Future Lovecraft

DOLLY IN THE WINDOW By Robyn Seale

HEY. NEW GIRL. Im Joelle. Welcome to the Nabrinious official Orphan Asylum Fer Girls. Lemme be the first to welcome ya. As you can see here, youll be bunkin in this gurgeous, six-by-eight room with me, your lovely host. Whats yer name?

Annabelle? Good name. You an offworlder?

Yeah, i can always tell. Yer bones are soft. S okay. Itll make this arm easier to break. Yer what, six? Seven?

Ghaaaaaaad. Dont whine like that. I aint gonna do it now. Gotta get some other girls up here. S a hard job, yanno? Generally, we get this girl, Carolina? Yeah. Shes built like a tank, that girl. Has a hard job gettin through the ducts, but does all right.

Well have to cut yer hair, too. Shame, really. S so pretty. My hair was like that once, yanno? Not all gross and mouse-brown and braided up. Youll have to learn to do it close to yer scalp, so’s it doesnt get caught by accident in the fans n stuff.

Ghaaaaaad. Shuddup. Yer jus like Mary, all puffed up about yer hair. Itll grow back. The tooth weve gotta knock out wont, though. Which side are you partial to chewin on? Left or right?

Left is the L side if you make it with yer thumb. Hold up both your hands n’ make Ls out of ‘em. The one what looks like it ain’t backwards is your left. Like loser

Stop yer cryin. Wont hurt but a minute.

Pshsshshshshs. You think yer the first one Miz Bensons told that to? Think agin, buttbreath. You know where youll end up? Not offworld, livin the posh life. Youll get adopted by the Dollmakers, all right. Then youll regret it.

Did I knock some teeth out? Naw, I don come from good stock, yanno? Mdad wholloped mosta my pearly whites out fore he kicked the bucket.

You dont believe me? Well, you dunno about Mary.

Mary was like you, some snot-nosed fancy brat that comes in here all snooty, like this colony was too good fer her. Bit older, though. Had differ’nt hair.

Miz Benson told her the same thing. She didnt listen to us. You see all these girls in here? Notta licka us pretty or all dolled up. Were the smart ones an keep ourselves useful, cleanin up these air ducts.

It aint a nice job, sure. Sure, we gotta few teeth missin and some bad skin. But were here, yanno?

Now, you know the Dollmakers an how theyre so proud to get all their dolls unique? Howdya think they do it? Huh?

Ill tell ya.

These girls. That come in through here.

Mary didnt believe me. Went off with those creepy mouth-breathers and their fancy masks. Theyll give you somethin too. Somethin’ thatll make you sleepy fore you even leave here. Yell be givin yer goodbyes through crazy, off-matched eyes.

Then well never see ya agin, cept through the Dollmaker shop winda.

Serious! Dont look at me like that. You can see Mary down over there in that winda. The one with the red hair, nitpick. Kept her velvet dress on, too. Recycles, I guess.

Why, doncha believe me? Cross my heart, hope to die. Thats the gods lickin truth.

Hey. Ill give you more proof, if you want. Gimme a candy or two you got in yer bag, an Ill tell ya.

So…I aint told the other girls; I dont think theyd go back in the air ducts after what I saw. Man, how olds this candy? Takin forever to chew.

Anyways, after Mary was taken up by the Dollmen, I went ahead and did my shift. She werent here but a day or so, an there aint no sympathy in Miz Bensons cold, withered mummy heart.

Anyways, here I was, doin what would be her route had she listened. And then I hear a noise.

Its this weird gurglin noise that I havent heard before. Like…like, yanno how cats get all drippy an stuff? Like they was yowlin and drippin all over each other.

So’s I went to go take a look-see. Got all up in some vent that hadnt been cleaned in a minute. I dunno whose route its on, but it werent any of ours. Someone woulda said somethin’, yanno?

Anyways, I get to followin this duct and somethin awfuls comin from it. Really horrible. I mean, I smelled poop and theres dead critters comin’ in from outside that get trapped and die, and sometimes, you find them rottin…but this rottin that you aint find nowhere.

I start peekin in some vents and I realize, Im lookin at the factory! The Dollmaker factory! You aint never seen nothin like it. Theres this big ol room, with these huge drainage vats and somethin’ right awful is livin in them. Theyre just…blobby things with faces and eyes and mouths all poppin up like bubbles boiling.

An theyre huge, like…whatcha call em…elephants! Elephants on the videoprompter. Giant blobs of gross jus rollin’ and boilin’ and yowlin’.

You aint never heard sucha sound they were makin. Jus thinking bout it gives me the willies. Thats when I realizedtheyre cryin like babies. Theyre hungry.

I know, cuz the Dollmen start roundin girls like you up. Theyre all naked as the day they came inta the world, and weird.

I mean, weird as in drugged. Not like they did anythin’ like the perv down the street does, with his huggin too long and bribin with candies. They were all sleepy-eyed, like when they leave here. An they gotta be, yanno? Im here, lookin at these things, and I nearly lose my lunch over it. Those girls are just…standin’ there. All glassy-eyed and dumb. I spotted Mary and she was all smilin like she was on a picnic or somethin.

Anyways, these Dollmen start leadin these girls up these stairs to the edge of the drainpipes, big ol gargantuan things, all filled to the brim with these slippy slidin monsters. AND THEN THEY JUST WALK IN. These girls just take a step and bloop! Right into the mess they go.

Whats really nasty is that the girls dont pop up for a minute. The bodies churn and theres more mouth bubbles and these vats are makin’ a happy noise, I guess, cuz it sounds like a weird, keenin song. And all the vats are makin’ it. The dollmen are just standin there, not movin’.

When they do pop up, theyre just skin and hair. Everythins been taken out. You can see it when the Dollmen take these long hooks and skim the surface. The mouths and eyes and stuff just slip under or over the metal.

And then what? Whatchoo think, girl? I got the hell outta there. I didnt wanna poke around and see how they stuff em. How they pop some glass eyes in there. If they wait around for some teeth to pop up, so they can replace them pearly whites.

Nooo. I just went my way. Came home, pretended I was sick. Miz Benson didnt like it, but it wasnt hard to fake. I threw all up on her when she tried to whup me. All’s I had to do was to think of those things in the factory.

The next day, Mary Mary Quite Contrary was up in that windasill, lookin finer than when she left here. Left in that pretty velvet dress.

So, Im sayin, cut yer hair, break a tooth or two. You dont wanna end up like Mary or the other girls. You gotta do it quick or—

No, Miz Benson, I ain’t tellin’ tall tales agin. Annabelle here was jus’ sayin’ how she didn’t wanna go with the Dollmen. She wanted to learn the fine trade of air duct cleanin’, didn’t you, Orphan Annie. Didn’t you?

Oh…You didn’t? I swears, Miz Benson. I didn’t tell her nothin’.

[In a low whisper] You ass! You brat! Youve done it in now!

Youre right, Miz Benson. I am late to my duties. Well, goodbye, Annie. Guess Ill see you in the shop winda, sometime. Besta luck.