The Ragdoll

Lost in the Woods

With nowhere else to go, Emily carried 9-year-old Sarah back to her theater that night. There was something about Sarah- maybe her curiosity, maybe the way she smiled, maybe the way she reminded Emily of herself at that age- that just intrigued her. So, Emily did what any good serial killer would do and decided to kidnap the child and take care of her until she could find a better home for her.

Sarah was small, even for a girl her age. She had long brown hair, bright blue eyes, crooked teeth, and she wore glasses with purple rims that slid down her nose every time she spoke. She was wearing a skirt the night Emily took her.

When they got inside of Emily's theater, the first thing Sarah did when Emily put her down was look at everything there was to look at. She messed with cobwebs, tried to power on the old popcorn machine, and ran up and down every aisle between the hundreds of chairs.

When it got late, and Emily got tired of watching the small girl run, she took Sarah into her dressing room and laid her down on the futon. Emily pulled one of her old ratty blankets over the girl and did something she thought she would never do; kiss her on the forehead. As soon as Emily got up to go find somewhere else to sleep, she felt Sarah pull on the back of her jacket. Emily turned back around.

"What is it?"

"Ms. Emily... if I tell you something I never told no one before, do you promise to keep it a secret?"

Emily nodded.

"I promise."

Sarah held out her pinkie.

"Pinkie swear?"

Emily wrapped her pinkie around Sarah's.

"Pinkie swear."

Sarah looked away from Emily and stayed silent for a moment or two. Then she looked back at the killer.

"It's a story."

"Go ahead. You don't have to be scared."

***

Sarah walked between her mother and father while they walked along the trail in the woods outside of Heart City. Her mother was looking at a map, and her father was angrily accusing her mother of reading the map wrong. But, as usual, Sarah wasn't paying attention to any of it. She was paying attention to the big wide world around her. The trees that seemed to reach all the way up to the clouds, the little furry animals and bugs scurrying along the side of the trail, even strange looking plants that she had never seen before. Even the air seemed different. It was fresh, and cool. It passed in and out of her nostrils smoother and easier than it ever had before.

Sarah's mother and father hadn't looked at Sarah the whole trip, but she supposed she was fine with that. After all, they didn't pay much attention to her any way. Why should this time be any different. Plus, if they didn't pay attention to her, why on Earth would she have to pay any attention to them? There was a whole big world around her that she had never seen before today, and her parents weren't gonna stop her from exploring it.

That's when Sarah saw the flower. The most beautiful flower she had ever seen before. It was tall and green with bright yellow petals that stuck up like they were reaching for the sun.

Sarah broke away from her parents to look at the flower. She could always catch back up with them on the trail. Sarah stood over the beautiful flower. She could almost hear it calling her name. Sarah reached down and picked it out of the ground. She held it up to her nose and inhaled the sweetest scent she had ever smelled in her life. She started walking forward, away from the trail and into the woods, her mind completely in a different world and focused on the beautiful flower. She was stuck in the trance until she tripped over a branch, dropped the flower, and scraped her knee. She started crying immediately.

Then she snapped out of it.

She looked around, there was nobody in sight.

"Mommy?"

No answer.

"Daddy?"

No answer.

She slowly got up and felt sick to her stomach. She looked all around her, nothing looked familiar. She didn't know which direction to go, or how far back the trail was.

She was lost.

Sarah walked all day and night, hoping to reach the end of the woods, but she didn't. They just went on and on and on for forever. Finally she stopped, lay on the ground, and sobbed herself to sleep.

Sarah was woken up by somebody violently shaking her awake.

Sarah opened her eyes and saw a beautiful face looking back at her. It was a man, a stranger. He was pale, had piercing blue eyes, jet black hair that was neatly combed over, and he wore a strange suit that was black from head to toe.

But the thing that stood out the most about the man that he had huge, black wings sticking out of his back.

"Hey, Sarah," he said, smiling at her.

Sarah waved back.

"I know where your parents are. They've been looking for you. Let's go see 'em."

He held out his hand.

After approximately ten seconds of thinking it over, Sarah took the man's hand.

He hugged her tightly in his arms, and they flew into the sky with the destination of Sarah's house where her parents were worried sick.

***

"The angel flew away before I even rang my own doorbell," Sarah said.

Emily looked at the child in awe. Part of her didn't actually believe that an angel had saved young Sarah, but another part told her that anything was possible. Especially with the life she had had.

"Why did you want to tell me that?" Emily asked her young friend.

"Well... I was just thinking. You're kind of like the angel, you know? You saved me from my mommy and daddy just like he saved me from the woods."

Emily was almost shocked.

"I saved you?"

Sarah looked down.
"My mommy and daddy never really liked me. Not like you do."

Emily kissed her on the forehead again.

"I'm sure they loved you very much. Now get some sleep."

Sarah nodded, and turned away from Emily.

Emily sighed, and left the room, pondering the story she just heard.

Was it true?

No, it couldn't be. Men with wings didn't exist. Sarah had to have been lying.

Emily walked down the backstage hallway and back out into the main theater area.

What she saw there almost made her jump straight out of her boots.

There were over two dozen men in S.W.A.T team uniforms with shields and batons standing in the theater.

One of the men walked up to her.

"Emily Thomas. You're under arrest."