Bel sat alone in her car, listening to the rain. Issac’s voice, smug and smooth, echoed in her memory.

“I knew you’d come back.”

Her stomach tied into guilty knots as she thought of those words. Eight months ago, Bel told him she was done and that she was going clean. Despite the jobs she got, the night school, and Eddie, Issac knew Bel would work for him again. What was worse, Bel had known it, too. Deep down, she knew she would never escape her misspent youth and years in and out of juvie.

She pounded her steering wheel again and again, tears welling in her eyes, until she had spent her sadness. Movement. She needed to stop thinking and start moving. Work the task at hand. That was the only thing that could distract her now. And Issac had given Bel a job.

He was a broker. He bought and sold information and items, and Bel helped him get both. Today, he wanted her to retrieve a doll from a mansion in the wooded hills at the edge of town. He knew the address, the passcode, and that the family would be gone for a week. He just needed someone to get it.

Why a doll? Because sometimes that's how it went with Issac. It was probably just a collectible thing. Those people could be crazy. But as long as he came through with the money she needed for rent, Bel didn't care. She took one last sigh, a failed attempt to expel her demons, and then got to work.

A minute later, Bel walked through the mansion, using her phone as a flashlight, careful to avoid lighting up windows. There was no such thing as being too careful when breaking and entering. She checked room after room, in disgust at what this family had. A theater. A bowling alley. A frickin dance studio. The house had marble floors and at least three crystal chandeliers. She had grown up at times sleeping on the floor in foster homes packed with too many kids.

Finally, after exhausting what must have been half the house, she opened the door to a playroom.

“Holy shit,” she breathed. Toy heaven was real, and this was it. Everything else she had seen had been standard rich people crap. This was different. A huge section of the playroom was dominated by a raised forest diorama, dotted by multiple doll houses. A wall, the long wall, was given over to a bookstore's worth of books. And then there was the doll castle.

Bel walked to it and kept her flashlight across the fake-stone structure, which had turrets taller than her. It loomed over the forest and the rest of the room, dressed in black and purple pennants. And then a light came on from inside, from an upper balcony window. Even though it must have been a motion or light sensor, Bel jumped and started to hide.

“Who goes there?" An imperious voice boomed out, "Who is moving about in my kingdom?”

Bel froze, her eyes going wide as she gazed around the room for the source.

“You, there, with the torch!” The voice shouted. "Name yourself!" That's when Bel realized the owner of the voice was not a person, but a doll. She stood on the top balcony, standing a bit higher than Bel, her chin thrust out and eyes glaring and demanding answers.

“The hell are you talking?” Bel asked, feeling only slightly silly talking back. She didn't know robot toys had gotten so advanced.

“Of course I can talk, what kind of Queen cannot speak down to her subjects? Come closer so I might appraise you.”

Bel walked closer, but not to obey the doll. She wanted to get a better look at her. If this doll had fairy wings, this is what Issac sent her to get. The Queen, meanwhile, never wavered from staring at Bel with her glassy blue eyes. “Good, you can follow orders. That’s more than I can say for many of my subjects.” She studied Bel, “Who are you? What do you want?"

What if this was some kind of bizarre security system? But it didn't make sense to have it here, in this form. “I’m going to need to find a way to shut you up.” Bel said, more to herself than to the doll.

She was close enough to see the Queen’s eyes go wide, in a way too subtle for a robot to manage. “You dare? I am a queen!”

“You’re a toy.”

“And more royal than you, peasant!”

Bel bristled at the Queen’s quick tongued reply, which touched deeply on her own insecurities. “Don’t make me put you in a box. Because I will.”

The Queen looked haughtily at Bel, and sniffed. “While it is beneath me, I can make a deal with you. If you swear loyalty to me, I will remain silent while you go about your business."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Bel shrugged. It was a doll. A toy. If this got her to shut up while she looked for the fairy, great. If not, a box was still an option. Whichever she chose, Bel decided to take her, too. Not to keep, but she was sure someone would be interested in such a toy.

"Is that a yes? Are you loyal to me?" The doll crossed her arms.

Bel rolled her eyes, "I am loyal to you."

Her Queen cackled, a deep and throaty sound, and the most villainous thing Bel had ever heard. “Oh, what a delight!"

"I thought you said you'd shut up?"

"You'll be the one to be quiet, peasant!"

That was it, Bel thought. No need to put up with abuse from a doll. She crossed the last few steps to get to her Queen, bringing her hand up to grab the stupid little toy. But her Queen never or moved and gazed at Bel with a dripping superiority.

"Tell me a joke." Her Queen commanded.

And that's when the world stopped making sense. Confusion, and surprise, overwhelmed Bel. Then, she told the doll a joke, one that bubbled up from an old joke book she read long ago.

"Why aren’t Koala Bears considered bears?”

"I don’t know -- why?"

Bel answered even as her mind reeled with disbelief. “Because they don’t have the right Koala-fications.”

Her Queen shrieked with laughter, and it didn’t make Bel feel any better. In fact, it made her feel worse. Scared. "How did you make me do that?" She asked, backing away.

"You're now my court jester, and you'll dress the part!" Her Queen commanded.

A moment later, Bel's scalp tingled as a multi-pointed cap sprouted from her head, and jangling bells rang out whenever she moved. She shouted and reached to pull the impossible hat off, but her Queen had other plans.

"Dance for me, puppet!"

It happened in a breath and Bel's body rebelled from her. She began to dance. An Irish jig, of all things, and she held her arms against her side while jumping and spinning in place. She couldn't help it. Her Queen commanded it. As she did, her dark sweatshirt shifted and melted into a jester's motley with flowy sleeves, a jovial collar, and even more bells.

"Please, stop this!" Bel shouted, as she herself was unable to stop the invisible strings pulling her and forcing her to dance. She had gone beyond wondering how this was happening, only needing it to end.

“You shall only speak when you are spoken to. Am I clear, puppet?”

“Yes, my Queen.” While she kicked and jumped, Bel's jeans and shoes melted, revealing her long legs wrapped in colorful, mismatched tights and new elfin shoes with curly toes and, of course, more bells.

“Excellent. Now, cease your dancing; you're giving me a headache.”

Bel flopped at the command, but caught herself and stared at her new costume. Every move, every twitch came with a new round of ringing bells. She surged up, and turned to run, getting out of earshot her only concern.

"Did I say you could go?"

“No, my Queen.” Bel said automatically with a quaking voice. She stopped moving and stared longingly at the door to her freedom on the other side of the toy forest.

“That was a rhetorical question,” Her Queen snapped. “Now, what was it you called me earlier? A toy?”

Unsure if she should speak, Bel just nodded.

“That wasn’t rhetorical. You really must learn the difference since you are my court jester. Now, if I am a toy, then so must you be!”

This command struck Bel differently than the last. It came with a wave of swirling magic that coiled around her body and tied itself around her, warping and remaking her, rather than her clothes. Bones turned to wood, atop which a layer of plush made her soft to the touch, and all wrapped up tan cloth. She stared in horror at her new mitten hands, even while she felt a dollish smile pull across her lips. Her hair, once done into a tight bun, came unraveled in a cascade of yellow yarn, a far cry from her black locks.

Bel turned and tried to speak, but her mouth wouldn't open. All she wanted was one last attempt to convince her Queen not to do this, hopeless as it was. But her Queen had one last commandment for Bel to obey.

"Now shrink! Be but a toy! So that I may hang you from strings!"

Of course, Bel obeyed. She shrank all at once, so fast her feet came up from the ground and she hung in the air. She looked at her Queen straight in the eye, knowing she had won utterly and completely.

Then, Bel fell.

She tumbled end over end until she hit the ground, landing in the play forest with its green carpeted ground and plastic trees taller than she.

The strength went right out of Bel and she laid there, her limbs splayed out like she was just a doll, fallen from her owner's grasp. In front of her, the great plastic doors to the castle opened and light spilled out across her. It beckoned to her.

Bel kicked her legs and launched back from it. "No, no, no!" She shouted. Not unless commanded by her Queen.

Instead, she got up and fled into the forest, into the darkness beneath plastic trees, into the unknown world of toys, into a life she could never imagine merely five minutes ago. She could only hope someone in the woods could free her from this curse.