Sarah walked through the old streets of the town, looking through the decrepit storefronts. She passed an old bookstore, an abandoned store, and was about to give up and go back to the more populated shopping area, when she spotted a small shop tucked away in a corner, just close enough to attract customers, but far away enough to guarantee that it would remain a small business.

She walked up to the window, and curiously couldn't find any mention of a name, but what she could see, were rows of small, intricately detailed porcelain dolls. She bent down to examine them closely, and was amazed by how lifelike they were, the stitching on their elaborate dresses just as minutely detailed as the real thing. The store having piqued her curiosity, Sarah decided to go inside.

Sarah Young was a nineteen year old university student away from home studying her art degree, and had gone into the shopping centre to find a present for her sister back home, but hadn't found anything that satisfied her as more than just a generic store product, and had headed into the more obscure parts of the town to find something to buy. She had short brown hair, barely reaching halfway down the back of her neck, a fairly plain face, nothing that would be called more than vaguely pretty, and was wearing a plain white shirt and jeans while carrying a small bag of her art supplies, which was basically what she wore most days, devoting more time to her art than to her fashion. Her passion for art was why she had yet to find a satisfactory present, something she hoped to remedy inside the store.

As she walked inside, she saw more rows of the dolls on the shelves, tiny displays of clothes to fit them beside them. She noticed that some of the dolls looked slightly different from the others, still beautifully made, but lacking an extra lifelike quality to them. She also noticed that those ones were not quite as prominent as the other ones, although understandably, if they were not as good as the others.

"May I help you?" A voice from the back of the room asked, causing Sarah to almost jump with surprise. There was an old man at the counter, completely bald, and with a very direct stare, that intently studied her, making him seem very creepy to Sarah. He seemed to notice her reaction to him, and gave a smile.

"I apologize for startling you young miss, and I also apologize if my gaze unsettles you. It's a habit I've picked up from years of working on the dolls."

Sarah nodded, and saw a small sign reading that the store could be commissioned to make a personal doll. She asked the shopkeeper about this, who proceeded to say to her,

"Why yes, we can make a doll for you, but on one condition. You have to design it yourself, and I have to approve the design. After that, it's simply a matter of constructing the doll."

Sarah was directed to a private table in the store, and proceeded to get out her art supplies, and spent the next half-hour designing a doll, shading and coloring it in until she was satisfied with it. Her design was of a young girl in a yellow and white dress, with long, ginger hair and a very pretty unblemished face, a design that she was rather proud of. She presented her design to the man, who spent a minute examining it intently, before giving his approval of it, and asking for Sarah's phone number, saying that it would be done in two days, and that he would contact her when it was done. Happy with her soon to be made doll, Sarah paid for the commission and left the store, all worries left behind.



The next two days passed normally, of her studying and drawing, until she got a call from the shopkeeper, who told her that her doll was ready, and went to pick it up. When she arrived at the store, she felt a strange tingle as she walked though the door, the shopkeeper waiting for her. She felt oddly tired as she went up to talk to him.

"So where is it?" She asked him, another wave of exhaustion washing over her. She simply gave her a very disconcerting smile.

"Right here, miss," He said, pointing at her. A huge wave of sleepiness came over her, and she felt her eyelids close, vaguely aware of herself slumping to the ground, completely unconscious.

When Sarah came to, she felt strangely stiff, her joints moving strangely as she got to her feet. She opened her eyes, and found herself looking out of the store window, behind a glass display case, having somehow shrunken down to a tiny size! She looked down, and found herself wearing a rather frilly dress, a yellow dress that went down to her feet, with white sleeves that felt very familiar. Her hands looked and felt very plastic, and she brushed a long strand of ginger hair that had fallen across her face. Wait, ginger hair? She turned her head rigidly, and found that her short brown hair had been replaced with long ginger hair, flowing down to her waist in a shiny mass. She turned back to see her reflection in the display case glass, and gasped at what she saw. It was the face of her doll design looking back at her, the pretty face in an expression of shock as she realized what happened, her fate now as a porcelain doll of her own design. She attempted to beat on the case, but her weak arms could barely make a sound, and she would never survive the fall down to the ground anyway. She heard a shuffling sound and turned around to see a few of the other dolls approaching her, the variety of designs all with a similar expression as one of them went to talk.

"So, I guess you'll be staying with the rest of us then."