the Doll Maker had placed tons of trophies or trinkets for sick pleasure in his view of "innocent fun" for children. Everything else was beyond disgusting; knowing there was nothing innocent about destroying children from within and trapping them inside inanimate objects and is part of a sick minded creeper's collection.
Stacks of cabinets housed who knows what, some with labels that the girls could read. The drawers contained files with names of every boy and girl that has ever been in the doll factory, the names of all his victims turned into toys, dolls, and plush toys. Every victim file labelled sizes, hair color, eye color, types of clothes, and some descriptions that the girls couldn't bear to read any further, thinking they didn't need to know everything else in what the Doll Maker did to those children. The last thing they needed was for any details that would make them want to vomit before the final confrontation.
The full scale of the nightmare room was becoming too much to bear, their eyes becoming drawn to a gallery of furniture made from doll parts, and anatomies of children, taxidermies of dolls dressed as ballerinas, sailors, Indians, cowboys, and princesses. It was the most disturbing doll collection they ever saw.
"Should I set this whole nightmare gallery aflame?" Maggie asked, taking the flame thrower.
"Hold on Maggie!" Calloway stopped her. "We don't want to do anything reckless before we find our way out."
Thankfully their weapons were still intact and filled up, ready for action. They felt ready, like a knight on horseback, preparing for battle against a vicious fire breathing dragon and rescue the damsel in distress. Glancing left and right, the girls spotted a flight of stairs nearby and hurried over to them, not interested in anything disturbing anymore, with no sign of any lost souls in this room picked up. It went up two floors before turning a sharp corner as the girls ran through a pair of doors, and found to be in a large opened arena.
"Alright, where is that psychotic runt for a man?" Maggie spat, quickly observing that the entire ceiling was made of glass and the walls were covered in a mass collection of toys, dolls, plush toys, and puppets of every shape and size, staring down at the girls. "We know you're in here Shorty. Come out and show yourself!"
"We know what happened to those children and you're not going to keep us here to add in your collection!" Calloway snapped, hoping the Doll Maker heard them. "And we're not interested in any of your false promises of living forever!"
Be careful girls. The voice of Miriam warned. The Doll Maker may be short, but he is clever and persuasive, that he'll try other attempts to get you to join his collection of toys.
"Well he has already tried it once," Calloway said, shrugging her shoulders. "But he is sure not going to convince us a second time."
"If you won't agree to join my collection," spoke another dark voice, dripping with sadistic glee. "Then I shall have to take your lives away by force like the others you see all around you!"
The girls froze, like a thousand insects were crawling up their skin, ice cold fear turning into anger. Gripping their weapons to prepare for any sudden attacks, the girls looked up and saw the Doll Maker had appeared out of thin air, holding a long stick in his right hand, and standing behind a device of buttons and levers. Around him hung dolls, all identical with no hair, no eyes, and no clothes. Some appeared to be twitching or trying to get loose of the hooks that they were attached to.
"How long have you been waiting for us?" Maggie demanded.
"Long enough," replied the Doll Maker sinisterly. "I see that you found your way into my office where I keep all my personal files. A great magician never reveals his secrets, but you know too much as it is, and I can't have you leaving like that."
"Cut out the chit chat old man," Maggie snapped, growing tired of his constant babbling. "We're not as dumb or wretched as you think we are. You however, how can you call yourself a good man?"
"You have seen most of my powers and my secrets," replied the Doll Maker sardonically. "What you do not know is that for children, they are fickle and never happy with the real world. Helping the children to escape from their troubles had filled the emptiness in my heart to start my own idea of a family I created."
The girls looked around at the entire doll collection. Every one of them had a piece of hair, or cloth attached to them. It wasn't hard for the girls to realize that the Doll Maker's "family" was a collection of lost souls, trapped in the form of toys to become his own play things.
"You lying psychotic freak of nature!" Calloway roared. "You don't offer anyone paradise, conniving, manipulating, wretched excuse for a sad old man. It doesn't matter what your so called good intentions were. Nothing can justify the kidnapping of innocent children and never allowing them to leave, all for the sake of feeding your sick ego!"
Grace had her turn to step up bravely, and call out to the Doll Maker in anger and disgust. "How can a man like you sleep at night or live with yourself, knowing what you did to those poor children, making their parents cry? Can you not even hear the cries of the ones you hurt?"
"Yeah, in fact, why don't you come down here and confront us?" Maggie challenged. "Instead of hiding up there like a scared, little coward! We'll stop you if it's the last thing we do!"
"Do not test me!" The Doll Maker commanded. "I am not to be taken lightly"
He pulled on one of the levers, and somewhere above, out flew a couple of toy helicopters and airplanes, firing some kind of lasers and tiny bullets at their feet, causing the girls to back away in a panic. Grace however, acted quickly and called out lightning to fry those flying toys, watching them crash to the ground.
"I have indeed underestimated you three," said the Doll Maker, respectively. Then he pressed his finger on one of the buttons. "But I never said that I play fair."
On cue, a dozen or so toy soldiers emerged from a vault, charging at the girls like a colony of ants, swarming around and poking at their legs with tiny swords that were sharp like sewing needles. Some even carried tiny rifles, shooting at them, leaving Grace with a few scratches on her front legs. Others pulled out cannons.
The girls had to remind themselves that they had weapons to fight back with and not back down, no matter how scared one of them might have been. Thinking quickly, Maggie pulled out a stick of dynamite and dropped it to the floor, surrounded by toy soldiers.
"Take cover girls!" She cried, jumping out of the way with her friends following her. They covered their ears at the sound of the dynamite being set off at an explosion big enough to incinerate every single one of those deadly toy soldiers.
"You dirty little cheat!" snapped the Doll Maker, pounding the machinery in a fury.
Another hole opened up in the wall, leaving the girls to stand back up and face their next opponent. It caught them by surprise. A life sized doll stumbled out, nearly ripping out the wall with its brute strength as it clung to the door. The doll resembled a little girl, with dirty blond hair in twin pigtails tied with yellow ribbons, and wore a striped blue and green dress. But having no eyes and a large butcher knife for a right hand put the girls on high alert.
"She may not have eyes, but she can still hear you," taunted the evil Doll Maker. "Even the slightest noise will catch you off guard."
Without warning, Grace accidentally slipped backwards when she tried sneaking away quietly at the sight of that thing.
Mumbling a confused babble of baby noise, the doll with no eyes turned to where Grace had slipped, turning her head with slight difficulty. It hissed like a cat, changing its demeanor, and dragged its butcher knife across the floor, creating sparks as she stumbled her way towards her. Grace was nearly frozen stiff when that creature was coming, but there was no time to think or reason with it as she dodged an oncoming attack just in the nick of time. The doll had lunged out, shrieking like a strangled cat. Not a moment too soon, Grace immediately avoided the swing of the doll's knife, and she ducked down, and kicked the doll's legs underneath. The doll screamed and went down like a rock.
The doll helplessly thrashed about, face down on the floor, swinging her knife around to try and strike Grace and her friends. Sparks and wires were hissing and spitting out of its entire body, like a damaged robot, which is what the doll truly was. The doll started giggling and malfunctioning, its voice becoming shriller, till it sounded like a mouse and lost all its power, now lifeless.
"Curse you meddlesome heifers!" the Doll Maker, pounding on the machine angrily.
"Oh give it up old man!" Maggie roared, kicking the robotic doll aside. "We'll never be one of your play things! We're happy enough with our lives in the real world, even during the hardest times of our lives. We're not running away from any of our problems, we'll face them together!"
The Doll Maker had finally had enough and jumped down from above and onto the ground, holding out his hand to point at them.
"Fools, I am all powerful and you are weak," he ranted. "I'll make sure you never leave this factory alive and live to tell about it!"
The Doll Maker was chanting a few words in strange language as his wand glowed green, only for something to swoop out of nowhere and snatch that thing out of his hand.
Turning around, the girls found that the same toys from the closet they had been hiding in before had somehow made their way into the Doll Maker's lair without getting caught, and were now holding the wicked wand by a piece of yellow yarn.
"Give that back!" The Doll Maker bellowed, shaking his fist. "I made you what you are. As your master, I command you to hand me that wand!"
Many of the dolls stood there reluctantly, refusing to hand it over. Even the rest of the toys in the arena were gaining a form of consciousness and moving on their own.
"No, don't you listen to him!" Grace shouted gently, seeing the all the toys turn their attention to her and the other two. "He's not your master. He is a liar, a kidnapper, and a monster that lied to you all with false hopes and dreams just to keep you trapped here forever so you'd never see your parents again. His promises are nothing but an attempt to use and abuse you all, like a nightmare that never ends. He tried to do the same thing to us, but he has failed. But it's not too late. We can still stop him, and you can stand up to him and end this nightmare. Help us help you!"
"The dolls listen to nobody but me," The Doll Maker argued, sounding cocky. "They would be nothing without my help."
"No, you're wrong," Maggie argued back. "You took everything from them, and they're ready to fight and get back what you stole. See for yourself."
Before their eyes, a dozen dolls turned their attention to the Doll Maker, taking him by surprise when they leapt forward and climbed his legs. His jaw had dropped at the sight of his creations turning against him like this. He raised a hand to swat them away, only for a cowboy doll to snatch that hand with the toy lasso, as more toys joined in the rebellion.
"Get off me you little wretches!" screamed the Doll Maker, as the dolls were now halfway across his head, causing him to trip. "I made you all!"
Soon every single toy, doll, robot, puppet, and plush toy jumped all over him. The girls watched in silence as a brilliant blast of fire burst out of his mouth, consuming him in flames, burning away into a pile of ashes. Instead of bones, there were gears, wheels, and wires left behind.
AN: Finally, the evil Dollmaker has been defeated and destroyed, never will he victimize children again. For those that may have a slight fear of dolls, that's what this chapter was based on, even inspired by horrifying events in movies and games, where it involves the idea of someone evil luring victims into a place that ends up becoming a nightmare from no escape. The 8th level has been complete, but the entire game is not over yet, so Pearl's girls will be facing an even bigger challenge when the final battle is about to approach.