The wizard's words hung in the air like smoke.
"You're my future."
Belinda stood frozen in the hidden chamber, her eyes fixated on the lifeless model of her in the glass cage.
Her own face—rendered in porcelain, delicately painted, lovingly sculpted. A mockery of her.
Of who she used to be.
"You used me..." She confronted in a low tone. "As your little project."
The wizard stepped closer. Calm. Certain.
"Maybe. And perhaps Slappy awakened what was inside you. But I..."
He gestured toward the doll.
"...I perfected you."
Her lips parted, but no words came.
Her thoughts reeled — from the moment she had woken up in HorrorLand, to the slow unraveling of her humanity, to the way he had cradled her in flattery and half-truths like a cloak of comfort.
And to think she had believed him.
The wizard's face remained serene.
"Liar." She sneered.
"I didn't lie. I guided."
"You manipulated." She responded harshly, her blue eyes filled with anger.
His eyes darkened slightly.
"I gave you sanctuary. Power. Knowledge. Things he never would have."
Belinda's jaw tensed.
"You didn't offer me those things. You used them to keep me here."
Before the words had even fully left her lips, she spun on her heel and dashed toward the door—her heart pounding with desperate hope.
But the wizard's hand shot out, fingers weaving swift, complex gestures in the air.
"And I will continue to keep you here!" He roared.
A shimmering barrier erupted from the glass case, glowing intensely.
The glass case shimmered like liquid light and then expanded, swallowing her whole.
Belinda's breath hitched as the transparent walls closed around her like an unbreakable prison.
She pounded on the smooth surface, every strike muffled and useless.
The enchantment hummed, alive and unyielding.
The wizard's calm eyes watched her struggle. "Containment is necessary, Belinda. For your own good... and for mine."
Trapped and stunned, Belinda pressed her palm flat against the cold glass, feeling the weight of a future she never chose.
YOU ARE READING
The Strings Between Us
FanfictionBelinda is no ordinary teenage girl - sassy, sharp-witted, and craving something deeper than her shallow high school life, she dreams of a mysterious, old soul who can truly see her. But her world is turned upside down when an eerie encounter cause...
