Alone at last, Dollface entered the house, Courage yapping around her feet before running into the kitchen, barking at something in the dimly lit room.
Dollface followed him in and flicked on the lights.
She frowned. Empty.
Dollface squinted up at the clock hanging over the kitchen sink, struggling to read it in the last golden hour of early August where it streamed in through the back door.
Their endless summer was coming to an end, allowing fall to send Dollface and Regina away from home.
Courage growled at where Uncle Sebbie had sat for the family meeting, returning Dollface to her nauseating reality.
Dollface locked the back door and flicked off the kitchen light, the old house settling around her in the final days of a Missouri summer teetering on the edge of fall.
One more thing to miss in pine covered Oregon, along with her room and it's memories of an unexpected twin sister and more than one sleepover.
She padded barefoot to the front door and locked it, tugging on the handle for security while checking in with Michael.
Silence.
Disliking change, he'd fled into the Liminal once the twins had been told that they were to be sent to St. Godiva's ahead of schedule. He'd also closed the safehaven from reality behind him, leaving Dollface to fend for herself.
Dollface sauntered leisurely towards the downstairs bathroom.
All summer had been a struggle against Regina for hot water and space.
She frowned, ears pricked.
Was that a chime?
Nah, must be a mouse between the walls where the resident barn cats couldn't get it. Dollface shrugged, toe-walking into the bathroom, locking the door behind her after retrieving her shower caddy from its hiding place in the hall linen closet along with Regina's coveted rose scented sugar scrub.
Ever since returning from the lock-in, things had been strange.
Her friends, even her sister, all seemed different. They were too giggly and stiff, like a poor imitation of her fellow band members.
Even shy Izzy who was sympathetic to even playful teasing had giggled the only time Dollface admitted she couldn't remember the World's Best Sleepover. Izzy told her the girls spent most of it eating snacks and partying. Even Regina had stepped off of her high-horse and joined in for the first time that night. Other than an uncharacteristic Regina, nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. Even at Dollface's recent birthday party, her friends seemed to move as a unit instead of as a group of individuals.
Did they just not like her anymore?
Michael must know why her friends and her twin sister were like doppelgangers nowadays, why else would he be acting so strange?
Before disappearing from her head and closing the Liminal behind him, it felt like Michael was keeping something secret.
It was like he was lying to her.
He'd never done that before, nothing was a secret, even if his life before her discovery of him on the side of the highway in eighth grade remained a mutual mystery.
Dollface didn't ask because she honestly wasn't interested in life before Halloween.
Michael felt the same towards her.
There was no reason to learn about yesterday when tomorrow was coming up fast.
Dollface ducked her head under the water, preparing to wash her hair.
As she did, Dollface heard something like a shout, or maybe the kitchen phone ringing.
She pulled her head back, listening for it.
Silence.
She put her head under again.
Oh Hell, people always call at the worst times!
Grampa had been asked to help coach the middle school boys at wrestling camp today. Could he have come back early for equipment? Or maybe Gramma needed something for the tailor shop she ran in-town?
If it was that big a problem, they'd keep calling or wait.
It was probably just spam anyway.
Either way, she listed it as 'not her problem' and continued to overthink in the shower.
The thought of being a scholarship student at a school she'd only heard of a few months ago overwhelmed Dollface.
Cabins? They'd have to stay in cabins instead of dorms?
Luxury for Regina but economy for Dollface? How could that be fair?
She had so many questions and no one who'd answer them!
The whole affair sounded hellish, seeing that Regina's ego had been pumped up the entire 'discussion'. Dollface barely got a scrap of assurance from where she sat on a step ladder in the kitchen doorway, her father having taken her usual spot at the table.
Dollface's father was a somber, European man with pale skin, thin lips and a fuck ton of money.
So much so that his cologne smelled of bills and every word he said was a clinging, ringing, dropped coin from his mouth. Every thought was a priceless word of wisdom, even when it sounded like a whole lot of nothing. Dollface and Regina's mother, a blonde dressed in black was clinging to the short, distinguished man's arm, nodding and agreeing with everything Ciel Phantomhive said.
The woman Dollface only knew as a photograph in her wallet would occasionally rake long, manicured nails against Ciel's blue-black hair, slicked from his face with hardened pomade and full of neat lines where a comb had gone through it.
Dollface thought his hair looked crunchy and helmet-like. It matched his eyepatch.
Overall, she hated his face.
It was too much like hers.
Regina's initial elation at seeing not only her mother but meeting her father for the first time was soon killed by his dour behavior. There was no life or light in him, just a quietly seething need to control everyone around him. If Ciel decided the world spun too fast, he'd have the entire planet change orbit and spin slowly around him, so that every wish his cruel heart desired would be fulfilled in an instant.
Dollface didn't care for Ciel's kind.
Regina's joy at being the heiress of Funtom Toy Company was also squashed by the sheer fact that her beloved mother and new-found father had no interest in conversation. The mirage created by her mother through bi-yearly holiday gatherings and fashion magazines full of tabloids was completely shattered.
The fireplace full of soft scarves and magazines made delicious s'mores with the addition of one of Sebastian's many gifted blouses.
Uncle Sebbie, someone she once saw as some great treat and benevolent member of a family that handed custody over to her grandparents before she was even born was now just a common liar. The delicate blouses he'd sent from England, the sashes, shoes, and even the Funtom toys were all packed in boxes and set in her closet.
Dollface would only be receiving formal wear and stage costumes from Fazbear's, royalties, and monthly paychecks, thank-you-very-much.
Maybe it was time for Dollface to find a new father figure, seeing as she probably wouldn't see Grampa in person for an entire school year soon.
The only assurance Dollface was given past her monthly Fazbear Royalties and an absence of familiars was that she'd get to be part of a world-class music program at St. Godiva's, the kind her father would want her in because it rounded out her future resumé, better than some tacky… Idol Group.
Dollface didn't care about a world-class music education, she cared about her home, and the world she was creating with her friends and the suits at Fazbear Entertainment.
Dollface turned the water off and grabbed a towel, exiting the bathroom.
She entered the hall then looked to the front door from where she stood.
She furrowed her brow.
Dollface could have sworn that she'd locked the door minutes ago.
Had someone actually come in like she thought?
She toe-walked out of habit and locked the door, trying to shake off the unnerving feeling growing in her stomach.
According to Sebastian, Ciel had a soft spot for Dollface.
He too had been the younger, weaker twin at one point. This made a dark feeling of sour disgust grow into hatred.
If it was true that 'Daddy Dearest' gave a shit about Dollface, he wouldn't have dumped her in the middle of nowhere as a newborn without so much as a yearly phone call.
Changing in her room, she turned, hearing a chime as she fastened her bra.
Dollface waited for a second one, sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk. The yellow bear she'd gotten at the lock-in stared past her with bulbous eyes. She followed its line of sight to the closet and felt her heart drop.
Pulling on sweatpants, Dollface lumbered to the white slatted doors reaching with shaking hands for a doorknob.
She gulped, ripping it open, half expecting a giant robot to come flying out at her.
There was nothing but her performance dress in crinkling dry-cleaning bags and her formal wear.
An otherwise sparse wardrobe.
She'd left her nice shoes, a pair of blue and white platform GoGo boots, at Freddy's since July.
Seeing as they were a present from her betrayer, the butler formerly known as 'Uncle Sebbie', she was perfectly happy letting the animatronics and bugs keep them.
She latched the doors closed, thinking to herself.
She perked up, the shine behind her eyes detecting someone's arrival.
"Michael!" she couldn't help but blurt out.
He was in the house!
She turned, not even bothering shirt over her pink and black sports bra and ran barefoot to the hallway.
Dollface smiled, high on her tiptoes.
The shine behind her eyes had gone from ambient to active again!
It had to be Michael, she'd never known anyone else who could shine like her!
Courage was now pacing the kitchen floor, frantic.
The phone was ringing.
It rattled loudly in its enclave, Courage loudly yapping at it, clearly distressed.
He'd never met Michael, so it was only reasonable he'd have this reaction.
Barely bothering to flick on the lights as she approached the red rotary phone enthroned in it's own alcove in the wall, Dollface smiled eagerly as she reached for it, "Michael?"
She could feel the shine grow brighter as ragged breathing became louder behind her.
She was used to that.
Outside the Liminal, Michael often wore a blank white mask, the same one he was wearing when they met by the highway one Halloween three years ago.
She picked up the phone and attempted to answer it, only to get a deep, breathy voice pouring from the earpiece instead.
"...Felix?"
"Michael?" Dollface glanced at the red phone, brow furrowing.
This wasn't like Michael at all. Was this some kind of joke?
"Felix, it's been three hours…. I'm glad you're finally answering, but where are they? I won't be mad, Felix-"
"Michael?" Dollface asked again, brow furrowing. She didn't recognize the man's deep, accented voice, "Sir, do ya need help?"
Or was there an accent? It was so light she questioned its presence.
"Felix, please, are you drunk again? I promise… you can tell me, but if anything happened… Felix, you must tell me."
"Sir, I think ya got th-"
A heavy hand dropped on Dollface's shoulder, the man still pleading on the phone, "Felix, what happened to my kids? What did you do?"
Dollface turned and screamed, clunky red receiver dropping as she looked into the decrepit, grinning face of, of, of-
That wasn't Michael!
It was a big, blue bunny leaking from every gaping hole in its corpse fluid saturated fursuit.
Green plastic eyes rolled in heavily lubricated sockets as it lurched towards her as the man said through a voice crack, "What the hell is wrong with you? I've been calling all night, it was just one thing! Was it too much to ask for?!"
Dollface jumped, brown feathers flying to the floor, jaw gaping. It lurched, the man on the phone close to tears.
"Felix, you stupid bitch! Where the fuck are my children?"
Dollface eyed the rabbit up and down as it lurched over her.
Seeing that it was awkwardly swaying with its torn legs wide-set, Dollface dove like Grampa had taught her to do in preparation for Elmore Junior High's wrestling practice and ran.
Dollface dodged a slow swing at her and ran as fast as she could to the front door, Courage barking and jumping at the rabbit.
She unlocked the heavy front door and tugged on the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
She was somehow trapped in the house with this thing!
Dollface struggled to turn the handle but it wouldn't budge. Her eighty-five pound body would be too weak to break it down.
Courage barked as the animatronic lumbered into the living room with her, green eyes glowing from behind a furry blue mask that peeled away like rotting flesh.
Its plethora of stained teeth chattered at her.
The character was reminiscent of William's favorite mascot suit.
She could hear the rabbit breathing, heavy and ragged, bits of stained fur waving with each pained release of crypt air.
She hyperventilated, rocketing over the tacky couch by the front window and pounded on the glass in hopes of breaking it.
The rabbit didn't care, it kept advancing, even pushing a frantic Courage out of the way with one foot, a bit too steady for an animatronic that rudimentary.
Her pounding fists began to slow, like in a dream. She tried to scream but her ears wouldn't register it no matter how hard she tried.
The memory of hiding like a rat in a bathroom stall as a bear hunted her flashed through her mind, paralyzing her. Her body went limp, suddenly trapped in the bathroom stall in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria again.
It was futile, she was going to die.
Dollface felt herself be snatched up, and began howling again, the memory quickly snatched from her mind.
The only thing she could focus on was the here and now.
And right now, a giant robot rabbit just broke into her house and was trying to eat her!
The rabbit restrained her against his chest, nuzzling its rotting cheek against her wet one.
She gulped, realizing that this was the shine she'd picked up, not Michael's.
She could barely breathe, back pressed against the battered chest of the rabbit, shine bright behind her eyes.
Fearing for Michael, Dollface's pants and whimpers became helpless sobs as she began to remember that something like this had happened before inside Freddy's.
She'd remembered those painful moments inside the bathroom, biting on her thumb so hard it still hurt waiting for Freddy to leave.
The rabbit tilted side to side, almost rocking her as she began sobbing, fearing, once again, for her life.
Dollface could feel the exposed jaw move up and down on the grinning rabbit as she went limp, still sobbing.
A voice, similar to the one on the phone but much more warped and decrepit as the rabbit adjusted his grip on her so that Dollface would have to see his hideous, grinning face, leaked, "Are you my red child?"
"Dollface!"
Dollface's eyes shot open, bloodshot. She sniffed, nose runny.
Her pillow was soaked with tears.
She lifted her face from it, brain nothing more than mush.
"...Regina?"
"Dollface!" Regina nagged again, "You're going to make us late!"
"Late?" Dollface mumbled, still mostly asleep, "Where?"
"To the airport!" Regina snapped, "Today's the day!"
"To… Day?" Dollface rolled over, eyes bleary and red.
"Yes!" ERegina scowled, "Today's the seventeenth!"
Dollface's eyes shot open, "That's today? I thought that was next week!"
"Dollface!" Regina scolded, "What has gotten into you? I used to be the lazy one who needed help waking up, what's going on?"
Dollface's head swam.
Eversince Michael flew the coop, dates, times, even waking up or falling asleep had gotten hard.
Dollface attempted to get out of bed, but fell back onto her pillow.
"Ten minutes. Please."
Regina rolled her eyes at the command and ripped her up by the arms, "We're well past that!"
Dollface groaned.
She now forgave her sister's initial bitchiness a bit.
A small pardon was in order if Dollface had acted anything like this upon the initial weeks of Regina's arrival.
Dollface begrudgingly got to her feet, glad she'd gone to bed fully dressed.
Most of her nightmare was fading, very little remained but the smile and the color red.
"We have to be in the Columbia airport by noon," Regina reminded, "It's already almost eight!"
Dollface sighed, taking in the remains of her room, all packed in cardboard boxes.
She skipped breakfast, the large bear tucked under her arm, Grampa's beaten station wagon already loaded down with items from the night before.
Two weeks.
That's all they'd been given.
Even Regina had to admit that there hadn't been enough time to say goodbye…
Checking through one last time to make sure no pencil or book had been left behind, Dollface scanned the kitchen.
Her eyes caught on the putty beige phone.
Putty gray, not red.
She waited with held breath for it to ring, to jump from its enclave, to do something.
Nothing happened.
Heart returning to its normal pace, Dollface turned away, winter coat preemptively laid over her shoulders like a heavy, leatherbound burden.
