The Ragdoll

Mommy

Sarah clung to Emily's back as they sped through the dark and rainy streets of Heart City.

Christopher Paul lived close, and Emily couldn't wait until he was putty in her hands.

Sarah was sad that Oliver left, but still incredibly happy to have Emily.

Honestly, she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

She decided to tell Emily.

She decided to tell her what she had been wanting to tell her since she was rescued from Candie.

"Emily!" Sarah yelled over the loud engine.

"What?" Emily yelled back.

"You're a great mom."

Suddenly, all Emily could see was a blinding white.

There was something about that sentence.

Something odd.

Something so eerily familiar.

She remembered.

Emily remembered a time when she was young, much younger than Sarah.

She was four years old and with her mother.

Her black hair was pulled into a ponytail and she wore a light blue dress.

She held her mother's hand, and they walked through the supermarket.

Daddy was at home, sleeping while Mommy took Emily out to run errands.

Mommy always said that it was bad for little girls to stay inside all day and watch science fiction movies with their irresponsible fathers.

Emily wasn't exactly happy that day.

She had cried three times up until that point, and her mother was at her wits end.

Both mother and daughter were red in the face.

Emily wanted a toy.

Mommy said she couldn't have a toy.

They were there to buy toiletries, Emily already had plenty of things to play with at home.

Emily wasn't having that.
She screamed and she threw the world's biggest fit,

She threw herself down on her backside in the middle of the supermarket and started pounding her fists on the tile.

Disgusted grown-ups from all around them looked at Mommy, wanting her to do something.

Wanting her to take Emily home.

But she couldn't do that.

They were there to buy toiletries.

Finally Mommy couldn't bare it any longer.

She picked Emily up and carried her across the supermarket.

Emily pounded her fists into Mommy's back.

But Mommy was persistent.

She kicked open the bathroom door and kicked open a stall and sat Emily down on a toilet.

Emily crossed her arms.

She wanted that toy.

She wanted to be home with Daddy.

But she didn't want, more than anything she didn't want to be with Mommy.

She didn't want to be like Mommy.

She didn't want anything to do with Mommy.

"Listen here you little snot," Mommy said. "I've had enough of your whining. If you do anything else remotely out of line while we're here so help me God I will turn your behind blue. Do you understand me?"

Emily crossed her arms and scowled at the dirty floor.

"I said do you understand me?"

Emily didn't answer.

Mommy raised her hand to slap Emily across the face, but before she got the chance, Emily said it.

The worst possible thing a young child could ever say to their parent.

"I hate you, Mommy!"

Mommy's face turned from red to pale white.

She looked shocked and beyond hurt.

"You're the worst Mommy ever and I love Daddy more!"
Emily got up off the toilet and ran past Mommy, out of the stall and out of the bathroom.

"Emily, wait!" Mommy yelled.

Tears streamed down Emily's face while they inched closer to Christopher Paul's house.

How could one little girl be so cruel?

She had killed so many people yet was convinced that that was the worst thing she had ever done.

But Sarah.

Sarah saw Emily, the Ragdoll Killer, as a mom.

A good mom.

A great mom.

If she wasn't driving a motorcycle she would've hugged the little girl and she would've never let go.

Sarah was Emily's.

She was her little girl and Emily loved her more than anything.

Emily wished she could go back in time and tell her mom that she didn't mean it.

Every mean thing she had ever said to her, as an adult she took it back a million times over.

But Emily supposed that this was good too.

Better, even.

Emily had a little girl of her own.

"You're a great daughter." Emily finally replied.

Sarah smiled and rested her head against Emily's back as they turned into the neighborhood where the man who made the Ragdoll Killer was sleeping.