Red, Black, and White

A puppet?

I waited. It was all I could do. I waited until they had shoved everything that was mine into the attic. My bed, my books, my clothes. Everything was going upstairs, through a small door in the ceiling. You could only really get there by going up a rickety old ladder.

A big hand squeezed my shoulder, hard enough to bruise. I didn't make a sound. For fear that there would be something worse than a bruise to tend to.

"Get up there, Girl. No one wants to see your ghoul face."

I walked up to the ladder and climbed without a second thought. There are worse things than bruises, and I had the scars to prove it. I closed the door, and let it snap shut at my feet. Then I looked around.

My bed was in shambles. The frame was in pieces, the blankets and sheets were torn, feathers fell from a hole in my pillow, and my clothes were thrown across the dusty floor.

I pulled out a box that had been up here for a while. It had a sewing kit inside. It belonged to my grandparents. But worked well enough for what I needed to do. My grandfather's tool set was sitting right next to it. I stitched every hole and tear. Fixed my bed frame, and made my bed. I shook out every piece of clothing and placed them in an old dresser made of oak. I flattened boxes and stacked them in a corner. I cleaned the window that was made with stained glass. My hands ached as they shoved the old bookshelf against the wall, next to that aged dresser. I swept the floor until every speck of dust was in the small garbage can that had been carried up here. I cleaned the room until all you could smell was old wood, aged books, and cleaning agents. And all you could see that was left, was a little ancient box that had been shoved to the back of the room.

I knelt in front of it, and opened the lid. There sat an old fashioned puppet. Or maybe a doll?

I picked it up, or him up, as it seemed male, then held him out in front of me. I had never owned a toy before. It was strange to even be seeing one in my vicinity at all.  Then I noticed something...rather odd. There was a sharp object sitting in his back. I kept poking at it, trying to see what it was when...

"Honestly, what is it with humans and my back? I said to leave it alone!"

His little face was staring up at me, and I nearly dropped him in surprise. 

"Oh, pardon me. I thought you might be Yumi. "

I stared down at the talking doll wondering who the hell Yumi was, and why the fuck was the doll even talking.

"Who might you be?" 

"J-J-Jaelyn." I replied out of habit and sheer shock.

"Charmed." He smiled and the there was a big poof of smoke.

The next thing I knew, I was looking up at a well dressed doll wearing a red bow tie.

"I'm-"

"Quiet down, you brat! You keep that up, I'm tossing you out!"

Well, fuck.