All Strings Attached

by Miss Merikan

  “When do you think she’s going to sleep?”

  “Soon,” Gavin whispered, crouched behind the low wooden fence. “Look, she’s taking the dogs in.” He pointed to Dollmother calling all her pugs into the small house by the mansion, which in all honesty looked more like an elaborate garden pavilion than a chateau. Ah, the magic of photography.

  In the darkness, it was like watching a moving puddle of goo follow her through the vast but somewhat neglected garden. All of Dollmother’s minions crawled behind her and barked. Anna scowled and moved closer to Gavin to stroke the shaved side of his head. It was smooth, with just a little bite to it when she trailed her thumb against the grain.

  “I hope she takes sleeping pills.”

  “We’ve located the window Fiona should be by, so we just take the doll and split. The place doesn’t seem to have cameras or anything. It’s not much of a super villain hideout. No barbed wire, no electrical fence,” Gavin laughed a bit nervously and stood up behind the bushes.

  “At least we have our secret weapon,” whispered Anna, feeling a bit relaxed by the joke. She leaned against him and put her arm across his back.

  “I do have experience sneaking into cemeteries, so that has to count for something,” he said and leaned down for one last kiss before he looked over the fence again. The dogs were still barking in the house, but the lights in Dollmother’s windows went off.

  “Do you think she dines with the dolls and goes to sleep right away?” asked Dan with a slight frown.

  Anna shrugged, happy that the wind was blowing toward them and not the other way around. “She did that ugly banquet photo shoot with real food.” She pulled out thick rubber gloves they purchased at a supermarket on the way and distributed them to the guys before putting on a pair herself.

  Gavin raised his eyebrows at them and only took one. “Maybe she needed to say goodnight to each.” It was a clear dig at Anna’s evening habits, and she gave him a light kick on the shin.

  “Don’t complain. I’m giving you more goodnight kisses than all of them put together.”

  A silly grin spread on Gavin’s face, and he didn’t wait any longer to climb the low fence. He only had one arm, but made good use of it, pulling himself up and over the top in a few agile moves. “Follow me at a distance,” he whispered.

  Anna grinned at Dan. “Wanna go second?”

  “I’ll stay behind and watch your back. I’ll alert you if anything’s happening,” Dan said with determination. It was their version of Mission Impossible, and each of them was Tom Cruise.

  Anna nodded and climbed up the fence, only now experiencing the adrenaline rush of what they were about to do. They couldn’t afford getting caught, but if there were any cameras, Dan would have seen them with that crazy magnifying lens. Gavin helped her to her feet, and they rushed across the grassy garden, trying not to stumble in the darkness. With the air freely tangling Anna’s hair and choking her as it blew straight into her face, every step was like a surprise with the uneven, soft ground buried under tall grass. They eventually reached the white, recently renovated palace-like structure, and Anna found that in the pale moonlight, its soft arches and the white statues twisting in expressive poses were creeping her out. From up close, the chateau wasn’t as grand, but Anna still wondered where a person like Fairy Dollmother got the money needed for the upkeep of the building, especially with the money she was constantly spending on dolls and her pugs.

  “Stay back and watch Dollmother’s house,” Gavin whispered and pointed to a window. “I think it’s that one, I saw that tree by it on the window,” he said and tiptoed there. He even bought himself a pair of sneakers just for this mission.

  Anna let out a low exhale and slowly turned toward the dark building nearby. It looked like one of the cheap houses you could order and have erected within a few days—neat but it looked mismatched right next to the neoclassicist pavilion of dolls.

  Anna’s pulse was beating furiously in her temples, and her stomach decided to crawl toward her spine as she listened to the wind and Gavin muttering to himself. She couldn’t stop thinking that it would be odd to have items worth so much gathered under one roof without any protection. What if there was an alarm inside the pavilion, and Gavin would set it off once he moved inside?

  But there was no more time to think about that. Breaking glass crushed the silence like a sledgehammer used on a doll head. Anna’s eyes went wide, and she turned on her heel to see that Gavin had broken the window with a stone, and his hand was already in the window, opening it from inside. She wasn’t sure whether she loved it or considered it crazy. Probably both.

  “Is she in there?” she uttered, watching Gavin enter through the window, his smartphone in hand to light the way.

  “Yes, they’re all here,” he said, the crunch of glass under his sneakers all too loud. “It’s so fucking creepy.”

  Anna could imagine the scene inside, and somehow she wasn’t all that keen on getting into Fairy Dollmother’s fantasy dollhouse. Who knew what this strange woman kept in there? Her chest fell with relief that the nightmare would be over soon. They would run back and leave France by morning.

  But that dream was shattered like the glass in the window when the lights in Dollmother’s house lit up.

  “I think I’ve got the right one,” Gavin hissed from inside.

  “She’s up. She must have heard us,” whispered Anna, falling to the ground so that she’d be at least partially hidden by the tall grass. Her heart sped up to a furious peace within seconds. What would they do? They would be screwed if they were caught.

  “I’m coming. Go to the fence,” Gavin said, squeezing out through the window as the pugs began their ominous barking.

  “Fuck.” Anna felt a shiver go down her spine along with a rush of heat to her legs. She hesitated whether she should leave Gavin but ended up listening to him and sprinted toward the fence where they left the car. It should be easier if she was already there to help him cross over. The cool air was filling her lungs with much needed relief, her heart worked its best, used to cardio, but halfway to her goal, one of her feet met a void, and she fell face first into the dirt, shocked with the pain in her knees. The barking was louder now, furious and insistent like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes. She could imagine the silly-looking dogs would be no less ferocious in defending their turf than any larger canine.

  Gavin’s dark silhouette was visible in the darkness, as he made huge strides forward with his long legs, followed by a pack of furballs from hell. Their thick little bodies were barely visible between the tall plants, which made it look as if there was some worm-like monstrosity straight out of a B-rated science fiction movie chasing Gavin.

  “Babe! Take her!” he yelled, no longer trying to be quiet. With a bit of an advantage on the dogs, he spent two seconds to leave Fiona on a stone pedestal he passed and continued his sprint in another direction, no doubt to lure the dogs away from Anna. This was madness!

  She froze, watching the storm of pugs avoid her completely and circle the pavilion in their pursuit of Gavin, ready to bite into his calves and taste blood. Anna looked between the poor Fiona, the fence that was still far away, and Gavin, who was out there, running through the vast lawn like a mad scarecrow.

  Anna rushed for the doll. She had to climb up the pedestal to get to her Fiona, but there was a strange feeling in her chest even as she hugged her hard body tight. How would Gavin come back? He was not a runner. She remembered that he barely caught his breath when he sprinted to the corner store once.

  She ran along the fence, and her heart froze when she heard Dollmother screaming like a madwoman from her house. “I know you’re out there! I called the police!”

  In the faint light from the street, she saw Gavin run farther into the depths of the garden, toward low, trimmed bushes that the pugs would hopefully not be able to pass.

  “Anna! Come on!” Dan yelled to her from the street, following her along the fence from the other side.

  Bu
t Anna’s eyes were glued to Gavin, and she held her breath watching him take a leap that could save him, over the bushes. But instead of seeing him land on the other side, a loud splash of water rippled through the air, followed by a scream, and she didn’t see Gavin anymore.

  “No!” She couldn’t stop yelling even as she sprinted across the garden at top speed, completely focused on her goal like a racing horse in blinders. Gavin couldn’t swim. He could drown because of this stupid endeavor. It was only as she approached the dogs that they noticed her, their huge bulging eyes mad with bloodlust that needed a sacrifice to be sated. This was the moment of life or death, and as the dogs turned toward her in slow motion, she used the one asset she had. Fiona.

  The tall, graceful doll fell between the beasts, pushing over two of them, but Anna looked no further. She kicked off her boots and blindly jumped over the shrubbery. Its branches scratched her stomach, and for a surreal moment, Anna was sure she’d crack her head open on the edge of the pool, but then she submerged, shaken by a shock of cold as the icy water got into her nose.

  She didn’t exactly see Gavin, too disoriented at first, but she could sense someone splashing about next to her, and even through the water, the screeching sound of a police siren approaching reached her.

  In the freezing cold, she could hear her heart slowing down, and she regained her cool, rushing for the glimmering surface above. The first gulp of air was like a heat wave going through her, but the desperate moves Gavin was making right beside her, as if he wanted to hold on to the surface, were her sole focus.

  “Gavin! Deep breaths and stop moving!” she yelled, watching him with his mohawk completely flattened all over his face.

  “Get out of there!” Dan yelled from somewhere close, but she couldn’t see him.

  Gavin calmed down enough to take deep breaths before disappearing under the water time and time again.

  She grabbed him below the armpits before pushing at the floor of the pool to get them both to the surface. Gavin went limp, trusting her to get him out of the water, and she did her best to pull him toward the edge. With blood rushing furiously in her veins, she got there within moments and pushed Gavin against it, breathing hard. They were safe. Gavin wouldn’t drown.

  “Oh, God,” she breathed against his wet arm.

  He grabbed onto the edge of the pool, coughing and gasping for air.

  “You!” Dollmother screeched from somewhere above. “What are you doing here?” Her voice broke down. “I just wanted to give Katyusha a good home. Somewhere she could be with her sisters.” With the police coming, she probably understood she was trapped, even if they did all get arrested at first.

  Anna ignored her, staring at Dollmother’s shoes, which disappeared from her sight along with a pained wail. “No, stop! Let go of her!”

  Only then did Anna realize what this was about. Her Fiona had been mauled, and there was nothing she could do to take it all back. But the one thing that got to her at this point was that Gavin hadn’t said a word yet, and she pulled closer to him, shivering.

  He coughed up more water, but finally looked at her, his fingers still clenched on the edge of the pool. “What happened? You have the doll?” he asked and started moving along the wall toward a ladder.

  “Get those fucking dogs away!” yelled Dan from behind the shrubbery, but Anna stared at Gavin’s face, which looked like it had melted, with parts of the white foundation rubbed off and heavy smudging around the eyes, and she couldn’t even breathe properly.

  “I love you.”

  Gavin stopped his climb up the ladder and looked at Anna with such tenderness that even the water couldn’t keep her cold. “I love you too.”

  If this wasn’t a moment, she didn’t know what was. Nothing could spoil it. Not the barking, not Dollmother’s wails, not the police shouting at them from afar in French. Not even Fiona’s death.

  Anna grabbed Gavin’s shirt, pushing her head against his chest, and closed her eyes. She couldn’t care less about anything around them.

  Epilogue

  In the movies, funerals are always accompanied by heavy rain, as if the audience needed to see the sky weep for the dead. But on the day of this funeral, the weather was lovely, with the bright sun climbing up the vines on one of the walls surrounding the garden. Anna invited everyone who mattered, and with the number of people attending the wake, she seemed glad Andrea and her Lolita friends volunteered to help with the food. The whole table was decorated with beautifully decorated cakes and snacks, though Gavin believed the biscuit tombstones on top of the cupcakes were a little bit too much.

  They had traditional Japanese music playing in the background, and with all the invited guests already there, the ceremony was soon to start. Anna had been melancholic all day, and she was now in the backyard garden with all the dolls attending the funeral in their mourning garb. All of her collection, as well as Dan’s, and Gavin’s first doll, a nameless Diamante Dirk, whom Gavin ordered with a black suit to fit the occasion, were there. But there were many more, as most of the guests brought along their resin children to bid farewell to the doll that mattered so much and caused so much drama that the doll world was still discussing the details of it over two months later.

  Gavin had something to cheer up Anna, but first it was time to properly bid farewell to Fiona, and he didn’t want to disturb that. He even wore a suit jacket to pay proper respects to the tragically dis-jointed doll.

  It had taken a few weeks to sort out the issues with the French police, but Anna, Dan, and he were left of the hook, and Dollmother had to only pay a fine and compensation to them. Gavin still felt all warm inside when he thought back to Anna letting go of her beloved Fiona to save him. She didn’t even have to say the L-word after that because he already knew. But it was still nice to hear it.

  Anna took the loss of Fiona better than he expected, but after one look at the mauled doll, she refused to take it out of the wooden box it would be buried in today. It was a sorry sight. The beautiful dress had been torn and stained with dirt, but worst of all were the angry chips in the resin, the irregularities that permanently deformed not only Fiona’s body but also her face. It was Gavin who dressed her in the clothes Andrea made as her parting gift to Fiona, a lavish red dress with ruffled sleeves and a pair of beaded slippers. At least Anna was spared the need to look at what was left of her beloved doll. Fiona wore a veil over her face.

  Dan took photos of the whole event, and even though he was surely still sad over being rejected by Anna, Gavin thought that it must have given him some closure. After all, even a rejection was better than the never-ending emotional limbo he’d lived in for the last two years.

  “Are you ready?” Gavin asked Anna. He scooted down by the shallow grave and put a black rose on the wooden box that served as a casket.

  The human guests were slowly gravitating toward the garden, joining the crowd of dolls in silence. Anna sighed and took Gavin’s hand, slowly rising to her feet. “That’s ... a nice touch. Thank you,” she said, leaning against him in the corner farthest from where most of their guests gathered. They had Maka’s new boyfriend do the honors and bury Fiona in the ground, immortalizing her for a future archaeologist who’d stumble upon what he’d surely consider a ritual burial from the past.

  “You think this is what she would have wanted?” Gavin leaned down to kiss her beloved lips.

  Anna’s mouth spread into a tiny smile against his own, and she sighed, burying her face against his arm. “It’s sad to see her go. But she was just a doll,” she whispered, raising her soft gaze at Gavin.

  That was all the closure he needed to this story. Anna wasn’t actually crazy. She was just ... eccentric. “You wanna watch until the end?” Gavin pointed to the burial with his head. “I’ve got something to show you.”

  She frowned, “You think it’s proper to just leave? I’m her mom,” she whispered.

  “I think it’s gonna be worth it,” he said with a little smile and nudged her with his el
bow. He loved how Anna never made him feel any less capable because of his disability. It only made him love her more.

  Anna grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the garden, past the crowd in black. “What is the surprise?”

  Gavin led her to the guest room that had now been permanently changed into his room. Last month, he let go of the room he’d rented and moved in with Anna and Dan. Thanks to the fact that she had her own part of the house, it wasn’t awkward with Dan, and they were actually starting to get along better.

  He led her inside where he had left his gift. The wooden box lay on his bed and he made a broad gesture toward it, his stomach clenching slightly. “Go on, open it.”

  Anna blinked, staring at him, then at the box. “You ... shouldn’t have,” she whispered, walking up for a quick kiss. Her fingers curled around his hand and squeezed it tight, but when Gavin didn’t say a word, Anna let go of him and approached the box. She stood over it for a moment, no doubt thinking that a doll as special as Fiona could not be replaced even by the prettiest of molds, but once the lid was off and it fell to the floor with a loud clatter, Gavin knew he made the right choice.

  “Oh, my God ... oh, God,” uttered Anna, wheezing over the new-old addition to her collection.

  Gavin came up to her and put his arm over her shoulders, looking at the blank Katyusha in the box, naked and pristine. “I contacted the company and told them about all we’ve been through over her. I even sent them photos. They wouldn’t redo the Limited Edition stylization, but they made a new Katyusha just for you after I promised them we’d write about it online.” He kissed Anna’s temple, glad to have made her so happy.

  Anna broke into a sob, hugging him so hard it squeezed air out of his lungs. But they were happy tears, so he didn’t have to worry and just rocked her in his arms. He supposed that as special as Fiona was, Anna could make the new Katyusha even better, a truly unique creation, and nothing would ever take their resin baby away from them.