#the stories themselves are just liable to be a lot... slower and spaced out

[patchworkcuddlebug]

Dollcalypse: Infection

Lila hears a deafening shatter.

She awakes from her daze just in time to feel the doll limply fall away from her hug. It stumbles back from her, tiny pieces of its porcelain face crumbling to the ground as it collapses into a slump against a nearby wall.

"A-Abby?" The person, standing at her side with a hammer in hand. "Did... did that thing..."

"I don't know, I just... I saw it, and it looked so harmless, so sad, and... I just, let my guard down, and it felt so right! Fuck, I..." She stares down at her hands, desperately fumbling for a justification, and escape. She finds nothing. "I'm... sorry. I'm so sorry."

"There's a cure." Lila steps forward, eager to comfort the victim, but flinches away at the last moment. "There... there has to be, we can-"

Abigail raises her hand, and stops, with it hovering between them. With a withdrawn sigh, she slowly retracts it, scared that whatever was within that thing is already inside her. So, she stands, patient and polite.

"There's isn't. Please don't waste my last day searching."

The desperate words catch in her throat just long enough to make her feel like she was drowning. "What if we..." She searches, her eye watering up and down the other girl's body. Her forearms are already pale, empty of blood. "We can cut off your arm, or something. Stop it from spreading, before..."

All Abigail can do is softly shake her head. "It got into my brain before anything else. It snuck in, and it... it just said such nice words, about how it fe-"

She stops. Before it can spread.

Lila tries to speak, and falters. She doesn't understand how Abby seems so calm, so undisturbed. And yet, she understands perfectly. It's not a doll's purpose to be too emotional. Not hers, it would seem.

"...Do you still love me?"

"More than anything, Miss."

It's not her anymore. It's too calm, too polite. It's not her friend.

It takes her longer to speak, this time. Time wasted. "Do you still want me to kill you?"

It nods. "Please, Miss. while this one can still bleed out." The doll curtsies, keeping its head low even as it feels the gun cock against it

"...what does it feel like? To be a doll"

She tries to resist, for a fleeting moment. It is snuffed away as quickly as it's summoned. "It's wonderful, Miss. I feels truly calm for the first time. I... this one doesn't mind dying like this."

"I don't want to do this." A fearful twitch of the arm. "Please don't make me."

"You need to hurry, Miss." The doll does not move. "This one is worried it will convert you. It knows how much you care about your self."

"I care about you, more. I love you."

The doll remains as it is, even as it watches the gun clatter uselessly to the ground. The safety is still on.

"...are you sure, Miss?"

Its answer was an embrace, arms wrapped around its torso and pulling it against Lila's warmth. "I don't care what happens to me," She shakes from herself, relieved. "as long as I'm with whatever's left of you."

The doll smiles, with the first serenity Lila had ever seen it show, as it hugs its love in return.

There, they remain, ever still.