When Wendy opened her eyes, she was sure she would be dead. The Doll Maker would have removed her head and she would be thrown over the gates of the city for the wolves. She would look down from heaven and see them sniffing and tearing at—
You are alive! You made it! Get up now and keep moving.
It was true, she looked around and saw that she was, in fact, alive. Her eyes focused on the scene above her and took in a deep, relieved breath.
Before her, were the stairs leading up to the Convent. At the top, she could see a cluster of sisters dressed in black, quickly making their way toward her, the black skirts of their dresses lifted high.
Behind her, she could hear the sound to metal screeching against iron and suddenly remembered what had been chasing her. She knew that if she looked back, she would see the large shears…the terrible, true form of The Doll Maker. If she looked he would be crawling through the gate and—
“Back!” shouted one of the sisters. She lifted a small, glowing ball and from behind Wendy came a terrible scream. It sounded like a large rusty door opening wide and then slamming shut. The sister in the long black dress with a plunging v neck held the orb higher and closed her eyes. It began to glow so brightly that Wendy was forced to cover her face. More screaming and some strange, alien words. Then she was being lifted up and carried up the stairs. She tried to look back, but another of the sisters grabbed her chin and forced her to look forward.
“No looking back now,” she said. “This is your future now.”
Wendy’s eyes fluttered, and as she was pulled into the looming gothic structure she began to drift off once again.
She didn’t open her eyes until the next morning when she heard the familiar sound of the bells ringing for the rising sun.
Her old attire had been stripped from her and instead, she found herself wearing a long sleeve dress of black and white, with a winged collar. She tugged at it, confused yet very pleased with the feeling of a new dress on her body. She was so caught up in the lovely dress that she didn’t notice the woman standing in the corner of her room. When the woman stepped forward, Wendy gasped and sat up in her bed.
“Did I scare you?” the woman said. She wore a black dress with a large hood that shrouded most of her face in shadow, save for the bright red smile on her face. “You, the little woman who broke into The Convent?”
“I…I was being chased…I was—”
“You broke the law. You have gone against the nature of everything your people believe in.”
“I would have been turned into a Doll! I would have become soulless and broken like…like…”
That was when she noticed that Oona’s voice in her head was gone. Her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to speak but the woman with the hood held her hand out.
“We removed that, child. To have anything from a Doll here in this holy place is to let evil into our home.”
“Evil…” Wendy said. “But she saved me…she told me to take the key and—”
“And now you have put my convent in grave danger. You have forced my sisters and me to break the truce between ourselves and the Order of Tickle. We have angered the thing your people have allowed to make a home in your town and for that, we are going to have to make a sacrifice.”
“A sacrifice?” Wendy asked. “But why? I was only trying to save myself. I couldn’t live with myself if I was turned into a—”
“Why?” the woman asked. “So many before you have suffered the same fate. What makes you different?”
Wendy felt tears burning in her eyes.
“How would you know?” she asked. “You have remained hidden in this Convent behind walls? You were a second child and you never—”
The woman removed her hood and Wendy gasped.
The upper part of the woman’s head was missing. It wasn’t a wound or a horrible deformity. It simply wasn’t there. Above her upper lip, where her nose would be were a few metal strips that gave the outline of a face, almost as if something would be mounted on it to complete a sculpture. Her mouth smiled as if she could actually see the look of shock on Wendy’s face.
Perhaps she could…
“Don’t speak as if you know me, girl. I know more about you and your people than you could possibly imagine. And despite what you may think you have accomplished, you have only made things worse. And for that, you must be punished.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” the woman said, putting her hood back up. Wendy looked at the opening door and gasped.
It was her sister, Willa. Her twin sister, the second born by only thirty seconds.
“Wendy?” Willa said, not believing her eyes. She was dressed in a black and white uniform with a cap. She cupped her hand to her mouth and tears began to well up in her eyes. She reached her hand out to Wendy.
“Sister…oh my dear sister…I have—”
The woman in the hood stood and quick as a whip crack her hand grabbed hold of Wendy’s hair and slammed her down to the floor.
“Mother Rose!” Willa cried. “No, please!”
The hooded woman pulled a needle from her robes and injected the contents into Willa. Willa froze and then collapsed to the floor. Wendy tried to get off of the bed but found that her legs wouldn’t work. Mother Rose snapped her fingers and two sisters entered the room and dragged Willa away.
“It looks like we are going to need a new nurse.” Mother Rose said with a smirk. Our old one is being transferred. Perhaps you will do?” Then she walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
First, let’s admire the beautiful clothing in this chapter:
long black dress with a plunging v neck, such a sexy dress.
a long sleeve dress of black and white, with a winged collar:
a black dress with a large hood that shrouded most of her face in shadow:
a black and white uniform with a cap:
Is Wendy the one different? It sames that Wendy, fortunately, escaped from the Doll Maker but she encountered another danger with her sister. What will happen to the sisters?
To be continued…