Doll Face

Let's Burn Something

Let's go burn something Quinty!
Let's burn something she said.
Burn.
Quint stepped back away from this terrifying person.
"Burn?" Quint asked quietly, hoping he had heard wrong.
She nodded excitedly. "Yes! And I know just what to burn! Let's go, Quinty!" She rushed towards him and without him even seeing her doing it, she grabbed his hand and began dragging her behind him. When she finally stopped (Quint had been doing everything he could to not fall over as she sped though the halls and up the stairs) Quint wondered where in earth he was now.
The room was similar to Forlorn's but the flowery wallpaper was black now and not purple. There were still stuffed toys in the room - only a couple were headless this time - and there were dents in the wall that looked as if they had been caused out of anger.
"What are...those?" Quint pointed to the dents in the walls, and instantly he didn't know why he asked.
"Oh them..." Perky said her eyes looking away from him in an innocent manner, "well... Let's just say that Passive likes to play with knives." She paused, and looked back at Quint, "We're... not allowed pets anymore." She said quickly and began scrambling through the bookshelf.
"So what does that make me?" Quint asked, but again, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"You're a guest. Just don't get on her bad side and you'll be good..." Perky pulled out a book with triumph and led Quint out of the room, his face drained of colour thinking about the past pets. The poor animals. But what if they weren't animals? He stopped there at that thought.
"Hurry up, I want to do it before she notices!" She stopped in a room where there were several scorch marks amongst the grey stone walls and floors.
Quint wasn't sure right now if he was more afraid of the doll standing next to him or the room they were standing in. Perky ran inside and threw the book on the floor. From the very back corner of the room, she dragged a can of oil over and began pouring the oil over the book. She then stood back and lit a lighter, her eyes sparking to life in time with the flame, and threw it onto the book.
Almost immediately, the small flame roared to life and devoured the book greedily. The smell of smoke was strong in Quint's nose and made his eyes burn.
What seemed like five minutes (it was actually only ten seconds) later, there was a roar coming from downstairs. Perky made a strangled squeak and began to hurriedly try and extinguish the flame waving her hands frantically over the flame, burning the tips of her fingers. Either she didn't notice or she didn't care as she kept on doing it until Passive burst through the door, her face a blur of fury. If her face hadn't been so white, Quint could imagine just how red it would be right now.
Perky made a surprised squeak and ran to the back corner of the room, pointing her finger at Quint.
"It was his idea!" She cried, although her smiling eyes said otherwise.
"You burned my book." Passive said, her voice vicious yet calm. "You burned my book!" She repeated, her anger over taking her calm side and she launched for Perky who jumped to the side and Passive whipped around, so fast that Quint jumped back in surprise.
Forlorn then entered the room slowly, her face showing that she was only here because she had to be, not because she wanted to be.
Quint waited for her to say something, but she didn't, instead she looked at Passive, who had her eye sharply on Perky.
"Why did you burn my book?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips, as if knowing the on coming answer would be one that she wouldn't like.
"I hate books! You're always reading books and I hate it! You read like the same book every day!" She cried and someone - Quint wasn't sure who - snorted in disbelief and in an unamused laughter.
Quint looked over at Forlorn. She rolled her eyes but still said nothing.
"You had to burn that one out of  all the books I have in my bookshelf?" Passive said, her voice piercing like knives. Perky however didn't reply, and grinned broadly at her, as if she couldn't care less about the burning book on the floor in front of her.
"That's it. Get in the ring, Perky, get in the ring." Passive growled. Perky nodded, unable to hide the look of delight on her face.
Quint turned to Forlorn with a questioning look on his face.
Forlorn sighed something that sounded like 'everyone I know is so dumb' and then explained "The ring is where we sort out arguments in combat."
"And things can go terribly wrong there."