Moon Wish-Doll Chapter 04
Nora came running down the stairs, clutching an empty jewelry box.
“Claire, how could you steal my mother’s keepsake just because you’re mad at me? That’s the only thing she left me. Please give it back. I’ll drop to my knees right now.”
She stumbled clumsily before me and sank to her knees, putting on an over–the–top wailing act. “Claire, just return it. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything you ask, be your maid, anything.”
Her eyes landed on my lumpy arm. She changed tack mid–sentence. “Did you hide my mother’s keepsake inside your arm?”
I shook my head frantically. “No. I didn’t. Really. My arm looks like this because the cotton didn’t get packed evenly.”
Nora’s expression flickered–cold and sharp, a hidden thrill lurking beneath her fake worry.
“Then tear your arm stuffing open and show us everything. If you didn’t hide anything, why are you so afraid to prove it?”
The weirdness passed. She was the sad, wronged girl
again. “Dad, Derek–please, help me.”
I didn’t wait for them to react. I spun on my heel and fled.
The pain of having my arm torn open was too fresh. I was scared.
In Dad and Derek’s eyes, running meant guilt. I was trying to escape.
“I thought you were genuinely sorry. I didn’t think you’d stoop to this.
I tried to run outside, but Derek blocked the front door, Dad blocked the stairs.
The only way left was the basement.
A countdown echoed in my mind:
“Moonbound countdown: thirty minutes remaining.
The basement door was open.
I pushed through, then locked it behind me.
Dad and Derek slammed their fists hard against the
door, the banging echoing nonstop.
I curled up in the corner, terrified.
The faint basement lamp did nothing to chase away my terror.
Their voices came through in overlapping waves.
“You think hiding in there saves you? We have the key. Let yourself out and we’ll go easy on you. Keep this up, and you’re going straight to the mind–healer asylum. We’ve run out of all patience for you.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get up.
Mom had told me the mind–healer asylum was a horrible place.
It was filled with wolves who’d completely lost their sanity. Ordinary folks driven insane the second they stepped inside, and already unhinged creatures turned far worse.
I covered my ears, desperate to block it out.
I prayed for the doll’s voice to come back.
“Please turn me into a Moonbound Doll quickly. Please, just turn me into one already. Once I’m a doll, it won’t hurt anymore. I won’t suffer.”
I huddled trembling in the corner when my shoulder knocked against something plush and soft.
I lifted my head slowly..
In the corner sat a big, familiar doll.
She was smiling at me.
It was Mom, the former Luna Fiona.
I crawled over and curled into her lap like I used to when I was little.
I lifted her hand and rested it on my head, pretending
she was stroking my hair the way she did during thunderstorms.
“Mom, I miss you.
The doll’s voice finally came again:
“Moonbound countdown: one minute remaining.
The basement door creaked as the lock turned.
I looked up at my furious father and didn’t move.
My arms and legs wouldn’t respond to my commands any longer. Every shred of sensation slipped away bit by bit.
Right in front of their eyes, my clothes and my own flesh slowly melted down into soft doll fabric.
Dad and Derek’s anger shifted to shock. To horror.
“Claire? Claire, what’s happening? Claire!”
I forced a smile up at them.
“I didn’t steal Nora’s things. I won’t make Dad and Derek mad anymore. I wasn’t lying. I swear!”
The last sensation faded.
Countdown over.
A tiny doll identical to me materialized out of thin air, sitting silently beside my mother’s large Luna doll.