Where's My Dolly?

Okay, so hi. Here's the second of the summer update!

Emmm…. What do I have to say before you start… This chapters quite a contrast to the last in that it's very speech heavy. Think that's all I have to say so I shall disappear for now and let you get on with it!

Chapter 19:A Surprise Visit

Leaf tried to let out a scream as she watched the figure in the reflection move closer to her unmoving body only to have it muffled by her unexpectedly soft hands.

"Quick, which room is yours?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Leaf pointed as best as she could to the one on the right and the woman dragged her forward, opening the door and shutting as quietly as she could whilst trying to keep Leaf restrained.

"I'm going to let go of you but you have to promise not to scream. I won't hurt you, I swear."

Leaf did not know why but she felt compelled to believe this odd woman, after all, she had not hurt her. Yet. She let go of Leaf, who stumbled forward to firstly get away from her and to get a good look of her face in the dim room. The only light that illuminated the room was the bedside lamp in the corner.

"Who are you?" Leaf managed to choke out. "What do you want?" She glared at the immaculately dressed woman.

"I'm Dr Abby." She explained and then proceeded to give a brief apology. "Sorry about scaring you downstairs in the kitchen and in the library."

"That was you." Leaf said in tone that made it almost sound like a question.

"Yes, I snuck into the house."

"Why?" Leaf asked. Had this woman not heard a door?

"It's kind of a long story." Dr Abby started and invited herself to take a seat on the bottom corner of Leaf's bed.

"Well you've made yourself comfortable so I assume you're going to explain?"

"Yes." Dr Abby replied then drew in a deep breath before she started her story. "I got a call on Saturday from Professor Ivy, something about two kids coming over to the lab to ask about the project. She sounded quite panicky so that's all I gathered. But unfortunately, when she called Professor Oak was there too and he may have heard a few things from the conversation. He reminded me of a few things and suggested I not tell you anything and just take a vacation."

"So you came here for a vacation?" Leaf quipped.

"He told me all about you. The attack on your house, your family, your friends." Dr Abby said, ignoring Leaf.

Suddenly the memory of everything that had happened in the past few weeks came flooding back into her mind, as clear as day. She had done a great job of burying all the painful memories of the past few weeks in a dark corner in the back of her mind.

"Obviously you know something."

Leaf looked at her and suddenly remembered she had dropped all the papers in the hall and wondered if it would be rude for her to run outside mid story listening to pick it up.

"You know what the project is, don't you?" Dr Abby asked.

"It's the dolls." Leaf replied without hesitation.

Dr Abby nodded. "You know where they are."

Leaf looked over to where the bedside lamp is and suddenly realised that the doll was not there. "I was sent one in a package a few weeks ago but it was weird, the doll, I mean. When I first got it, it had blue eyes but then when I showed Gary it had green eyes. But then Ivy told us about your lab and how you made a doll too."

"The doll you first saw, the blue eyed one, that was the doll that was from my lab. The green eyed doll was the one that came from Professor Oak's lab."

Leaf nodded comprehendingly. This was new information to her. "And they had brains from different people transplanted into them?" Leaf asked in a confirmatory manner.

Abby nodded. "The one from my lab had a brain in it from a man called George Little."

"He was a gang leader wasn't he?" Leaf asked.

Abby nodded again. "He was indeed. We didn't know it when we first got hold of his brain. But after the transplant was declared a success by the team and the doll started to behave weirdly we realised something was wrong. One of my team member's negligence has caused all of this."

"Negligence?" Leaf echoed.

"The project would've been up and running long ago if we weren't so picky about whom the brain came from. Usually someone on the team would do a thorough background check on the brain's deceased owner before we go ahead with the transplant but the new team member only checked if George Little had a criminal record and failed to find out he's a notorious gang leader."

Leaf's mind drifted back to when she had a meeting with Drew and Gary, when George Little was first brought up. She vaguely remembered it being mentioned that Little had been involved in several criminal offences but got away with it on every account so no wonder why he had no criminal record. However, anyone with a brain would probably start a job like research on someone on google surely?

Leaf then wondered if this new team member was Anna. She seemed like she could be a ditz beneath the brains. She did look like she had the potential to be the incompetent team member that causes a mass homicide attack in Pallet. But that was just Leaf's opinion…

"And what about the doll in the lab here?" Leaf asked. "That doll's brain?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I think it came from a man called Alexander Courtez."

"Gary and I thought that too at first but Gary's sister Daisy is dating Bill, the guy who deals with the computer systems that the organ donor centre uses and she managed to find out from Bill that it was a man called Hendry. Gary and I managed to do some research and found out a guy called Christopher Hendry who was also a gang leader in Vermillion, like George Little."

Abby looked at Leaf blankly. This was news to her. She had heard about the infamous Little- Hendry feud before but suddenly it explained why the doll behaved fine for a while and then not the next.

"Leaf, where are the dolls?"

"I think it's in Gary's room. At least it was yesterday. It disappears a lot."

"I know." Abby said. "That's how it got out of the lab. It wasn't stolen. It just upped and left."

Leaf nodded comprehendingly as if a doll leaving a lab on its own to go on a killing spree is the most normal thing ever and posed no threat whatsoever.

"How do we stop the dolls?" Leaf asked.

"First we need to track them down. Do you think you can get a hold of the doll?"

Leaf looks at the door and suddenly remember Gary's mood. "I can try." She replied then sauntered over to the door.

"Wait." Abby leaped up to her feet and grabbed Leaf's arm, stopping her from opening the door. "Don't tell anyone I'm here."

Leaf looked at Abby incredulously. "Why?" If she cannot mention Dr Abby's appearance to Gary then getting a hold of the doll becomes much harder.

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you, any of you in this house just now. Why do you think I snuck in."

"Fine." Leaf turned and opened to door then nipped across the hall, giving the door a quiet knock and popping her head in before Gary even had a chance to respond to her late intrusion. "Gary?" she called out quietly.

No reply.

Leaf scanned her eyes round the dimly lit room and saw no sign of the brunet. The bed was still made, the blinds were still drawn from the morning and his bag was still stitting at the foot of his bed untouched. She frowned at the sight and pushed the door open wider and called his name again but still she received no reply. Leaf pondered where he was for a moment then continued with the task at hand: retrieving the dolly.

Leaf's eye darted over to the small wooden bedside table, then to the other. Leaf walked further into the room and nipped into the bathroom. She didn't want to dismiss the slight chance that Gary would, for some odd and unknown reason, moved the doll into the bathroom.

The bathroom was clean and the shower cubicle, Leaf noticed, was completely dry. Gary's hair gels and wax and whatever the other bottles were were scattered over the spotless counter in a vague order – a sign that nothing looked out of place.

Leaf slowly backed out of the bathroom, out of the bedroom and back across the hall to her own bedroom, reporting back to Anna her lack of findings.

"Hmmm. Well, that's puzzling." Anna replied with a hand under her chin, making a thinking face.

"What do we do now?" Leaf asked.

"We need to track down the doll, and we need to get inside its head. Literally get inside its head."

Leaf looked at Anna. "And do what?" she asked, her voice rising as she spoke louder than intentional. "Rip its brain out?" Leaf added incredulously.

"Pretty much." Anna replied.

"Alright then." Leaf said.

Leaf had only suggested what she had because it seemed like the likely solution in a movie but the thought that that was the actually solution made her life feel… Exciting for a change. The doll could appear at any moment and attack her.

On second thought, maybe the idea didn't appeal to her that much. Or at all.

Her pencil danced idly across her page. Sitting in chemistry without Gary really was a bore. The said boy had failed to show up for breakfast that morning and when Leaf went to fetch him he was nowhere to be found. He didn't turn up for homeroom either.

Leaf's head rested on her arm which was leaning on her desk, using the limb as sort of bony pillow. She had never felt so bored. If this was the reality of studying science next year then Leaf would rather reconsider her upcoming educational path post high school.

Her eyes were trained to her notepad and her mind was switched off. Her teacher's words were only recognised as mildly irritating sounds in the background, that was, until she said the words, "Ah, Gary! Come on in and take your seat."

Leaf lifted her head off her arms and looked over to the door where she saw him walk in and occupy the seat beside her.

"Where have you been?" she hissed at him.

"Just about." He replied nonchalantly.

Leaf gave him a suspicious glance. "Last night too?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, I've got interesting things to tell you about last ni-"

"Leaf Green, I will not tolerate gabbers in my class." The teacher interrupted.

"Right." Leaf said then picked up her pen and continued on with her doodles. Now was not the time to tell Gary what she had happened last night.

Leaf tried to catch up to Gary who left class in an awful hurry even though they usually walk to their second period class together. But Leaf soon realised that he wasn't going to class. When she had arrived, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Oak?" Drew asked as Leaf took her seat in front of his.

"Not sure. He's been acting a bit weird." Leaf replied as she unpacked her books from her bag.

"How come?" Drew inquired with a raised brow.

"Not sure. He's been that way since our meeting with the assistant at the lab yesterday." Leaf replied then sighed. She did not like seeing Gary like that. "How's May?" she asked after debating whether she should tell him about her surprise meeting with Dr Anna last night.

"She's getting better. Less ignorant now." Drew replied. "Sometimes she'll greet me with a blank look when I walk into her room."

Leaf gave Drew a look. Was it normal for Drew to say something nice in such an unpleasant manner?

Leaf sighed. It seemed like things had come to a halt despite last night's new found information. Gary was having a mood swing (secretly Leaf thinks he's PMSing), the dolls were nowhere to be found and according to Drew, May had not made much progress in her recovery.

Leaf had no idea what her next steps should be except from making an effort to cheer Gary up. And she knew exactly how to go about it.

She peeked out the window again. All the preparation for her surprise was in place and all that was missing was the guy himself. Leaf straightened and up and ran down the stairs from her peeping spot in her room window when she spotted said boy and leaped down the stairs two at the time.

She raced to the door and as it opened, located Gary's arm and dragged him back down the porch steps.

"What are you doing?" Gary demanded as he stumbled back from the unexpected heist, almost tripping down the steps as he moved backwards clumsily.

"We are going to go relax."

"Why?"

"There doesn't have to be a reason for everything." Leaf scolded, not even stopping to look at him or let him readjust his posture and face the correct direction of travel.

Gary put up no protest and just went along with her. It would probably be quicker in the long run. He turned to face the right way when Leaf had slowed down and loosened her iron grip on his now crumpled shirt sleeve.

"Where are we going exactly?" Gary asked.

"Oh, you know, just somewhere." Leaf said with a smile that could not be contained. "This way."

Gary followed closely behind as Leaf took a small, narrow path in an opening of a shrubby bush that was made by local hikers years ago when the main path to the woodland area of Pallet was blocked off. The forest was a nice quiet spot for relaxing and on hot days, it was the perfect place since the lake was merely a stone throw away. However, when the season is fast approaching winter and the skies darken rapidly, the area tended to become an eerie quiet more than a serene quiet.

They walked along the path and closer towards the direction of the lake where Leaf had set up some things for them to do whilst relaxing and thinking of anything but the doll. And even Dr Abby. And Anna.

Especially Anna.

"Ta-da!" Leaf said as she used her hands in a typically flamboyant gesture to present her straw woven picnic basket and red gingham rug that had been pre-set.

"What's this?" Gary said as he eyed the basket then knelt down and flipped the straw flap over, revealing plastic tupperware filled with food.

In front of them was a stagnant lake that reflected the rising moon's light and trees all around them. Last time they were here was when Leaf had just found out that her parents had been attacked and the linger memories of this in Gary's mind was stall raw and revolting. The image of the hiker's body still wavered in his mind. At least the cordon had been removed.

"It's just my way of saying lets kick back and relax." Leaf smiled at him as if she had no memory of the dead hiker. "But I've set a few ground rules."

"Rules? Isn't the point of kicking back and relaxing is that there are no rules for us to abide to. Unless you're going to make that tacky 'the only rule is to have fun' one of the rules." Gary said and cringes at the thought.

Leaf looked like she had just cracked the ultimate brain teaser. "That's a brilliant one! Why didn't I think of it!"

Gary looked at Leaf with a look of sheer mortification. "Please tell me your other rules won't be as cringe-inducing as that."

Leaf knelt down beside the basket, opposite Gary, with a serious expression. "Actually, my only other rule is that we don't speak of the… You know. Thing."

Gary puzzled over what the thing Leaf was referring to could be. "What thing?"

"You know, the thing." Leaf tried with her eyes widening.

"Not really."

"Oh, you know what I mean!" Leaf said, flailing her arms in exaggeration.

Gary leant back and landed onto his bottom. "All you've done is almost hit me and repeated the word 'thing' over and over again. I can assure you that if you were me, you wouldn't know what the 'thing' you're referring to is."

Leaf blew her side fringe up in frustration and plopped herself down too. "I meant the doll." She said huffily, "I mean, how did you not work that out."

Gary let out a light hearted laugh to which Leaf shot him a glare.

"You so knew what I meant." Leaf said as she pulled out a plastic box with some sandwiches of various fillings in it, a carton of orange juice, a bottle of water, a large bar of chocolate and her pièce-de-résistance, a sponge cake covered with chocolate buttons, fingers and butter-icing.

Gary watched as Leaf pulled out the item one by one and placed them precisely on the blanket. His eyes fell onto the sickeningly sweet and chocolaty cake that any girl would die for and wondered where Leaf found the time to make that.

"So is there any other reason for making such a cake?" Gary asked as he picked up a sandwich and took one bite of it then almost could not swallow it from the inch thick layer of the chocolate filling that he had somehow failed to notice.

"I just thought we should relax and get a few things of our chests. Mostly yours though." Leaf replied, "Let's start with your lack of presence in classes today."

Gary ate the last of his sandwich. "I can't answer that."

Leaf looked taken aback. "Why not?" she asked, her voice rose sharply as she did so.

"You were the one who said to not mention the you know what."

Leaf silently cursed her own rule. He sounded like he was willing to talk about it. "Well, let's remove the rule for a moment and talk about this. You weren't in last night. No one saw you after dinner."

"I went out last night because I thought I saw something outside our dining room window."

Leaf's eyes widened. So Gary had not been to find Anna? Her mind then thought back to Dr Abby who had snuck into the house after hours of surveillance from the windows before she entered and hi-jacked Leaf. Abby had stayed in her room last night but had disappeared by the morning before Leaf had woken up at the crack of dawn. It was a possibility that what Gary saw last night was Dr Abby.

On the other hand, the dolly had disappeared too last night. It was also possible that the thing he saw was the doll.

"What did you see?" Leaf decided to ask him.

"It was pretty dark so I couldn't really tell but I definitely saw someone lurking in our back and front yard. I heard them walk too."

"I think I know what you saw last night." Leaf said and Gary looked at her, waiting for her to expand on that. "You must've saw Dr Abby."

Gary looked at Leaf as if she had just gone insane.

"It's true!" Leaf said defensively. "She snuck into the house last night and dragged me into my room! We had a long talk about her research and our findings."

"And? You're only telling me this now?" Gary asked, still slightly disbelieving.

"Well if you weren't so busy playing Mr Mysterious then we wouldn't be here. And it seems we were right about pretty much everything. She confirmed that it was the dolls that were killing our neighbours. She even told me one more crucial thing."

"And what was that?"

Leaf took a deep breath and was about to reply when she heard it. She looked at Gary to make sure he heard it too and it wasn't just her imagining it.

Gary gave Leaf a wary look too.

She definitely did NOT imagine that single rustle in the background. Both their eyes darted to the bush to their right. The leaves were shaking more than what the wind could cause it to do and it was mostly focused at the bottom of the plant, a sure sign that it was not a natural phenomenon.

Leaf and Gary both rose to their feet, not taking their eyes off the suspicious bush.

Gary reached forward and put a hand on Leaf's upper arm, gently trying to coax her behind him but she would not budge. Her feet were firmly rooted to the ground.

But when they saw it, Leaf darted for it like an arrow being launched from a bow, ripping her arm out of Gary's grasp, straight into the fast darkening woods.

Gary watched as the seemingly impossibly sight just happened right before his eyes.

A twelve inch tall doll just walked out of a bush and ran deeper into the forest.

And Leaf has gone after it.

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I also hope you take away the important message that is this: don't go near a bush!

But anyway, like always, hope you liked the chapter and don't forget to drop me a wee review!

Lots of love,

Silver-hedgehog