do.
When I ran outside that day, I was scared because I’d heard Mum scream.
I thought something had happened to her.
Dad is drowning in the pool, blood oozing from his head.
The sound of gurgling nearly suffocates me. Dad is going to drown.
I don’t want him to drown.
He reaches his hand out and I extend my smaller one. The red water is pulling him under. The red water is taking him away.
“Dad…” My whisper is haunted, my small hand trembling along with my entire body.
His face contorts. Chaos. It’s coming back.
Just like it took me to the dark, it’s now taking him.
“Y-you’re a monster,” Dad gurgles on the water. “R-run, Cole.”
Then he’s gone.
Run, Cole.
Those were his last words to me. Not the ‘You’re a monster’ part. He wasn’t looking at me when he said those words.
He was looking behind me.
At the shadow I couldn’t possibly sense because I was shaking, watching Dad drown and not being able to do anything about it.
He was looking at Gav.
Or what’s written in the book as Gav.
Gav is my mother.
Silver is her doll.
43
Doll Master
“Moonlight Sonata” echoes from the phone and I hum along with it as I wipe my doll’s hands.
It’s her favourite piano piece. It’s grown on me, and it makes me think of her.
She’s still out. Maybe I put too much propofol in the syringe this time?
Well, I missed.
I was a bit angry all night.
Everything that I’ve done to be close to my doll is slowly withering away. That bitch Cynthia has always been a sore thumb since high school. Her only saving grace is giving birth to my doll.
Now, she and Sebastian think she can take her away from me?
He said we should divorce. I should move out. I can’t see her anymore. I can’t cook for her, wash her, brush her hair, kiss her, watch her fuck my son.
I’m not jealous of Cole. He’s always been an uninteresting doll, but he’s the only one who can make her eyes roll back and her lips part with so much pleasure. So I let them have it their way.
Even if they lock me out sometimes.
Now, because of Cynthia, Sebastian says I can’t live with my doll anymore. I offered him everything William left me with the sole condition that I stay with him — with my doll.
I was only going to keep watching from afar. I was going to brush her hair and kiss her goodnight and good morning and have her kiss me back.
That’s all I asked for.
I was even hurting other dolls to not lose my cool and touch her.
None of those sacrifices worked. She was going to leave me anyway. No matter what I did, she’d choose the bitch Cynthia over me.
I’ll kill Cynthia as soon as my doll wakes up and gives me a kiss. Then we can stay here.
She used to always come and cook with me here. She’ll love it.
Silver moans as she slowly opens her eyes. Those blue, blue eyes. Like my previous doll that I used to hide beneath my pillow as Dad loved me.
She’s better than that doll, though. Silver is more sophisticated, and her smile is more real.
“H-Helen?” She cradles her temple as she slowly sits up. “What happened?”
“You’re okay, darling.” I caress her arm, her soft skin, her porcelain doll complexion.
I’m the master of this doll.
So much pride fills me at the thought.
“I came here to meet Cole and…” she trails off, finally taking note of her surroundings.
We’re sitting on the edge of the pool.
Where it all started.
William’s death freed me. It gave me so much I didn’t know I could have.
It made me a genius. The type of person who can toy with people’s emotions through writing. I disguised myself in every character I wrote. People hated me, were enraged about my actions, but most of all, they were intrigued by me.
I was William. I was Sebastian and Cynthia. And, last but not least, I’m me and with my doll.
I always liked bringing my doll to the pool and bathing her in it.
We swam in it before, but I couldn’t touch her like I wanted to, because she was smart and she would’ve freaked out.
My son is smart, too, so I had to wear the mask I perfected so well from when I was in my father’s house.
I had to play on his guilt and love for me so that he’d forget about his infatuation with my doll, and let me date Sebastian, and eventually marry him.
Cole pitied me. He felt guilty