The New Dollhouse Part 2 - The New Dolls

Emily's POV

The air rushed out of my lungs the way it would escape from a punctured balloon; so fast and all at once until what little air was left barely sighed out of the open wound, leaving what remained behind all limp and deflated.

"This doesn't make sense," Mona spat.

Caleb agreed, "we did everything right, there was no way Charles could've transmitted directly from here and no be here, it was live video. Even if he did try to trick us, Mona and I tore down every firewall there was and we got to the root."

"We couldn't have made a mistake."

Ezra got in Mona's face, "well, it looks like you did, you both did!"

"What are we going to do now? I can't shoot our way out, and you two certainly can't hack us out huh, now what?"

I was starting to feel that lightheaded feeling again. Like maybe my balloon was filled with helium and not just the air I wish would find my lungs again. I felt my mouth opening and closing, silently screaming and gasping for air to only be met with that insanely sharp stabbing sensation in my chest.

I wondered if I should try to get used to this so that it might hurt a little less each time it happened.

We had been fooled. They weren't in this room and it was possible that they weren't even in this cabin. I really thought that we could end this right here and right now. I had just begun to imagine what going home would be like, what it would feel like to hug my parents, how my pillowcase would smell, what we'd eat for our first dinner together as a family again, what it would be like to have that "fresh start" with Ali...

But Charles' words sank in and everyone else became a blur as the room started to spin on multiple axis. I had worked myself up to get this far, to let Ali go through with this. And now we had nothing.

The faint sounds my brain was drowning out broke the surface and I heard it all: Caleb and Mona cursing and trying to figure out how they'd been fooled, Toby and Ezra trying to use brute force against the metal door. The thumping sounded painful, like they'd rather shatter their own bones than be confined another second.

For once, I wasn't the center of everyone's attention. I was the only one keeping it together for the first time since waking up as this broken version of myself except I didn't feel broken right now. I felt like I had some sort of insider knowledge on him, like I could somehow think like him, and as sickening as it was, to understand him.

Charles wanted us here for a reason. I know I'm no genius, my skills are non-existent, and I am nothing special, but I knew that that was why we were here. Charles thrived on games, in particular, playing them so he could win.

We missed something. We were missing something and that's what we needed to figure out. Everyone else was so consumed with rage that they weren't thinking. We had to think like Charles. There was nothing we could do, no way we could catch up to him if we didn't crawl into his head. I spun around, trying to regain my voice and yell at them. That's when I noticed it.

"Guys," I tried to yell, but I wasn't heard over the clamor of their own voices.

The room was dimly lit, but the far wall, it was different than the others. It didn't interact with the light the way the others did. This wall, it...it reflected the light, like it wasn't made of wood or even the metal that the doors were. I stumbled closer to it, hoping I wasn't having another hallucination caused by my traumatic brain injury, or TBI as the doctors put it.

"Caleb," I shouted, "Caleb," I tried again, "CALEB!" I shouted with everything I had and the room finally stilled, eyes on my back, sobbed choked away from heavy breathing.

"Emily, what is it? What do you want now?!"

I spun on my heels and faced him in disbelief. He continued to shout back at me, walking closer as he did.

"What is it now? Do you want to back out again? Do you want to tell me not to do this? What is it now Emily, you want to tell me I told you so? Do you want to hear that you were right, huh, is that it? Well look around," he held his arms out wide and gestured. He was consumed with anger, but not at me. I could see it in his eyes that something had been broken. He wasn't mad at me, he was mad at himself.

Our faces were inches apart so I could see them better, the tears he was harboring on the brim of his bottom eyelids. The crease in his forehead prominent, the red in his eyes starting to show, and the quiver in his lip barely visible.

"Caleb, that's not what I want."

"Then please, tell me what it is that you do want, since this 'mission' of ours was more about comforting you than it was about saving our-,"

Either he managed to squeeze the rest out or I stopped him before he could, but the next thing I knew, Caleb's head was turned to my left and my right hand was pulsating with a red sting to match the mark on his cheek.

"Stop that! What happened when I was spinning out of control these past few days, and these past few hours? You've had my back and you let me speak, so if you can find it in you to do that one more time and just listen to me, you'd realize that I'm trying to tell you something!"

Caleb slowly stood to his full height and as intimidating as he looked, I knew he would never hurt me.

I was right. Instead, Caleb tilted his head and sighed, jaw set so tight in an attempt to hold back the emotions, and he whispered, "thank you." He smiled very faintly and rubbed his jaw line, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I sighed hard and looked at everyone else, "but you should take a look at this wall, I think it's not really...a wall."

It sounded crazy but no one seemed to judge me for it, instead blue and hazel and brown eyes peered over my shoulder to the 'wall' in question.

"What do you mean Emily?"

I turned around and took a few steps back, pointing from the light to the wall, "I noticed it when I was standing here. If you look at it from the right angle, you'll see the way the light bounces off the surface, it's shinier than the other walls."

Mona looked impressed and everyone else seemed to look to me for more answers. I don't know much about my past, but I knew this was something that I wasn't used to. I didn't feel equip to handle a team but here I was - pieced together and broken, not sure of who I am, but I was sure of who Charles was. That much wasn't lost to the parts of my brain that were like damaged goods to me.

"So then what? It's made of what? Shinier paint? Can someone please explain to me what the hell we're doing standing around when NO ONE is in her but us!" Toby was right, what were we doing.

I walked to the wall, and just before I put my hand to it, we heard Charles again.

"Well done Emily, you've figured this part of the puzzle, but if you value your hand, I'd advise you against touching that wall."

I swallowed hard, almost impossibly, and flexed my long fingers that hovered just an inch above the surface, "why should I trust you?" I whispered but somehow I knew that he could hear me.

"Emily, Emily, you're smarter than you allow yourself to believe, I think we both know that you'll never trust me, but you will believe me when I tell you that if you touch that wall, enough electricity will course through your body to kill you. Do you know how much that is?"

I grunted and my hand fisted, "where is Alison? Where are they!"

But he ignored me, "you know, we overestimate how much it takes to kills us. Seven milliamps. For three seconds. That's all it takes. What I've learned is that electricity kills you by interrupting your heart rhythm. If 7 milliamps reaches your heart continuously for three seconds, well, your heart goes arrhythmic," he explained as if he was teaching us a lesson in a classroom, "then everything else starts shutting down."

I knew what it felt like to feel the lights dim slowly from the inside and there was nothing in me that picked up on Charles lying.

"What do you want Charles?"

"Ah," he sighed, relieved, "there. The question you've all been running around, like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to answer. Where. are. your. beloved?" He said each word as if asking himself genuinely.

Alison said he was her brother's twin, and she showed me a picture of Jason, but that man I seen wasn't the one I imagined. I seen his face again, standing with a gun pointed at me and Ali. The light in his eyes gone, the blue was steel-like, icy, and cold. There was no compassion, no mercy, only the need to fulfill his own twisted dream.

"Why did you bring us here?" I questioned further, surprised that no one else did so. They fell behind me and Caleb. All I could hear was there breathing.

"I believe you got that part confused. I brought your family here, but all of you, well, you brought yourselves. You've outsmarted me."

"That's a lie. This was a game to you like everything else is. You left us these breadcrumbs, you wanted us here. Why else go through all the trouble of tricking us into believing they were here? Why!"

"See Emily, you are exactly as I said, smarter than you or anyone else thinks you are, you may not remember everything about your life before, but I like to think I did you a favor."

At this point, I too was trembling with anger.

"A favor? You are as crazy as your papers say, but if you want to play, let's play. Please enlighten me Charles," I said with a hiss, "how is any of this a favor?"

"Well, you were never the strong one Emily, you were always weak, you always had a soft spot for doing what was right, and protecting everyone, like you could save the world. And it is that mentality that has always gotten you hurt. I took that from you. Now you know that you can't save everyone, in fact, you can't save anyone." he spat bitterly.

"You're enjoying this you sick bastard." Ezra growled toward the ceiling.

"Well of course I am. I always have fun with my dolls." he laughed evilly.

"We're not your play things to mess with Charles, we are not your toys, now tell me where they are you sick son of a bitch or I swear to God I will-,"

"Ah ah ah, watch your tone. You're not in charge here remember? I have something you all want, and if you want them back, you'll play by my rules."

"This is crazy Em," Caleb growled in my ear.

But I went along with it, "what are the rules?"

"Ah, I see we have a player, anyone else care to join?"

"Why should we listen to you and play into your little game," Caleb asked seriously.

There was a moment of silence and something cold washed over me, I swear I could almost hear him laughing. That silence was met with a simple, deadly, "because of them."

My heart turned to lead and sank to the pit of my stomach. The "wall" in front of us shimmered, it looked like a tv playing static for just a split second and then it faded, the mirage that had us fool, faded and suddenly the wall was just a barrier, a clear barrier - like a window. And on the other side...

They were all there, strewn up exactly how we had seen. We weren't wrong, we did find them, they were right here in front of us the whole time, hidden in plain sight.

Everyone started to shout but my mouth was shut.

"It won't do you any good, no only can they not hear you, but they can't see you either."

I took a step forward.

"You sick son of a bitch-,"

Another half step forward...

"Alison?"

I walked up to the wall, my shoes almost touching it and my hands were centimeters from the glass.

She was right there, tied up and I had to get to her.

"Emily, NO!"

But it was too late, the violent jolts coursed through my veins before I could stop it. It shot from the tips of my hands through every nerve until every hair on my body was standing. I was microscopically shaking, vibrating with the electricity and I started to count.

In the midst of doing so, I saw a young girl with long brown hair and brown skin on the sidewalk, I man standing a few feet behind her, "let go daddy, I can do it!"

"I did let go kiddo, you're doing it Emmy, you're riding a bike!"

One...another gunshot fired and I was diving headfirst through the water, roars and cheers erupting when I finally came up for air.

Two...I was sitting in my room, my mom and dad just left and the girls were coming over -

Thr-I hit the floor, stunned, still, and it came to me. Washed over me and drowned me in it so fast and all at once that I couldn't breathe. The last thing I seen with my eyes open, was Alison, and Hanna, Spencer and my parents through that glass wall, everything else I seen when eyes closes and my mind opened.

"Emily! Emily!"

I tried to open my eyes, to move my body, but I was held captive. Like my body was a shell, and I was stuck trying to crack it open.

The memories of the past, my memories came at me and I writhed on the floor. I knew that because I could feel it seeping through my clothes, clammy and cold and damp. They started from the beginning, my childhood, growing up with my parents in Rosewood, meeting the girls, becoming best of friends, Alison's death-

I was stopped when I came to my feet, not by will, but by pairs of hands holding me up and I screamed.

"No, stop, you should have left me!"

"What the hell are you talking about? Emily you were going to die! You heard what Charles said, three seconds and your heart would have stopped." Caleb still had his arm under mine, but he was trying to hold me at a distance, to get a better look at me.

My head dropped and I closed my eyes trying to summon back the rush of memories, I almost had them all, I was so close.

"They came back to me, Caleb," I met him with watery eyes, and looked through the wall, "my memories, they came back."

"Oh how endearing," Charles mocked, "now, I'd suggest you stay away or else the only that'll come back to you is the pain."

Mona stepped beside me and started not through the wall, but at it. "This isn't supposed to hit the market for years, how did you gain access to this technology?"

"Mona," Toby asked, "you know what this is?"

"Ah, yes, I forgot that you are very resourceful Miss Vanderwaal. You see, when you have money and you know people who like it, then you have certain, how would I put this? Influence, I guess you'd say, on certain people. It's amazing what people are willing to see on the black market."

"Mona," Caleb tried his best to stay unheard by Charles, "what are we dealing with."

"If you look carefully, the wall isn't 100% transparent; if you look closer, there are silver microbes throughout the entire wall. This wall is a prototype for a military grade polymer that resembles glass. It's closer to Plexiglas, but it's tensile strength is 25 times more than Plexiglas, virtually impenetrable and has the ability to transmit images which is useful for camouflage, as we can see."

"Right again my dear, perhaps you've been on the wrong side this whole time? You should consider working for me, I would have great use of your skills."

"The only thing I'll be using my skills for is to take you down Charles."

"Wait, can you do that?"

"Yes," Charles added on to Caleb's question, "how do you plan on doing that?"

I stood motionless, able to rest my entire weight on my own feet again, staring at Alison, at my parents facing each other as much as they could with the restraints, and finally at my friends. It was darker on their half of the room but I could still see them breathing, but only slightly.

"I'll wager with you Mona, if you can as you say use your skills to get past this wall, then I won't kill you."

"If you fail, then you all die."

That didn't make any sense, "why would you kill your dolls Charles?"

Everyone looked at me sternly and I gave them a small nod, we had to play like Charles in order to get to the other side. So I asked again.

"C'mon Charles, you have us all in the same place now, why ruin what you worked so hard to have just to kill us?"

There was silence and then movement from the other side. Someone was standing in the dark of the corner, none of us noticed. But there he was, he had some sort of Bluetooth in and a small remote in his hand.

"You made a valid point Emily but you see, dolls don't fight back, they don't lie and," he turned to face Alison, and he shouted darkly, "and they certainly don't hurt me!"

He pull on her chains until she was standing up straighter and with his other hand he grabbed her jaw.

"No, Charles, stop, don't you dare!"

"Or what?" He growled.

"You have no leverage, look at your situation, you hold nothing over my head! You have no idea what it was like to grow up alone, with your whole family with their back to you, your own mother wanting nothing to do with you as if you were a pest, a stain she so badly wanted to wash away."

"And what do you get by doing any of this? What can you possibly gain by having us here like this?"

"Simple, Emily, I'm surprised that you haven't figured it out, but then again, with your condition," he motioned to his head, trying to look through the glass at me,"I assume that must prove to be rather difficult."

"Charles your family turned their back on you for what you did, and what you continued to do. You could've turned that around at any time, but you chose this, you could've had a family but you-,"

"But I what!" He spat at the wall, clenching the remote in his hand and stretching the muscles in his neck. "That was stolen from me," he emphasized, "by your beloved, my very own little sister," he mocked with clear disgust heavy in his voice.

"I got out of Radley thinking that I could have the chance to come home and instead our mother paid me handsomely to start over somewhere else. She paid me to disappear and I could see why. Everything my family cared about is sitting right there Emily.

"There world revolved around Alison and at first I was mad. But then it hit me, I could try to be Alison's friend, but when I failed, when CeCe wasn't able to bring her to me, I had to take things into my own hands.

"I went from adoring Alison - my own baby sister - to wanting to take away everything she had. Everything that I wanted, that I deserved. And it starts with the people she loves. I won't hurt your precious Ali, but that doesn't mean I won't hurt who she loves, including her girlfriend's parents."

"What is your endgame Charles, you can't win."

"Maybe I can't, maybe I won't but she will pay. I will make you both watch. And maybe when this is all over, everyone on your side of this beautiful wall will soon blame you both and you won't have anyone left. Just like me. She will know what it feels like to have the people she cares for taken away."

"You're a sick bastard, go to hell."

"Hahaha, we're already here. Mona has 10 minutes to try to beat this barrier between us, if you can't do it, you will choose which one of my dolls," and he motioned to Ali and the others, "to be," he held his remote up for all of us to see, "played with, after all, you're all my new dolls now."

I backed away because I realized that he had pressed just one of the buttons on his remote and when he did...they looked up.

They didn't look at the wall. They looked through it. They could see us. Ali could see me.

"Alison? Ali!"

I tried but she looked groggy, weak.

"Save your breath, you can see each other, but they still can't hear you. But I gave you the pleasure," he pulled the earplug out, "to hear them. You will hear them as they writhe in pain and you will stay right there, useless."

"You are going to pay for this," Ezra said through gritted teeth.

"We shall see. But I'd tell Mona to hurry up if I were you. Time is of the utmost importance."

I watched my parents waking up to the new view in front of them, watching as they struggled to accept that they were seeing a reality. My mother cried out and my heart broke. I felt like I still barely even knew her, I had memories, but I couldn't remember the way she sounded until she yelled for me just now.

My father looked as if his world shattered, their was a glimpse of hope in his eye and I read his lips, it was same nickname from before, "Emmy." I wanted badly to run to them, to tell them that I was okay, I could hear them calling for me, and as badly as I wanted to shout back, I didn't.

Alison must have been heavily sedated, she barely stirred, but the others woke. Spencer tried to run forward, being yanked back harshly by the bonds around her wrists, Hanna shouting for Caleb, and Aria looking confused as she called Ezra's name.

Charles did that thing with his neck again, where he rotated it and flexed his muscles, like he was trying to tame something inside of him back.

Unfortunately, I was proven right as he whipped around and yelled for them to all be quiet.

Hanna spat in his direction and he threw his head back in a laugh, "you stupid bitch," and just like that, he pressed another button and all of their bodies jolted, muscles taut and straining, the faint humming barely audible.

"Stop, stop that!"

He turned to look me in the eye, "change of plans, Mona has 5 minutes. If not, then you all need to choose who gets the next dose."

I turned around, "Mona? Caleb? What do we do?"

"I- I," she stammered and I turned to face my friends, my family, and Ali, hoping that my face didn't betray me. We had to figure something out.

x-x-x-x-x

AN: Omg okay so I had like opposite to a writer's block...I had like a shit-ton of ideas flood my head and the result was this shorter (but I hope not shitty) chapter as the second half of the one before. I (kind of) hate to leave you all hanging on this cliff again, but trust me when I say I will (hopefully) make it up to you in the next coming chapters which will be here probably after finals week...I'm talking second week of December people, sorry.

Anyways there are a few of you I would like to thank, I've been holding out on it, but you will be addressed in the next update. If you got a little tingly in your tummy, you probably know who you are! :)

Anyways, I had to truncate this chapter big time a few hours ago, and here I am, midnight, uploading this, hoping it'll hold you off until the "finale"

I had like a million and one plots unfold and I had to decide what to do with that stroke of genius. I apologize for the ramble, but you should know me by now.

Anyways, I love you all, never stop being you and wish me luck on my final exams, my life depends on it lol (also if I fail, I will probably be too depressed to tell you how Em and Ali's story end and what the fuck they do at the end of this chapter.)

Love, Lina!