All Mine

12

You began chuckling at Malcolm's reaction, liking how you proved him wrong. Folding your arms, you stared at him under your eyelids, watching his every move, watching him turn this way and that, trying to figure out where Brahms had moved himself to.

Malcolm stood in the doorway of the room, cautiously staring at the marked outline where the doll had once been.

"All right, where's he gone?" Malcolm scoffed, not believing you.

You shrugged at him, "I don't know!"

Malcolm still didn't seem convinced, even after you had pleaded with him multiple times that you didn't know where the doll was now.

The grocery man overshadowed the white chalk outline and stared at it in disbelief.

You ran to Malcolm, holding him in a happy embrace.

"He's gone," Malcolm reiterated, laughing. Suddenly, he drew back quickly, pushing you away.

"Oh," You sighed, finally seeing what Malcolm had. Brahms was in the corner of the room, almost looking as if he'd been watching the pair of you.

---

You and Malcolm walked outside slowly, dressed up in raincoats; you could never tell when it was going to pour down with rain in England.

A storm already looked as if it were brewing overhead, anyway.

If it did rain, you would have to go back inside that house, with that demented doll.

You didn't want to.

What if there were demonising forces at work here?

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Malcolm asked you, curiosity flooding his voice. He walked beside you with his hands in his coat pockets and stared at you, waiting for a reaction.

He looked down at the ground, but you didn't know if that was out of nervousness or out of awkwardness.

Malcolm didn't seem like the type of person that would be able to hold a conversation with anyone, regardless if they had the same interests or not. "Brahms is lucky that you came along."

Was that his way of flirting? Jesus.

"I don't think it was luck," You admitted to him.

More like a necessity to get away and earn a little bit of extra money on the side, you thought.

"No?"

"I was brought here for a reason," You lied, the both of you steadily making your way around the mossy, crumbling, stone garden centrepiece.

You couldn't tell him the truth.