A Doll's House Part III
By Patrick Gillespie

The smell of blood filled the air.  The dark staircase leading to the basement only consisted of sixteen steps, but for Katie the trip seemed like forever.  Everything was moving in slow motion.  The distant sounds of the meat grinder, the screaming, and the evil cackle all resurfaced, but this time out of sync.  The laughter was overlapping the grinding and the screaming was weaving in and out.  The jumble of sounds echoed inside of her head as she approached the end of the staircase. 

Upon reaching the bottom, she looked up in surprise at what lie around her.  The once concrete floor was now covered with shiny black and white square tiles, the ceiling and walls around her loomed back in a threatening pitch black, and instead of florescent light, the room was lit by wooden torches that hung from the blackened walls like fallen stars.  The center of the room, however, is what had stunned her the most.  Where there had once rested a jumble of exercising equipment and computer parts, there now stood a large five foot tall, two foot wide, and six foot long machine, its shiny silver exterior glistening in the light from the torches. 

On one of the long sides of the contraption there appeared to a small control panel, with buttons and lights blinking in the dim light of the room.  It was clear from Katie’s view that the meat, or whatever was put into the machine, was placed in from a wide circular opening at the top.  From there it appeared to be processed and shot out of a short but wide tube that protruded from one of the long ends of the device.  The site left her completely speechless.  The creation was nothing like the machine she had seen in her favorite restaurant a few days ago.  This was something much darker, much more evil.

Katie’s mind went into panic mode as her eyes focused in on the contraption more closely.  Atop the horrendous site was Jason, the former love of her life, struggling to get his arm out of the large circular opening at the top.

"Help me Katie!  My arm is caught!" he screamed upon seeing her standing in shock.

"Jason!  Hold on I'll be right there!" Katie screamed back, breaking her trance.  Running over to the contraption as quickly as she could, she hastily climbed on top and began to do her best to get him free.

"Don't worry baby, everything's going to be okay," she nervously spit out as she grabbed his arm and began to yank it, trying desperately to remove it.  From the opening where Jason’s hand was caught she could see inside the hideous machine, she could see the large threatening blades that rested from within.  Jason’s hand had been maimed pretty badly, and as she pulled his arm, his flesh did not appear to be easily coming loose.

"It doesn't appear to be coming loose!" Katie gasped after repeatedly pulling on his arm.  "Hey, wait, what's going on!?"

Katie tried to release her grip from around Jason's upper limb, but to no avail.  Staring down at her hands she realized that their skin had freakishly grown together.  Her flesh now wove directly into his.  A feeling of terror rushed through her body.  She looked desperately at Jason to see if he had an answer to this crooked twist of fate.

"I'm sorry Katie, it was the only way we could be together," Jason said, his eyes quivering as they stared back at Katie.

Suddenly the sound of power activating the meat grinder flooded into Katie's ears.  Before she could even think, the blades began spinning.  Terrified, she screamed in horror and pulled with every bit of strength in her body to break away from Jason, but her efforts were futile.  The machine quickly began to suck them in, shooting the debris of their arms out the short tube at the end of the contraption.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, Katie tried to keep her head as far from the blades as she could.  Spinning at an incredible rate, the machine rapidly engulfed her shoulders and then severed her head, sending it flying out of the blades’ reach and onto to the cold black and white tiled floor.  The sound of the evil cackle filled the room.

Katie looked forward at the black wall in front of her, horrified that she was still conscious.  As the machine finished grinding the remains of the couple, the laughter subsided.  Katie then felt the rubbery bottom of a shoe touch her forehead.  Her head was then rolled upward, towards Jessica, who was towering above her.

"Wha, what's going on?!" Katie managed to whimper.

"You just don't get it do you Katie?  I’m not your everyday young teenage fan.  We could have been friends.  We could have had so much fun if you’d have let me get a little closer, I had so much I wanted to share, but now everything's ruined.  You're both mine now though.  I shot you both dead after Jason yelled at me.  Your souls are now my little playthings.  I control your thoughts, feelings, memories, everything.  You've been in the doll house since yesterday."

The End