I was back. In this wicked dream inside a dream.
I opened the door of the asylum and stepped inside. The place looked abandoned, trash scattered across the floor, broken glass glittering everywhere. The silence was heavy, yet beneath it I heard the faint ticking of a clock. When I turned around, I saw a doctor in a white uniform, his head replaced with a giant bunny mask, an axe gripped in his hand.
I screamed and started to run. My legs moved so fast they twisted under me, barely holding me upright. Out of nowhere, my body slammed into a hard chest, and when I lifted my head, it was him.
“My little Dolly,” he said with a smile. “You cannot save what was cracked inside my mind.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me into a room.
He shoved a metal cabinet against the door, blocking the doctor from coming in. I heard the axe hit the door again and again, each slam sending my heartbeat faster.
Oscar took my hand and dragged me toward the table. “What are you doing?” I asked as he lay me down.
“Shh,” he whispered, tying me to the bed. “Shh.” Hestepped back, grabbed a brown leather belt, and pressed it between my lips. “Bite,” he said. “I do not want to see those pretty white teeth fall out.” He pushed the belt deeper into my mouth until I had no choice but to bite down hard.
Then he moved to the side, lifting two metal wires. A wild laugh escaped him. “Dolly,” he said, grinning. “Smile.”
He placed the metal pieces against my temples. My eyes slammed shut as my whole body jerked, electricity tearing through me like fire. The world went blank, fading into this empty hole, and over it all, I heard him singing softly.
“La, la, la, la, la.”
You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.
XXI. DOLL
Iwokeupwithmy hand pressed to my temples. The pain was pulsing under my fingertips. When my eyes opened, I realized I was wearing a white dress and sitting on the bed in the attic. Enzo was on one side of me, watching, and Oscar was still asleep on the other.
But we were not alone.
There were faces I had never seen before. A man with two heads stared at us without moving. A woman with pale scales slowly shifted in the corner, the dwarf she held resting quietly in her arms. Another woman stood near the wall with six arms crossed over her chest like she was patiently waiting for someone to speak.
A sharp breath escaped me. I looked around the attic and started pinching my skin to check if I was dreaming again. Enzo grabbed my hand before I could dig in harder and whispered, “Hey, hey, you are back.”
Oscar opened his eyes. He gasped for air like he had been pulled from underwater and started shaking as he looked at Enzo and at me. The woman with scales came closer. She leaned near my neck and sniffed softly.
“Do I know you?” I asked her, tilting my head, but she didn’t respond. She didn’t even blink.
“Who are you talking to?” Enzo asked. “It is just the three of us here.”
Oscar laughed. It was a cracked, half-broken sound. He looked at Enzo, then at me.
“That is Ariel. She has been here ever since I got here.”
Enzo shook his head slightly toward me.
“No one is here.”
Oscar kept pointing. First at the two-headed man. “That is Yuri and Viktor.” Then, at a woman with six arms. “That is Peggy.”
Then he turned to the dwarf. “And that is Luci.”
My palm covered my mouth before I even realized I was doing it. I shook my head toward Enzo, then toward Oscar. He was seeing people who were no longer alive. I had only seen their photos on the walls downstairs. They were part of Cirque de Perdutti back in the sixties. Maybe that was why he renamed the place. Maybe they told him to.
“Is Mia real?” I asked Enzo quietly.
“As far as I know, she is,” he said with a small laugh. “She is downstairs getting everything ready for tonight.”
“Tonight?” I repeated.
“Yeah. It is opening night.”
