Voodootown

Chapter 31

"My place," Ju Ju answered.  "Danica's house.  You know where that is?"

Ash nodded and put the car into gear.  Danica's house was only about six blocks from where they were.  The car lurched again as he stepped too hard on the gas.  After another stomp on the brake, he evened out the speed and had them going forward.  The driving was getting a bit easier.  He had felt half asleep when Blink woke him earlier, and the grogginess had only just worn off.  He thought it was something about being awake at the same time that his doll was, but he was getting used to it.  He turned the corner and risked taking his eyes away from the road to look at Blink.  He grinned.  "Nice to see you."

The stitches of Blink's mouth spread into a smile.  "Good to talk to you.  I get to see you all the time when you're asleep."

"What?" Ash asked.  His smile drooped a little.

Blink's shoulders went up in a shrug and he looked around the car.  "Not like that.  I'm not a stalker or anything.  I'm, you know, part of you."

"Ya made it sound kinda creepy," Ash said.

"Focus on your illegal, unlicensed, underage driving, okay?" Squat said from the back seat.

Ash and Blink smiled again as they turned the next corner.

Danica's house was only three more blocks away.  Ash tried to keep his driving slow and steady, but his foot hit the gas hard when Ju Ju screamed from the back seat.  "No!  No!"  After a swerve toward a parked car, Ash got the car under control.  Blink teleported to the top of the front seat and gave Ash a point of view glimpse of Ju Ju passed out on the seat.

"What the hell?" Squat asked before Ash could say anything.

"Her human woke up," Flow said.

Another doll nodded, one with only one button eye.  Ash tried to see the road with Blink's visuals laid over it.  "She was really scared.  Danica is really scared," Ribbon said.

Then Ash heard the screams.  From more than a block away, he heard a girl's voice and knew it was Danica.  "What the hell?" he asked.

"Get there.  Fast," Blink said.  Ash stepped on the gas again and the big engine in the fifty-year-old car drowned out everything for a second.

When he could hear anything inside the car again, Twister's voice hit him, sounded angry.  "It has to be an attack.  That's where we're staying."

Through Blink's eyes, he saw Twister looking around at all the dolls.  None of them said anything.  "How did he know where we were?"  Ash saw her look to Ribbon.  "Oh, crap," Twister said.  She turned into a blur and Ribbon was suddenly on the far side of the car, held flat on her stomach with Twister on top.  There was a pin in Twister's hand, held high.

"Whoa!  Wait," Root said.  "What are you doing?"

Ash didn't bother trying to park as he got near Danica's house.  He just jerked the car to a stop in the middle of the street and left it running.

"It's her," Twister said.  "Look at her."

Ash tried to push Blink's sight away as he looked up at the house.  The screams were coming from the top floor, from a room in the attic. 

Root spoke from the back seat.  "Oh god.  Her eye.  It's still connected.  I never thought to look.  He's using her."

"Is it just her eye?" Twister asked.

"I think so," Root said.

"Be sure."

Another scream came from the attic.  "Uh, what about Danica?" Ash asked.