Complications

Stacey Brown

Inside the room was nothing. Well, until the Professor looked into the back of the room.
In the corner, sat a girl. A little younger than Clessa, she was about 14.
Her blonde hair was ratted, and she was wearing a ripped faded sunflower dress.
"Hello. I'm the Professor."
"When St-Stacey is bad, she gets put in here. W-when Stacey is g-good, she gets let out," said the girl in the corner.
The girl turned around to show a beautiful face, with blue eyes. The only unattractive thing was a scar near her nose.
"But Stacey has been good," said the girl.
"I'm here to help you, are you Stacey?"
The girl nodded, and used her skinny hands to push herself farther into the corner of the room.
"How long have you been in here?"
The girl held up three fingers.
"Three hours."
"Would you like to come out," asked Angel.
The girl came over to Angel.
"You look like my step mommy. Except she was older."
Stacey toon Angels hand, and they skipped out. Well, Stacey skipped out.
"Sorry about this," said Stacey as she shut the door.
"No no no!"
The Professor ran over to the door.
"Do you have another bobby pin? Please tell me you have another bobby pin."
Clessa shook her head.
"Come on! Your a brilliant man! You should know how to pick a lock."
"I. Never. Learned. I don't want to be a criminal."
"Then how did you use the bobby pin?"
"Lucky try."
Clessa ran her fingers through her brown hair, and thought.
"We can open the window."
Clessa triumphantly walked over the window. She ran her fingers across the blackness, and looked for a handle. Once she found one, it was glued and nailed down.
"It's stuck."
The Professor came over, but nothing worked.
"This side of the door has no knob, so I'm going to have to ram into it."
"Ram into it? You weigh like ninety pounds."
The Professor winked at Clessa, and rammed into the door. Nothing happened.
"I told you."
"Wait for it."
The Professor leaned against the wall, and tapped the door. It fell.
"Enough of your games, my mom is with a crazy girl."
Clessa ran out of the room, passing the Professors smile. She could hear voices from down the hall, a child's voice.
"And this is my dolly house."
Clessa peeked into the key hole of the room. Stacey was sitting on the carpet, while her mother was giving Stacey a look that said 'shut up.'
"And this is my bunny, pinky."
Clessa tried to open the door, but it was locked. The funny thing was that someone had to have locked it and then entered in the room.
"Nut job," whispered Clessa as she stepped away from the door.
"I heard that," said Stacey in a shrill, sing song voice.
Clessa could hear Stacey skipping around the room.
"Me and my NEW mommy are going to be together forever. I nailed the door shut," sang Stacey.
"Mom, why didn't you stop her?"
"She had a hammer."
Clessa face palmed herself, while the Professor came up and worked more on the door.
"Stop it you sillies. If you want, we can all play a game of GO AWAY! You two start," said Stacey, still singing positively.
"You know something Stacey," said the Professor.
"What?"
"It's hard to play that game if you don't even know what hat the other players are wearing."
Stacey stopped skipping.
"Oh good gumdrops I forgot. Let me grab my hammer."
Stacey rummaged through a box, and brought out a hammer. Banging was heard on the door, and soon it creaked open.
"What a lovely hat."
Stacey beckoned for them to come in. She was wearing a frilly pink dress, and her hair was pulled up into pigtails.
"I don't get this. The note said that she wanted to run away...she sounded mature. Now all she wants is her mummy and to be a six year old," whispered the Professor.
"Well, daddy brainwashed me," said Stacey.
The Professor raised his left eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"He gave me a special medicine."
"To make her looney," whispered the Professor.
Clessa looked over at Angel. She had her hands folded into he lap, and a smile plastered across her face.
"Alright new mommy, let's go borrow my old mommies makeup."
Angel looked stricken, but she swallowed her fear, and decided not to struggle against the iron grip.
"Wait Stacey! Let's play another game," said Clessa.
"Wait are you doing," asked the Professor through his teeth.
"Shut up for a second," whispered Clessa back, "how about we play a special game?"
Stacey turned around and cocked her head.
"What special game?"
"How about we play skippy?"
"What's SKIPPY," sang Stacey.
Clessa looked around the room.
"Tell me what Skippy is," said Stacey getting angry."
Clessa smiled.
"Tell me."
Clessa crossed her arms.
"TELL ME OR ELSE!"
"No."
"Alrighty then," said Stacey, as she smoothed her dress, "you'll be told on."
Clessa grinned. Stacey let go of Angel, but soon looked dizzy.
"Dizzy....very dizzy."
Stacey fell to the floor. The Professor felt for a pulse, but nothing was there.
"RUN," shouted the Professor.
They all ran out of the room, and down the creaky steps. They came into the living room, but Clessa accidentally knocked over the lamp.
"LEAVE IT COME ON!"
Clessa turned away from the lamp and followed the Professor and her mother out of the house.
Back up in Stacey's room, she was lying on the floor. Her lifeless hands were strewn on the pink carpet, and she was motionless.
"TO THE MACHINE," shouted the Professor.
Clessa and her mom ran into the Machine, but the Professor stayed and looked into the pink curtains.
He saw that the windows were open, which for some reason have him the chills.
"Sorry Stacey," was all he could manage to force out of his mouth at the time.
He took what he hoped to be the last look of the house, when Clessa came up behind him.
"Goodbye to house 8," she said.
"I hope we never return."
"I hoped that the first time we came. Maybe they'll demolish the house, so no one will ever have to go into it ever again."
"Yeah, that would be great. Maybe they will turn it into a mall or something."
"Yeah...," said Clessa with a far away look.
"We better get going. Its time to get you two back to your house."
Clessa nodded and stepped into the Machine. After a few seconds, and one final glance, he stepped in.
"Okay, let's get you two home."
"Why home? We can go anywhere in the universe, maybe to Shakespeare...or tell Christopher Columbus that it was a manatee."
"We can't just go back and change time or appear and expect no one to notice. I've gone back... and people have changed their whole life patterns to worship the Professor. Soon, it wears in you. All of the fame, glory, death...so much death..."
The Professor gave a faraway look, and was comforted by Clessa. He gave a gruff smile, and walked to the control panel.
"Alright, back home."
As soon as the Machine disappeared, a hug gust of wind blew into Stacey's window.
And now, the fourteen year old girl lying on the floor, had a twitching hand. A little bit of life after all.