Doll House

The music pulses like an irregular heartbeat. But the pattern is caught, and my limbs know what they’re doing as my mind fills with melodic instrumentals.

Tonight, the beat is loud outside the privacy of my earphones (the usual space). My body is free to ride the waves of musicality that thumps within these walls without worrying about anyone noticing. That’s because everyone is dancing. Despite the darkness of the club, the dim lights show bodies that move to the musical current. 

Suddenly, I feel a warm form press into me from behind. This is not just another dancer. No, the movement of the body is more intentional and sensual.

I lean a little into it, inviting the warmth to come a little closer. Our bodies are almost in sync. From the corner of my eye, I see the flash of jewelry— an engraved golden ring.

The dancing goes on for a bit until we are no longer in the center of the dance floor. My partner is not shy about putting their hands where they want. 

They think they knew what would happen next.  

By the time we were in the hallway where fewer people would come across us, I was face to face with my would-be lover. 

A potential candidate. A potential victim.

My mind flashes to one of the other girls. My best friend before I realized I couldn’t care about anyone in this life. The look of fear was the last I saw of her dark eyes before they took her away.

None of us had ever been safe.

My thoughts clear of everything but the task at hand. The music still pulses somewhere far off, but it no longer occupies my mind. I press my body in, while my fingers graze the neck  of my new interest in the way that I knew felt good to anyone that had my focus. 

Quickly, with a few pressure points selected, my victim was down, slumped before they even knew what happened. 

Suddenly, the body at my feet begins to change. The hair lengthens and the shoulders narrow in size. The proportions of the body change into an obvious female form.. I raise a brow.

But I knew it. She had given herself away when she danced, and in such a way that was unaccustomed to the body that she had modified herself into. Not just the bad dancing.

 I pull-off the ring that shrunk to accommodate the shape and size of the previous owner. It slips easily over the middle finger of my left hand, and it seems that the light reflects off of it like a friendly greeting.

I smile.

I shift into the form that she previously occupied, and I know I wear it better. It became easier, over the years, to make only after I found out their secret. I figured out how they were able to change themselves and so I turned my body into a test subject to do the same. I would beat them at their own game. After years of research, planning, and training, I was ready. I would have my revenge. 

I know that having the ring that symbolized the cult-like gang I was infiltrating, paired with the new skin recently acquired, would not be enough to keep my cover from being blown if I was not careful.

I make my stride easy towards the back of the club, but not too easy. No one gives me a second glance as I make my way to the corner of the club, an unassuming doorway that stands not far from the bar. Or at least it would have been unassuming, if I hadn’t noticed that the casually dressed men near the door were in the same spot much longer than was typical of usual patrons. That door was my target.

←→

I stand before the green-eyed devil himself. Theodore.

I expected a look of surprise, at the very least. But of course, he couldn’t give me that bit of satisfaction. The bastard.

“To whom do I owe the pleasure of speaking with? I make it my business to know my security, and you are not Booker.” He says this lazily, but there is a sharp and calculating eye that tells me he misses nothing. Basic and austere, the room shows very little personality, other than the tray of liquor nearby and a bookcase. He sits in the only seating furniture available in the room, which leads me to think not many are welcome.

Leaning against the neighboring side table, my skin begins to transform to its native form. I reveal my face first, slowly, but it has been a while. My body was tired and the feel of my own skin is not something I wear often anymore.

“You…” He sits up with wide eyes. “How?”

I lift a shoulder into a shrug. “A trickster never reveals their secrets.”

“Hm, yes, it seems you’ve developed some skills and have done your research. It’s not easy to make it this far without being killed already. You were always one of the more watchful and quiet of the girls. I always thought the quiet ones were the most dangerous, and it turns out I was right. It’s a pity you left.”

I escaped. 

My jaw clenches but then I force myself to relax. The gun that had been strapped to my thigh before, I hold now with a target between his eyes. He raises a brow. 

“This is how you’re going to repay me when I provided you food, shelter, and education?”

I spit. “You took me from my home and pimped me out. You killed innocent girls—”

Tilt of the head. “No one stole you. And you weren’t killed.”

I take a breath. “Lies. You talk too much anyway.”

What I expected before walking in here, didn’t happen. And before I know it, I am moving, vaulting over the desk. If I miss a beat, then I’m dead. 

He’s fast. This is no overly-confident head-honcho whose power gives him a false sense of security. He protects his back at all times, which is apparent with the placement of his desk with his back completely against the wall. It’s also apparent that he seems to be ready for my next move. 

“Didn’t you ever wonder how...it was possible for me to know so much about you before you came to be with us?” His breath rasps with exertion but his eyes are bright with excitement. I got the feeling that he was enjoying this.

Kicking away from his desk, Theodore uses the adjacent table to spin away from my aim as I launch myself at him. After blocking a punch that he throws my way, I swipe his feet from under him. “You have all the money in the world to get the information that you need. It wouldn’t be that hard.”

He catches himself on his hands, just in time to crab-walk away from me. At this point, Theodore was backed into a corner. In one quick deft movement, he whips his pistol in front of him to direct right at me.

“Hmph. You’re quite fast. But to your point, no. You flatter me, but information was given to me willingly. Your family knew we were coming.”

My mother’s crying face floats to me in my mind’s eye. Another image of my father yelling followed after. My sister...my sister having been taken long before me, had already been a ghost in our house. I was supposed to be safe.

 I lunge towards my enemy in rage, anguish, and total confusion.

I am avenging her. I am avenging myself.

Theodore looks down at the short knife that protrudes from the side of his rib. The look of surprise and pain seems to war against each other on his face. He falls to his knees.

I lean in closer to the side of his ear. My breath eases. “Like you said, I was always the most attentive of your girls. I learned something else from my time with you, that you always said. ‘Never be predictable.’”

A half smile. “You make me proud. But I should let you know one thing. The truth.”

To my horror, the face in front of me changes to a face from my past. It’s a face that I know too well.

A set of light blue eyes, similar to my own stare back at me. 

“...Sister?”