“My little sweetheart,” he said, placing her carefully in the chair, “Don’t move! Stay- just so! The light is perfect. It shines on your hair, my little sweetheart, so I can see every single strand, every strand of black and brown and deepest mahogany. Oh, it is a sight! If only you could see your hair! No! Don’t twist so! With the light this way I can see every strand, every perfect strand belonging to me!”

She sat silently, staring straight ahead. Oh, this man confused her, but she got used to it. It is quite easy to get used to almost anything if you must.

“Now sip the tea- gently, gently! I know we didn’t have tea yesterday, I didn’t feel like it, did you? All these little biscuits are such a dreadful bother to lay out. Oh, how foolish I am, you little china dolls don’t really need to eat, you’re not tied down by such dreadful things as we mortals are. Dreadful things! Dreadful things much too fiery and mortal for your beautiful china ears!”

She sipped the tea. It was a sweet sludge and she could barely force it past her thirsty lips. She wished he would leave, to buy her more dresses or another box of biscuits, only leave so she could stand and walk a little! But if he left he might find another girl somewhere, another little girl who didn’t know how to act like a doll, and then the man would get in such a dreadful temper.

“Take another sip, no! No, stay like that, exactly like that, don’t move your arm an inch. Oh, how slender and pale it is! How perfect! You have no idea how dreadful it is not to be a little doll like you!”

He walked closer, and reached out to caress her arm. He moved his hand up and down it as if he had never seen anything like it, although he withdrew his hands as if burned when he felt the throbbing pulse at her wrist.

“And now, little sweetheart, it is time for bed. Little girls must sleep a lot, most dolls can’t sleep but you must for the night is a terrible terrible thing for innocent little glass eyes. My poor living eyes have seen many nights, and I tell you they are not the sort of things little girls should see!”

It was still daylight, and she had not had more than one sip of tea, but she did not argue. He slid he hand into hers and helped her stand, but she had only taken a few steps before he stopped.

“Oh, forgive me, my little dolly, your poor porcelain legs shall not take the strain.”

He scooped her, lacy skirts and all, into his arms, cradling her like a child and pressing her head to his chest. He instinctively rocked her a little, murmuring into her ears.

“Oh, my cold sweetheart, to have you in my arms! And still you smile that little half-smile and do not scream or hate me or try and leave me. Everyone leaves in the end, those foolish mortals who can’t be trusted and those wicked women pretending to be dolls so to fool me! But they are always revealed in the end, the dolls who can’t sit still and the people who leave me all alone. You would never leave me, my sweet dolly! No, a beautiful china doll like you hasn’t got a treacherous thought in her empty china head!”

He laid her gently in the frilly child’s bed, ignoring her long legs hanging over the end. He turned out the lights.

“Goodnight, my doll! Sleep tight, and do not open your eyes, for I have seen the monsters in the closet with my own two eyes and it is quite hard to sleep after that!”

In the middle of the night, she heard stomping and thumping, but kept her eyes squeezed shut. In the face of the man’s fear, and in the dark shadows of lace, she was quite able to believe in monsters.

In the morning she awoke to find a pretty blond girl laying next to her bed on the floor, unnaturally still. The first time this had happened she had thought the girl dead, but they always woke up, so she suspected chloroform, or alcohol. The girl appeared to be close to her own age, perhaps twenty. She studied the girl, clad only in a camisole and petticoat, until the girl awoke.

“Where the hell am I? What did you do to me?” were the first indignant and slurred words out of her mouth.

“We’re in his house. He was the one that did it, not me.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then how do you know it was him?”

“It’s always him.”

“What’s his name then?” the girl cried in frustration.

“I don’t know it. Look, just lie back down again. He likes us to be asleep until he wakes us up. When he comes, do as he says and don’t speak.”

“Why? Why can’t I speak?”

“Because he doesn’t like us to and it’s best to do as he likes.”

“Bloody mad! Well, it doesn’t look like leaving’s an option. My name’s Sylvie. Yours?”

“…Dolly?” she wasn’t really sure.

Just then the doorknob turned, and he walked in. The girls quickly feigned sleep. He awoke them both with a kiss on the forehead.

“What a pleasant day, my sweetheart- my sweethearts! For look, my little doll, I have brought you a sister. I found her absolutely abandoned on the sidewalk- why they entrust little girls with precious china dolls I’ll never know! I have dreadfully human things to attend to today, but don’t be afraid; it’s daytime and I’ll lock the doors so nobody will hurt you!”

He left, locking the apartment door behind him.