Hollow Dolls, The by MT Dahl Read Free Book Online Page B

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drunken canvas of  the two colors. She got hit by a truck one morning on the
way to school and still went to class—the truck got damaged. Mel watched Luba
blow an anonymous guy at a bus stop with his coat over her head. After, he got
on the bus and they went drinking at a house party where Luba stood on the
kitchen table and promised blow jobs to every guy there.
    At some point, nobody knew the difference between gossip and
reality. It didn’t matter. Luba had home made prison tats, Goth dark eyes,
anaemic white-girl face and a dog collar. Biceps... Nobody went near Luba
except her boyfriend, who was working his way up in a gang. Mel didn’t remember
the name; there were so many gangs at the time, it was just a blur of badass.
    Alexa played bass in an east-ender, dirty girl band. A tink with
short black hair and a rancid foul mouth. She was under Mel and Luba’s protection.
That kept her out of most shit. Occasionally girls tried to hang with them but
they were a trio. Besides, Mel knew she’d be dragged off eventually. So they
agreed to stay just three and that Luba would stick by Lexa no matter what. Mel
didn’t want any more suicide cases stacking up.
    That was when Peter brought Mel and her mother to England, halfway
through grade nine. It was all of sudden like he’d been planning it without
saying a word.
    Then came Winnie Hayes.  Haverstock School was a few blocks from
Chalk Farm Tube Station. Day one: Winnie stole Mel, easy as a pack of Juicy
Fruit. Mel stole her back. Winnie’s freak quotient was seventy nature: thirty
nurture. She could draw mirror images in great detail, had a weird kind of dog hearing,
and an eidetic memory. Her mother Lauren had killed and eaten her father.
Lauren ended up in Broadmoor, a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane.
    Mel dropped out of Haverstock only a month later to start at Club Lick ,
and she was gone, ‘Poof!’ but Winnie and her remained friends, sparring in
Feltham. Winnie didn't need to go to state school, there was plenty of money
from her book, but she preferred it. She’d grown up in Manchester, in dignified
industrial poverty, where her mom had done the deadly deed on her father.
Winnie wrote a book about her mother Lauren’s eating habits called, Play
With Me , then moved to London after the sales went ballistic. She was too
famous around Manchester. Anonymity; she liked it, Mel did too.
    Winnie and her mother Lauren brought hate to a visceral level. It
was essentially inside the blood itself. Firstly, they had the same blood, and secondly,
they were both ‘into’ blood so to speak, so deep inside themselves, at a blood
cellular level; that was the location for the cage match. Two enter, one
leaves. The fight wasn’t over yet, though. 
    Lauren was a failed writer, so there was jealousy between them
over Winnie’s book and big financial success. It brought a continual flow of
cash into Winnie’s account. She was terrible with money. It didn’t matter. She
couldn’t possibly lose or spend it all, the way she lived.
    Mel knew Winnie was torturing her mother by visiting her out at
Broadmoor. Mel envied her and wished she could do the same to Marlene. Mel
would drive Winnie out, go for a pint, then drive her back. Afterward, Winnie
would have that look, and she would glow with a crisp darkness. All over
Winnie, she bristled with charred raven feathers, a coat that Mel couldn’t find
anywhere else. On those drives back from Broadmoor, often they had to pull off
somewhere on a country road, their desire was so intense. Mel was completely
taken by Winnie in her perfect form of feathered darkness.
    Winnie graduated sixth form ahead of time in January, 2012. Mel
was proud of her like a little sister.
     
    Mel’s freak was more internal. Georgy said her persona had been
erased by the psychological abuse she’d received at home and that she was
emotionally at the level of about a twelve-year-old girl. Mel figured most
people couldn’t see any of