Before she could even realize what was happening, she found herself spinning through the air only to stop finding herself being hugged tight around her waist. Now back on the ground, she hugged the person back, -who at this point she desperately hoped was Seth and not a psychopath/meth addict,- and giggling, she looked down at the figure and said "Well hi to you too!" Now lifting himself from the embrace, Seth looked down at the girl in front of him and with a big smile on his face and responded with a simple "Hey," before hugging her again.
Now walking down the street, the two talked, caught up, and did what anyone else would do if you hadn't seen each other in weeks. The wind was still as cold as ever, except the two barely took notice to it as they talked on. After about 10 minutes of walking down the uncrowded boardwalk, Mary finally looked up to her boyfriend. "Soooo, did you have a plan after jumping me or is this it?" She said as she motioned out to the boardwalk in front of her. Laughing a little, his only response to the brunette was an exaggerated shrug of the shoulders. Laughing a little herself, she pulled at his arm a little as they walked. "Come on, you had to have thought of something we can do, because I'm sure as hell not walking around in this all night for nothing." Pulling her closer to him, he looked down at the girl. "Really, its a beautiful night and your with me! What more could you ask for?" Looking back to the boardwalk in front of her, she replied almost disappointed, "I don't know, we just haven't seen each other,... I was just kind of hoping you'd sweep me off me feet or something." Still smiling, Seth slowed down to a stop and looked up. "You should really have more faith in me." Lining the darkened night sky in front of them sat a massive carnival that reached out along the boardwalk well past the boarders of the beach. Looking out, the lights danced across the clear dark canvas of the sky shooting out from rides and ferris wheels that were scattered across the scene. As the sounds and smells of it all drifted their way to the pair, Seth looked down at the smiling girl with a half grin on his face. "So, I think your wording was 'sweep you of your feet?'" Before she could even protest, Mary found herself in the air once again as he reached down around her waist and hoisted her over his shoulder. With both of them laughing, he quickly began to walk toward the lights laid out in front if him.
By the time the two had reached the ticket booth, the nostalgia of it all had set in. When they were kids, the two had come to the carnival simply known as Fun Land (creative, I know) dozens of times over their summer vacations. Even now, Mary's bed was lined with stuffed dolls and animals she and her friends had won there years ago. Regardless, it was safe to say both were more then happy to be there. Approaching the booth, the pair was still just flowing with the happy energy of the park around them. Now looking right at the ticket worker, Seth started, "Hey, one ticket please." With a less than amused look on his face, the man just glanced over the Mary, who was still giggling to herself over his shoulder. Following his gaze, Seth looked back to the man. "Oh, this? Yeah, I just won this at a ballon pop game down the row. Really generous prizes." Smiling at the guy in front of him, his gaze only met a blank face. "So two tickets, sir?" Setting Mary down in front of the booth, he replied "Uhh, yeah," and quickly paid before the two rushed into the park.
"-Really? You won me at a game booth?" As the two walked into the park in front of them the essence of it all began to surround them. Every where you looked their was either a brightly lit game booth packed with people or a ride surrounded by sounds of anticipation and excitement, with it all coming together at a massive ferris wheel that stood in the dead center of it all. Looking around, a lot of it wasn't what some people would call "clean" or even safe in places, but to them it didn't really matter. "Well if those booths had prizes like you you'd see me at them a lot more often," Seth said looking down as he slid his ticket stub into his pocket, but looking up, Mary wasn't next to him anymore; she was a few yards away standing in front of a tall wood and glass box.
Walking up to her, he could finally see what the shape was. Standing just taller then he was sat one of those automatic fortune teller machines. The edges of the 6 foot box were lined with polished wood engraved with all manor of symbols, lining the front of the box with everything from zodiacs to what just looked like nonsense. The bottom half of the box was made of a darker wood with the same finish, but the surface was adorned with a coin slot and repair door instead the symbols. The part that caught Seth's attention though was what sat inside of the box. Behind the glass pane was a girl, well, a wooden one, that sat dressed loosely in a gypsy costume. She wore a dark maroon bra over her wooden chest, leaving her automated joints plainly visible to the pair. Other than that, all the girl had on was a matching deep red skirt that reached down past where they could see and a series of ties that bound her black, thick nylon hair into a single line. Her wooden skin gave off the same smooth image as the rest of the wood, creating a tan tone that covered her body. If it wasn't for the lines at the girl's joints and waist, she could of passed of as a real person.
"The Great Neysha," Seth read as he walked up and slouched his arms over Mary's shoulders. "Huh. Must be new, don't remember this being here. Soo, wanna try it?" Snapping back out of her daze, she looked up to him. "Uh, what?.. Nah, I don't really-" but she stopped short as she heard the metallic clunk of a quarter fall into the machine. "To late," Seth said smiling as the limp girl in front if him slowly came to life. Lining the back wall of the glass box lights began to switch on as the "great neysha" slowly began to move. The wooden girl's tilted head smoothly leveled itself as the girl now looked out at the two people in front of her box. In a second though, she glanced down as her arms began to move as well. The wood hands lifted themselves from the table in front of her and glided across the space, reaching a box of tarot cards, and after plucking one from the pile, a clear, young, spanish-accented voice came from what could only be a speaker in gypsy's head. "Fate is in your favor. Tonight, one wish shall be yours." As the girl talked, her mouth moved with her as well like something you would see on a ventriloquist dummy. When she finished, the jaw slid back into place, leaving the creases still evident on her face. With that, the wooden hand lowered the card back upon the pile as the girl looked up one more time, almost directly at Mary, before falling limp once more as the machine powered down.
"Huh, well then. Looks like you have yourself a wish!" Mary said looking over to Seth. "So, whats it gonna be?" Shrugging a bit, he looked back to her with "Eh, I'm feeling generous, its all yours babe." His only response though was an unbudging look. "Come on, your quarter, your wish just say what ever comes to mind." Thinking for a second, he shrugged again saying "I don't know, world peace? A billion penguins?" But this time he was met with a light punch in the arm. "Fine, fine. I wish... I wish you finally got all the love you deserve." With that he pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "Better?" Smiling, she replied "Better, now come on, lets go have some fun!"
A second later, the two were drudging through the park, doing almost everything they saw. They went on all of the rides, even the small ones, and with every game booth came another lost few bucks trying to win another stuffed toy for Mary's bed. The two must had went on the ferris wheel alone at least 5 times, and before they knew it the park slowly began to sift out until it was almost midnight. Ringing from the parks loud speaker, they both clearly heard, "THE PARK WILL BE CLOSING IN 5 MINUTES." At that point, the pair was obviously a little worn out, but in the end they'd have to kick them out before they'd leave. "Come on, lets hit one more ride before we get thrown out," Seth said as he practically dragged Mary by one hand with her smiling and just trying to keep up. With that, the two jogged over to the closest empty line they saw. Looking up, Seth read aloud "The Hall of Mirrors, huh, I remember this place! Got lost in here once." Laughing a little, she looked over to him saying, "So its a great place to run into when we have barely anytime to get out, right?" "Right!" A second later, the two were walking into the maze if a building.
Inside of it all, it was easy to see how people got lost in here. The mirrors lining the closely spaced walls were varying sizes and heights to mess up any depth perception you had left in tact. On top of that, the mirrors around them were surprisingly clean and the entirety of the maze was dimly lit, which only made it harder to tell what was where. Looking over to Seth, who looked just as dazed and confused as she was, she said "Real great choice, we coulda just took another shot at a game booth but nope, lets get lost in the maze of mirrors." Looking back to her, he only smiled and said "Come on, enjoy it! Hell, bet I can beat you out of here." Before Mary could even respond, he had ducked behind a mirror and she could hear him as he walked somewhere she couldn't find if she tried. "Well crap. Guess theres not much else I can do then." With that, she slowly began to make her way through the maze.
After what seemed like forever, Mary finally walked into the exit of the maze. The room was a fairly large circle lined with mirrors just like everything else in that delusion of a building. Finally stopping, she relaxed and thought, "Well looks like I beat Seth, might as well wait for him here." With that, she looked over to one of the dozens of mirrors on the wall. In the dim light of the reflection, she saw a relatively short girl standing there with brown eyes, hair, and even a light brown sweater to match. With a slight shiver, she reached into her pockets once more as she pulled out and slipped on her gloves, but as she looked up, she thought she saw something strange in the reflection; a girl in a maroon colored top. Turning around, she relaxed when she saw nothing behind her, but with that she heard a soft whisper in her ear. "What's more loved, than a toy?" Before she could even react, she felt her legs go weak as she tried to keep her balance. "What the heck?" Starting low in her legs, a warm feeling began to work its way up her body until she could feel in in her chest. All of a sudden she couldn't even feel her feet, and looking down she saw that the sneakers she had on barely a minute ago had vanished while a pair of black, soft cloth boots took their place. She barely took notice of all this though because the same warm lack of feeling had reached its way into her gloves. Reaching with one hand to pull the other glove off, all she felt was a firm resistance around her wrist. Pulling even harder, she even realized she couldn't even feel the definition of her fingers through the glove, only the slight resistance of the glove's padding. "This is impossible," she said turning to the mirror once more, but she gaped at what she saw. Where the short brown haired girl called Mary was now stood something completely different. The brown sweater she wore now clung to her body and was just as tightly fastened at her wrists and neck as her gloves had been. Looking to her pants, the long sleeved jeans that she had on had changed completely into a low cut black skirt that barely reached her knees. Looking further down, her bare skin still felt pleasantly warm despite the coldness of the night, and looking closer looked smoother as well, almost like cloth. Before she could even look back up though, she felt two strange waves of pressure hit at the top of her head and her lower back. Looking up, she gasped at what she saw. Perched on the top of her head and hanging out from just above her butt was a pair of black cat ears and a matching limp black tail. To top it all off, the necklace she wore had morphed itself into a black collar and she could see pink paw marks on the front of her gloves. Before she could even scream, she felt her legs finally give out as she fell into two open arms behind her. Standing there now holding the newly made doll was the fortune teller girl.
Mumbling to herself as the girl turned Mary to face her, Mary barely made out "No.. this isn't possible." Now, she was face to face with the wooden girl who she had seen moving as a machine in a fortune teller box. This time though, the girl stared back at her. She looked back with a kind look on her face and replied to the cat girl, "Well regardless, its happening. I'm just doing my job." With that Mary looked up weakly at the girl and with a tone of anger exclaimed "Why? No one asked for this!" Moving her hands under the girls arms, she lifted her up to eye level. "But Seth did. He asked for you to get all the love you deserve, so I made you something that will get that kind of love, a toy!" Replying quickly though, Mary just said desperately "But I'm not a toy!" Laughing a little, the gypsy girl replied just as quickly. "Oh really? I haven't been human for a while but last time I checked living breathing girls don't have stitching down the side of their legs," reaching out she brought a few strands of Mary's hair into view, "they don't have brown yarn hair, and oh yeah, a collar saying 'Kitty Doll' around their neck. If I set you down right now you'd fall into a limp pile for Pete's sake." Looking just over whelmed by the whole situation, Mary just hung there, stunned. Seeing this, the wooden girl pulled her in close and hugged tight around the doll's stuffing. "Don't worry, it's going to be fine. Nothings ever really permanite in this world. I think you'll like the experience, and hell, at least you won't be stuck in a glass box all day." Mary had to admit, the hug didn't feel terrible, and even though she still felt sad and confused about the whole situation, she thought to herself "Maybe it won't be that bad." With that, she felt the pressure of the hug disappear as she fell to the ground. Looking out after she settled on the floor, she saw no sign that the wooden girl had ever been there, only the image of a limp cat doll with a simple stitched smile on her face in the mirror across from her.
Possible Ending 1 (Good Ending)
After a few moments of sitting there in a daze, the sound of footsteps coming down the pathway snapped her back into focus. "Seth!" She shouted in her head, and she even went to stand up before remembering what had happened. Now though, the doll's mind raced with all manor of thoughts as the foot steps got closer and closer. "What is he going to think? Is he even going to know its me? What'll he..," but she stopped short as the sound of her name reached her ears; "Mary?" Through the dim light all he could see was what looked like a girl sitting down against one of the mirrors, but as he kneeled in front of the mass it was obvious to him that it was a doll in front of him. "Huh," he said out loud as he lifted the plush's chin up, locking his eyes with hers. All Mary wanted to do right now was jump up and hug him, but in all honesty she was doing all she could do just sitting there. "Ha, you haven't seen a girl about your height go by here, have you?" As Seth asked the doll the question, he began to move the her head side to side. "Yeah, I didn't think so." Standing up, he grabbed hold of the toys arm pits and held her out in front of him. "Hey, at least I finally won Mary that prize," but as he said that, something caught his eye; a small piece of paper fall from the toy's mitten hand. Bending down once more, he picked up the paper and squinted at it through the darkness of the room. He barely made out the words, but after reading it a few times he was sure of what it said. "She'll get plenty of love the way she is now, -Neysha." With that, Seth dropped the card and glanced back over to the limp plush that really did have a shocking resemblance to his girlfriend. "Mary?!"
From there, the strange suspicion turned into conviction that the doll was Mary after she never came out of that maze. For days, the plush sat of his hotel room bed, but after a week of hearing and seeing nothing from Mary, Seth came to be sure that something had happened in the maze and Mary had become the toy that lay smiling in front of him. From there on, his nights became research, trying to dig into the world where this could have happened to her. Nothing came quick or easy, but none the less he was persistent. Most of the time he was up for the better part of the night just searching, but when it did come time to sleep Mary's plush chest made a surprisingly good pillow. Soon enough though, Seth's job brought him to travel again, this time down south, and with that came a complication, but in the end Seth just resorted to packing Mary in one of his suitcases. While she wasn't particularly fond of the situation, she thought It couldn't of been much worse than being stuffed in a toy box, so she endured smiling as always. About three months after first becoming a doll though, something happened when they reached New Orleans...
As always, the cat doll lay limp across the top of the new hotel's bed. She'd started getting used to all the time she had alone, but from the window she could hear the life of the city below her, and that only fueled her growing despair about the situation. Lying there, she thought to herself, "Where do we go from this? Seth can't keep this going for the rest of our lives, so is he going to just move on? Will he throw me away? Donate me? Or worse, maybe I'll end up the worn down plaything of one of his kids after he meets someone new." At that, she shuttered mentally at the thought. Deep down, she did want to get played with, she even had a few dreams about being owned, but in the long run of it all she didn't want that to happen. Her thoughts seized thought as her attention shifted to the door. After a second of hearing the scratching of keys in the lock, the door sprung open and the next thing she knew Seth was sprinting at her hug-tackled her on the bed. After a second of hugging her tight, he sat up, almost straddling the cat-girl doll that still just lay there on the bed. "I got some good news babe," he said as he pulled something from his bag. Smiling, he said "Trust me on this one, just hold that position." Mary started to think to herself "Ha ha, very funny, now-," but stop short again as Seth blew a light, airy powder over her and stepped back. Now, Mary felt something, the same warm numbness she had felt two months before. This time, it started in her head and work itself all over her body, but after the feeling had spread to all ends of her body, she felt something else; a twitch. Looking down, well not as much looking as just shifting her focus, she saw something, her foot move. Progressively, she felt the rest of her body able to move, until finally she sat up, and after a second of just taking it all in, she jumped at Seth and hugged him as hard as she could she could. "Holy crap, Seth, you did it!" Stepping back onto the bed for a second, she looked down at herself and stopped. "Wait..wait, why am I still a doll then, why.." But she stopped short one last time as Seth reached out and pulled her to him one last time. After a second he started to say "Its ok, its fine. Its definitely a start. And Mary?" Looking over to him, she asked quietly, "Yeah?" Smiling again, he just said "I really should of wished for those penguins," before hugging her again.
Possible Ending 2 (For all of those who hate to see something end happy
)(First few lines are the same)
After a few moments of sitting there in a daze, the sound of footsteps coming down the pathway snapped her back into focus. "Seth!" She shouted in her head, and she even went to stand up before remembering what had happened. Now though, the doll's mind raced with all manor of thoughts as the foot steps got closer and closer. "What is he going to think? Is he even going to know its me? What'll he..," but she stopped short as the sound of her name reached her ears; "Mary?" Through the dim light all he could see was what looked like a girl sitting down against one of the mirrors, but as he kneeled in front of the mass it was obvious to him that it was a doll in front of him. "Huh," he said out loud as he lifted the plush's chin up, locking his eyes with hers. All Mary wanted to do right now was jump up and hug him, but in all honesty she was doing all she could do just sitting there. "Ha, you haven't seen a girl about your height go by here, have you?" As Seth asked the doll the question, he began to move the her head side to side. "Yeah, I didn't think so." Standing up, he grabbed hold of the toys arm pits and held her out in front of him. "Well, I might as well just put you back while I'm waiting." But as he said that, something caught his eye; a small piece of paper fall from the toy's mitten hand. "Ehh, probably just a ticket stub," he thought as he put the toy over his shoulder and walked outside.
The whole way, Mary was screaming in her head for Seth to realize that it was her, but she really couldn't so much with a head full of cotton. A minute later, Seth had hung the plush by a hook in a ballon pop game booth and looked up at toy for a second. "Damn, a life sized cat girl doll, the hell will the think of next." With that, he turned away from the booth back to the hall of mirrors, not even looking back once at the toy. There, Mary waited all night, thinking, crying, but in the end dealing with all the things she was feeling. Soon enough, though the sun rose again, and with that came a rush of people into the park. Every time someone approached the booth and won, the toy's heart would flutter, or at least it felt like it. Finally, about 4 hours after the park first opened that day, she heard the operator yell "Winner! Top prize!" as a jarring pop was heard from one of the balloons. With that, she looked down at the group below; a boy who looked about seventeen and two young kids standing next to him. "Which one you guys want?" He said looking back to the kids behind him, and a second later the girl pointed right to her and said "That one!... She's pretty." With that, Mary found herself hoisted down from the prize rack and handed off to the man, who slid her under his shoulder after looking at her for a second. "Come on, lets go get you two some cotton candy."
3 months later
As Mary soon came to figure out, the two little kids were twins, and the guy who carried her out of the carnival was their older brother. The 3 of them lived barely 10 minutes on foot from the park, to the point where you could even see the ferris wheel from their house. Once inside, Mary's life as a toy began. Each day was a new game, dress up with the girl twin, Lisa, or being rescued from some sort of monster by Scotty, the boy twin. Nights were usually filled with the two fighting over who got to sleep with her, but none the less she wasn't ever really abandoned. If anything, she really did enjoy getting played with by the two of them. What she did not enjoy though was the cleaning that went along with the whole process. While she was never stuffed in a toy chest or under the bed, (she would usually found herself perched on the twins bunk beds) she did get dirty fast at the hands of the two of them. This meant getting tossed in the washer machine once and a while, which was just loads of fun as one can assume. Overall, "Kitty" (what the twins had named Mary) liked her new life, but one night though, the inevitable happened. "No, its my turn!" Lisa said as pulled on Mary's arm as Scotty pulled at her back. "Kitty is mine tonight!" Scotty yelled as he pulled back at her. With that, the older boy, who Mary learned was Nate, walked into the room just as Mary's arm ripped down the seem. "Dammit, you guys!" He said walking up and pulling the doll from their hands. "You see what you did? Give me that," he said reaching down and pulling the torn arm from Lisa. Looking sad, after a moment she looked up to him with big eyes and asked, "Can you fix her?" Now standing in the door way with the torn doll in his hands, he just looked back for a second as he left the room and said "We'll see."
At this point, Mary was losing it. The toy now lay motionless on a wooden table in the next room as her mind raced with all kind of fears. "Oh god, broken? How is that even possible? Nate can just sew up my arm, right?" But soon enough, Nate entered the room with a needle and a role of tan thread. Seconds after sitting down at the table, he got to work on the mangled piece of cloth in front of him, but after and hour, the toys arm was still torn apart. "Well shit," he said leaning Mary up against the wall. "Sorry kitty, but this arm is scrapped." Standing up, Nate picked up the doll with him. "Doubt the twins want a one-armed doll now, oh well." Now screaming at him in her head, Mary only stopped as he pulled her to him and gave her a quick hug. "Huh, you know what, I might as well recycle you then." Confused for a second, Mary just watched as Nate pulled out a small pair of sewing scissors and started to undo the stitching in her other arm.
After another half an hour, he was done. Now, on Nate's bed, sat a limbless body pillow by the name of Mary. What he had done was after unraveling the stitching on all of her joints, Nate just slid of Mary's other arm and both of her legs, taking the stuffing from each appendage and helped fill in the rest her body with it. When he was done, he sewed off the openings in the doll one last time before throwing the doll, which was little more than a torso and a head, onto his bed. After throwing away the excess cloth and stuffing, Nate jumped onto his bed where the newly made pillow lye smiling like always. Kicking back, he lay his head onto the doll's chest as he pulled out his phone and said "Personally, kitty, I think you make a better pillow then anything." Laughing to himself a little bit, he stood up, positioned his new pillow at the end of his bed, and walked out of the room. Mary could still hear him as he promised he'd get the two of them new toys at the carnival tomorrow, but right now all she really cared about was what had happened. "Really? A pillow?" I mean crap its better than being thrown away but seriously!" From there, she just thought about Seth, whether or not the kids would even miss her, the gypsy that did all this, and over all what she would give just to be played with right now. At that though, she shuttered a little bit at the thought of Nate trying to play with her 'that' way. "God, lets hope it doesn't come to that... Shit, why didn't Seth just wish for those penguins?" With that, the cat doll lay there smiling as big as ever, looking out the window in front of her at the lights of the carnival, waiting for what ever happens next