As soon as Benny came home, he ran into his room and sat down at his computer. He pulled up his video chat and called Ellie right away.
"Hey, B," Ellie said from his computer screen.
"El, I just got one of the most amazing things in the universe," he said eagerly to his camera.
"Do I need to go to Ethan's?" she asked.
"Yes! You two are going to love it!" Benny convinced her.
"I'll be there in five," she smiled, quickly hanging up the call.
Benny jumped out of his room, said bye to his Grandma, and hopped onto his bike to ride a few houses down to the Morgan's residence.
"Benny!"
He turned around and saw Ellie on her bike just a few feet away. They both stopped at Ethan's house and parked their bikes in the front lawn.
"What did you get?" she asked, excited. Benny held it behind his back as she tried to grab it. "Nope! You have to wait until I show Ethan, too."
"Awh, what! Fine!"
They went up the stairs as soon as Sarah let them in and ran into Ethan's room.
"Dude, your parents are gone and we have the house to ourselves," he exclaimed to Ethan. "Well, except for your sister and Sarah, your babysitter."
"Benny has a surprise and he wouldn't tell me until we were in here, and now we are!" Ellie added, trying once again to steal whatever Benny had from behind his back.
"Does it rhyme with 'gideo vames'?" Ethan asked him.
"Almost... Knights of Ninjutsu 4!"
He whipped it from behind his back as Ethan and Ellie stared in surprise.
"What!" Ellie exclaimed, finally getting to hold it in her hands.
"I had to wait five hours in line for this puppy and I had to pee the entire time!" Benny shouted while Ethan took the game from Ellie.
"This is going to be worth every bit of kidney damage! Wait, why do we need an empty house for this?" Ethan asked him.
"You know, so we can yell and stuff," Benny answered.
"You both yell in here all the time! My mom is constantly telling you two to—!"
"Do you wanna play or not?" Benny and Ellie yelled.
They looked at one another as they all ran to Ethan's computer.
------------
"No! It's not fair!"
Ethan complained as he sat fixing the wires in his computer. "I can't believe the processor burnt out right now! If I could jump these cables, I could probably get it working."
"Maybe, we could use a minor reparation spell," Benny suggested as he and Ellie flipped through their spellbook. "It can fix anything. It says so right here."
Ethan suddenly cheered as he got the processor working again. "Booyah! We're back in business."
"Yeah, sword chopping business!"
Ellie shook her head. "More like 'killing Benny' business."
"Hey!"
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"Guys, you might wanna see this!" Sarah yelled from the other room.
The three geeks paused the game and groaned, throwing their controllers onto Ethan's desk.
"Sarah, what could be more important than sword-wielding robot ninjas right now!"
Before Ethan and Ellie could add to Benny's cavil, they entered the doorway of Jane's bedroom to find a life-sized resurrected doll holding hands with Jane.
Ellie's face fell as one of her nightmares literally came to life in front of her eyes.
"Hi, I'm Debbie Dazzle," the doll spoke. "Wanna play?"
Debbie Dazzle walked closer to the geeks, ignoring Ellie holding her breath as she subconsciously moved closer to Benny.
"What the heck is that?" Ethan spoke.
"That is a life-sized Debbie Dazzle. I think I had a dream about this once," Benny answered.
"I've had countless nightmares..." Ellie croaked from behind Benny.
Ethan and Benny instantly remembered her intense fear of dolls as she gawked at Debbie with wide eyes. As Ethan talked to Jane, Debbie decided to notice Ellie's unease.
"You look scared. A hug will make you feel better."
Debbie Dazzle began to walk towards Ellie with her arms outstretched. Ellie did not hesitate to suck in what was left of the air in her lungs and hide her eyes behind Benny's shoulder, holding his arm in desperation.
"I'm not looking until I don't see a plastic monster walking towards me," Ellie piped.
"Jane," Ethan began, looking down at his little sister. "How did this happen?"
"She had a broken leg, so I used Benny and Ellie's fix-it spell. Now, she's alive!" the eight-year-old explained, giggling at the sight of her beloved toy.
"Let's have ice cream and go to a roller disco dance party!" Debbie announced, cheesing an uncanny smile.
"I'm in!" Benny agreed before Ellie kept her grip on his arm.
"You are not leaving me!" she angrily whispered, her eyes still shut behind his shoulder.
"No parties. We need to turn her back into a doll."
Debbie seemed shocked at Ethan's proposal and became suddenly angry. "No! I don't want to go back! It's so boring! I wanna have fun! I won't go back, I won't!"
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..."
Benny heard Ellie from behind his shoulder and decided to take a leap of faith. Feeling Benny's fingers intertwine with hers, Ellie took his hand back and slowly opened her eyes. She flinched at the now angry sight of Debbie Dazzle but felt a bit safer.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"Don't worry, Debbie. I won't let them change you back, I promise!" Jane reassured her doll.
"Oh, goodie! Let's celebrate with a cupcake dance party!"
Debbie and Jane left the room, causing Ellie to loosen her death-grip on Benny's arm.
"Both of you! Find a way to undo this!" Sarah whisper-yelled, handing them their spellbook.
She looked down to see both of the mages' hands locked with one another. They quickly noticed Sarah's smirk and untangled their hands.
"It's not that simple," Ellie stated, flipping through the book. "She must have used a different spell or different words."
"We can't reverse it until we know the exact spell," Benny sighed.
"Just find the spell. Fast."
Ethan walked away but added, "And make sure El doesn't pass out, B!"
"Please..." Ellie spoke, unenthusiastically.
------------
"El, come on. We have to go down there."
Once Benny and Ellie couldn't find the proper spell, they eventually had to return back downstairs into the presence of Debbie Dazzle. Needless to say, Ellie was not a fan.
"She tried to hug me, Benny," Ellie croaked. "That's enough nightmares to last my lifetime."
"...Here."
Ellie looked up from the spellbook to see Benny's open hand waiting for hers. "I'm not gonna let her touch you, okay?"
With those awkward butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Ellie grinned at Benny's hand before taking it, closing the spellbook, and heading downstairs to the kitchen where Ethan, Sarah, Jane, and Debbie Dazzle awaited.
They reached the kitchen to find Jane and Debbie cooking, while Ethan and Sarah just stood watching.
"Woah, this really is a cupcake party," Benny exclaimed.
"Did you two find anything?" Ethan asked.
"Well, we have good news and bad news," Ellie told him and Sarah. "The bad news is we couldn't figure out the spell."
"Good news is that we're on Level 2 of Knights of Ninjutsu 4," Benny said, smiling as they high-fived each other with their free hands.
"You both have been up there for an hour!" Sarah yelled.
"It's a hard game!" Benny and Ellie defended.
"Mmm, lemon swirl."
Debbie Dazzle lifted a cupcake up to Sarah, looking offended as she declined her offer. She then turned to Ellie.
"Are you okay? You've looked uncomfortable for a while. Are you hungry?" Ellie's grip on Benny's hand tightened.
"There's another reason for that," Benny answered for her.
"Is Ellie okay?" Sarah asked, leaning into Ethan's ear.
"When we were in Grade 3, we all watched 'Child's Play' by ourselves and she had nightmares for weeks," he explained, with Sarah nodding her head in understanding.
"Oh, no. Look at your clothes," Debbie said to Jane. "I know just what we should play next: Debbie Dazzle Fashion Show!" Jane agreed as they began to walk back up the steps into her room.
"Ouch!"
Surprising everyone in the kitchen, Debbie Dazzle bent over and gripped her stomach in supposed pain. Ethan approached her, not remembering that she wasn't human.
"Are you okay?"
Debbie 's plastic hand whipped up and clamped onto Ethan's arm, causing her grip to shine bright blue.
A flying vision of a rotting bowl of fruit overcame Ethan's senses as he gawked at the sight.
"I'm fine. Great, in fact! Let's go have some fashion fun!" Debbie exclaimed before leaving the kitchen. Ethan wobbled, grabbing the countertop to stabilize himself.
"Woah, woah," Ellie said, letting go of Benny's hand. "What happened?"
"I had a vision. Debbie needs life energy to stay in human form. She absorbs it through contact. If-If we..."
Ethan almost fell to the ground until Benny and Ellie grabbed him to keep him up.
"Woah, easy buddy," Benny said. "Looks like she drained you a little."
"She gets worse, you have to be kidding me," Ellie huffed.
Ethan's eyebrows furrowed as he came up with an idea.
"Wait, maybe if we keep her away from people, she'll turn back into a doll," Ethan suggested.
"Let's hope so. She's starting to freak me out," Sarah said.
"She's just now starting to freak you out?!" Ellie exclaimed.
The sound of the front doorbell acquired Ethan and Benny's responsibilities as they left Sarah and Ellie in the kitchen for clean up.
"Cute hand-holding, geekette," Sarah whispered to Ellie, smiling at her embarrassingly red cheeks.
"That was out of fear!" Ellie defended. "...Mostly."
"Ugh..."
Ethan and Benny groaned as they returned to the kitchen. "Remind us to not invite Rory in when we're dealing with a paranormal crisis."
------------
Following Debbie Dazzle back into Jane's room, the teenagers watched as the two ripped apart Jane's clothing piece by piece.
"Is this what girls usually do with their dolls?"
"You don't do this with yours?" Sarah asked Benny.
"...Those are action figures."
"We have to get Debbie alone," Sarah posited to her friends, glaring at the humanized doll.
"Why can't we just teleport her to the closest garbage dump? That sounds like a solid plan," Ellie mentioned, standing closer to Benny once again.
"Hey, Debbie! Guess what?" Ethan began, with Debbie's silicone head to dart up from the clothes. "I just found a bunch of things girls say go with shoes,"
"I love accessorizing!" Debbie smiled, rising from Jane's bed and following Ethan like a dog to his own bedroom. As she walked into the room by herself, she noticed the absence of accessories.
"But I don't see any—!"
Ethan slammed the door shut and tied a rope to the doorknob, locking Debbie inside without human contact.
"Hey, let me out! I wanna play! You three are real party poopers!"
Ellie shook her head and inhaled, even more worried now because Debbie didn't like them.
"What about the window?" Benny asked.
Ethan rolled his eyes. "We're on the second floor, it's not like she can fly."