Fay lay in bed with Edgar pretending to sleep, much to her disgust, when he was snoring and was vast asleep, she got up and in her nightgown went over to the garden. She opened the gate and waited, after a while, a man grunted as he climbed over the fence, he fell down with a loud thud. Fay looked at the house, it seemed Edgar did not hear anything.

Silof walked over to Fay and kissed her with passion, he whispered. “How are you?”

“I am fine, did you get the message?”

He gave her the pearl bracelet back, “Yes, that was smart of you, you would never part with this. Now, the office, is it open?”

Fay nodded, “I put a little piece of wood between the door, Edgar was basking so much in his victory he did not even notice, or he just didn’t care. We have to be careful, if he catches you here, he will murder you.”

Silof gestured that he would be silent, and they snuck into the office, Silof silently gasped as he looked at the two small dolls, “Why are these smaller?”

Annabel smiled at him, “Because we are the first models.”

Fay was shocked, she put her hand over Silof’s mouth to keep him quiet. “You can actually talk, Annabel, mom?”

“Yes, I can talk, I am sorry for earlier, I had to annoy Edgar, I know what you have been going through, we have been waiting until this chance occurred. I have a plan.”

Jasper gave them a thumbs up as his mechanical joints creaked.

Silof came closer to Annabel, “Why can you talk? Why can’t the others talk?”

Annabel sighed and ignored his question, “Fay, I am so sorry for leaving you and Edgar alone, Jacob misses you, I could have come back, but you know, let the dead rest.”

Fay tilted her head, “Come back?”

“Yes, I can move freely between Elysium and the land of the living. I came here to stop Edgar. You and Jasper are instrumental, and my grandchild.”

Fay smiled, “How did you know?”

“I am pretty smart, also, a little birdie told me, how bad is it out there?”

Silof groaned, “These live sized dolls are everywhere, with each passing day, more of them are appearing. Fay agreed to marry Edgar to get access to you two, please tell me we did not do that for nothing.”

Jasper played a card and smiled, I wish I could tell him the plan but, I am just a silent mute doll. Which sucks ass.

Annabel grinned at him, “I can see your cogs turning, Jasper, let me tell you the plan. It will be a plan that will take a long time to enact, since there is only one person who can stop Edgar. Your son, Fay.”

“What, Byron?”

Jasper nodded, we have to wait for him to grow up into a young adult, I hope Annabel will bring it to her in a kind manner.

Annabel sighed, “I am sorry to tell you this, we have to wait for him to grow up to a young man, which means you need to stick around and skulk around his back to be with this man. I assume you are a thing. Otherwise, he would not sneak into the office.”

Silof grinned, “This is amazing, the real Annabel, it is bad you are in misery, but having you on our side, it means we have a chance.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Annabel grunted, “This will not be a clean victory, people are going to die.”

Fay shed a tear, “What, who? Do we need to kill Edgar? He is killing people.”

Annabel tilted her head, “Excuse me?”

Silof nodded, “He is killing people to get his way, and using the dead ones as leverage to get what he wants.”

Jasper grunted, and he creaked loudly, this is doomsday, this is even worse than I had thought, how can we possibly stop such a madman?

Annabel clenched her fist, almost crumpling a card, “We are going to start a rebellion, Edgar needs to be dealt with, eventually. Byron and Jasper are instrumental to making this rebellion happen, but he will be hurt, Fay, he will come to love the dolls if this pans out like I think. Then they will be gone.”

Fay seemed to be thinking, “We all have to sacrifice things, like my morals, Silof’s morals, you are sacrificing time to spend time with Jacob. My dad wants peace.”

Annabel looked down, “I should have burned my notes and not asked you to keep them stored. I was wrong, you were right, we should have burned the trunk or buried it somewhere. Please tell me you are keeping the secret I handed to you.”

Fay showed her the pearl bracelet, “As safe as ever, mom. You could not have known, like I did not know that he would snap like this. Can you tell me what happened, in the lab?”

I made myself appear and walked closer, “Yes, I would love to know as well, it would help for my next narration, this one is all whacked up, maybe for the best, some things are sped up, which means, ignore me.”

Silof was shocked, “What the fuck, the woman with the top hat is real?”

Annabel nodded, “Her name is Kate, she is driving Edgar insane, she tried to stop him.”

Fay tilted her head and looked at me, “Thank you for trying, I assume he did not listen, was he lying about a doll getting up and walking away?”

“No, my friend, Lloyd, really did resurrect himself, I heard him on the broadcast, I wonder if he has made contact with the monastery this time, look, all of this is, wrong.”

Jasper looked at her, wrong? What does she mean, wrong? I would love to know what she is talking about, also, nice top hat.

I grinned at Jasper, “Thanks for the compliment, I do love my top hat, as for what is going wrong, if this narrative veers too far off course, then it will collapse into itself and everyone will die. Edgar was supposed to win. And yes, he is supposed to lose, if you don’t pull off this plan, everyone dies. However, if this narrative is going this way, then this time, just maybe, just maybe, everyone will live. Jacob getting introduced that fast, there must be a reason that happened.”

Silof raised his hands, “Hold up, you are telling me, if we lose, not just New Albion dies, but all of this, this whole narrative as you call it?”

I nodded, “You are correct, Lloyd waking up now is one of the variations, the lab explosion, Annabel flowering, Silof being pulled into the main story. But, the lab explosion, tell us.”

Annabel let a melancholic smile form, “I was working on the new power source when something went wrong. It exploded, and I got hit by a massive blast, I should have been dead. Instead, I got up and felt different, strange powers flew through my veins. As the power source was about to overload and blow up the lab, I tried to stop it with my newfound powers.”

Fay sighed, “The lab still blew up, taking you to Elysium. Are these powers why you can talk?”

Jasper nodded, yes, that is why she can speak, I have no idea what she is capable of.

I smiled at him, “We are capable of a lot. But most of us love to narrate.”

Silof looked back and forth between them, “Hold on, you can read our minds, you knew exactly what he was thinking, earlier too, with the top hat.”

I bowed my hat to him, “Yes, now, go on, I will always be around, looking at what is going on. Years will go by soon for the next generation, that is going to take a long time for you, for me, it will be the blink of an eye.” I let myself vanish.

Fay let out a deep sigh, “Silof, this is not going to take years, it’ll take a generation, are you still onboard?”

“Yes, I am, but once we freed New Albion, shall we leave, together? We will be much older, though.”

Fay smiled, “If the dolls are all gone, I would love that.”

Annabel looked at them, “This is going to be a long track, I assume Silof will be sneaking into the garden a lot?”

He nodded, “I wonder how far Edgar is willing to go with this, he lives in a bubble, thinking he has won, and he has everything he wants, not realizing how much he is hurting people.”

Jasper looked at Fay, I wish things were different, I wish, you could have grown up with me and Annabel. But she now has a man waiting in Elysium, this is a plan we have to see through until the end.

Fay smiled at him as he creaked, and his wheels turned, “I am going to visit you a lot, I bet the footage Edgar can see is only in real time. Our lives have a desperate outlook, but there is a light at the end of this tunnel.”

Silof let out a deep sigh, “I am more worried about this invisible woman, along with New Albion that might blow up.”

Fay comforted him by rubbing her hand over his back, “We won’t let it get that far.”