dollface | melanie martinez

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

crybaby blinked in surprise.

"are you sure, dollface?" she asked uncertainly.

"i wouldn't lie about something like this!" clara protested.

crybaby opened her mouth, but before she could say anything else the door was flung open. automatically she dropped to the ground, in her doll form again.

"clara, come on. we're leaving now," said mama harshly from the door.

"c- can i bring this new doll i found with me, mama?" asked clara quickly, holding up the robin doll.

mama rolled her eyes. "another one? fine. but hurry up."

clara hastily got to her feet, tucking her crybaby doll under one arm and her robin doll under the other as she followed mama down the stairs, out into the hall past her arguing family members and then down the gravel drive to the car.

at home, back in clara's room, she and crybaby flopped down onto the floor to stare at the robin doll in curiosity.

"if he's dead, how do you think he became a doll?" asked clara. "does that mean you're dead too?"

crybaby shook her head. "i'm just as alive as you are, baby. i really don't know."

"maybe he needs waking up," clara suggested, crawling over to the other side of the room where the doll was lying. before crybaby could even process, clara was shaking the doll and yelling, "robin! wake up- wake up, robin- robin!"

"clara," crybaby hissed, but it was too late;

there was a flash of light;

clara was thrown back,

and where the robin doll had been lying before

was now robin himself.

clara exchanged a wide-eyed look with crybaby before saying uncertainly, "robin..?"

"you found me," robin said happily. "i missed you. all i wanted was to play. do you know who i am yet?"

"you're my brother," clara nodded solemnly. "i'm sorry i didn't know before. come on, let's play!"

"tag! you're it," robin yelled suddenly. he lunged at clara's shoulder to supposedly tap it before racing off,

sailing right through her.

clara shivered, feeling cold chills run through her entire body.

"what the fuck?" crybaby muttered under her breath, looking completely confused.

"what?" asked robin, confused. "why did you say a bad word for?"

"you just went through me," said clara, similarly puzzled. "robin, are you a ghost?"

robin nodded. "duh. what else would i be?"

"then why aren't you... somewhere else?" asked clara. "wherever people go after they die."

crybaby froze, as though something had just dawned on her. "someone wise from the school i used to go to once explained to me that ghosts are passed humans whose souls aren't yet at peace. there's something robin has to do so he can rest peacefully."

"what do you have to do, robin?" clara asked her brother's ghost softly.

"there's something i have to tell you," he admitted.

"mama lied to you. i didn't die of sickness;

i was murdered."

robin let out a gentle sigh; he slowly began to fade into a silhouette of white-gold, before dissolving altogether. the china doll that portrayed him twitched a few times from its position on the floor, and then was still.

clara and crybaby exchanged looks, both in utter shock.