The Doll

Shadows and smells

I sat there, frozen and useless. I didn't know what to do against this enemy. Was it even an enemy? What was it doing looming over Sophie? Upon closer inspection the shadow like creature was actually touching her. Was I supposed to shoo it off? Kick it? I decided to try to do...something.

I swiped at its face but my hand went right through it. Once my hand touched it though, it was like touching ice water. It was thick, yet weightless, and very, very, cold. I jumped back out of shock of it. The thing jumped back as well. It also let of a horrible ear splitting shriek. I grabbed my head head and shut my eyes tight, willing the creature to stop. It stopped.

When I opened my eyes it was already gone, leaving a chill in its path.

Not even a minute later Hal and Fey burst into the room, wide eyed and frantic.

"What was that sound?" Fey asked quickly. He looked to me then to the sleeping Sophie beside me. I felt empty now. My heart rate went down and I just felt...empty. Like that thing had stolen my emotions.

Rude.

Sophie woke from her sleep due to Fey's voice.

"Huh? What are you guys doing in here?" She asked groggily. Her hands instantly went up to her hair to fix her bed head. Although, she didn't have much of a bed head from her solid hour of sleep.

"We heard a loud noise and came up to see what it was." Hal answered in a gruff tone.

"I don't know what it was. Woke me up too." I'd tell them later about the shadow creature when Sophie wasn't around.

"Really-?" Fey began.

"Alright. We'll let you two get back to sleep. Goodnight." Hal interrupted Fey. He had clearly caught on to my eye hints. If he could even see them. Hal dragged Fey out of the room by the collar of his neck.

"Goodnight!" Sophie called eagerly. I gave her a questionable look, but she just ignored me as she went back to sleep. She seemed fine so I sighed and joined her.
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The next morning I woke up to a strange smell. It smelled good, but I've never smelled it before. Sophie was still asleep so I decided it best if I tried to not wake her just yet. Carefully peeling back my child like rabbit blanket (and trust me, I knew what child's blankets looked like) I got out of the bed stealthily. I couldn't help but be jealous of how Sophie got the grandma looking hippie purple blanket and I got the kid one. I guess she was the owner of the house, so I couldn't find much room to complain.

After closing the door quietly I ran down the hall and down the stairs. Once in the kitchen I found both Fey and Hal cooking. I set my questions aside.

"Good morning-" Fey took in my bed head and pjs, "-I don't know what you look like. Nice mess of a pony." Fey laughed.

"At least your curls stayed in." Hal joined. Now they were both laughing. They even gave each other high fives to celebrate their whit.

"Yeah. Doll. Curls. Hilarious. But-" they weren't paying attention to me, "hey! Guys. Pay attention." This got their attention.

"Last night-" they leaned in closer, intrigued, "-that...thing was in my room. That's what made the loud shrieking noise."

"Are you sure?" Fey asked.

"Oh you know...maybe it was- yes I'm sure." He threw his hands up and went back to cooking.

"Do you guys have any idea what it is?" Hal looked deep in thought. So deep he was absentmindedly tapping the spatula against his face. I grabbed it so that he would stop contaminating the tool that was used in making food.

"I'm not sure what they are. They don't speak and you can't really touch them. When they first appeared Fey and I were so scared we ran and ran. Whenever we saw one we dropped everything and left. After a while we stopped fearing it. But after that when it would appear something bad would always happen. Whether it was an object or a person. I don't know why it's here though. We'll have to- good morning. Hungry?"

Sophie came wandering into the kitchen. She had clearly done some stuff to look presentable, which I, clearly, did not. But yet, she was rubbing her eyes like she had just woken up.

"Oh yeah, what are you even making?" I wanted to know what that smell was.

"Sausage. Bacon and waffles." Fey pointed the corresponding pans that contained the food.

"Pancakes. You mean pancakes." Hal corrected.

"Look at the old married couple. I want to find love like that someday." I nudged Sophie and smirked at the two men. Fey smacked Hal's butt and winked. Hal was just annoyed that he was dragged into this joke.

"Even after several hundred years, he still mixed up pancakes and waffles." Hal pointed out.

"Love both of them. Just don't have a waffle iron." Fey gave me a wink. I laughed heartily. If anything, they could make me laugh. They could make me feel human. I guess that's why we stay together.

"You guys are so funny." Sophie giggled adorably.

Now, I'm not one to judge someone's laugh, but she doesn't have a cute laugh. It sounds more like a dry heaving donkey. So this cute giggle was clearly forced. Was she trying to make herself more appealing to Hal? I eyed her suspiciously.

"So...how does bacon taste?" I wondered. It smelled pretty good. I think. There was a lot of smells going on.

"You've never had bacon?!" Sophie looked at me like I had two heads. My mouth formed a flat line.

"No." I said slowly.

"Don't be surprised, she hasn't tried a lot of things. Now," his sounded like an infant, "it's hot so be careful." He handed me a piece of brown sizzling bacon with the tongs.

As soon as the bacon hit my hand, I dropped it. It was hot. I glared at Fey, who was busting up laughing at my reaction.

"At least-" breath "at least we know-" breath "that she" breath "can feel."

"H-i-l-a-rious." I dragged out unamused.

I took the hot bacon and threw it at him. I must have luck on my side, because it landed on his chest and fell so that it was balancing between falling in or falling out on the hem of his striped blue shirt.

He jumped around muttering 'hot, hot, hot'. Which only made it fall down his shirt. He howled like a monkey and everyone just about died of laughter.

"That was so rude! Rude, rude-"

"Let me guess, rude?" I flashed a smile.

"You don't get any bacon now." He said seriously. Although I saw a faint smile on his lips. Hal passed me a cool piece of bacon anyway, which caused Fey scoff and hang his arms down dramatically.

Bacon was delicious. It melted in your mouth and tasted so good.

"Like it?" Sophie asked innocently.

"Hell yes." I said while still chewing the slice of fatty heaven.

There was a knock at the door.