Dolls and Monsters chapter 1

 Dolls and Monster:


   This world is full of monsters, from simple spooks, to man eating beasts, to things that walk and crawl through a world of shadows humans were never meant to be aware of. Then there are people, most people go about their lives, some go looking for spooks and cryptids as a hobby; anyone who gets close though gets intercepted...usually, not always; those that don't become the victims of the monsters. There are humans who think they know all about the supernatural, form clubs, organizations; either as clandestine hunters, rich men who think they can control everything; and military groups who want to weaponize everything. So many high and mighty egos clashing between these human groups. They claim to want to protect humanity; but they are all about keeping secrets, hiding away stashes of dangerous artifacts and creatures they could transport at any time and drop into areas they want to destabilize and break the morality of; washing their hands of the horrors committed because the things they let out are acting on their own once released. The worst comes when these men think they can become monsters themselves on their own terms and steal from things that make the average spook, dark dweller, and flesh harvester that they'd normally have to deal with look like fleas by comparison.

   Containment of supernatural things, researching them, is always difficult and dangerous. Make a vault or a warehouse and they feed on each other's power till one can break out; set up some menegerie on an island; well you inevitably end up with a monster island that has to be black listed to travel or sneak death row prisoners onto to study the things there; but an island has flaws with things that can fly and swim that possess supernatural speed and stamina. Set up a prison like vault and you learn nothing; the number of escapes may be low; but every escape from a containment facility has ended with deaths; a vampire, demon, best shifter, mimic, eldritch, nothing can be contained forever in a tiny cell, if you can't execute them; they'll eventually find a way out...or something will come for them. Beware the momma bear when you go messing with her cubs. I was there when they tried to provoke this, tried to bring in the momma bear for some living doll; the momma bear killed fifteen men, all armed to the teeth and trained for any scenario; it didn't care, they died, because someone tried to trap it.

   Then there are the vault cities, I don't know how many there are; I do know they were made for the elites to escape to underground should there be a nuclear war, zombie apocalypse, or any other such thing forcing them underground. Some of these cities are claustrophobic, painted to look like they are outdoors but end up looking like someone built a mini-golf course in a parking garage. Some more sterile like the inside of a hotel. And some tried to feel like a whole town inside a cave but with irrigation, forests built into them; a wander they can even exist. They tried to hide the catastrophe of one of these; some scientists trying to find the secrets of immortality; the become monsters on their own terms, had uncovered some kind of alien technology and opened the gates of Hell; they were bringing demons and the damned back to Earth...to study; the "soul bodies" of the damned were their focus, they ended up letting several monsters loose down there into the town to study them; but they also had contained even further down something else. An experiment on a psychic girl whose powers had connected her to some nightmarish horror from a sea of darkness that resulted in her home village being destroyed and turned into a lake; they believed this same horror was responsible for a few other cases and forced contact...the nightmare entity destroyed the vault, took the girl. The researchers of this facility tell us the signal, the psychic supernatural signature of the girl is back, spotted by satelites; like wise however something else we've been after, that we got a scan on and were supposed to be after is right in its path. We've been told to stand by.

   ******

    -Project Doll House-

     The moon is clearly a series of screens positioned over a hundred feet up above the suburban looking street of two and three story houses with green lawns,uniform bushes, and neatly trimmed trees with little brick circles filled with wood chips around them. It is a disturbingly picture perfect neighborhood; if one were to go by a 1950s or 1960s sitcom aesthetics as picture perfect. Laurel however does not think so as she sits in one of the white sided three story houses, fully furnished like a sitcom set. The tv only showing old pre-recorded shows with zero connection to the outside world, she has her cellphone but it has no service, she is surprised the men who grabbed her had even let her keep it.

   Laruel's mind goes back to what could very well be yesterday or a few days ago as her memory of the intermitten events is fuzzy. She had been jogging out in the country by her home when a sting hit her in the backside, she remembers finding the dart and collapsing to the ground. It didn't render her unconcious like in the movies, instead she was simply paralyzed and knumb, she couldn't make out much of what was being said and her vision was blurry. She feared the worst, human traffickers, rapists, organ harvesting. They kept her knumb and hooked her up to an IV and a breathing apparatus in the back of a black van; the men in the black gear. She slipped in and out of conciousness as they kept her sedated only coming to finnally here, lying on a bed in the second floor of a house that looks like it came out of a movie or a home furnishing magazine. One look outside and it was obvious this wasn't a normal town, stone walls in the distance, one street that ends at locked metal gates large enough for a truck to pass through. She figures one end to the next this whole little town is perhaps half a mile in length, and maybe about as wide. Not very big for a town, but massive for what looks like its all underground like some giant silo cold war bunker made up to look like a town. The sprinklers worked but any attempt to follow water lines or powerlines back to a source just lead back to those same walls. She had banged on them but not one answered. The only thing she has had to go by is a letter she found on the empty dressor in the room she woke up in, "If you want out you have to play along; carry around town with you at all times the doll in white; the stores will have all the food and beverages you will need".

   She has no idea what to make of any of this, surely a prank show wouldn't kidnap people like this; if its some crime syndacite deal there should be more people and definetly not being held in some bunker town. She holds the doll in her hands, its odd just a wooden cone for a lower body covered in a white dress; thin waist, large chest and long thin articulated arms with long fingers made of wood and covered in a white cloth. Its little oval wooden head is painted black save for the face which is stark white as it it were wearing a mask, the eyes even painted in black save for blue irises; and red lips. It has long black hair going down to the base of it. Her best guess its some small weird performance doll like a marionette that locked into place in a puppet theater with only the arms being manipulated.

  As Laurel holds the doll in her hands examining it, suspecting a wire tap of somekind she sees movement from the corner of her eye. Rushing out into the hallway shouting, "Is someone there? This isn't funny! This is kidnapping!"

  A long shadow descended the stair case draws her attention, she runs towards it seeing no one. The shadow had a vaguely womanly apperance to it. Still carrying the doll in her hand she runs down the stairs. A door bangs shut and is thrown open. She had already examined every room in this house, this was a door to a pantry.

   "Got you now," she says throwing the door open and to her surprise seeing instead steps into a basement; a basement in a cave.

    The basement is well lit, carpeted, and she can hear a woman humming down there and see that just out of sight is something large and white, like a blanket designed like a wedding dress over a large bean bag chair. However what she sees next dismisses this thought as a large pair of hands come into view gently tapping on what must be a giant lap there and stange sweet voice saying, "Come on down my new friend."

   Laurel steps forward to try and see more of this person or whatever it is that clearly gigantic; however she trips as instead of descending a step as she expected her foot hits solid floor; this sudden confusion causing her to stumble and knock canned goods along with a broom and dustpan off a shelf; the visual image of the stair way and basement instantly vanishing.

   Laruel takes a step back, blinking. She looks at the pantry, feeling the walls and floor and walks out of it, "Fuck, they must have given me acid or some shit."

   She hears another door open and close, this time upstairs. Still carrying the doll she runs up the stairs and finds the door to a spare bedroom open. She remembers this room being just like the one she woke up in, more resembling a hotel room than a regular guest bedroom; every room having its own bed or beds, tv, and bathroom. However she stands in shock as this room on the second floor is now massive, too massive for the house; and there is no bed only a pile of cushions, the tv is bigger; and the window is now large and looking out at ground level to a daylight filled field with trees in the distance.

   "Be not afraid," comes the sweet womans voice again as from a door around a bend the figure appears. A giant, standing easily eight feet tall, wearing a massive white poofy dress making her thin waist look even thinner, her arms are inhumanly long and thin, which along with her hands look to either be covered by or made of a white cloth; her fingers long and sharp. Her breasts are massive for her frame but have an artificiality to them; as they too appear to only be cloth with no flesh visible. Behind this figuire is a trail of undulating and alternating shades of darkness, trailing and billowing like clouds made of the starlit night sky and twilight. However as the figure comes more into view their hands crossed in front of them and moving in a manner reminiscent of a Victorian nobel Laurel takes a step back. The darkness is desending from the head like a massive plume of hair; and if not for how brightly lit the room is she'd think the figure has no head or neck as they too are wrapped in the same deep darkness; especially with the white mask it is wearing being such stark contrast. She recognizes it as one of the masks one wears to a Masquerade ball; the full face mask that is so often painted in unusual ways. This one a bit plainer, simply red lips, some blue spirals around the oval eye holes of which inside there is no face to be seen save for darkness and two glowing blue rings within rings.

  "Be not afraid," says the figure sitting down as it had been in the vanishing basement, seeming a tad less intimidating; yet somehow more so with how the dress just crumpled straight down and moves in odd ways, her darkness for hair now spreading on the floor behind her.

  "Sweet, sweet, innocent soul," says the figure with unmoving lips, "why so all alone in such an empty place."

  The giant being holds out her hand, palm raised in a take my hand gesture, "come with me, my sweet little one,"

  Laurel is frozen, not sure if fear or disbelief, half convinced this is from some drug her kidnappers had given her, "I...I was kidnapped, di...did you...who are you, why di...did you..." her body feels weak, her legs like jelly; its the eyes, she turns away from the figures eyes and focuses on the dress, "why, did, you, kidnap me."

   The figuire's fingers curl, "I have done nothing little one; your voice is filled with fear. Has someone wronged you little one, is that why you are in such an empty place. Come to me and I'll make it all better I promise."

   The voice has an infectious sweetness to it, Laurel takes one step into the room and the room vanishes, returning to the hotel room looking space it had been before, and dark, only lit by the fake moon light outside. Laurel takes a step back and looks at the doll in her hand, the figure looks almost exactly like it, and there was a note telling her to take it with her. She runs down stairs and sets the doll down on a coffee table, "I need to get out of here," she mutters leaving the house; not seeing behind her the doll be lifted up by unseen hands and vanish into thin air.

   ******

   In a dark room a man's voice whispers over an intercom, "Subject has partially entered containment area; sooner than expected".

  ******

  Laurel marches down the street ignoring the other houses, her eyes fixacted on the metal door in the wall at the end of the street. She stands before it and looks around, peering at every corner till something glittering catches her eye and she yells up at it, "Hey! I don't know what batshit crazy this is, but its kidnapping! Let me out of here right now!"

   There is no answer; although someone in a dark room is watching her unbeknownst to her. She kicks the metal door and marches the other way, eyes focused on the other metal door. However about two hundred feet from it she stops as the doors slowly open. Laurel ducks down behind a short wall and watches as something vaguely human is pushed from the doorway by what looks like a forcefield; something she'd only ever seen in a sci-fi movie. The thing looks like a man only emaciated with long arms and legs, completly hairless and pale as can be. It looks like it is sniffing the air. Laurel as quickly and quietly as possible enters the nearest house and proceeds to lock the front door and every door she can find. However on the second floor she hears a window break down stairs, hearing snarls and grunts she enters a room and locks the door. She can hear the thing moving about, and hear it stop right outside the door of the room she is in. The beast grunts at the under side of the door, long talon like finger nails scratchs around at the space under the door, scratching up the wood. Laurel covers her mouth trying not to scream, tears rolling down her cheeks, it is ripping up the wood, she can even see its long yellow thorn like teeth gnawing at the wood. She throws the window open, a two story drop to a lawn. However the thing's head is now poking through a hole at the base of the door, its face is eyeless, noseless, earless even, only a mouth of vile nashing teeth like thorns and sharpened planks overlapping one another. She climbs up the window fram and tries to cling to the brick siding of the house, one foot still on the window frame. A loud crack and she can hear and see in half a second that the horrid humanoid creature has broken into the room. Before it can reach her however some force pulls her off the wall and down. Everything moves in slow motion as she sees the beast lunge from the window but just before it reaches her some invisible force seems to smack it away sending it tumbling across the lawn.

   Next thing she knows her back is against something soft, her head between two large while pillows, and her legs dangling in front of a white curtain and she is being held up but a giant hand, even too large for what she up against with two of its long pole like fingers across torso and two under her butt holding up with the thumb across her back as if trying as gently as possible to hold her; a quick glance to her left though and she can see every digit comes to a sharp point. However there is something far more pressing to worry about, the eyeless pale humanoid creature has gotten back up on all fours, scratching at the dirt and grunting, as Laurel screams however the thing holding her brings down its right hand, like massive set of spikes on the end of a long stretching pole it impales the beast into the ground. A blinding blue light emanates from the hand forcing Laurel to shut and shield her eyes. The beast lets out the most horrific screams she has ever heard; when it is silent again and the light gone she opens her eyes to see a burnt spot on the law and the hand and arm retracting, shrinking down to something more reaonable for this being's size.

  To Laurel's surprise it sets her down on the ground, its giant bladed left hand shrinking down and gently pats her on the head like one would a puppy. She gestures for Laurel to follow as she walks out to the street. Laurel looks around, back at the dark empty town and that burnt spot and follows behind as the entity is marching towards the metal door the creature had come out of.

  "Wh...what was that?" asks Laurel after walking in silence for a few minutes on the way to the metal door, "what...what are you, please I...what is going on."

   The entity stops before the door and puts its hand out, a weird white glittery wave appears in front of the door, filled with strange blue swirling symbols, the wave appears on all the walls and ceiling of this large cavern. The entity's hand shifts back into sharp finger and it strikes the barrier, nothing happens. Laurle watches as the mouth on the mask opens and a blue beam of light fires from it hitting but ultimatly doing nothing to the barrier, the entity's shadow clad neck stretches reminding Laurle of a swan's neck as it fires its beam up the wall, twisting to fire across the cieling; nothing. It retracts its neck, Laurel noticing the shadowy hair always staying the perfect length to just barely cascade on the ground. Laurel feels the ground rumble weirdly moments before the entity picks her up and leaps high into the air. She expects it to strikes the cieling instead she watches in astonisment as massive blue, white, purple, and black tentacles fire down from the entity's dress penetrating the ground, street, and even going right through houses tearing into the ground before quickly retracting and like Princess Peach slowly floating down to the ground.

   Laurel still in the entity's arms sees it look down at her and much to her surprise it asks, "What is this place?"

   "I...I don't know," stammers Laurel, "I..." she looks down away from the haunting ghostly eyes, "I was kidnapped by some men, they put me here, I..."

   The entity sits down, Laurel plopping down into the dress in what feels like a mass of soft body pillows around her, supporting her so her head is up just a little.

    "Poor, sweet dolly," says the entity.

    She commences to pet Laurel's head.

   "Please, what, what are you?" whispers Laurel.

   "I am," comes the sweet voice, "of the stars and the shadows, I am life, death, destruction, and creation. I am the maker and the collector of my precious dolls."

   Laurel's head and neck feel oddly warm as the entity pets her head, not noticing her hair growing longer and wavier, or her clothes shifting into a brown and white dress and drifting off to sleep while rocked by the entity's tentacles benath her.

   *****

   An older man watches on a monitor at the entity their files refer to as "The Doll Collector" in parenthesis with additional names under it in Italian, "Collezionista di bambole" and "Bambola fantasma".  German, "Puppengeist" and "Puppenmacher"; among more languages below that in an expand tab. Along with a myriad of files on research.

   "The collaberation effort is a success," says the old man, "poor girl however, a small price to pay however."

  On the monitor Laurel, now a ball jointed articulate human sized doll wearing a brown with white lace dress and black shoes with mid-back length brown curly hair and wearing a white ribbon in her hair; is pointig out the camera as the Doll Collector is tapping on the barrier between them and the camera.