Doll House

XIX. Nightmare Time

 In the forest of nightmares, Victoria Mayall wakes up, except she's not her anymore. She was there, briefly, and for one insignificant moment, she even thought she might have a chance at getting out. But once the voices crawl inside your head, they don't crawl back out, ever. No matter how much you'd like them to. Inside her mind, there's a struggle, and it's largely unfair, because the child's spirit isn't really strong enough to push out or even against the on-set of bad dreams, so she drowns in the waterfall and lets them take over once more.

Victoria's eyes open and shine with the memory of sharp things and lost happiness. And she stands up, rubs at her head and studies the dark stain left on her fingers. Blood. Her blood. The tree did it. This tree, here, and now this tree will pay. All the forest will pay because she will tear apart that last child. And once the child dies, there will be no more spirits. No more forest, quite simply because there is no one left alive in the world that understands about the darkness that lurks inside. Strangers won't do it and this place is remote and has already earned a bad reputation. People have learned to stay away and without faith, the nightmares will wither and die.

Because they're the ones who put her in here. She wants to burn the forest to a cinder, but knows full-well she won't. That would attract attention and that in turn, would bring people. No. No people. Besides, oblivion is worse than destruction. And once she's finished her task inside the forest, she will go out there, into the world and find her. The woman in her head, the one she didn't remember until a moment ago. And she will make sure the woman pays also.

Vicky'll make them all pay.

She smells the dirt and the dirt smells like feet. Footsteps hurrying away from her. She hasn't been out of it that long and they're still here, though almost at the edge of the forest. They stopped at the car to get something. Nourishment, perhaps. Or indeed, the doll's clothes, who knows? The important thing is, they're still within her grasp and she runs.

Like an animal, like a mad man, like someone who's got nothing left to lose. Because in truth, she doesn't. Everything inside her is messed up and bolts of pain travel up and down her legs, her body, her head gone all numb.

It's unfair. She never asked for this, never asked to be left out here, never asked the voices to get inside her head.

But you were useless otherwise. Your power lay in your belief, but once they stopped hearing you and you had no one left to convince, there was no point in keeping you there. And you became more useful out here.

A faint tremor inside her mind. There are words that do not belong to her, and yet they're in there, as sure an anything.

Stop this madness now.

And then, a reminder.

If we die, you die also.

But she wants the voices to die and in the moment, she can't process that it might mean her own perhaps unjust end. By her logic, the voices die and she is once more as she was. They die, but only out of her head. And she ignores the voices in her mind and runs even faster, feels them closer, almost catches up to them. She sees them running, the old man hobbling along behind the boy. He's not as fast, he won't make it in time, but the boy might.

She senses fear. The nightmare is good at smelling out fear. She changes her mind; she will go after the old man first. Because he's closer, more accesible to her and because the boy is afraid. Terrified, because only a few hours ago, he was playing in a corner with his toys, same as he's done for as long as he can remember. He was perhaps a little lonely, but none too worse for wear, and most importantly, he was safe.

He knew there was something unpleasant lurking out there, but could've never guessed just how unpleasant.

And now, everyone he's ever known is dead, torn to pieces, bruised and in tatters and he's running away with a man he doesn't know from Adam from a vicious beast that chases them through the woods.