Alice Mare

Joshua

“Father went cold. He really did.

I told mother, but she didn’t believe me.

She didn’t believe anything that I said anymore.

Quite some time passed before my brother and sister noticed, and she finally realized.

She made a face, I’d never seen before.

A face I didn’t want to see.

There wasn’t surprise, or anger, or smiling or laughter.

After that day, mother stopped saying anything.

She was just silent coldly staring somewhere”

“Mom?! Mom?! Mom?!” Joshua cried out hysterically, clutching and pulling at his mother’s hanging body. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to!”

“Oh? What do you care about that piece of trash of a doll? You said it was already dead didn’t you?” Cheshire smiled, scratching his head as casually as he can as if he was detached from whatever was happening around him.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Joshua screamed at the top of his lungs. “She’s not a doll! She’s my mom! She’s not dead! She’s not dead!” He continued to scream.

Cheshire was silent for a moment as he watched Joshua struggle to get his mother down but then, all of a sudden he let out an ear piercing crackle of a laugh that echoed through the darkness around us.

“Stop laughing! Stop laughing!” Joshua screamed at him as he lunged towards him, throwing fist after fist of attacks meant to hit Cheshire squarely on the face. Cheshire however didn’t have the slightest intention of getting hit so he dodged everything Joshua threw at him with the flexibility and grace of that of a cat’s, all the while still laughing his heart out.

“Josh stop!” I tried calling out to him but my voice couldn’t reach him. He was already lost. The small thread that had helped him keep his sanity snapped. I took a glance at Jay for the last time just before I run to Joshua. If you were to take away all of the cuts and bruises that covered his body he almost would have looked like he was asleep. Well, almost. One thing caught my eye as my sight lingered on Jay for a few seconds more. A dark cracking line had started to draw itself on Jay’s lifeless body. Starting first just under his right eye, it snaked itself across his cheeks. By the time I was just about to turn away the skin around his right cheek looked like it was just about to fall off. I ran towards as fast as my feet can carry me, taking into consideration that I was exhausted and pretty much beaten up I would say I was running in a pretty slow pace. By the time I reached Joshua Cheshire had grown bored with him so with one furry gigantic paw he punched Joshua right in the chest. Cheshire’s punch must have quite a lot of force to it since I heard Joshua breath out every ounce of air in his body with a loud gasp before he was sent flying and crumpled down on the floor. I helped him up as soon as I got to him. He body was already shaking, his arms raw with cuts and bruises. There was a steady stream of tears from his eyes but when I looked into them I saw nothing in them just empty and dull. Not a hint of recognition was there, as if his body was still alive but his soul was dead.

“S-She’s not dead!” Joshua cried out through gritted teeth. We were leaning against each other now with Joshua staggering as I steadied him with my arms.

“’She’s not dead! She’s not dead!’ Ugh! How boring.” Cheshire cocked his head to one side, his good eye glinting as he looked at us. “Let’s have a change in scenery shall we?” And with that Cheshire snapped his fingers.

The room changed drastically in a blink of an eye as countless number of eyes opened from the ceiling to the walls to even the dark floor. The eyes all looked at me as I stared back petrified. Instinctively I tried to avoid stepping on any of them, I just knew something bad might happen if we were to touch them. During my efforts to avoid them however I lost my balance, sending me and Joshua crashing down on top of each other.