Voodootown

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Twister

Twister couldn't believe it, but she actually missed fighting in the challenge ring.  She had fought often, maybe too often, to protect her human Janey.  Other dolls had thought it was something she enjoyed, but they had been wrong.  It had all been for Janey.  She had fought to make her life better, to make high school more bearable, to try to give her human the courage she needed to do something extraordinary.

And now all she did was fight.  But it wasn't about dates or insults anymore.  She was fighting to keep Janey from becoming a slave. 

Blink and Ribbon had told them how the man who was kidnapping the dolls and controlling them had also manipulated Shaunice into wearing a charm that cut her off from Ribbon.  Blink had gone on to explain his theory that the human wasn't capturing dolls to control them, but rather to control their humans.  Twister didn't like the idea, was frightened by it, but it made sense.  Without a doll, humans were listless and easily manipulated.  If the man's ability to control dolls carried over to these people, then he could get them to do nearly anything.

But even with a threat like that, she didn't think any of the plans her friends had come up with were good.  And Blink's was the worst.  Blink wanted help from their humans.

"It's not crazy," Blink said.  They were all sitting in a circle under Danica's bed, had been talking since the last of them had woken up.  "We can't handle this guy on our own."

"He is pretty tall," Flow said.  Twister glared and he shrugged.  "I'm just saying."

"It wouldn't work," Ju Ju said.  At least she and Twister agreed on this.  "There's no way to do it."

"Actually, when Ribbon told me about that broken link charm, it gave me an idea.  I might be able to borrow a little of Blink's connection with Ash and make something."  When both Ju Ju and Twister stared at him, Flow stopped. "I'm just saying."

"It'd be great to have the help Blink, but think of the problems it would cause," Camo said.  Twister looked at the doll.  For once she wasn't hiding in the background.  Her clothes, that had started out stained, had new rips almost everywhere.  All of the dolls looked like they had gone through a shredder.  "They can't handle it."

"I'm not saying we get everyone, just our people," Blink said.  "We can start with my human.  Ash knows about me already."

"And what's the wimp going to do?" Squat asked.  "Bleed on something?"

Twister sat quietly as Blink stared at Squat.  She had the same short tolerance for Squat's comments, but he had fought well the night before.  They all would have been captured and stuffed into jars if he hadn't been along.

"I could make a charm.  I think it would work," Flow said.  He stopped when everyone turned and stared at him.

"You're just saying, right?" Squat asked.  Twister kept her laugh to herself.  Her human, Janey, and Flow's human, Curtis, were dating.  She had been spending more time with Flow lately, and appreciated him, but none of that made them a couple.  She could tell that Flow wanted to try out Blink's idea just because it would be a challenge to conjure a charm that was so complex.  But that wasn't a good enough reason to pull their humans into this.

All of the dolls seemed to have their own desires placed foremost in the plans they put out, and that didn't help.  Blink wanted humans, Sticks wanted to run away, Root wanted to find other dolls for more help.  And even worse than the plans was the fact that all the others would expect her to decide what to do.

"This is a waste of time," Squat said.  "Why should we have to take care of it all?"

At least Squat's plan of sitting it out was easy to answer.  "Because if we don't stop it, we're next," Twister said.  She didn't bother to explain the real reasons they were fighting the human that was kidnapping the dolls.  Squat didn't seem to understand the idea that they were supposed to take care of their humans.  They were supposed to stand together, not make things harder the way Squat seemed to do for James.