Voodootown

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Ju Ju

"This is not a good idea," Ju Ju said.  She crouched beside Twister at the side of the house.  They had left Danica's attic room in a group and walked nearly a mile to Bambi's home, with everyone else insisting that there was safety in numbers.

Ju Ju agreed with that, though she wouldn't admit it to the others.  Her power was unmatched against any one doll, but if she got surrounded by these thralls, she couldn't control them all.  It was a weakness she hated and didn't want anyone to know about.  If they knew, they might use it against her.

"We need help," Twister said.  She didn't turn back to the others, kept her head low, eyes watching the side of the house. 

Ju Ju wished Twister had come here for Sticks.  Once, Ju Ju had seen Sticks use a mirror to take aim at a doll.  The pin she threw had curved sideways and sank into the doll's chest.  Sticks would be good to have around, and Bambi's mother had a doll, Bender, that could be useful too.  But to Ju Ju, it was a wasted trip to look for Bambi's father's doll.  He wasn't a fighter, wasn't worth the danger they had gone through to get to this house.

They had seen four bands of thralls on their way there.  Each had been led by a doll with a twisted pin that was stuck into its chest instead of having a collar around its neck.  Ju Ju wanted nothing to do with them or the extra collars they carried.  She hadn't seen the human that Twister, Blink and the others had run from, and she knew she didn't want to.  Other dolls and humans were enough of a threat to her and Danica.  She didn't even want to think about a human that wore doll skins for gloves and used their button eyes as lenses on his glasses.  She had spent too much of her life scared and didn't want to meet something like that.  But if she did meet that human, she wasn't going to back down.

"We need dolls that can fight, not this clown."  Ju Ju waved at the interior of the house, though Twister still wasn't looking.  They had argued earlier about what to do.  Twister had insisted that they talk to the captain of the gatekeepers.  "What's he going to do, tell them to be quiet?" Ju Ju asked.

Captain's ability was perfect for controlling crowds of dolls.  With a wave of his cloth hands, he could make any number of them become silent.  But that was useless against thralls that never talked anyway.  Ju Ju knew that Twister was being too soft. 

Usually, Twister was hard to figure out, and Ju Ju didn't like that.  The dolls she generally spent time with, when she forced herself to be social, were Squat and Sticks.  They were simple and straightforward.  Each of them was basically ruled by self-interest, and that made them predictable and safe to be around.  But Twister went farther for her human, maybe as far as Ju Ju did herself.  That made her unpredictable. 

Danica's parents were also unpredictable.  Ju Ju felt her energy start to rise at the thought of them.  She started to shake, first in her hands, then through the rest of her body.  If she had a physical, human heart instead of stuffing in her chest, it would have been pounding.  She tried to push down the images and memories of Danica's parents, but saw Twister turn to look at her.  "Just getting ready," Ju Ju said.  It was a lie, but the extra energy wouldn't hurt her power.  She'd grown used to using the tension over the last few years and, though it made maintaining control over other dolls harder, she could use the extra energy to make them do more.

She reached up to her hat, pulled it on a little tighter, just to make her hands quit shaking.  Things would be better if she had some options or insight potions.  She always felt better if she knew what was coming or could tell what others were thinking.  It was better to know if they were going to do anything to her.

Twister was still looking at her.  "What?" Ju Ju asked.

Instead of answering, Twister looked past her to the others.  "Root?  Anything?"