Chapter Forty Four:
The Telling of a Secret:
In the morning, I woke up before Alice did. She was still cuddled up to my arm and I didn’t want to disturb her by moving, so I stayed still. I only turned my head and watched her sleep.
Alice was sleeping peacefully. Just looking at her face right now, you couldn’t tell she had been crying last night. There was no way to tell that she had been trying to blame the whole freak thing that happened with the plane yesterday, on herself.
I don’t know why she had even thought to blame something like that on herself. Nearly no one had control over what happened with planes, let alone a six year old girl! It was just crazy that she would think to blame herself.
Alice shifted against my arm and let out a little sigh. I made sure to stay extra still so I didn't disturb her. Alice was still for a second before her eyes fluttered open and squinted against the soft morning light that managed to slip in from under my blind. She rolled onto her back and started to rub at her eyes.
"Morning Cutie," I said softly. I gently stroked Alice's cheek as I brushed away the hair that had fallen in front of her face.
Alice stayed quiet and focused on removing the sleep from her eyes. When she was done she lowered her hands and stared up at the ceiling.
Just as I was about to ask her if she was feeling alright after a couple of minutes of her staring up at the ceiling, she finally spoke up.
"Can I tell you a secret?" Alice whispered to me. It was so quiet I wasn't even sure if I had imagined the words, or if she had really said them. But when she looked at me expectantly, I realized that it hadn't been my imagination.
"Sure, Alice, you can tell me anything," I promised her. Since she was no longer using my arm as a pillow, I rolled onto my side so that I could see her better.
"My barbies.... They make me...." Alice lowered her eyes to the bed so she wasn't looking tat me. "They make me do bad things," Alice said softly. Her bottom lip quivered slightly. "Really bad things."
"What do you mean your Barbies make you?" I asked her. Maybe someone at school had said that the Barbies were bad just to see if Alice would believe them. Alice always brought her Barbies to school so it possible someone else had teased her.
"When I'm playing with them, they make me do things," Alice said, her words not clearing up anything at all.
"I don't understand Alice," I said.
"The Barbies, they tell me what to do."
"How do they tell you?" I asked her.
"They... I'm playing with them and then... I hear a voice... And then I... I..." Alice whimpered. "I listen to it. I try not to, but I have to!"
"What does this voice tell you to do? Where does it come from?" I asked.
"They tell me to do bad things, Bridgey. And I don't know where it comes from, I just hear it," Alice said.
"What kind of bad things?"
"It didn't use to be bad things," Alice said. A single tear fell down her cheek. "It used to be fun things. It used to be things I wanted to do. But now... Now they tell me to do evil things. They tricked me into thinking they were nice, but they aren't. Bridgey they are really mean."
"Who is 'they'?" I asked. 'They' was the voice she was hearing, but who was it?
Alice looked around, like someone would hear us talking. But there was no one else in the room with us and Alice was speaking so quietly, even I had to strain my ears to hear her.
"The Barbies," she said.
"The Barbies?" I asked skeptically. This was getting strange. Either Alice was having nightmares, or something was really wrong. Maybe I should tell Mom so she can get it checked out. I don't like saying that my little sister might have a mental problem, but that's the only logical explanation I can come up with.
She nodded. "The Barbies," Alice confirmed.
"All Barbies or just..." I trailed off, not quite sure how to phrase my question.
"I don't know!" Alice said in exasperation. "I'm usually always playing with Ken and Barbie and Sam and Alex. I play with my other dolls, but it's with one of the other ones as well."
I frowned in concentration. Okay, so Alice heard 'voices' whenever she was playing with one of her favourite dolls, or one of Maddy's favourite dolls. She also heard voices when she was playing with all the other dolls, but she wasn't sure if she could hear the voice because of that doll, or if it was because she was playing with one of the favourites as well.
She either heard the voice when she was playing with any doll, or it was only when she was playing with one of her favourites.
But either way it didn't make much sense. Why would she be hearing 'voices' while playing with dolls? There had to be a reason, it couldn't just be random.
Could it?
"Do you only hear these...'voices' when you're playing with your Barbies?" I asked Alice.
Alice finally looked me in the eyes and nodded silently.
"So you don't hear them any other time?" She shook her head. "What do these voices tell you to do?"
Alice's eyes filled with tears and she looked down again.
"Bad things," she said. "I don't mean to do them, really! But they make me."
"How do they make you?"
"If I try to...not listen, then it starts to hurt."
"What hurts?"
Alice shrugged. "It just hurts. And it goes away when I listen to them, that's why I always listen to them."
"Alice, I need you to tell me what they make you do," I begged her. "You don't need to tell me everything, just one or two things, okay?" I compromised. I wanted to know everything these 'voices' made her do, but if she was scared to tell me, I would settle for just a couple things.
"They made me crash the plane," Alice said, looking up at me. Her eyes were red again and wide with fear.
"Garrett's plane?" I asked. It hadn't crashed, it had just had some slightly major and unlikely problems.
I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face. "How did they make you crash the plane? You were at Maddy's when the plane had it's problems, there is no way that you could have made that happen."
Alice shook her head. "But I did it. I did it all by myself."
"Okay," I said. "What else did the voice tell you to do?"
Alice's eyes widened even further if that was possible. Then she quickly ducked her head so that I couldn't see her face any longer.
"You don't believe me," she whispered.
"Of course I believe you," I lied. I believed that she thought the Barbies were doing something bad, but I don't believe she had made the plane have problems like she said.
“No you don’t,” she said, her voice shaky. Another tear slipped down her cheek, the second one this morning.
“Alice I-”
“I’ll show you!” Alice said loudly. I don’t know if it was actually loudly, or if it just seemed that way because we had been speaking so quietly before hand.
“Show me what?” I asked.
Alice crawled over me so she could get out of bed. Once she was standing she turned to me and offered me her hand. “Come on,” she said.
I stared at her for just a moment, before getting out of bed myself. I didn’t take her hand because I had to grab my crutches, but she didnt seem to mind.
Alice led me to her room. The door was closed and she pushed it open slowly, like she wasn’t sure if she should be entering.
Once we were both in the room, Alice pointed to the pink Barbie plane she had gotten for Christmas that was lying on the floor. It was on it’s side and the door was swung open. I was a bit surprised by this; Alice’s room might always be a mess because of all the Barbie stuff, but she never left her toys in such disarray. She always made sure that all the different buildings and sets were placed nicely and neatly on the floor, even if they were all crammed together.
“You see that?” Alice asked pointing again at the plane. “I did that.”
“It just fell over, it’s no big deal,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t understand the signifigance of the fallen plastic plane in comparison to everything else Alice had told me this morning.
Alice shook her head violently. “It is a big deal,” she said. “Because everything the Barbies tell me to do, comes true.”
I stared at my little sister like she had two heads. “What do you mean?”
“The voices tell me to do things with the Barbies, and I do them because it hurts if I don’t. Everything that I’m made to do with the Barbies, comes true. I was told to drop that plane, and I tried not to, but it ended up happening anyways.”
Alice took a deep breath and her bottom lip quivered again. “I dropped the plane, that’s why Garrett’s plane was broken.
“I did it Bridgey, I made the plane crash.”
I gaped at my little sister. "You can't really think that," I said. She can't possibly still believe that.
Alice nodded.
"I want to show you something else," she said. She went over to her bed and reached under it, pulling out Ken and Barbie. I don't know why they were under the bed, and I didn't ask.
Alice sat on the bed, a doll in each hand. She stared straight ahead at the wall and waited. I don't know what she was waiting for. Maybe she was thinking for something to do with the dolls to prove her insane point to me.
Suddenly Alice's eyes started to close half way and her head tipped back a lot. I cried out in shock and was about to move forwards to help her, hold her, when she straighteded again.
Alice started moving the dolls up and down, like they were jumping. She was whispering things under her breath but I couldn't make them out.
"Alice?" I asked softly. "Cutie?"
"Ken, let's be bunnies!" Alice said loudly in a high pitched voice.
"Okay!" Alice said in a lower voice.
She continued to bounce the dolls, much like a bunny I noticed. Then she started to laugh. I don't know if she was making the Barbies laugh of if something else was happening, but I do know it wasn't her laugh.
"Alice?" I asked again.
The dolls stopped moving and Alice's eyes raised to meet mine. She gave me a long and slow smile.
"Oh Elder Sister!" she cried, like she hadn't noticed I was in the room before hand. "You weren't supposed to see that."
"And why not?" I asked. She had specifically told me she wanted to shw me something and then did that; why was I not supposed to watch?
Alice giggled, but it wasn't her giggle. She didnt answer my question.
"Why not?" I repeated. She smiled and shook her head. "What just happened?"
"That means you're going to hop around like a rabbit with Garrett," Alice stated simply like it was an everyday thing to say.
"What makes you say that? And Garrett is in California!"
"When he get's back then," Alice said slowly, like I was the younger one here. "And it always happens."
"What always happens?" I asked.
"You always do what the Barbies do."
"What?" I nearly screamed. My parents would have already left for work so there was no one to hear me but Alice.
"You are Barbie. You do everything she does, didn't you know?"
"I... Alice what is going on? Who told you this?"
"No one told me, it just is," Alice said, confusing me even more. "You have to accept it."
"Accept what?" I asked.
"Haven't you been listening?" Alice demanded harshly.
"I have been! But you aren't making any sense!"
"Elder Sister, there is no reason to raise your voice. If you are confused you can simply just ask in a calm manner."
My jaw dropped. What was going on?
"Alice, what do you mean exactly? What was the whole thing with the dolls and the hopping?"
"When you next see Garrett, the two of you will hop like rabbits," Alice said. "It isn't that hard to understand."
"But why?" I asked, still just as lost.
"Because that's what the Barbies have done."
"But why did they do that? Did the voices tell you to do this?" I demanded.
Confusion flooded Alice's face but she quickly wiped it away. "I do not know what you are talking about when you talk about these 'voices', what does this mean?"
"But you just..." I was even more confused now.
"I just made the Barbies hop like rabbits, and soon enough, it will be you doing that."
"But what if I don't want to?" I asked. I doubt I would actually hop around like a bunny. I mean, that was just too random.
Alice smiled a strange smile. The only word to describe it would be evil.
"You don't understand Elder Sister, you have no choice in the matter. You've never had a choice."
"What do you mean, 'I've never had a choice'?"
Alice's mouth formed an 'O', but her eyes showed amusement. "Oh you haven't figured it out yet? I'm sure you will soon."
Alice reached down and slipped the dolls back under the bed.
"What will I figure out soon?"
Alice looked up at me with wide eyes. "What Bridgey?" she asked. "I don't understand. Why are you asking me what you'll figure out?"
My eyes widened. What was happening? How did Alice not know what I was talking about? I stumbled back and leaned against the wall.
"I'm going to... I'm going to go get something to eat," I said. Maybe if I ate something i would stop hallucinating. That's what this had to be, a hallucination.
Alice frowned. "Um, okay."
I nodded even though there wasn't a point to, and left the room as quickly as I could with my crutches.
I think I'm going insane.
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I hoped that either cleared up a bunch of stuff, or confused you even more! That was the point of this chapter, so don't worry.
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