Dollhouse

Chapter 1

It was a dark and gloomy evening when I first woke. I was in the middle of an eerie forest inside a weathered and rather sloppily pitched tent with only tiny, bloodsucking insects to make my acquaintance.
I couldn't read, write or even walk. I only knew very small and uncomplicated words.
I was new, this world was something I'd never seen before and as I far as I knew, I had no life until the very moment I had opened my eyes.
I had nothing but the damp, musty clothes that very loosely hung off my frail form (Quite literally, I didn't even have any hair).

That is the first thing I ever experienced.
I feel I'm being quite dark about this; I always get very serious when I reflect on life. Except I don't have much to reflect on though, having only woken three years ago.
Three years is quite a long time to me, but Zenith says that's it's only a flash of light in the grand scheme of things. He would know, he's says he's over a thousand years old.
I'm not sure if I really believe that, whilst he's as scatter-brained as an old man, he lacks the wisdom and intelligence that goes along with it. Not that he's not smart, it's just- wait, where am I going with this?

Zenith is the first person I ever met, he's the reason I'm alive.
Well, "alive" is a strong word.
I remember after about a half hour alone in the tent, a tall, dark and shadowy figure in a long and tattered black coat arrived at the entrance.
His coat was as musty and damp as my nightdress (if you could even have called it that) and water droplets clung to the malting blue velvet on his hat. I assumed he appeared this way because there must have been rain outside. Even though I wasn't entirely sure what the word rain meant.
His fingers were long and bony; I stared at the dark fingernails that were sharp enough to rip a man apart as he removed his hat and placed it on the grass just to the side of the tent's entrance. I sat there staring blankly at this strange man. He stared back, but with less confusion.
The man took a few small steps towards me before he broke the silence.

"You're awake," He remarked, smiling and flicking a bit of lint off his collar.
"Awake...?" I replied mechanically.
"Well, I guess awake isn't best word for it," He chuckled, "What I meant to say was; you're alive."
I placed a hand over my chest and glanced down at my bare feet before stammering,
"A-Alive...?"
I wasn't sure what any of those words meant. I knew them from somewhere but none of them meant anything to me, having no memories for me to connect them to. I'm still not sure why I knew the words.

The man came to sit beside me on the rotting straw that I had been lying upon.
"What do you know about yourself?" He asked as he took my left hand in his own, quickly examining it before re-placing it at my side.
I turned to him, now fully taking in the appearance of the first person I'd ever seen.
His face was very thin and features sharp. His hair was blacker than his coat, layered and falling at about mid-length, with the longest strands going past his ears by an inch or so. His eyes were a dreary grey-blue with small tinges of sapphire lingering around the pupils.

My words failed me so my gaze faltered back down to my feet and I just shook my head.
"My name is Zenith, would you like me to tell you yours?" He said softly.
I looked up at him again and blinked in confusion.
"Do you know what a name is?"
I shook my head. I knew the word, but it had no meaning to me.

Zenith smiled and explained, "A name is what you call yourself, so people have a word to use when they talk to you, instead of just... well you."
"Say: What is your name sir?"

"What is your name sir?" I mimicked automatically.
"Zenith, Thank you for asking madam," He replied, giving me a small nod, "What would yours be?"

I opened my mouth but shut it quickly in embarrassment.
Zenith chuckled slightly, "Your name is Arianna."
I nodded, throwing him my very first smile.
"Well then," He said, "What is your name madam?"

"Arianna, Thank you sir," I beamed.
Zenith stood up and came to stand directly in front of me.
"Do you wish to learn about yourself Arianna?"
I nodded again.
He smiled and slid his coat off his shoulders, throwing it over his hat before clapping his hands together and saying "Well, there isn't easy way to put this, and I don't know how to explain so you'll understand."

A sentence came to me. I wasn't sure why I wanted to say it, I wasn't even sure what it meant, it just seemed like an appropriate response.
"I'll pick it up, don't worry."
Zenith's eyes widened as he knelt down and explained.

"You are a doll," He began "One that lives and feels emotions and has a mind of their own. But you are different from humans as you do not need to eat and you do not sleep as they do."
"You don't understand any of this, do you?" Zenith enquired, tilting his head to the side.

I shook my head.
Surprisingly, he smiled at this.
"I thought you wouldn't," he said, breaking into a small laugh, "Don't worry, you will in time. Would you like me to tell more?"
I gave him my most enthusiastic nod so far.

"Humans do many tedious things just to keep themselves alive; you'll find that you really don't have to do much at all to keep yourself going," Zenith coughed and flicked a stray hair out of his eye before he continued, "Though there are things that you have to do in order to stay... well, around. You aren't exactly alive but you aren't dead either. Your body isn't like a human's, you have internal organs but they don't work and you don't need them to work."
"You are kept together because of a spell; it's what's keeping you conscious. The spell will weaken if I do not keep an eye on you and your limbs, but it will also weaken if you do not put yourself in stasis regularly."

He just kept going and going, loading me with incomprehensible information. Even though I didn't understand, everything remained in my head. As time went by, things attached themselves to other things, facts connected to facts like cogs in a machine.
There are still many things I don't understand, but I have learnt a lot. Most of which I've had to do by myself because nobody ever tells me anything.