Dollface uncharacteristically stumbled at the tail end of the traveling party of girls, spasming and dragging behind as Regina took her place as leader.
It was like a complete switch had taken place between the girls.
"Bye Wolfie!"
"Bye Princess!"
"Bye Izzy!"
"See ya later, Dolli Mae!"
Grinning, Regina stood outside the front door of Dolli Mae's shotgun shack, just as the final girl skipped up the path.
All seven brothers were now beginning to mill about in their underwear, groggily finding new ways to annoy their parents.
Regina all but skipped home, Dollface staggering behind.
"Last night was amazing!" Regina said, jiggling in her costume, "Once everything was settled, it was a, what would you girls say? A blast! Yes, that's it! A blast!"
Dollface's head roughly jerked with each step, aware of a sudden stinging sensation in her mouth.
Something was missing, but what?
Even Michael couldn't say.
"I think we should do that more often!" Regina said, "I rather like your friends! They seemed pretty rough when I first got here, but, my, they do know how to party!"
Dollface let out a pained moan, almost doubling over in pain. Her thighs were still sticky.
"I really like that one game, what was it? Pizza Party, better than I thought it would be! I think I'm in the mood to make pens today. I think I'll make one for everyone who attended. You see, I've never had a proper sleepover, and I want to make them all something special to celebrate. Oh, maybe after that, we can go to Target again, or, if you'd rather, GoodWill, since it's closer! I'd love to buy a new pair of jeans!" Regina turned, brow suddenly furrowing, "Dollface, why aren't you saying anything. We're almost home."
With a rough gasp, Dollface opened her mouth, bloody stump gushing blood all down the jaws of the bear's head and onto the pavement.
Regina let out a shriek as Dollface moaned for help, reaching out.
Where was her tongue?
Regina screamed again as Dollface spasmed and fell to the sound of firing air hammers, bones crackling as she violently shook.
Regina grabbed her sister's wrist in a panic, and dragged her the last few meters to the front porch.
Damn! She was heavier than she remembered!
Regina yelled for help, all plans dropped.
Regina managed to pull Dollface up the stairs and onto the porch.
She banged on the door, screaming for Murial.
Murial was quick to respond, helping pull Dollface inside.
"I'll get her a pad! Just get that nasty thing off of her!" Regina nearly shouted, "I have some pads she can use, hurry!"
Dollface stepped out of the shower, ready to collapse.
She'd pretty much just stood there watching blood dilute itself with the shower water and drip down the drain. She washed her face with products she didn't have twenty minutes before, not noticing time slip, then wrapped herself up, running to her empty room. She dressed in her pajamas.
Dollface stumbled to her closet and checked to make sure it was empty of that horrible, deformed, twisted animal face she'd seen in her feverish dreams. Finding it full of nothing but dresses and fragile school blouses, Dollface started to dig around desperately.
No faces.
But these weren't her clothes.
No, wait, they were. Her costume was there, in its full, over-the-top, brown and blue glory now soaked and stained. She tried to find her white boots, and then realized that she'd left them at Freddy's. She wasn't quite sure if she should come back for them.
Gramma would be furious when the dry-cleaning bill returned.
A knock on her door. Dollface's mouth stayed shut.
"Oh," Gramma opened the door. "You're awake. Did your friends keep you up all night?"
Dollface swayed in a simple slip dress she'd made with white satin and lace.
"I hope ya weren't up all night! What a time t'have yer first period. Hope it didn't spoil th'fun fer y'all."
Dollface nodded, trying to pull up a weak smile.
"We'll be goin' church soon." Gramma informed, swiping her old, knobby hands on her apron, "I decided t'catch th'late services after yer nap. Hope you aren't too tired."
Dollface stepped away from her closet, snapping the door shut.
"No, not at all!" She smiled. She could feel her teeth, tongue pressed against them like it usually was. "All tell ya all 'bout it after church."
It was as if nothing had happened at all.
Dollface walked, barefoot down the warm pavement with Regina, listening to her talk incessantly about how much fun she'd had that night.
Dollface had to admit, Princess getting mad and flipping the Monopoly board off the table had been downright hysterical after what seemed like hours of food and games.
And then when Dolli Mae fell off the table after a passionate rant about what belonged on a pizza?
Fucking hilarious!
Dollface mostly stayed quiet, letting Regina speak.
Regina was wearing a white dress, much like Dollface's borrowed one.
They were on their way to the gas station now that services were over to get snacks.
Dollface always got pretzels or jerky and Regina always got an Orange Ni-Hi or Orbit soda. Luckily, Regina had her own money, an allowance from Gramma.
Maybe Dollface could convince her to work at Daisy's too.
The money load wouldn't be as big of one to bear, and Regina seemed like she'd be up for it now.
She kept up her pace, shoulder to shoulder with Blondie as a little brown dog that looked like Jeremy on a good day danced around their feet, passing a run-down but still used playground.
Ah, she couldn't wait to get to the corner store.
But what would they do after that?
Regina smiled and bumped Dollface with her shoulder. Dollface vaguely smiled in her direction, clutching her beaten wallet wrapped shut with rubber bands.
An old delivery truck with a wooden crate bed rumbled past. A train roared in the distance.
Dollface looked up into the sky, invigorated by the light drifting down from the harsh, cloudless blue expanse and sighed.
It was a beautiful day.
She stopped in her tracks, suddenly hearing something behind her.
She turned, withdrawing the step she'd begun to take and looked to where a dapper couple stood, unusually dark and grim compared to the picturesque world they were in.
The air was sucked out of her lungs, and she no longer felt like the ground was beneath her feet.
She was in a void.
"My, those girls were lovely. I wonder who they belong to." The man said, short, in a dark suit with blue-black hair and an eyepatch.
He was unusual, with broad shoulders and a cane. He couldn't have been older than thirty, neither could the tall, slim woman beside him, and yet he held himself with the regal air of a much older gentleman. He even spoke that way, with an accent she couldn't quite place.
The woman next to him, who she recognized as the woman from the ice cream parlor, asked innocently, with a clear American accent, "Yes, I do wonder who could ever be their parents. The brunette looked familiar, I do say."
Her uncle Sebastian, a tall, slim, imposing man in a black suit and a face blacked out by his own shadow said with a glint of pearly fangs said something too quiet to hear as Dollface turned.
Creeps.
"Regina, let's go." She said, catching up as Courage sharply barked around her feet.
"How strange, I didn't know they were performers now. We'll have to visit sometime soon."