Wendy and Alice were jerked to their feet by the large, masked Constables. Their beast like dogs snarled and snapped at them as they were brought before the pyre. As Wendy’s eyes cleared, she saw that many of the mothers and their first-born daughters were standing around the pyre, fanning themselves for the heat.
She saw her mother standing beside her eldest sister, Wilma and felt her blood boil. Wilma, sleek and beautiful as always in her pink palace dress with her large hat and pale makeup, looked at her as if she was the scum of the earth. Wilma’s peers, the other firstborns stepped away from her as she was thrown to the ground with her companion.
Her mother stepped forward, dressed in her own large dress or red and gold. Wendy reached up for her but she pulled away and spat in her face.
“You always were such a disappointment. Look what you’ve done to our beautiful home…look what your selfishness had cost us!”
All the other mothers and first borns shouted similar, throwing stones and spitting insults as the Constables hoisted the girls once again over their shoulders and placed them directly in front of the pyre.
Behind them, came the familiar sound of shears being opened and closed. Wendy took in a deep breath and turned to come face to face with The Doll Maker. It was not the thing she had seen in the little cottage, but the mask it had worn…the mask of the little old man.
“Now, my dears,” he said with the tone of a doctor who has to scold a patient for trying to get out of bed. “I think it’s time we try this again. Because of you, all of my lovely dolls have had to be tossed out. Can’t have rebellious thoughts like yours contaminating their innocent minds.”
Wendy got to her feet and looked at the gathering of mothers and firstborns. Hot tears stung her eyes as the flames behind her licked at her back.
“We aren’t the ones who are contaminated! It’s you!” She pointed at the women who gasped at the idea. “You’ve let a monster into this town…two monsters! Our brothers and husbands are off fighting in a war beyond the wall and you have allowed evil, eldritch things claim your daughters! You are just a horrific as they are.”
“Silence!” Wendy’s mother shouted. She grabbed hold of the sack Alice had dropped and hurled it at her daughter. Wendy managed to catch it, but not before being knocked back into the burning fire.
She began to scream and Alice tried desperately to pull her out. But before she could, the bag of orbs began to blaze so brightly that everyone was forced to shield their eyes. Then another explosion that sent a bright white light into the sky above them.
Wendy was pulled from the fire and Alice covered her, weeping in her ear.
“You foolish woman!” The Doll Maker screamed. “You damned fool!”
Wendy could just make out the light in the sky coming back down and engulf the pyre. The bodies of the dolls began to glow and then move, their heads turning and fixing upon The Doll Maker and the women who had once owned them.
“I command you to sleep!” The Doll Maker shouted. His voice was no longer pleasant and old, but the terrible sound Wendy remembered from the cottage. He was changing again and this time the mother’s and first borns could see it. Some ran to their homes and others simply fell to their knees, terrified of the thing they were seeing.
She grew to a lanky, multi-limbed spider of a thing with long hair and a jaw that nearly touched the ground. His shears were not shears at all but long mandibles that her clacked together that could cut through them like a string.
The dolls on the pyre began to rise. They pulled themselves from the fountain and still on fire marched towards their maker. He began to curse and scream as the Constables were quickly consumed by the flaming army of dolls. The mothers and first borns crushed one another in an attempt to escape, but many became trapped between the alleys and walls of the town and met their violent end.
The Doll Maker leaped above them and landed on the roof of one of the houses, looking down in disgust.
“You vile little girls…” he hissed. “Your Convent magic won’t save you…I will…”
But a rumbling from beneath silenced him. Wendy and Alice rolled out of the way just in time to miss the Holy Mother, or what was left of her, burst through the ground and ensnare the Doll Maker. She dragged him off of the roof and back down to the streets where the flaming dolls fell upon him. Together, both monsters and the dolls fell back into the sewers where the flames grew and caused an even large explosion that destroyed the foundation of half of the town.
The town sank into the earth, crushing anything that might have been alive beneath it, putting an end to the reign of The Doll Maker and The Holy Mother.
Wendy and Alice walked hand in hand to the large hole in the wall made by the explosion. They had gathered any survivors and dressed them all in the nicest, most practical clothes they could find. Wendy wore a Houndstooth skirt and cloak while Alice wore trousers and an asymmetrical hem hooded cloak. They started out at the world behind their wall, not knowing what they would find. They had many questions about the beasts that had reigned in their town and where the men had all gone. The journey might kill them, but for now, they were happy to have each other and know that no matter what came next, they would be in control of their fates.
Let’s admire the clothing first.
in the pink palace dress with her large hat:
in her own large dress or red and gold:
a Houndstooth skirt and cloak:
an asymmetrical hem hooded cloak:
Wendy and Alice catched their fate finally.The evil in the town had been destoried. No matter what difficults they would face in the futter, it always had been better than the life in the town when they couldn’t hold their own fate.
THE ENDING. Thank you for reading this story. I hope that you will face everything bravely in your future life, and don’t escape. Of course, the most important thing is that fate is in your own hands.