House of Dolls 5

by Harmon Cooper

  “Finally, being tiny pays off,” Casper said, doing a little dance by wagging her hips. “Don’t worry, Roman. I’ll entertain you until you get your two best friends back. Trust me, I can be stern and serious like Coma,” she said, mimicking Coma’s voice, “or sweet and dumb like Celia,” she said in a bubbly voice.

  “Shut up, Casper.” Roman deactivated the doll. He caught her as she fell from his shoulder and shoved her into his pocket, returning his attention to Celia and Coma. “Are… are you two sure?”

  They both nodded.

  “It’s the only way,” Nadine said. “I only have two more passports, aside from the two that Eli and Lisa already have. We’re going to have to cross the border early and move quickly. We can do some checking around using Lisa’s power if necessary. Roman, this is serious,” Nadine said, taking his head in her hands. “We’re too close now to make hasty decisions.”

  They reached Empyrean Park, which was one of Centralia’s most famous nature areas funded by arguably its richest family, the Knights.

  It was locked up for the night, but Nadine led Roman around to a wall on the right, which easily opened.

  “It’s in the park?” he asked.

  “I’ve always been a ‘hidden in plain sight’ type of girl,” Nadine said as she grabbed his hand, leading them through a forest of large trees arranged in a way that provided maximum ground space for picnics and other activities. The trees’ canopies touched, but their trunks were always perfectly spaced.

  It had been ages since Roman visited this park; he couldn’t recall the last time he’d come here, if they’d been hosting a festival or if it had been one of the night farmer’s markets they held during the summer, exquisite fruits on display and wonderful, locally sourced wines available.

  Keeping clear of the lights that lit the park’s cobblestone path, Nadine came to a fork in the road and headed left, Coma and Celia trailing just a bit behind them.

  Since Roman hadn’t fully repaired Celia’s body after it had been broken by Mister Fist, she now walked with a bit of a limp, Coma occasionally helping her while she continued to stay vigilant, always ready.

  Nadine came to a storage shed with a concrete bench on its back end.

  It was here she crouched, looking up at Roman.

  “Normally, I would have to dig it out by hand, but since you’re here…”

  Roman nodded, the soil carefully sifting away until he found a thick metal box, which he then animated the bottom of to push it out of the ground.

  Nadine opened the box, retrieving several rolls of cash and two passports. “This is it. Let’s go.”

  “Leave us here,” Celia suddenly told Roman, looking at Coma for confirmation. “You have to.”

  His combat doll nodded. “It’s better this way. It’s time.”

  “They’re right,” said Nadine, lightly placing her hand on Roman’s arm. “From here, we’ll meet Lisa and Eli, wait just a few hours, and then cross the border as soon as it opens.”

  “All…” Roman shook his head, and with a deep breath, he silenced the remorse he was already starting to feel. “All right. Just give me a minute.”

  “Certainly,” Nadine said before she made her way back to the main thoroughfare, crossing her arms over her chest as she gazed out at the distance, ready to engage anyone who dared stumble upon them.

  “I won’t forget either of you,” Roman told his two dolls, bringing them into his arms. “As soon as I can, I’ll bring you back. In similar forms, hopefully in the exact same bodies. I’ll get it right.”

  “I know you will,” said Celia, tucking her head just a bit as she tried to hide the emotion she was feeling.

  “Just get us there safely,” Coma finally told him. “We… I…”

  “It’s my only goal now,” said Roman. “We will get there safely, and as soon as I’m able, I’ll bring you two back. I promise.”

  He stepped away from them, wanting to spend more time with each of his dolls but also wanting get this over quickly, before he had second thoughts.

  In that moment, Roman relived all the experiences he’d shared with them, from Coma’s first arrival to how Celia had brightened his life in the end.

  He saw them lifelessly sitting on his couch in the month his powers had been stripped from him; Coma standing stoically, her legs wide, her short skirt beating in the wind as her arms morphed into blades; Celia preparing food, being so kind to anyone who came across her path, from teleporters to Roman’s acquaintances. He recalled the first time he’d been intimate with Celia, how soft she had been, how perfect. And the times he had been with Coma as well, how their relationship had blossomed in the Western Province.

  “Goodbye…” Roman whispered.

  Celia grabbed Coma’s hand, and as she did, Roman began to melt their forms together, a spiral of soil taking them deeper and deeper into the ground. He smoothed over the top, then gathered fallen leaves with his power and swept them over the space where the dolls had just been standing, hiding the evidence.

  “Let’s do it,” he told Nadine.

  It wasn’t long before they were on a trolley heading east again, toward North Lane Station.

  No one was in their cabin, and at one point the lights flickered, the hair on Roman’s arms standing at attention as he prepared for an attack.

  But none came.

  He had the notion to send a message to Emelia, asking her where the doll craftsman lived, and to also say goodbye to the kind empath who had always been so understanding of his situation.

  But he didn’t.

  He knew any mental messages he sent out would be monitored; he didn’t want to bring her into this. And even though it was obvious that he would be heading to the Northern Alliance, as this was where most fugitives headed, he didn’t want to implicate the doll designer in any way, which would possibly lead the Centralian government to his location.

  No, Roman wanted to keep things simple.

  It might take some time, but he would find out who had created them, this famed doll designer.

  And once he did, Celia and Coma would be part of his life.

  They made it to the station, Nadine keeping to the shadows as they moved to a hotel off one of the side streets. It wasn’t a shabby place, but definitely one that had seen better days, evident in its marquee and the two backlit letters that had fizzled out.

  A breeze blew past, Roman enjoying it while it lasted, his attention moving to a light flickering in one of the windows on the second floor.

  “Do your thing,” Nadine told Roman, taking his hand.

  The ground lifted beneath him and rose to the window, the glass expanding and melting into the walls.

  “You’re here!” Eli said, the blond-haired boy healer running forward and hugging Nadine.

  He was with Lisa Painstake, the exemplar with the Soul Speed power. While Eli was excited, pink-haired Lisa seemed a bit hesitant as she greeted the two of them.

  “They’re all yours,” Nadine said, handing Roman the passports for him to modify. She turned her attention to Lisa, explaining all that had happened, the young woman nodding as she tried to keep up. Eli asked several times where Celia and Coma were.

  Roman took the documents from Nadine and moved to a table positioned in front of a picture of a boat out to sea, the storm nearly capsizing it.

  Nadine and Roman would get across the border, and from there, start over.

  A new life, one with ties to the past, but one they themselves controlled, a destiny they had molded.

  Roman paused on the page with biographical information, smirking at the thought that all of this had started with passports.

  And now, oddly enough, it was ending with them.

  Epilogue

  Roman rolled over, careful to not put too much pressure on Nadine’s growing belly.

  The nap he’d just taken had been a relatively short one, his dreams nonexistent. It had been a while since he’d dreamed, Abby only coming to visit him once since he’d made
it to the Northern Alliance, the dreams he could remember fuzzy at best.

  No falling, no endless field, no Celia.

  As far away from civilization as they could muster, Nadine and Roman had chosen a seaside village known as Brookmaid to escape to.

  Only a few thousand people lived there, the majority of the population expats.

  No one spoke about where they’d come from or why they’d chosen Brookmaid, which was exactly how Roman and Nadine wanted it.

  Brookmaid had high taxes, but that was easy for Roman to cover, especially with his ability to counterfeit money. The currency used by the Northern Alliance was a bit different than what was used in Centralia, but paper was paper, and as long as he had an authentic piece to base it on, no one knew the difference.

  The sleepy seaside village of Brookmaid ran along the side of a mountain, the homes pressed together not unlike some of the brownstones in Centralia. Unlike Centralia, the view here was expansive, the sea a glistening swath of color, the sounds of the waves reaching Roman’s ears every morning with a light briny scent in the air.

  Sitting on the edge of their bed now, Roman turned back to Nadine, smiling at the woman he’d come to care so deeply for. She slept on her side, naturally cradling her stomach, a few strands of her hair in her face.

  Roman heard some commotion in the hallway. Stepping out, he found Eli being chased by Casper, the tiny doll wielding a wooden sword Roman had crafted months ago.

  “Quiet,” Roman told them, carefully shutting the bedroom door.

  “Sorry, Mr. Roman,” Eli said, the boy stopping and hiding his hands behind his back.

  Casper scaled the boy’s shorts. When she made it to his shoulder, she placed both hands on her hips and stared mockingly at Roman.

  “Someone is excited.”

  “More nervous than excited,” said Roman.

  “I’m sure you are,” Casper said coyly.

  She was clad in clothing not too dissimilar to what the locals wore, Roman having found a small doll in a bathing suit with a sunhat and a pair of leather sandals that actually fit her.

  “Too bad Lisa isn’t here to see,” said Eli, a frown taking shape on his face.

  “She’s in the big city,” Casper told him. “Remember? She got bored here and wanted a boyfriend.”

  Roman gave Casper a look that told her not to elaborate on what she was telling the boy.

  Rather than continue, the tiny doll stuck her tongue out at him and blew raspberries.

  Eli laughed, covering his mouth once he realized he was being rude. “Sorry, Mr. Roman,” he apologized.

  “You’re a bad influence on him,” Roman told Casper.

  “Please. I’m the best influence he’s ever had. No one fucks with him because of me. I mean, no one messes with him.” Casper pointed at herself and mouthed, ‘Because of me.’

  “Yeah,” Roman said as he turned to the kitchen, letting the two play in the living room. “Just keep it down,” he called after them.

  “It’s not our fault you knocked Nadine up!” Casper shouted back.

  Ignoring Casper’s snicker, Roman used his power to turn the faucet on, floating a sphere of water over to a kettle that already sat on the stove. A conical shape formed at the bottom of the sphere as the water swirled into the kettle.

  As Roman waited for the water to boil, he stared out the window that sat just behind their sink, offering a side view of the rooftop of the building next door, and beyond that, the sea. There were a few sailboats out, not a cloud in the sky.

  The kettle started whistling, and Roman saw to a much needed post-nap cup of tea.

  He caught a reflection of himself in a small mirror in the kitchen, one that allowed Nadine to see what was behind her.

  They could never be too careful.

  His hair was white again, the tips black.

  It had looked a bit odd once it had grown out a few inches, but now that his hair was cut short and just a centimeter or so of most of the strands were black, he looked almost scholarly.

  A knock at the door startled Roman.

  He set his cup of tea down on the wooden countertop and moved to the entrance of their three-bedroom flat.

  Before opening the door, he extended his consciousness through its wooden surface, noticing nothing on the other side.

  Suspicious, Roman opened the door with his power, putting his back against the wall just in case something swooped in.

  Instead, he was greeted by a shriek, Roman recognizing it as the voice of a young girl.

  “Is Eli free?” the girl asked.

  “Where were you just now?”

  “Here,” she said, looking around curiously. The girl was tan with blond hair, Roman not remembering if she was Eli’s friend Kay or his friend Holly.

  The girl’s form started to lighten until she was semi-transparent.

  “You’re an exemplar?” he asked her.

  She looked down at her hand and yelped. “Sorry! I… I can’t control it.”

  “It’s fine,” Roman told her.

  “It’s so embarrassing. I don’t even notice it.”

  “You’re young; you’ll get control of it soon enough. Eli!” Roman called over his shoulder. The scrawny boy came running, Casper now tucked in his pocket.

  “Hi, Casper!” the girl shouted.

  “Kay, where the heck have you been?” Casper asked. “We’ve been playing hide-and-go-seek with two people, and one of those people isn’t a person, if you know what I mean. Get in here!”

  “So he’s free?” Kay asked Roman, trying to hide her anticipation by shaking her hands.

  “Sure, but…” Roman’s eyes darted left and right. “How about you three play outside, maybe down by the shore? That would be nice. Eli, Nadine wants some seashells for a decoration she’s planning on our patio. Bring a basket down there and get some seashells with Kay.”

  “I’m coming too!” Casper said, pointing her wooden sword at Roman.

  “Of course you are. The basket is…” Roman used his power to open the closet door, locating a wicker basket with a scarf tied around its handle and a folded blanket in its center. The blanket lifted of its own accord to a shelf, the scarf joining it. “There.”

  “Thanks!” Eli grabbed the basket and headed out the door in his bare feet, Kay barely able to keep up once he got going, her form wavering a bit.

  Once they were gone, Roman returned to the kitchen to fetch his cup of tea.

  He stood at the small kitchen island, looking back out over the neighbor’s rooftop to a flower arrangement the woman next door had been working on. It always fell over at night, Roman using his ability to right it almost every morning, much to Nadine’s delight, who thought it was a cute gesture.

  Once again, he gazed out over the water, feeling a wave of contentment that made him momentarily forget his apprehension.

  Roman was just about to go check on Nadine when there was another knock at the door, the knock he’d been waiting for.

  He placed his cup of tea down and once again caught his own reflection in the mirror in their kitchen.

  Roman nodded to himself and headed to the door, where he waited a moment before merging his power into the wood to see what was on the other side.

  At first, he thought it was young Kay going invisible again, but then Roman noticed something that sent a small tremor down his spine.

  The door swinging open, Roman looked down to see not one, but two identical caskets made of wood, the anonymous teleporter who had delivered them already gone.

  His throat going dry, Roman melted the wood top away from the first casket, revealing a doll with her dark hair in pigtails, her face concealed by a mask. She wore a black dress with white fringe and eggshell tights, a pair of ballet flats on her feet.

  He gave life to her immediately as he turned to the next casket, this time revealing a doll with sweeping red hair and purple eyes who wore a tight black exemplar uniform that pressed her breasts up as if she were wearing a corset.r />
  A sliver of his power leaving him, Roman animated this doll as well, watching as she slowly woke with a soft smile on her face.

  “Celia?” he asked in a whisper.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Coma?”

  The other doll sat up, turning to Roman and gazing fondly at him with her big red eyes. “Hi.”

  “Welcome home,” he finally said.

  “Do you want some tea?” Celia asked as he helped her out of the casket.

  “I’m fine. I’ve already made some.”

  The end.

  Back of the Book Content

  The final installment of House of Dolls comes to a close and your reviews are needed.

  If you’ve made it this far in the series, please be sure to review the first book.

  I’ll wait. Hell, you may even want to go on a review marathon, which I welcome and encourage:

  House of Dolls 1 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls

  House of Dolls 2 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls2

  House of Dolls 3 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls3

  House of Dolls 4 - https://geni.us/HouseofDolls4

  The reason I ask is because the first book is generally how people gauge whether they’ll get into the series or not. Of course, review this book as well, as that is monstrously helpful.

  You may have missed it, but I released a prequel to the House of Dolls series that stars Margo, Orange and a few other familiar faces (no spoilers). The House of Dolls prequel is called Child of Chaos.

  Child of Chaos takes place ten years before House of Dolls, during the Western Plague (vampire epidemic) in the Western Province. It is available in print, ebook and audiobook:

  https://geni.us/ChildofChaos

  I encourage you to read Child of Chaos.

  Finally, I do have something in the works that is in the same dark vein of House of Dolls. It is called Pilgrim, and it will be released starting in July 2020. Think of it as a John Wick Wuxia trilogy heavy on darkness, action, vengeance and killer scenes.