Blood and Bone: A Smattering of Unease by Shannon Rae Noble Read Free Book Online Page B

off; I’ll see what I can do with them. Wash her up with lots of soap and water.”
    “Oh, thank you, thank you, Mommy! I love you!”
    Chelsea grabbed her mother around the waist and stretched to kiss her cheek. Darce bent down to receive Chelsea’s kiss; then the little girl turned and skipped away.
    “Whoa, whoa, young lady!” Darce called after her. “Run yourself the bath and just take her in with you! You’re as dirty as she is!”
    As she looked after her daughter, the doll’s gray eyes caught hers.
    She could have sworn it was looking right at her.
     
    * * *
    Chelsea adored Jane, but Darce couldn’t help feeling an aversion to her. Whenever Jane was in the room with her, Darce felt that the doll was staring at her.
    She tried to shrug it off. Of course, she thought, it’s just an optical illusion . . . the same way the eyes of people in photographs follow you, or the eyes of statues and figurines.
    Or maybe it was just a spin-off of childhood fears. She’d had shelves full of dolls as a child, and had always feared that they were watching her, so she had turned them all to face away from her at bedtime.
    Still, at tuck-in time, when Darce leaned down to kiss Chelsea good night . . . she felt that Jane was somehow mocking her. In the car, she couldn’t help but be acutely aware of the doll’s presence beside her in the front seat.
     
    * * *
    Chelsea turned nine on a Saturday in August. She had a fairy-themed birthday party. Her little guests all showed up wearing fairy dresses, and Darce provided wings and wands.
    The day was everything it should have been for a little girl’s birthday. The grassy backyard was lush and brilliant green beneath the cloudless blue sky, in which the sun hung, suspended, like a bright yellow ball. Lunch and birthday cake were consumed, gifts were opened, and the girls played for hours.
    As Chelsea’s guests departed with their parents in the late afternoon, the sky began to fill with ominous dark clouds.
    “That was really fun,” Chelsea said.
    “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, and I hope your friends did, too,” her mother replied.
    “But now I’m tired.”
    “Too tired to play with your birthday gifts?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why don’t we go inside, watch a little television, and relax?”
    “Okay,” Chelsea agreed. She helped her mother gather her gifts and bring them inside. She skipped into the living room, her fairy wings fluttering gently against her back.
    As a light rain began tapping on the roof, Darce turned on some lamps to dispel the deepening gloom. She tuned the television to Nickelodeon, and she and Chelsea snuggled together beneath the afghan on the sofa.
    “Thank you for such a special birthday,” Chelsea said drowsily, nestling beside her mother.
    “You’re very welcome, sweetheart.”
    Tired from the day’s festivities and lulled by the steady sound of rain tapping on the eaves, Darce drifted into sleep, still wearing her baby blue satin fairy dress and fairy wings.
    The booming sound of thunder woke her, followed by cartoon voices from the television.
    She opened her eyes and saw Jane standing over her, smiling. But Jane wasn’t a doll anymore. She was a real woman.
    Darce’s stomach dropped and terror clamped a fist around her heart. She tried to scream, but the sound caught in her throat, trapped behind closed, stiff, unmoving lips.
    She struggled to move, but her arms and legs seemed paralyzed.
    “Greetings, Darce O’Neil,” Jane said. Her non-descript face had gained an angular harshness. Her soft eyes were now hard and cold, shining brightly in the dimness. Her thin lips twisted in a smirk. She leaned down and grabbed Darce around the waist, lifting her with abnormally huge hands. She carried Darce down the hall to the bathroom, where she turned on the light and held Darce up so that she faced the mirror.
    Darce tried to scream again, but only silence issued forth from the motionless face reflected in the mirror.
    “Why, Mrs.