Day 6

A few nights passed and Togusa simply could not bring himself to sleep. Everywhere he went, it seemed like Marion was always lingering around the corner. The doll stressed him out more than all the missions he had ever partaken in combined; He felt like he was going insane.

One night, he had returned late from work. He thought that if he stayed longer hours then perhaps he would not have to deal with the doll so much. His wife took notice of this and waited for his return.

"Honey, you're still up?" He asked as he made his way upstairs. The exhaustion was very visible.

"I was waiting for you…" She replied with a slight frown, "You've been working later shifts and it almost seems like you never get any sleep...what's wrong?"

He rubbed his forehead, "If I told you...you'd think I'm crazy…"

"No no, of course not!" She tried to reassure him. She linked arms with him and walked him up the stairs and through the hallway. The door to his daughter's room was cracked open so he avoided to look inside.

Once they made it to their bedroom, Togusa began to undress himself. He simply removed his jacket, pants, and tie and did not bother changing into any night attire; he simply did not have the energy for it so he went ahead and laid in bed. His wife turned off all the lights and soon joined him. She combed through his hair with her fingers and looked at him quietly.

After a few silent moments, her husband asked, "What do you think about Marion?"

"'Marion'?" She briefly forgot to put a face to the name until she realized he was referring to the doll, "Oh! Well, she certainly makes our daughter happy-"

"Right…" That was all he needed to hear. She was right. His daughter was very happy with the doll no matter how he felt about the toy. He simply wanted to know why he kept imagining it everywhere. Did he have pediophobia? Did just seeing all of the doll-like gynoids from the factory haunt a piece of his subconscious? Or perhaps, the new hardware in his now augmented brain was playing tricks on him.

Debunking his "fear" brought comfort to him and thus he felt his body drifting off to sleep. However, this feeling would not last very long.

Very early in the morning, while his wife was fast asleep, the door very slowly creaked open. The sound caused him to shift in bed and soon he opened his eyes. Tiny but hard footsteps could be heard casually moving from one side of the room to the other. He felt too drowsy to process the noises exactly but as his eyes slowly began to adjust, he could see a shadow near the back wall of the room. As he sat up, the shadow quickly disappeared. He got out of bed yet had to steady himself as his body was still partially asleep.

Small shuffling sounds were now coming from the closet. The objects being moved jingled and gave small clanks. It sounded like jewelry. He grabbed a hammer out of his nightstand (which was always used to put up imported paintings for the room) and held it in defense. He slowly crept his way towards the closet before pushing the door open. He did not want to wake his wife so he used the light from his handy cellphone to inspect the area.

The light revealed that drawers to the small dresser that his wife kept her jewelry in were open. The items looked out of order but what shocked him the most was what he discovered on the ground.

Togusa squatted down and found the sapphire earrings that he had given his wife. She wore them practically everyday and was always sure to be careful with them and neatly store them away. As he scooped the jewels into his hands, he heard footsteps running off behind him. He spun around and caught a glimpse of blonde curls running past the bedroom doorway and down the hall. He felt his heart jump at the sight but he was determined to get rid of it. He put the earrings away and rushed out of the room to catch up with the perpetrator but stopped in his tracks once he was in the hallway.

Marion was lying limp at the top of the steps. It looked like it made no attempt to go down the stairs. Togusa did not want to get near that thing but the mere idea that this doll was probably sentient and playing with his daughter angered him. He walked over to the porcelain piece and grabbed it with his palm pressed against its face with the hammer in his other hand. He did not want to look at its eyes or grin. He made his way down the stairs and went as far as exiting the house.

There was a community dumpster right down the street that he journeyed to. He lifted the impact lid and cringed at the smells of rotting food and other waste. He lifted the doll's body and hovered it over the container. He pondered for a long moment, longer than he anticipated, and thought of how disappointed his daughter would be with her missing doll. He then remembered that this was no ordinary doll and that it must be disposed of.

Togusa finally released Marion from his grasp and it fell face up on the pile of filth. Whether it was the shadows created by the street lamps or simply the frustration Togusa felt, but it looked like Marion was no longer grinning; she almost looked pained.

He finally shut the lid and stood back from the dumpster. His breathing was heavy but he felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders.

"She's gone...everything will be okay…" He told himself while walking back towards the house.