miscellaneous stories

The Mannequins

It's been days. Or is it weeks? Or months? I can't tell any more. It's been long enough though and I think I'm going to go crazy. Or maybe I already have? It's hard to tell what is and what isn't now a days. I'm the last person here. Here as in Earth. The world. It's just me.

Oddly, the world didn't end in a fireball or split in half like everyone had though. No, it ended one scream at a time. One missing person at a time. No one knew how or where they went. All they knew was that is that one second there'd be a scream where the person was alone and the next second someone would come running but no one would be there.

Somehow, through all this, no one found who was doing the taking but somehow I've managed to stay safe. Now I'm the only one left.

I've grown lonely now. I know no one is left so I tried to find a substitute with a pet but I've never had one and don't know how to care for it and by now they've all gone primal. So, I looked for the next best thing. But I didn't know what that was, until one day, when I was out looking for food in the mall's food courts. I had passed an old dress shop that had been broken into and saw my saving grace in the window: mannequins. Of course, at this time I had been alone for a while and was on the verge of crazy (I guess that settles it, I am crazy now) and I thought that I could talk to the mannequins. Now, I knew they couldn't talk back but I thought I could make up conversations with them, like life size Barbie dolls. So, I took two of the mannequins back to my hideout that had easy access to the mall.

I set them up in the back of the large, empty room that used to be a store's old storage room. I ran into an old Pottery Barn and grabbed a table and then its chairs back to the mannequins and set them up to have dinner with me. It was the best meal I had had in a long time as I had a wonderful conversation with them about the food and the beautiful weather.

Dinners have gotten even better since then because I've found more mannequins. Lots I find in normal places like clothing stores but some I find in allies (I once found a group of ten of them grouped together and forgotten) and those are ones that eerily remind me of forgotten faces I can't fully remember because it's been too long. But that doesn't matter because I've got so many friends that it feels like half the city is here and I've used all the tables in Pottery Barn and need to break into houses to find more.

Each mannequin is unique to me. I think I've been away for people and am now so crazy that I think the mannequins talk back to me and to each other. Sometimes I think they move but I know that's impossible. All the mannequins are nice and friendly, except one: Jimmy. He's one of the first few I brought here and he was pretty chill at first but as I brought back more and more friends he became grumpy and, though he denies it, jealous of them.

Today, like every day before, I'm out looking for food and more friends. I found the food a few blocks back but my goal is to find one friend each day so I'm still looking. I'm walking down the streets of a vaguely familiar neighborhood that must have been mine. All I remember now is the layout of the city and some other survival things, not anything personal like where I once lived, it's been too long since then. But it's down this street that I finally find my new friends. I race to them and quickly introduce myself. Usually they immediately introduce themselves but not them. I'm thinking too hard on their names, as if nothing is perfect for them, as if I know the right names but can't place them. Their faces do look familiar but I can't think why. I look a bit closer and see there is four of them, a family. I stop at what looks like the mother of the family and freeze. I know her.

Suddenly, time seems to stop as memories of my forgotten past with real people come flooding in. I look again at the woman's face as her name clicks in. Mom. I look to the rest of them as their names come back to me too. They all look similar to the foggy images in my memories, but enough for me to know it's them. Quickly I lay them all on the big wagon I bring with me everyday. I pick up my mother last but as I wrap my arms around her and get a good grip, I look at her face and all of a sudden her face becomes animated and her eyes fill with fear as she whispers to me "Help" and just as her face goes to its normal inanimate self. I quickly place her on top and head home with all my family, determined to know what just happened to my mother's mannequin self.