Doll

Chapter 1 - Run

"Good morning everyone!" Emma shouted just seconds after the wake up bell rang. "It's time to get up or you'll miss breakfast." The other kids in her room woke up with grunts and sighs, missing their dreams already. Quickly enough, however, everyone got out of bed and got ready for their day, excited for another day of fun. The kids then chased each other around and rushed to the dining table. "Good morning Don. Good morning Conny, you too Little Bunny!" Emma greeted as she walked by, carrying a four year old Phil.

The two responded the same just as everyone else did. Norman and Ray set up everyone's food and water just as they normally did while Emma spent her time chasing down some of the kids. Once again Emma shouted out her 'Good morning's' and the other two replied the same way, the two adding in their own little bit of conversation. Soon enough everyone made their way to their seats just as their Mom walked in. Once everyone had food on their plates and they were all seated they put their hands together and bowed their heads to say grace.

"Good morning to you, my darling children. Now let us appreciate that all thirty-eight of you are able to live happy lives under this roof. We are thankful."

In unison everyone smiled, "Thank you for our breakfast." And they dug in. Everyone but Ray.

"Thirty-nine." He spoke up above everyone else. Isabella and everyone else stopped and looked to him in confusion. "You must have miscounted but there's thirty-nine of us." Isabella smiled and apologized quickly and everyone went back to what they were doing before. Ray on the other hand still sat and thought about it. She excluded number 39 on purpose and he knew it. She never did it before, in the fifteen years they all lived there she never got the number wrong. Not once so he began to wonder, 'what did she do to 39.'

*****

"Hey guys, what is this?" Little Emma asked, looking down the long dark corridor.

"A gate. It connects the inside and outside." Ray responded.

"Outside? We've never been outside."

"That's because we haven't left here since being born." Norman told her.

"So is this what mom always tells us about?" The biggest smile made it's way onto the girl's face. "Never go near the gate or the fence in the back of the forest cause it's dangerous."

Ray spoke up from behind his long black bangs that covered the left side of his face, "She says that but it's not true."

This time it was Norman's turn to ask questions. "It's not?"

"Hey, Ray! What would you do outside?" The two boys looked at Emma not very sure where all those questions were coming from.

"I don't know. What about you Emma?"

"I wanna ride a giraffe!"

"Good luck." The melancholy boy said sarcastically as he turned around to look at the building he had spent his entire life living in.

"This gate.." Norman reached out touching the bars. "You know, I wonder what it's really keeping us protected from." After that the three kids went quiet looking into the black abyss of the other side of the tunnel. Before they even realized what was happening the gate began to rise and their mother began to walk forward from the shadows with a girl in her arms.

The three kids watched as Isabella stopped to put the girl on the ground and started walking once again. The girl lagged behind quite a bit but if their mother wasn't worried about it neither were the other kids. Still Ray leaned in closer, studying the newcomer with squinted eyes. He noticed the limp and her black and blue wrists but said nothing.