Voodootown

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Shaunice

Shaunice held the button up in front of her eye, but saw only black.  She shook her head, tried again.  "It's all right, Shaunice.  They've cut her off.  You won't be able to see anything else," the man said as he fed the mice small pellets of food.  He put the scoop down and flexed his right hand.  There was a thin red line around the base of his ring finger.

She let the charm drop down.  The heavy, broken link pulled on the chain around her neck and swung out then bounced back against her chest.  "I'm sorry," she said.

"No.  Don't be.  It's them.  They don't want you to see where they are."  He stopped and watched her a moment.  "Shaunice, are you all right?"

"Yes," she said.  He had warned her that this wouldn't be easy, but she had slept last night, slept soundly without any strange dreams.  She had only seen things when he asked her to look through the doll's eye.  She had seen more strange things in the last day than she had ever wanted to, but these things weren't controlling her.  That little doll wasn't controlling her anymore.

"Are you?  I'm sorry I had to show you so much of this so soon.  I had wanted to wait, but I needed your help in capturing one of those dolls."

"But it got away.  They all did," she said.  She watched the man.  She still wanted to call him Michael, out of habit, but that name didn't feel right anymore.  He had already helped her more than anyone ever had, more than any doctor, even her father and mother.  The name she had given him was right.  He was a doctor.  He was helping her and from what he had told her, he wanted to help everyone.

"We'll catch them.  They have nowhere to go," Doctor Midnight said.

"But if I could still see them, you'd know where they were hiding."

The doctor smiled at her.  "Let's come at this from another angle.  If we find their humans, we can find the dolls."  He paused.  "I feel bad asking more of you, but it is important.  I can't tell you all of it now, but if I can find that doll, the one that can see the connections between people, then I can find someone.  I can help her."

"Who is she?" Shaunice asked.

He frowned, looked away.  "I don't think it's right to say.  Not just yet."

Shaunice frowned as well.  He had told her about the portal that could take them anywhere, how they could save everyone from the dolls that controlled them.  They could help people all over the world the way he had helped her.  But she hadn't known that there was one particular person that he wanted to help.

But she kept her thoughts ordered.  She could find out about this woman later.  Doctor Midnight had said that they could find the dolls through their humans.  "What can I do?"

He smiled, touched her shoulder.  Before he had saved her, she had worried that he was just an old pervert that liked high school girls.  But the way he touched her was gentle and reassuring.  It was the kind of touch she might have wanted from her father if he had been demonstrative.  "Thank you," he said.  "Look around at school.  Find the ones that haven't changed, the ones that haven't calmed down.  Give me their names and I can find the dolls through them."

That made sense to Shaunice.  The dolls had been hiding at Danica's house.  Through the button eye, she had seen the attic room, the street the house was on.  That had let the doctor know where to capture them, or where to try.  "I can start today," she said.  It was Sunday, but she could go out, look for them in town and visit the ones that she knew.

"No," he said.  "Monday is fine.  I have some work I have to do first."  He reached into the nearest cage and stroked a mouse.  "Are you all right here?"

She picked one of the mice up; let it crawl over her hand.  She tried not to handle them too often.  They were tools of her research, something that would help her get into a good pre-med program.  They weren't pets to get attached to.  "Yeah, thanks."

Doctor Midnight nodded, stood.  "I'll see you tomorrow." 

As he walked to the door, Shaunice stared down at the mice.  She couldn't name the emotion she was feeling.  This man, the one who had helped her, was trying to find some other woman.  "Who is she?" 

He stopped, turned back to her.  "Shaunice, I've already had to show you more than anyone should ever see or have to think about."

When he didn't say anything else, she looked up from the mice.  "Haven't I done well?"

He smiled, walked back and sat down across from her again.  "You've been amazing."

That felt very good to hear.  Shaunice let herself smile a little.  "I can handle more.  I can."

"I know you're strong," he said.  "But you may not like it."

The warmth of his compliment slipped away.  Shaunice wasn't sure what she felt for the doctor.  He had helped her and for the last few days she had felt like she had some kind of family again, even if it was just the two of them.  She hadn't felt that for so long, not since her mother had disappeared.  It felt like all of that was going to disappear, like she was going to be replaced.  "Please, I'd like to know."

He nodded and smiled, but it looked sad to Shaunice.  "Your mother left several years ago.  She disappeared," he said.

Shaunice nodded, but realized after a moment that he hadn't been asking a question.  He had been telling her.  He knew.

For a moment, he watched her, then nodded back.  "I knew her, Shaunice."  He shook his head, looked away and frowned.  "No.  Not knew.  I know her.  I have for a long time."

When he stopped, Shaunice tried to sort through what he said, tried to organize it into something that made sense.  But the mention of her mother brought out too many emotions for her to think through.  "Have you...have you seen her?"

He shook his head.  "Not for years, not since you have.  But I'm going to find her.  That's why I started all of this.  I'm going to use those things to find her and I want your help."

Shaunice met his eyes.  Her own father had given up the search over a year ago, and this man who had been a stranger was still looking.  He was doing things she had thought impossible; all to find her mother.  She nodded at him.

Doctor Midnight reached out, put his hand over hers and smiled.