Voodootown

Chapter 21 part 1

Chapter 21

Ju Ju

Ju Ju pressed down against the pavement and looked around the corner.  The street looked clear and she nodded to Blink, who disappeared and popped back on the opposite side of the intersection.  Ju Ju thought they were in the older doll's section of Voodootown, but it was getting harder to tell the neighborhoods apart.  Everything was dirtier, starting to crumble without the presence of a large group of dolls to reimagine it every night.

She had always felt comfortable in Voodootown.  It had been a safe place where she could retreat and distract herself from the things she kept from Danica.  But the deteriorating buildings brought back memories of broken doors, splintered furniture.

The pressure in her head increased as the memories came back.  She tried to stop them, but with each image of Danica's parents arguing, drinking, and fighting, Ju Ju felt her body begin to shake more.  As the tension grew, it felt as if curling up in an alley where no one would see her  was the only way she'd feel safe.

But hiding wouldn't help.  She had thought about retreating for years, had tried it, but it didn't make the fear or the uncertainty go away.  All that helped was fighting back.  She couldn't fight Danica's parents, and their dolls avoided her constantly, but she could fight what was going on in Voodootown.  She made herself look up, saw that Blink was waving at her. 

She nodded, stood, and motioned for the others to follow her.  They had been sneaking through town for nearly half an hour and were finally nearing the portal.  Blink waited at the next corner and she peeked around it.

The energy from the portal lit the buildings around it in a blue glow.  The doorways to the shops were open and empty.  The windows and rooftops above looked empty, too.  "I think it's clear," she said.

Twister looked over her shoulder, nodded.  Sticks walked around them both, went up to the portal.  Unlike everything else in town, the portal was pristine.  It had no rim or outer edge to contain its energy, just a square base with a slit down the middle where the blue disc stood.

Ju Ju looked at it.  From here, she could go anywhere.  She could go someplace safe where she could be alone.  But that would leave Danica stranded.  She looked to Sticks.  "He's due any time?"

Sticks nodded.  "Any time."  She looked at the empty buildings all around them.

Ju Ju looked at Twister.  "Hide?"

Twister nodded back and pointed at one of the doorways.  "Let's stick together."  She waved the dolls over and Ju Ju saw that even Squat followed without a comment.

As the others crowded inside a crumbling shop, Ju Ju and Twister stopped in the doorway.  "Were we spotted?" Twister asked.

"I don't think so," Ju Ju said, but she heard a noise from down the street before she could say more.  She ducked back, with Twister right beside her.  The noise came again, the clank of something hitting the ground.

Ju Ju edged forward, looked down the way they had come.  A block away, one thrall shuffled down the street.  Its arms were filled with a load of charms and hexes, some of which Ju Ju didn't recognize.  One charm, a purple cowbell, had dropped out of its arms to the ground.  She watched the thrall bend down, reach for the cowbell, and drop half of the hexes in its arms.  Head lolling against the collar, it began to gather them back up.

Twister bumped Ju Ju on the shoulder, pointed at the thrall with a pin.  "Be right back."  Before Ju Ju could say anything to stop her, Twister sped up too fast to be seen.  Ju Ju looked back at the thrall and almost missed it.  It already had a pin in its back and was falling back down on top of the pile of hexes.  Twister blurred, came back to the doorway.  "Squat?  Help me move the body?"