Bailey rushed to the bathroom just to confirm what she knew to be true already. She got a few laughs and points from students, but most people were accustomed to a little strangeness from Bailey, and the rest didn’t particularly care. Of course, Bailey knew what they didn’t: that she had a doll in her purse with green hair that used to be human, and that she now had violet hair without using an ounce of dye. Bailey took barely one look at herself in the bathroom mirror and confirmed that her hair was shorter and certainly a light purple color, and promptly left school.
She weaved through parked cars with heart pounding. But she kept her mind quiet enough to think. Christine probably wouldn’t be at her house due to the investigation. Even if she was, Bailey had no idea where she lived. She didn’t even know Christine’s phone number. She stopped in her tracks. The mystery call from last night. Bailey got to her car and pulled her cell phone from her pocket.
The phone rang twice and a quiet voice came through the speaker.
“H-hello?”
“Hi, is this Christine?” Bailey asked. She was afraid and growing angry, but she knew that yelling at Christine would do no good.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“Christine, this is Bailey.” She heard a gasp on the other end of the line. Bailey was careful to choose her words carefully, knowing it might be a possibility for police to be listening in: “Christine, I just heard about Sarah. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I – I didn’t want you to worry.”
“It’s OK. Look, I know we haven’t been close friends, but I didn’t know if you needed someone to talk to.”
“No – It’s just my family and police.”
“Would you like me to . . .”
“Yes.” Christine said, cutting Bailey off. She told her where she was and Bailey said good bye and buckled up. She took Sarah out of her bag and sat her in the passenger seat.
“I know what you’re thinking. I’m about to drive a motor vehicle while turning into a doll.” Bailey sighed, “This should be fun.”
Bailey was glad for two things. The first being that Christine’s hotel was close by, and also that the transformation was taking a while to work. In the twenty minutes since Mrs. Kelly told her about her hair, it wasn’t even fully violet, and it had only the lightest curls running through it.
Once to the hotel, she dumped her books out of her bag to make it a little roomier for Sarah, and walked to the restaurant where Christine had told her to meet. The girl didn’t see Bailey at first, even though she was facing toward the door in a booth. But the moment Christine made eye contact, her hands came up to her mouth and her eyes began to water. Bailey was quick to sit down next to the girl and wrap her arm around her. Christine buried her face into Bailey and tried so very hard to keep the tears back.
“I’m so – so sorry.”
Bailey pulled the crying girl back. “Don’t say that. This,” she pointed to her purple curled locks, “Is not your fault. Don’t say it is; don’t believe it is.” Christine nodded. “Say it. Say it’s not your fault.”
“It’s not my fault.”
“Good. Now, how are you holding up?”
“I feel wretched.” Christine looked down at her thumbs, but Bailey pulled her chin back up.
“Christine, I’m turning into a doll, and I don’t know how strong I can be. But between us, I think, we can come up with a single, rational, person. OK?”
Christine nodded.
“Tell me what happened to Sarah.”
She had seen the dolls in the front display of the toy store Ye Olde Toys. It was an interesting little shop with more character than the rest of the mall combined. Just a little bit of a curiosity, though it seemed to do well for itself. The aisles were all dressed in a rich red wood instead of plain white metal, and each was decorated with carved images representing the toys on that aisle. In addition to the collection of modern toys, the store also supported a nice selection of quaint older toys. The employees there were also quite fun, and frequently dressed in funny hats or clothes.
That Friday night, Sarah went to the store on a whim, and there she found a pair of dolls; a green one and a violet one. Each was marked at fifteen dollars, yet the set was oddly forty dollars. The violet one was the most intriguing to Sarah, and she bought the toy on a whim.
It began a few hours later, when Christine noticed her sister’s hair had turned to a bright shade of green. The store had closed by that time, leaving the two sisters frightened and alone while piece by piece, over the course of two hours, Sarah became a facsimile of the green doll she left at the store.
The next day, a panicked Christine confronted the store’s owner as the manhunt for Sarah began. The elderly, bald-headed man with the height and nose of a scarecrow, sneered back that Sarah had broken the set, and must face the consequences of that. Christine tired to give the violet doll back, but the man said he was already rid of it and refused to take it. The next day Christine, heartbroken and crushed, gave away her sister to Bailey.
Though Bailey was in a hurry, she never rushed Christine’s story. When it was done, Christine saw that Bailey’s hair was topped by a big white bow, and that her tights seemed a slightly different color. But Bailey wasn’t worried about those things.
“Christine, we need to get the original violet doll, buy the green doll, and try to find the last doll of the set.”
Christine shook her head, “There was no other doll. Just the two.”
“Yes, there was. It was a set of three dolls, each priced at fifteen dollars. The shop was selling the set at forty. By the time Sarah got there someone had already bought the blue doll. That’s why the price was odd.”
“No, no, no, no, no . . .” Christine began, realizing what may happen.
“Your sister is green, I’m violet, and if we can’t find the last toy, you may be the last in our set. We need to get the original set of dolls back together.” Bailey rested her white mitten hands on Christine’s shoulders. “Do you know where the original violet doll is?”
The girl looked up to her, blue eyes sparkling and filled with a defiant intensity. “It’s at home. I can drive.”
Twenty minutes later, Christine and Bailey were rushing away from Christine’s house. Sarah sat in Bailey’s lap, and Bailey held in her hands the violet doll that she would soon become. Her hair was already a bright violet and pulled into thick curls, topped by an off-center white bow. She wore mitten gloves, but thankfully still had fingers beneath. Her tights were now covered in violet and white diamonds. Since leaving the hotel, her multicolored dress was taking upon itself to change colors, and was now noticeably more violet.
“I have a question.” Bailey said.
“Yeah?”
“Um, just in case we’re not in time, you’ll mark me to make sure that you, uh . . .”
“I won’t lose you, or my sister.”
Bailey nodded, but she taped a note to the head of the violet doll, just in case. Christine glanced into the rearview mirror. “My hair’s a bit blue, isn’t it?”
“A bit, yeah.” In fact, it was a very strong shade of sky blue rather than Christine’s natural cherry blonde.
“It looks good like that. Maybe I’ll dye it when this is all over.” She joked, “Do you have any ideas for getting the blue doll?”
“Well, if I were to guess, I’d say that the blue doll did to her owner what this violet one is doing to us, and any new doll is also a missing person.”
“Which means the police should be investigating.”
“Right.” Bailey took out her phone and dialed 911. “Hi, I have an anonymous tip about the Sarah Jenson case . . .” She began. The car sped on to Ye Olde Toys.
“It’s weird. It takes like two hours for all your clothes to change, but only like ten minutes to actually become a doll.” Christine said. The mall was largely dead on a Monday, and the pair of girls turning into dolls attracted a little more attention than Bailey had in school earlier in the day.
“Well, that’s good news.” Bailey said. Her dress was cut exactly like Sarah’s, but lacked the embroidered flowers that hers had. It was, of course, violet. The original doll was in Bailey’s purse, and she carried Sarah in her hand, held gently so she didn’t muss up the stuffing too much.
The pair walked into Ye Olde Toys, and not after two steps did the scarecrow-like owner shout:
“Ohh, no! I’m not selling you! I’m trying to be rid of toys, not get more of them! You go run off to Toys “R” Us if you want to be sold.”
Christine ignored the man and picked up the lone green doll sitting on its stand at the front display. “I’m buying her.”
The man grumbled and returned to the front counter. He gladly accepted Christine’s fifteen dollars. Bailey dropped the doll into her bag with the violet doll.
“So, what happens if,” Bailey said, “we get the original blue doll?”
The scarecrow shrugged, “You get all three dolls together before she’s” he pointed to Christine, “done turning herself into a doll, then that set will be complete.”
“And what about us?”
“What about you?”
“Once the old set is complete,” Christine said, “what happens to us?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You sell magic toys and don’t know what they do?”
“It’s not really my business.” He said, genuinely confused.
“Then what is?” Christine was undeterred and her anger grew even stronger.
“Money.” The scarecrow said simply before returning to the shop floor.