Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 12 - Welcome Home (Minor Edits Made)

The chain remained in Netta's hand for only a moment before Ash took it out of her hand. "Hey, so that's where you've been keeping our old friend all of this time."

"Give that back." She said, holding her hand out. Netta hoped It could not see the shaking in her hand. 

When Ash didn't listen to her, Netta turned around on him, brandishing the box.   "I don't want to look at it - put it back. Now."

Ash rolled Its eyes dramatically, clicking Its tongue in distaste. Nevertheless, in it went.

When she turned around to sit on top of her bedspread to catch her breath, Ash remarked, "Where'd you get the chain in the first place?"

Netta, still looking down at the box, said, "I thought we would have talked about that by now."

"Not its origins, no."

Without turning around to look at the Monster, Netta answered, saying, "Dad's, just like the chain. If you knew him, you'd realize immediately who gave it to me. He was always - well, something special."

"I thought that this was the man that you referred to as the best Human who ever lived?"

Netta, who had stood up to start for the entrance, paused, a smile on her face. "You can be a lot of things at once. I haven't seen it done - successfully - very much, but dad was sort of like... One of those traveling showmen who would drive his wagon out of town before the townsfolk figured out that his Fiji mermaid was a trout stuck to a stuffed Capuchin. If he had been an asshole, I'm sure that Hera would have killed him the first time he undermined her, but he could make anyone laugh. Well, except Mother."

She turned to survey her room one last time before she shook her head and walked out.

They hardly said anything as Netta went through Beryl's, Netta's younger and biological sister's, room.  As she had suspected, it did not look as though the woman had been back in a long while.  Looking through her room proved fruitless, save for the find of Beryl's doll collection. 

Netta ignored them in their cushions along the far wall next to the window, gazing, ageless, at her.

Until one cried out.  Not expecting the outburst, Netta leaped back.

It was Ash that investigated the doll first, pulling the one that was crying separate from the others.

The Monster lifted the doll up by the rightmost braid in its hair Staring at it for a moment, Ash turned to Netta and asked, simply, "What?"

Netta pressed her hand to her chest in an effort to calm her racing heart.  "Beryl and those fucking things."

Ash paused then looked back at her meaningfully. A slow smile started to spread on its lips. "Oohhh. That's right, you hate dolls."

"No. not dolls. Just Beryl's monstrosities." She rose her hand out. "Ash, stop while you're ahead."

"Yeah - yeah; some people are afraid of clowns, other people are scared of needles. You; stick you in a room with a porcelain doll in a cute little dress, you act as though you were stuck in a room with a tiger."

"This is so not funny, drop that thing - you know for a fact that there are very good, established reasons why I don't like Beryl's -"

The doll had not stopped crying, but was, instead, shrieking the more that Ash held it by its hair. Its reaction was a clear reason to expect that the thing was another one of Beryl's bizarre experiments.