Bel’s bells jangled as she ran through the toy forest. I’m a toy, she thought while reaching out to catch herself. Her wobbly legs were made to be pulled by strings, not run and move on their own. She fell many times, each time with a burst of ringing bells. Worse than that, every time she fell, Bel wanted to simply lay there and give in to her wooden body, which wanted her to be still and unmoving. Getting back up was getting harder.
“Who’s there! Who’s there!” A voice cried out from a nearby tree, and Bel threw herself backward, falling on her butt. An owl with an owl with molded wings and big yellow eyes with a demeanor glared at her from a hole in the plastic tree.
“Who are you! Who are you!” The toy coo-cooed, flapping its wings angrily.
“Please be quiet!” Bel whispered, suddenly able to speak now that she had been spoken to. But she kept her body as still as she could to keep her treacherous bells from ringing. Such was her life now that a talking owl was considered a normal thing.
“Who are you! Who are you!” The owl said, not lowering its shrill voice one bit.
“My name’s Bel, please be quiet,” she said.
“Why should I? Why should I?”
“Because the crazy queen is looking for me!” Bel hissed, looking around the nighttime forest. High above, she could see the towers of great castle lit up through breaks in the plastic canopy.
The owl spun its head twice, “What will you give me? What will you give me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Tell the Queen! Tell the Queen!” The owl had a bit of a laugh in its voice.
Bel knew a threat when she heard one, and she jumped to her feet, “That’s not fair! She just turned me into a toy! I have nothing to give you!”
“Too bad! Too bad!”
Bel pulled on her yarn hair, racking her mind what to do, what to give. She had nothing but the bells. Or so she thought. “What do you want?”
“Tell me a joke! Tell me a joke!”
“A joke? Seriously?”
“Tell me a joke! Tell me a joke!”
The jester toy groaned and racked her wooden brain for something to say. “Um, what’s an owl’s favorite subject?”
“Owlgebra! Owlgebra!” The owl hooted and cackled a birdish laugh.
“You’re not supposed to answer!”
“Tell me a joke! Tell me a joke!”
“I don’t know anymore jokes, you stupid bird.”
The owl spun its head, flapped its wings, and hopped on its perch, shaking the tree it was stuck to. “Smart bird! Smart bird!”
“Keep your voice down!” Bel hissed.
“Never! Never! Tell the Queen! Tell the Queen!”
Bel looked around, terrified the Queen could be anywhere in the dark. “What do you want That I can give you?”
“Take my place! Take my place!”
Chills ran down Bel’s back and she took a step away. She didn’t question if it was possible. If the owl suggested that she could take its place, Bel believed it.
“No way. Absolutely not,” she said.
“Stuck in the Tree! Safe from the Queen!”
“I can’t!”
“Tell the Queen! Tell the Queen!”
“I won’t!” Bel shouted, “Tell her, you stupid bird!” It hooted and flapped its wings. She didn’t care, she turned and ran deeper into the forest, all the while hearing the owl hoot into the night,
“Bel was here! Bel was here!”
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Bel’s bells jangled as she ran through the to forest. Click-click. Click-click. Footsteps thumped behind her against the playboard’s green carpet with mechanical efficiency and endurance. She never saw her pursuer whenever she looked, just a shadow weaving through the trees. Closer and closer. Click-click. Click-click. The noise drowned out even her bells.
She tried to spin away, but a hand came down and curled around Bel’s jester hat. Her legs went out in front of her and she cried out. She batted uselessly at the hand, but didn’t have near the strength to get free.
The mechanical hoofbeats stopped and Bel dangled in the air like the marionette she was. Beside her was a plastic horse black as night and regaled in purple cloth. It was now locked and still, its big eye devoid of life. The rider now was Bel’s worry.
Click-click. Click-click. Click-click. Cliiiiiiiiiick. The knight atop the horse bedecked in black armor moved like a sprinkler head, scanning the wood for threats while it held Bel.
“What pleasant quarry have I for. The Queen!” The mechanical knight mechanically spoke. “A brand new toy for. The Queen! To play with.”
Bel couldn’t even speak to respond, and busied herself by trying to use her stuffed mittens to unhook the knight’s vice like hand.
“Stop that.”
“No!”
Click. Click. Click. The knight raised Bel higher off the ground, holding her by the tails of her hat until they looked nearly plastic eye to plastic eye. “You serve. The Queen! And I serve. The Queen! But I am her favored knight and subject. You are her puppet and property. So be quiet.”
“No! I’m not--”
Click. The Knight shook Bel and all her bells jangled. She did it twice more for good measure, practically making the jester into an instrument. “Oh, it will be so fun to play with you. You’ll be hung from strings and put on display, ever to be. The Queen’s! Marionette. She’ll probably let me play with you.”
Bel shook her head, or tried to.
“Please, what can I give you to let me go?”
“You have nothing to give. Whatever it is you have, whatever it is you are, or were, now belongs to. The Queen! To take from you would be to steal from--”
“The Queen, I get it!” While she dangled, Bel began to relent. This was all too much. She had been so easily tricked, so easily changed, and now so easily caught. And all she wanted to do was rest her wooden body. Until she saw a push button behind the Knight’s leg, embedded in the horse. A red button.
“You must show. The Queen! Her proper respect.” Another shake and ringing of Bel.
The marionette had no idea what the button could do, only that she was already caught and there was nothing left for her to lose.
“I won’t!” She said, kicking her leg out with all the might her wood and plush body could muster. Her shoe made solid, direct contact with the red button.
The knight’s horse brought its head up and bolted with a mechanical will. That is to say, no will at all. The knight shouted and dropped Bel, trying to get a hold of her horse. But everything happened too fast and they careened into a tree rooted to the playboard. The tree won that fight.
“Ahh!” Click-click. Click-click. Click-click.
Bel scrambled to her feet and watched the toys. The horse lay on its side, but still it moved as if it was standing. The mechanical gears inside had taken full control and it had no choice but to gallop away -- or try to. It was a stark reminder that whatever else, the knight was just a toy, helpless to her true nature. But then, so was she.
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Bel’s bells jangled as she ran through the toy forest. Everytoy could hear her coming, but she had to run, and her bells had to jingle. This was her life, until she figured out how to get turned back to her normal self. Why was everything so crazy and terrible here? Why couldn’t she run into a cute Ken doll or a helpful teddy bear?
She ran until she hit the edge of the tree line, and stopped, abruptly, as she came to a dark, deep chasm into the earth. Bel pinwheeled her arms and threw herself back. Then, on her shaky arms and knees, she looked out over the edge of the bottomless pit. But that couldn’t be right. She was still in the playroom of a mansion, just as a toy instead of a person. So what seemed to be a bottomless pit must actually be just a two or three foot drop. If she could manage the fall, Bel would be out of this forest. But while everything here had been terrifying, it all existed on her scale. The trees, the other toys, were the right size for her mind to comprehend.
The world off the playboard was the world of humans. The world of giants. And Bel wasn’t prepared to face that world, and definitely not at night. So she backed away from the chasm and looked for a way across. And nearby she saw a bridge connecting the playboard to the one on the other side.
Bel moved as quietly as her jangly bells would allow, stopping a few times to listen for the knight’s clicking horse, or the owl’s hooting call, but she heard neither. Her legs felt more wobbly, almost like they were sore, than they had been so far. She would need rest soon. Just one moment's rest so she could come to understand what had happened to her.
She never noticed the hand reach out from beneath the bridge. A hand with three stick fingers and a long, stretchy arm. It followed behind her elfin shoes as she walked, and then lashed out, the fingers wrapping across Bel’s plush ankle, squeezing down to her wooden bone.
The toy opened her mouth as if to scream, though no sound could escape her lips. She tried to kick with her free leg, but the sticky hand held on. And just before Bel reached forward with her own mittens to get the thing off, she felt something slither through and inside her body.
A force, like electricity or energy, wove up and inside of Bel’s leg, rising toward her hips, her abdomen, her chest. She tried to push it off and push it down, but whatever it was inside her wasn’t deterred. It rose past her chest, filling her up, filtering into both legs and arms until she lost control of them. Then it kept on upward, filling Bel’s neck, her jaw, her mouth. It pushed her aside like Bel was nothing.
And it began to laugh. “Hee-hee! Hee-hee! A body for me and none for thee!” It spoke with an impish mockery of Bel’s voice. It used Bel’s body to jump up and begin to dance a jig, forcing Bel’s hands to her hips and kicking her legs. And the whole time the sticky hand held onto her.
Bel tried to kick her legs, but they weren’t hers anymore. Her whole, stupid, wobbly marionette body was controlled by this thing under the bridge and she could only stare at the world through her life-filled eyes and hear with her cloth ears. She wanted to fight, but didn’t know how and didn’t have the strength.
The thing inside her continued to dance and sing, “This body is mine, I hear you cry; I disagree, but you’re welcome to try.” It ran mittens all along her body, feeling it and mocking Bel at the same time
“What are you going to do with me?” Bel asked in her mind.
“Going to do? It’s been done; and now I get to have lots of fun.”
“Pity about you, I suppose, but that’s just how it goes!”
It began a circle dance, laughing and bobbing Bel’s head, making her dizzy inside her own mind. “Get out of my body, you jerk! You and your stupid rhyming quirk!”
The strange part, though, was that Bel actually said that. With her own lips. It stopped dancing.
“What? No! This body is mine, and it will be for all time!”
“I may be a doll, I may be small, but if you stay here, I’ll drive you up the wall!” Bel said, her voice becoming stronger and more hers against the thing invading her.
“You’re a little lost toy without me; return to your cage and leave me be.”
Bel started to dance. She knew but one, which the Queen forced her to perform, but it was enough. Sensation came back to her as the hand’s possessing presence fell backward.
“A little lost toy am I, that’s better than possessing passersby!”
She felt the slithering force come back, as strong or stronger than before, and Bel stopped dancing. Her head twisted and she felt the energy bury into mind. Her eyes twitched and rolled back. And then it spoke with her lips again.
“Ah, I see you love a boy, do you think he loves a simple toy?”
That chilled Bel and she stopped fighting. She imagined Eddie seeing her like this, as a toy with elfin shoes and a merry smile. He deserved someone better than her. What kind of boy wanted to love a girl who got herself turned into a doll?
“Let’s face it, Miss Bel, you were a ne’er-do-well.”
“And you know as a toy you’ll bring great joy,”
“Let your body be mine so I won’t hear you whine.”
“It...” Bel started, her voice quiet, almost silent.
“No, be quiet! Your life is mine, so don’t even try it!”
“It may be true what you say, but I’ll fight you every day.”
“Eddie is my love true, and he will see me through.”
“I’m a plaything for now, but not yours, so take your bow.”
Bel forced herself to bow, taking back control of each part of her body and forcing the possessor back into his disgusting, sticky hand. She peeled the gluey fingers off her leg.
“I’m never beaten, I... I...” The voice fell silent as Bel threw the arm back over the bridge, heaving with her full body. Then, she turned and hurried as fast as her tired limbs could carry her.
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Bel’s bells jangled as she dragged herself through the toy forest. Her arms were heavy and her legs didn’t want to move. It was exhausting being a living doll. Running for her freedom, fighting bridge monsters, and being made to dance were all too much for her marionette body. But she didn’t want to stop, not until she found shelter.
She tripped again over her own clumsy legs, falling as she did many times. This time, she didn’t catch her fall. This time, she didn’t get back up. Part by part, Bel’s mind receded. She lost feeling of her feet and mittens, her arms and legs, her torso, her neck. A tiredness so complete it terrified her, or would have, if she had the energy.
Her eyes kept their spark of life, but Bel’s mind fell still and silent in a dreamless sleep, and only barely aware of the sound of a creaky wheelbarrow coming up to her. The toy driving the wheelbarrow walked to her with clunky forrester boots and a stuffed muscle chest. His ruddy beard face tilted as he looked down upon the smiling toy.
“Huhn,” he grunted. “Guess Granny Haus was right.” He reached down a hand, wrapping it around one of Bel’s arms and dragging her limp body toward the wheelbarrow. One heave and he dropped her inside, and her head lolled to look at the canopy of trees and the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. He packed up her limbs so she fit all in the wheelbarrow.
Then he whistled merrily and took Bel away.