It was one of the warmest nights that the Village had witnessed. Like sugar spilt across black granite, the stars glistened in the darkness of the void. The cool breeze licked the precipitating skin of the Villagers who had abandoned their beds and homes into the Townsquare- all united around the pristine orange flame of the fire. A stark contrast it was- the flush of fire and the chill of the air that tried to engulf them, but the brawn of the fire was too mighty for the bite of the air.

The song of the fire and the melodies of the drums were struck in rhythms- a ritual for the young virgins who have come of age to blossom into fine young maidens. There they moved near the pyre with their beaus with sparkly eyes and bright smiles and soft pink cheeks. Subtle touches and stolen kisses.

Amongst them was the brash, uncouth Lord- Karl Heisenberg. A drink in one hand and cigar in another, he had his eyes set on a particular maiden named Rose, young flesh and innocent. Naive, so very naive and docile. A pretty little plaything to fiddle with under the moonlight. Trying to accept the flower as gracefully as his rough hand could, the man leant over to the younger's ears, whispering sweet nothingness into her flushed skin. The subtle skin-on-skin contact between his nose and her neck made the girl shudder lightly, a trail of goosebumps risen on her soft skin. Rose bowed with a coy smile. Her sultry eyes fixated on the older. Heisenberg brought the flower up to his eye level, observing its velvety yellow petals that spiralled into one another like an endless pit, a tiny smirk that could easily pass off as a small smile curled on his lips.

Rose gently traced Karl's hand through the rough fabric of his shirt till her soft fingers intertwined into his rough ones and quickly pulled the cigarette away from him, bringing it to her plush pink lips, sucking on the roll exaggeratingly. Karl growled, his hunger and thirst growing stronger and stronger with each minute passing. But fucking his own 'devotee' in the middle of the Townsquare? Not a great idea, despite his already apparent unbecoming nature of a Lord- loud, rebellious and shaggy. Returning the cigar to the man, Rose bowed down one more time, whispering, 'I hope I see you soon,' and turning around with her luscious red locks pushed over her shoulder, giving the man a tiny glimpse of the naked skin of her delicate neck- the one that would soon be adorned by the scars of his teeth and the clots from the firm grip of his hands that would feel the vibrations of her moans and mewls from her pretty little mouth. Delightful.

Unbeknownst to the parting couple, a ghastly looking Doll's head tilted slowly, each tilt staggered and sharp with a soft 'cluck' sound. Covered in a putrid white dress and a veil on its head, the Doll observed Rose's every movement intently, giving off a sinister grunt. Then, it slowly but stealthily tottered behind Rose, with the blanched pale rotting body, keeping itself unseen in the dark shadows and finally getting inside her tiny home.

Poor Rose, still lost in the sweet thoughts of the late event, swayed her hips from side to side, humming a soft tune from her pretty pink lips. Her soft, wavey red hair swayed with every move, completely lost in her euphoria until a foul, rancid smell filled up her nose, making the girl stop her dancing and look around for the source of the malodorous scent. Until. Her eyes landed on the terrifying silhouette of the Doll in White, which she immediately recognised as Angie Beneviento. And before Rose could process the scene in front of her, Angie staggered towards her, quickly and disturbingly. Without a second thought, she gave off a loud scream running towards her bedroom, but two more dolls- even more frightening than Angie, appeared out of nowhere. They had small razor-sharp knives attached to them. Again, the girl was caught off guard, and before she could react, the dolls lurched forward, pinning her to the floor by piercing into her dainty palms. Angie climbed on top of Rose's body, giving an atrocious laugh.

"You come to our place, play with us, and then you take our golden roses without asking us?" Angie said with a shrill sound. The pungent smell of a rotting corpse was emitted from it. Rose closed her eyes both from fright and from the disgusting smell of the doll.

"L-Lord H-Heisenberg asked m-me for the sweet-smelling flower, and Lady Beneviento's flowers are-"

"Aaah, young love!" Angie interrupted, earning a vile giggle from the other two dolls. "So, for that charming dog, you forget your true friends?"

"N-No! I-I didn't mean disrespect-"

"But you've done it!" The doll laughed maniacally, digging its sharp nails into Rose's sensitive skin, the sound of flesh tearing and the sight of blood oozing out making Rose gasp and scream louder and louder while the three Dolls gave a wicked laughed and sang the old rhymes of the Crones, continuing their nefarious wreaking.

Back in the lively Townsquare, a certain Belle stood in the darkness with soft pale face and delicate carvings, eyes dark and stormy that glistened as she wept, lips as red as cherries and raven locks entwisted over her thin shoulder. Her orbs traced all over the distant figure of the loutish Lord Heisenberg, a scowl bitten down with a small smile as she watched him take a deep huff of the flower before dropping it and crushing it under his boot while watching the scene in front of him in disinterest.

The gentle gush swept past the Belle, her hair gently flowing with the gust right in the direction of Karl. A sudden whiff of the scent of sweet berries of tart got Karl's attention as he quickly turned in the direction of the smell. His sharp eyes lay on the unmistakable figure of Donna-the tragic heiress to the House Beneviento and one of the four Lords of the Village; the Lady in Black or also seen as a Figure of Death in her usual garbs, now lay open in her attire of laces and silk, with only a transparent veil covering the scarred side of her face- who's eyes smiled with a mischievous delight. Without further adieu, the man left his initial position and strode towards Donna, swift and furious.

Lucky for Heisenberg, Donna stood in the dark, making his next set of actions invisible to the mortal crowd. Not sparing a glance at her face, the man firmly pressed his hands on her stomach, and in a second, he had her pinned against a boulder, further away from the light of the Village. Donna let out a soft gasp, both from the slight pain and the suddenness of the precedence of the situation. But her moment of surprise quickly relaxed into a lascivious expression as she slowly reached to touch the man's scars on his face. He never moved or flinched. He just stood still and stoic, while the growing lust in his eyes gave away his facade of uncaringness. He had to desperately fight out the urge to lean into her soft touches- something that he secretly yearned for.

"Where the fuck were you." He growled, pulling her hand away from his face and digging his nails into her wrist, making Donna gasp lightly in pain.

"Your little red sheep," Donna smirked, wetting her lower lip with the flick of her tongue. "Your newest prey? Or...a dalliance?" She said, leaning into his face, the smirk growing more prominent as she noticed Karl's increasingly irritated expression. She pulled out a yellow rose, similar to the one gifted to Karl and held it in front of him. "She took something that was mine without permission."

"She took one, and you have a fucking garden covered in that yellow shit," Heisenberg growled, making Donna sigh as she closed her eyes for a moment.

"It is still mine." Heisenberg narrowed his eyes at Donna. Angie wasn't there with her. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes, similar to one of a naughty child who has done kind of mischief. But since it's Donna, it wouldn't be just mischief. It was something more than that.

"What. The. Fuck. Did. You. Do."

"I merely taught her a lesson." She said nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders. "To ask before taking something that doesn't belong to her."

"And you don't bloody take what isn't yours, Doll?" Heisenberg sneered at the Dollmaker. "You fucking take children away, and that is so righteous. Practise what you fucking preach."

"Tch, tch, tch." Donna shook her head, looking at Karl in disappointment. "The children I take are orphaned. They are alone, cold and hungry. No one owns them and no one I have to ask."

Donna slowly closed the distance between her and Karl, one hand resting on his chest and the other pulling off his hat. "You, you take corpses and dead bodies from the graveyard. Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

Heisenberg gave off an annoyed grunt, pushing the Dollmaker off him harshly.

There was a time in the past when the two of them were hopelessly and hilariously in love. Or was it love?

It was forbidden and even frowned upon if the Lords fraternise with each other. But Karl never cared or gave a damn to rules. He wasn't even loyal to Miranda or the Village. He saw Donna, he saw her without her veil, and that was it. He wanted her. Needed her. But did she want him the way he wanted her? Did that even matter?

Lucky for Karl, Donna did 'feel' the same, and they quickly bonded over 'lost parents' and 'childhood'. Kindred spirits. They did have their sweet moments- moments where both were just two people who had strong feelings for each other. Moments where they were just two humans who sought comfort in each other's presence. Perhaps it was this comfort that led both of them to spill out their deepest secrets and fears. One that both of them regret to date- letting their guard down.

As time passed, Heisenberg grew restless. He wanted to break away from Miranda's chains and torment her to death. He wanted her to feel the pain that he was put through for the sake of her child Eva- a child who was long gone.

What is dead should stay dead.

Only if Miranda realised that.

And with his increased restlessness, Karl started closing off from everyone, including Donna, and devoting every second to building his metal army.

Young Donna- one who was emotionally attached to Heisenberg (just as he was attached to his goal) couldn't understand his sudden aloofness. Even if it was for his army, she never understood why he pushed her away, just like how she was pushed away by all the children back home because of her scar.

Hurt people hurt people.

Succumbing into self-pity and self-hate, the Dollmaker at first blamed herself—'Freak'. 'Ugly.' But later, her self-hatred projected out to everyone. It started with killing her gardener. Then she slowly began torturing her playmates. And finally, it was Karl's turn to face her maliciousness. He got the worst end (just like how she got hurt the most because of him).

Since then, their once loving, blossoming relationship turned into a bond filled with thorns and mutual resentment while still having a spark of lost affection.

Contrary to everyone's opinion of Donna being a reserved and innocent Lady, she was the exact opposite of all that. She was manipulative and arrogant, knowing exactly how to pull Heisenberg's strings and get him to give in to her. She was a lot like Angie, minus the boisterousness. Angie was probably the projection of her true self, one that she chooses to hide to maintain her air of elegance and refinement.

They were so similar yet so different.

She knew which nerve to pull, and her ability to hallucinate did help her realise Heisenberg's undying thirst for killing Mother Miranda. And the same day, Heisenberg himself found out the whereabouts of the Lost Children, who were supposed to be taken into Mother Miranda's Orphanage or her Lab Cell.

Two pieces of information, if found out by Miranda, could result in both of their deaths, added with the intimacy that they shared. One that they still share many nights. Something that starts with a battle of insults, turning into a full-blown physical fight, and finally ending up in angry sex. It was a vicious cycle, the same damn thing every time they face each other.

Donna provokes. Heisenberg reacts. They fight. They fuck. Repeat.

And ever since that unfortunate day, Donna and Karl have done everything in the world to make each others' lives miserable. Cruel.

Heisenberg turned around, walking towards the trail where he saw Rose go.

"If you're going to the girl's house," Heisenberg turned towards Donna, his eyebrow raised in suspicion. "I'd suggest you not." She smirked again, her hands crossed across her chest. "Unless you'd like a pretty red doll."

"You fucking BITCH!" Karl snarled, lurching towards Donna, but once he reached her, she vanished, with just a soft echo of her laughter that fluttered in the cold air. "Psycho Bitch!"

Suddenly, a blanket of darkness enclosed Karl. He looked around in confusion and irritation. And that's when he noticed his hammer wasn't there with him.

A flash of bright light made the man squint his eyes. He looked away for a second, trying to adjust to the light's intensity. But what he saw made his eyes go wide in shock. It was a woman. Petite, with short dark hair chained to the walls in a filthy cage. She was almost naked, with only a tattered piece of rag covering her body. She cried and whined, her voice too inhuman and animalistic to listen to. Covered in dried blood and dirt, her body shivered uncontrollably as she watched a figure walk closer to her, her hands tightly clutching a tiny bundle covered in blood and some slimy substance. It was Mother Miranda's figure. With ease, she pulled the bundle from the petite woman, not sparing her a second glance and walked away nodding lightly at a creature, one without a lower body and its spine sticking out along with its innards. The creature swiftly crawled towards the woman in the cell, and all Karl could hear was screams, sounds of bones being ground and chewed on and sounds of flesh tearing.

Heisenberg looked away from the unsettling scene and turned towards Mother Miranda, who pulled the blanket off. It was a baby. "What was the lady's last name?" Miranda whispered, pulling out a few papers, reading through them. "Ah yes, Heisenberg."

"DONNA FUCKING BENEVIENTO, YOU BETTER STOP YOUR STUPID MIND GAMES!" Karl shouted at the top of his voice, burying his face in his hands. And then, the darkness slipped away, and he was back in the Townsquare, except it was cold and empty. The celebration was over.

Heisenberg raised his arm, and into his hand flew his hammer. The hallucination was over. "Rose. Fuck, Rose!" The man let out a whistle, and there, his horde of Lycans staggered towards him, letting out inhuman muffled growls from their mouths that were covered in blood and decaying flesh. "Find that stupid doll, Angie. Now!" The Lycans let out grunts as if agreeing to their Lord, immediately sniffing the ground and crawling around trying to find the scent.

One Lycan found the lead and let out a snarl, getting Heisenberg's attention. It started following the scent, its nose still close to the ground while Karl followed behind till they arrived at a stone hut. The door was left open, and there, he could see droplets of blood. Walking inside, the house was a mess. Everything was broken, shattered, and blood smeared everywhere. But Rose wasn't there anywhere.

/ Ring-a-ring-a-roses

A pocket full of posies

A tissue, a tissue

We all fall down/

Out of the shadows stumbled 4 dolls, and one of them looked painfully like the miniature version of Rose. She was the shiniest and the newest, evident from the lack of rust and sludge on her form, unlike the other dolls. And she had red hair and vibrant green eyes, just like Rose.

/The king has sent his daughter

To fetch a pail of water

A tissue, a tissue

We all fall down/

The dolls sang together, all their sounds blending, while the growl of the Lycans outside added to the eerie aura. Any average person would have been frightened to death by the sight, but for Karl, it just infuriated him more. Taking his hammer, he aimed it at Angie, which she dodged easily with a giggle and hopped around Karl.

/The robin on the steeple

Is singing to the people

A tissue, a tissue

We all fall down/

"Fuck," Karl grunted, squeezing the middle of his nose bridge in irritation. The rhyme, 'Ring Around the Rosie', one which Mother Miranda wanted every child in the Village to learn, including himself and Donna when they were both young and innocent. Maybe not innocent because the two of them were anything but that, especially Donna Beneviento. The Dollmaker knew how to appear like a pretty naive girl, but in fact, she knew more than she ought to know, just like Heisenberg.

/The wedding bells are ringing

The boys and girls are singing

A tissue, a tissue

We all fall down/

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Karl shouted, swinging the hammer at one of the dolls. The three other dolls dodged easily, except for Rose's doll, smashed by the hammer and lay on the floor in pieces, with blood and some flesh popping out of it.

Heisenberg set off to the estate without paying much attention to the broken doll, ignoring all the other dolls that continued singing and mocking him.

Her home looked the same- everything in place, spick and span and very spacious, unlike his factory where everything was a mess and disorganised. The sweet scent of berries filled his nose again. Donna's scent. A scent he adored.

It was dark inside. None of the candles was lit. Donna did like the dark. It was something 'soothing and serene' according to her. She would pull all the curtains during the daytime and keep it dark inside, something that always baffled Karl. Her love for darkness and cold would explain why she looks so pale and lifeless. Yet, she looked beautiful.

Following the scent, he walked upstairs, his hands softly brushing the rails. The dolls weren't here, or else the first person to greet him would have been the stupid freak, Angie. 'Must be out hunting for stray children, he thought as he reached the topmost step. It was sad what Donna had turned into- once a girl full of compassion and life, now she was a ruthless psychotic Dollmaker. And as much as Karl kept denying it, it upset him to see Donna become something he believed she wasn't because of him. Of course, he too performed experiments on humans, but they were corpses- he never used living beings.

Donna sat in her room in front of her dressing table, brushing her long dark raven locks. She was in her simple nightgown, and her veil was off, revealing her scar. In the Village, Heisenberg (And Miranda) was the only person to see her face- without her veil or cover. She was always so insecure about the way she looked, thanks to her troubled past back home. There was a time when she used to let him touch her scar, gently trace its bumps and dents. But now, every time he tried, she would either pull away or slap his hand. She never let him touch her there ever again.

"Lord Heisenberg," Donna greeted, looking at his reflection through her mirror. She kept brushing her hair, her eye set on Karl with a neutral expression. It was a simple room- a dresser, a bed and a table covered in papers. Donna did always love to write as much as she loved to read.

It used to be her method to cope with loneliness and depression. Picking up one of the papers, Karl quickly skimmed through the writings, catching the words 'Belong' and 'Loved'. Donna had always felt abandoned by everyone. Family- both her parents and her sister died, leaving her to survive alone in a world filled with disdain and contempt. When Mother Miranda took Donna under her wing, initially, she was happy. She thought she'd finally belong to someone. But Miranda's true intentions to use Donna (revive Eva) broke her and shattered her heart. She was just a tool. Friends- she hardly had any, and those who tried to befriend her left her immediately after seeing her scars. They'd call her bad names, and they'd always be rude to her. And finally, her lover- Heisenberg, one who intentionally or unintentionally left her to go after his own destiny. He was not wrong, no and Donna wasn't right either.

"Stop meddling with my work, Karl," She said in a soft sing-song tone, pulling Heisenberg out of his thoughts. She stood up, her gown reaching till the floor and sweeping the ground below her as she took a few steps towards him. "Why did you come?"

"You know damn well why," He gritted through his teeth, crumpling the paper in his hand.

"Rose. Of course." She took the paper from Karl, setting it back on the table. "I told you why I did it-"

"She didn't deserve to die."

"I didn't kill her, Karl!" Donna raised her voice, her eyes now darkened in anger. "I merely turned her into a Doll. She still lived. You killed her-"

Karl launched himself at Donna, pushing her against the wall as his hands tightly gripped on her neck, enough to form bruises the next day if he chose to loosen his grip. Instead, Karl tightened it, earning a shriek from the Dollmaker, watching her face go red and tears welling up in her eyes. Without a second thought, Donna grabbed the pen near her and stabbed Karl's shoulder, making the man loosen his grip on her, enough for her to escape from his hold.

"Oh, don't you fucking dare-" Karl pulled her hair and yanked her against the wall as a screech fell from Donna's mouth. Turning her around, he held her by her neck and raised his other hand into a fist, ready to punch her. And just then, Donna trapped Karl in a hallucination, but this was a different one.

Heisenberg never saw the death of his mother or his cadou implantation. This one was different. It was him, in the middle of the Village square while the rain poured down on him. He just stood there, his tears mixing with the rainwater. It was the day he lost his dog Juno- not to natural death, that would have been sweeter. But to Alcina's brutality. 'Filthy mongrel!' She screamed at the little creature, stabbing it with her long metallic nails. 'You are a Lord now! Act like it!' She said. He couldn't fight back. He was lost, scared and hopeless. He stayed there, unable to move or digest the heinous crime he just witnessed. He was just a boy. By the side of the boulder was a younger Donna, her hands shakily holding a little toy in the shape of a dog. It was a toy she had gifted him a few years later. He still kept the dog in his workplace, unconsciously rubbing it whenever he was stressed.

The setting slowly changed as he found himself on the floor, Donna looking at him, still devoid of emotions. She slowly extended an arm towards him, cupping his cheek and rubbing the rough skin of his face gently.

Wisps of the stray hair that were stuck to his sweat-stained forehead were gently pushed away by Donna's soft dainty fingers, each touch tender and soothing. He gave in. Leaning forward into her arms, he buried his nose in the crook of her neck, breathing in her berry delight and feminity. Donna ran a hand through his greasy untamed hair, still staring ahead at the wall.

This wasn't the first time they tried to hurt each other, and it definitely wasn't the last. It would forever go on and on. They could have pulled away from this. They could have ended this a long time back. But they didn't. It was a cycle, repeating itself again and again and again. And ending it meant ending the comfort that they got at the end of the day- even if it was for a little while, it was enough to keep them going.

Was it love, you ask? Maybe it was. Maybe it still is. Love can manifest in different forms, and sometimes, it comes out through pain and agony and torment. But it kept them alive, and that is all that mattered to both of them.

Dolere.

Onsra.