Døllmaker | Cyan

(eleven)

A full moon ominously beat down on an dead construction sight. The blue rays glowed off the steel beams and illuminated a pathway for a footrace. A young boy with long, tangled dirty blonde hair and ripped clothes rushed through the maze of equipment and supplies. His icy eyes popped in contrast to red face paint drawn from his cheeks, up to his hairline. The same crimson color dyed his hands, yet they were more clean than most gave him credit for.

Ryan was one of the few people that did know of his strife. Why he was now being hunted by him left the teen even more confused and frantic. Nimo was used to people turning their backs on him, but they usually just took their leave. They never bothered to track him down like an animal. With amount of times he almost lost his footing or was slowed down by a dead end, Ryan really should've caught him before now. Either he was getting lazy, or he was trying to give him a chance to get away.

In the end, the dollmaker cared more about his own agenda, even if he had confessed to Chris the previous night that Nimo didn't deserve this. As the boy ran in one direction, he was knocked over by shock when two beams shot out in front of his path. He worriedly looked behind him, seeing Ryan's menacing shadow nearing closer. Nimo tried to crawl away but there was no were to run.

"Why are you doing this?" He so desperately cried, "I thought we were friends."

"Don't mistake my lack of hostility towards you as kindness. In truth, I don't want to hurt you, but I was given this order by much higher power. If I disobey him, I will lose what matters most to me in life." Ryan explained, as monotone as you could imagine. In the pit of his stomach, he did feel fucking awful for doing this. He figured if he tried to act like he didn't care, it'd make it easier for the boy to accept the betrayal.

Nimo weakly placed his hands up on the crossed beams, pulling himself to his feet. Despite the tears in his eyes, he remained strong in his convictions. "You are a coward. Only cowards would chose the pass of least resistance, even if they know it is wrong! Once the chief finds out about this, my tribe will come for you. To them, it doesn't matter that I am their shame. I am still their child, and they protect their children at all costs."

Ryan's expression remains stone but his eyes flickered with guilt. He swallowed a lump in his throat and murmured, "Understand, that's all I'm doing too." He unlatched a doll from his belt and held it out towards him. "You know you can't escape me, so let's not make this harder than it has to be."

"Not only are you going to take my life from me, but you're going to damn me to be trapped in the doll of a white girl? You couldn't even offer me the decency of a respectable prison?!" He shouted.

He looked down at the doll in his hands. She was quite gorgeous. Her full head of brown curls was pulled back by a white fur bonnet. A winter dress with wine colored borders and the design of poinsettias along the skirt decorated her body. Chris absolutely loved this one the second he saw it, and that was part of the reason Ryan chose her. There was innocence in her porcelain, but Nimo was right. She resembled a white girl.

( ø )

( ø )

"I suppose you're right." He replied, letting his pity get the best of him, "I'll make you a deal. If you allow me to place your soul in this doll temporarily, when we get back to my shop, I'll make something more appropriate and transfer your soul into that."

"That's not good enough. If you're going to take my life from me, you must promise me one thing. Put that asshole Tethys down. If I'm gone, he will torture my followers. And you better put him in the ugliest doll you've got." Nimo sneered.

"Fine." Ryan extended his hand out, "I'll do it."

Nimo met his palm to his own executor's. He may have been young, but he'd done great things in his life. With his death, he left behind a legacy as the beginning of a revolution. Ryan did find it sad that he'd never get to see his dream realized, but many great leaders never did. As many supernatural beings were aware, Nimo included, a deal with a child of the dark arts could not be broken. If he had any chance of escaping this, it just went down the drain with one handshake.

( ø )

While Ghost found it easy to sleep, mostly due to the fact that he was on heavy pain medications, Ricky couldn't even bother to lay down. He knew if he closed his eyes, he'd just sit there unable to get a wink in. Now that he's overcome the agony of having his body reworked, he could focus on the mental strain of their situation. He couldn't help himself from pacing back and forth down the isle of the front train car.

He slightly jumped when he heard the door. Ryan doesn't scare him as much now, but that's not saying a lot. Ricky was still fucking terrified of him. He was obviously more than human, or he knew people that were. For fuck's sake, he gave life to a fucking doll. There's something ungodly about him.

"Where's Chris?" Ryan asked immediately.

"Sleeping. I put him to bed at nine like you told me to. Ghost is asleep too." He replied.

"Good. Thank you. Why aren't you sleeping? It's almost four AM."

Ricky sighed, "Cabin fever, I guess. I'm not used to being stuck in one place this long."

"Stay here. I'll be right back." Ryan mumbled.

He walked through the back door, heading down the length of the train. Ricky assumed he was going to check on Chris. Hopefully the kid stayed asleep because if he decided to get up in the middle of the night and he was awake, Ricky was fucked. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Ryan would do to either of them if they didn't follow his rules.

A few minutes later, he returned. He wasn't jumping over the moon in happiness or anything, but he didn't look pissed. Ryan continued towards the exit, muttering, "C'mon."

"I thought you didn't want me to leave the train?" Ricky asked.

He stopped, glancing back over his shoulder. "I didn't want you to leave alone. Of course, if you'd rather stay here for another week..."

"Point taken." Ricky hurried after him as he went down the steps.

Ryan began to walk down the tunnel, heading in the direction Ricky had yet to venture. He knew what was in front of the train, considering that's where him and Ghost entered this Hell. Based on a few things Chris had told him, he wasn't really sure he wanted to know what was in the rest of this evil maze.

"Can you see where you're going?" He asked.

"Yeah... But last time I was down here, it was pitch black. Even with a flashlight, I couldn't see shit." Ricky answered.

"Your new eyes can reflect light, the way a cat's does. You'll need it to survive down here. The princess can stay where it's safe and be my baby's nanny, but you're going to have to do some of my grunt work on occasion. I'm taking you to my workshop. Remember where you're going because I'm only going to show you the way once."

"You're really not one for incompetence, are you?"

"I hate fools, if that's what you're asking. No one is born stupid. They choose to be." Ryan said, "Do you have anyone to miss you on the surface?"

Ricky scoffed, "My cat. That's about it. That's really the only thing that upsets Dev about this whole thing. His cats mean as much to him as Chris means to you. They're his whole life."

Ryan glanced over to him for a second, then looked forward again. "You sound jealous."

"I'm not jealous of his cats!" He quickly replied, "I just... I wish he was as vocal about his feels for me as he is for them."

"It's been awhile since I've bothered with humans, but I'm pretty sure that qualifies as jealousy." He deadpanned.

Ricky wanted to argue, but at the same time, he knew picking a fight with Ryan was a horrid idea. Again, still way too scared of the man to dare go there. Was "man" even the proper word to use for him? The way he just spoke of humans, it was as if he'd lost all his own humanity.