The Doll

Nighmares on the missing side

Once we checked into the motel we all fell asleep. There were two beds, so the boys bunked together. My dreams that night were not the normal.

Flashes of images swirled around me. The killer that Fey killed, the woman on the ground. The shadow figure that stalks us. Then there was an image I hadn't seen in a while, master. Except, his skin had turned a grayish color. His clothes were more tattered. His eyes were haunting. They were cold and malicious, like a caged animal. But the image was gone quickly.

My eyes shot open and I was gasping like I was out of breath. I looked over at the boys beds to see Hal had done the same thing.

"You too?" His voice was ragged. I nodded.

"Why doesn't Fey have these nightmares?" I said softly. I envied that about him.

"He's just more of a psychopath. If he has nightmares, he's probably just going to laugh at it." Hal looked over his shoulder at Fey.

I leaned back on the bed. It was stiff and left my shoulders aching. It also smelled like mildew.

"So why do you have nightmares?" I asked. Hal didn't say anything for a long time. I'd even thought he went to sleep.

"Because I've lived a pretty messed up life. And it comes back to haunt me. Every. Single. Night." I've never heard that tone in his voice. Like he was completely and utterly powerless. Other than the fact that we live forever (and that weird thing I can do) we are actually close to human.

"When I was a doll under the Master, I'd go out and rip people's hearts out. I wanted to feel, so I killed people in hopes that would help. But now that I feel, they haunt me." It came out before I could really think about it.

"When I was a doll under the master, he'd have me go into towns and steal their children away. People, naturally, didn't like this. They tried to kill me, but-"

"But?" I encouraged him.

"But I was trained to kill people whilst alive. So they were easy to slaughter." His voice was flat, yet I knew he was hurting.

"Do you regret it?" I wondered. I don't completely regret killing those people. It's more like it's hard to swallow.

"Yes." It was so quiet I almost didn't hear. I did, however, hear him turn over and fall back asleep.
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It felt like someone was shaking me. Hard. I groaned in annoyance and opened my eyes groggily.

"What?!" I barked at Hal. I opened my eyes a bit more and saw his face. It was panic.

"He's gone." He said in a panicked voice.

"Who's gone?" I got up quickly. Although I knew the answer to my question.

I looked at the other bed and saw the sheets askew. There was a dark mark where Fey was sleeping the night before. I felt myself begin to panic. But I wouldn't let that best me.

"Fey!" Hal began pacing the room.

"Have you checked the bathroom?"

"Yes."

"Have you called him?" My voice was rising.

Hal held up Fey's phone to me. I formed an 'o' shape with me mouth.

"Where could he have gone?" Hal was pacing back and forth.

"What if he want back to the house?" I proposed.

I got up and examined the dark spot. Turns out it was just sunken in a bit. Probably due to the amount of people sleeping here. Hal was just mumbling something.

"What?" I asked. His head snapped up at me.

"Do you hear that?" I instantly began listening closer. Sirens.

"Did they find us?" I wasn't panicking. I moved over to the curtain and peeked out of it.

There were cops alright, pretty much everywhere. They had blocked off a section of the road. The part where we'd found that girl. I glanced at Hal, who had moved beside me. We had a silent agreement bag we had been foolish. I closed the window.

"How are we getting out now?" I asked. This situation was becoming more and more intense.

"We have to find Fey." I nodded. "And avoid the police." I nodded again. "Did he leave?" Hal seemed to be debating between himself.

"Or was he kidnapped." I had a feeling we had hit the mark.

Fey looked horrible. He had dark bags under his eyes and his silver eyes were in a panic. He was mumbling so fast to himself. And pacing like no tomorrow.

"Hal." I said calmly. He ignored me.

"Hal." Still ignoring me.

"Hal!" I raised my voice. His head shot in my direction.

"What?!" I rolled my eye. Got up and grabbed his shoulders. And lead him to the bed to sit.

"Stop freaking out. We're never going to solve this if we're freaking out. First. We have to get out of here and away from the police. They're probably going to come and start asking questions." He opened his mouth to argue. But I shut him up. "Then we have to find Fey." It's a good thing we didn't bring anything with us.

"We should head back to the house. See if he's there." Hal said calmly. I'm glad whatever I did worked on him.

We straightened the beds to look like no one was here. We were just about to leave when there was a knock at the door. Hal and I looked at each other. I crept over to peek hole in the door. Another knock sounded.

I looked though the peek hole and saw it was the motel person who checked us in.

"Yes?" I called through the door. Hal looked at me like I was insane.

"We got cops snooping around. So just come out and get it over with will ya. We had a murder on the street next to us." He sounded more annoyed that he had to do this than anything else.

The man was a bit tipsy last night. So I could say that he probably didn't remember us too well. He also smelled like cigarettes. His hair was smother back and looked greasy. The stubble around his face made him look like a dead beat. The bags under his eyes made it obvious he didn't sleep last night.

"Oh. Uh, could you just give us a minute?" I was still looking through the peek hole.

"I'll come back in five minutes." He turned around and walked away. As soon as he was out of eye shot. We bolted out of the room.

"Not suspicious at all." Hal whispered in my ear.