Dollhouses

Finally, I was allowed to sleep in my own bed, the comforts of my familiar room surrounding me. Silence and darkness, which I had always loved, even as a small child, encompassed me like a hug from a long lost friend. I smiled and sighed, despite all of the pain and sadness the same confines had caused me in only the past week. The funeral was in only a few days, but I couldn’t let my mind linger on that for too long. I was finally in a good mood, there was no reason to remind myself of why I shouldn’t be.

I closed my eyes, wishing sleep upon myself, only to open them again. The clock read that it was almost midnight, but despite the fact that I couldn’t think a single straight sentence, I couldn’t keep my eyes shut. I had to get up and move.

I turned on the light, glancing behind me into the empty room, reminding myself to put that doll back on the shelf when I got back. Agent Talbot had left her on my dresser before leaving to question me. My feet guided me towards the stairs and then on to the kitchen, where I poured myself a glass of cold water. I took a drink before setting the glass back on the counter and turning to lean against it. Things just weren’t making sense.

Maybe that’s why I couldn’t sleep.

Sighing, I pulled myself back up the stairs, glass in hand. My light was still on, just the way I’d left it, but as I moved to replace the doll to it’s original spot I realized it was gone. I was so sure she’d been there, hadn’t I just told myself that I should move her? Looking around the room, she wasn’t there at all.

Breath fell short of my lips, my knees shaking beneath me. The glass slid from my grasp and my mind went into tunnel vision. The walls around me caved in as I darted out of the room, barely managing to grab my cellphone in my hurry. My bare feet slid as I ran through the wet grass, trying to stop myself from toppling over as I dialed the number I had only learned hours earlier into the dimly lit keyboard.

“Hello? Do you know what time this is?” the voice grumbled from the other end, not giving me any time to answer. “Who is this?”

I couldn’t speak for a second, caught in a dilemma. Why had I called him anyway? I should have just dialed 9-1-1, it would have been so much easier. “Talbot?” the word was a quiet plea in the dark, dead night. This neighborhood was silent after the sun went down, none of it’s inhabitants very loud in the first place.

“Allison?” his voice jumped an octave, a sure sign of confusion. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

Again I had trouble speaking. My mouth had gone dry like the moisture had just gotten sucked away. “Someone’s in my house,” I whispered hoarsely. There was a commotion on the other end of the line, someone stumbling.

“I’ll be there, hang on,” Talbot murmured into the phone before hanging up, leaving me out in the night with only silence and fear as my company. I don’t know how long it was before I collapsed into the cool grass, I lost track of the amount of time that it took Agent Talbot to get here, but it couldn’t have been as long as it felt.

“Hey!” he said, it sounded louder in the dark than he had intended it to. “Are you okay? Did you see anybody? Did they hurt you?” he asked question after question, I could only shake my head. When I was scared or nervous I couldn’t open my mouth, I could already tell that when he was nervous or scared he had to open it. It was a nice distraction, I decided.

Talbot helped me up, grabbing my arm and holding it tightly as he led me to the front door, sitting me lightly on the cement steps. “I’ll be back, don’t move,” he ordered gently, moving his way into the house and pulling a gun out from its hiding place. I watched, fidgeting, as he stormed quietly into the house.