dollface | melanie martinez

𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

"what the fuck were you thinking?" mama roared, exploding the moment that the manor's doors slammed closed
behind them.

"i want answers," clara yelled back. "i'm not scared of you anymore." she clutched crybaby tighter to her chest subconsciously. "mama, who murdered robin?"

"what were you thinking?" mama repeated, grabbing clara by her shoulders and shaking the child so viciously that clara felt like her teeth were rattling back into her skull.

"hey- mama, careful now," said angel hastily, gently separating the two with her usual willowy grace, as had once been possessed too by their mother. despite everything that was going on, clara was hit with another wave of desperate love and admiration for her older sister.

"you saw what she did!" mama spat, turning on angel, but before she could get any further the manor doors slammed heavily shut and papa was stood on the doormat.

"what's going on here?"

mama rounded on papa instead.
"why weren't you at your own mother's funeral?" she demanded, storming up to the man. in her high heels and rage, she was nearly the same height as him, but appeared to tower over him like an oak tree in a storm.
"fucking hell, even she noticed," she added spitefully, gesturing towards clara.

clara swallowed and clutched her crybaby doll tighter to her chest.

"good lord, i told you, it was a business trip," said papa wearily. "you have my apologies, woman, but it couldn't be helped."

"then what's this?"
clara heard angel's accusatory tone and spun around to see miss lucy the governess, held in a headlock by angel and squirming uncomfortably.

"hey! angel, be nice to her," clara said quickly, hurrying over. "she's my governess and i promise she's really nice-"

"i found her trying to sneak up to papa's study," said angel grimly. "the two appear to have been... together for months."

mama let out a choked noise.
"again? you've been with other women again? you promised this would stop, arthur!" her voice climbed in octaves, higher and higher, shrill with emotion.

papa's mouth began to open and close angrily in response. clara felt herself shutting off again, as she did whenever mama and papa fought. she preferred to just not hear it.

she felt arms wrap around her, and spun around to see angel picking her up gently.

"come on, let's get you upstairs," her big sister murmured. "that way crybaby will be able to take care of you."

"okay," clara murmured, clutching crybaby tighter and burying her face in angel's shoulder. when they reached her bedroom, angel sat clara gently on her bed and kissed her forehead before leaving the room again.

clara put crybaby on the floor, and a moment later her best friend was wrapping her arms around her.

"i don't like it when mama and papa fight," clara said quietly. "it's not nice. and it's not fair, that angel's old enough to just escape it all. maybe we should escape, crybaby."

"maybe someday," crybaby agreed. "but i think it's for the better that, for now at least, you stay here. how about we don't think about it- here, wanna play dolls?"

clara nodded, grateful for the change of subject, and the two of them sat down by the dollhouse, beginning to play game.

the shouting raged on downstairs, but the two ignored it.

however, when vases could be heard smashing,

and there was an ear-splitting shriek,

clara couldn't take it anymore.

"crybaby, i have to see what's going on down there," she pleaded. "it's hurting to hear it."

crybaby nodded a little reluctantly, her curiosity getting the better of her, and became a doll again for clara to scoop up in her grasp as she hurried down the hall to the stairs.

she crept down them as quietly as she could,

although she quickly discovered that her stealth was far from required;

her mother was pacing back and forth angrily, muttering to herself and waving her arms,

while at her feet

was the limp body

of papa.

clara took in the pool of blood he was laying in, and the large dark spot in the middle of his chest, and felt bile rising up in her throat; this sickened feeling only intensified when she realised that miss lucy was lying next to him in exactly the same way.

had mama really murdered them?

when clara spotted the incriminating bloody knife lying a few feet away from the bodies, it was difficult to believe otherwise.

angel was nowhere to be seen.

clara felt a pit open up in her stomach, and ran blindly back up the stairs to the maids' staircase that ran down to the kitchens, utility rooms and the food garden outside.

before she knew it, the moonlight was on her skin and she was running, running, holding crybaby tightly and running as far as she could.