Demon Dads (DarkiplierXAntisepticeyeXIdkAnymore,Someone)

Other Residents

As I ate my tomato-and-chicken curry, I heard a deep, slurred voice from upstairs declare in a showman's tone, "Smeeeells like dinner!" A man with dark hair, a perfectly groomed bright pink mustache, and a red-and-white striped suit jacket came into the room and sat at one end of the table, furthest away from me. Anti had put a plate at each place except his and Dark's with curry and rice, so the man picked up a fork immediately, but then paused, looking up at me.
"And whooo might this be?" He asked, sounding like he was introducing a new contestant on a game show.
Dark, who was still sitting in his place, looked up at him and said, "Wilford, this is the kid of that man who used to do favors for Anti and I."
"Ah," Wilford said, scooping up a forkful of curry in a dramatic motion. "Old fellow got himself caught, did he?"
"He went a little too far," Dark said quietly. "And yes, he got caught. So as per our agreement, Anti and I will care for her. You will stay out of it."
"All right," Wilford said, raising his hands in a not-touching motion that contradicted the gleam in his eye. He tucked into his curry.
"Google!" Anti called suddenly, coming in from where he was washing pans in the kitchen and making me flinch. "Dinner!"
Another man came in. He looked an awful lot like Wilford, but he wore smallish, rectangular wireframe glasses and had no facial hair except a light, even layer of stubble. And his eyes were a bright, slightly glowing blue.
He sat next to me, his movements automatic and almost jerky, and picked up the fork. He ate quickly, but wasn't done before me. I had had a head start on him.
Anti saw I was done and took my plate to the kitchen. Dark stood and offered me his hand. I stood too, and pointed at the last plate. "What about that?" I asked.
"That's for the Host. Anti just puts it on out of habit. He'll take it down in a bit."
"Correction," Anti's voice yelled from the kitchen, "Dark will take it down in a bit. I cook, you deliver."
Dark chuckled. "Whichever. Come on, I'll show you your room."
He led me up two flights of stairs into a large, low-ceilinged attic. In one corner was a bed and a battery-powered nightlight, as well as the cord to pull to turn the light off. Nearby was a toy chest and a tall set of drawers with a large mirror on one side.
"Go on and look through everything. Let us know what you don't like, and we'll find other things," Dark said, bowing me into the room. Or maybe he was just waving me in. It was hard to tell. He couldn't stand straight with the cieling and was hunched somewhat. I was shorter so I stood with a foot to spare.
I opened the toy chest as Dark left and saw a selection of toys that I had mentioned I wanted. They were quite nice and I ended up playing with them for an hour or two, and by the time I got to the drawers, the floor was a toy-littered playground.
As I somewhat expected, the drawers held a bunch of clothes, similar to the kind I usually wore. The shirts were bright colored and often sparkly, with some frills and rhinestones among them. There were plenty of jeans my size and a couple skirts for if I felt like being pretty. There was a dress as well, a red, tulle-skirted thing with big black flower designs. I had seen it once in some department store, but Ma was shuffling me off to get shoes and I didn't get to try it on. I did so now and looked into the mirror.
The big skirt made me feel like a princess in a ballgown. I strutted in front of the drawers, ordering about my doll underlings, then changed into fuzzie footie pajamas and started organizing my kingdom, finding places for everyone to go to bed. The littlest dolls went into the dollhouse. The bigger ones found beds on the floor in a neat row. The horse went to stable under the bed. Everyone found their sleeping spots, and then I climbed into the bed and sat up, waiting to see if one of my new dads would come say goodnight.