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Baby Doll woke slowly. The room was warm and the bedding was soft, and if it weren't for the stinging in her eye she would have been quite comfortable. It took her a moment to pull her thoughts together and realize where she was, and who was in the room with her. The High Roller.
"I've heard a lot about you, Baby Doll," he said.
For the past few days she had been driven by her fear of this moment, of the man currently in front of her, but now that the time of their meeting had come she found she wasn't afraid at all. She simply felt calm. "I've heard a lot about you too," she said.
He pulled a cigar out of his inner coat pocket. Baby Doll didn't know much about cigars, but it looked pricey, although maybe it was only the way everything else about him looked expensive that made her think that. Then he reached for his lighter, and when he flicked it open Baby had to fight off memories of Amber and dragons.
That was in the past. It was done with. His lighter didn't mean anything to her now - it offered no possibilities and suggested no plans.
"Well, Baby Doll, I feel were at a crossroads here," he said, and then took a drag of his cigar. "What are you going to do now?"
The question took Baby Doll by surprise. "I don't know," she said. "I didn't really think I had any say in it at this point."
"Of course you do," he said. He gestured at her with the hand holding the cigar, sending the smoke spiraling into the still air of the room. "I only want one thing from you, and that is to know what it is you want."
"I... I already got what I wanted," she said. A deep sacrifice and a perfect victory.
"Yes, you got the thing you wanted. But what do you want now? Life isn't just a choice, Baby. It's a series of choices that doesn't stop until you stop. So, think, and answer honestly: what do you want right now?"
Nothing about this was going the way Baby Doll had expected, and her thought process was starting to resemble a scratched record. "I don't know," she said. It was the only truthful answer she had.
"Here," said the High Roller, and he rose and walked over to a small nightstand across the room. For the first time Baby Doll noticed the radio on it, and she could feel her mind start to slip as he turned the dial up. "Maybe this will help."
Maybe it will, thought Baby Doll as the music wound its way into her brain.
The Wise Man was waiting for her on the Church steps. Snow fell lightly from the gray evening sky, but even though Baby Doll could see her breath puffing out in front of her she didn't feel cold. There were graves around them in the Churchyard, spreading out as far as her eyes could see, but despite the grim setting she couldn't identify any immediate threat.
"I didn't think I was going to see you again," she said.
The Wise Man smiled. "I find that life is rarely what people expect it to be."
"I figured out the final thing," said Baby Doll. "It was me, right? I was the fifth thing."
"Well done," said the Wise Man. "So what are you going to do now?"
A gust of wind rushed by, sending dead leaves rustling across the ground. Even after it passed, Baby Doll could hear a faint rumbling in the distance, and for the first time she started to feel a chill. "What is there to do now?" she asked. "I made the sacrifice. Even if I wanted to, I can't take it back, and I wouldn't even if I could. Sweet Pea was worth it."
"Of course she was. But you're not dead yet, Baby Doll. And until you're dead, you can fight."
Before, she'd had a plan. Map, fire, knife, key... and even that hadn't been enough. "What chance do I have?"
"Maybe you should look at it this way," said the Wise Man. "What have you got to lose?"
Nothing, thought Baby Doll. Nothing at all.
"They've already started. You're almost past the point of no return, Baby, but you still have a decision to make," said the Wise Man. "Are you going to defend yourself?"
Baby Doll's hand slid to the handle of her blade, and as the churchyard began losing coherency around her she pulled out her sword. Her eyes followed the scrollwork on the blade right down to the tip, with its little lobotomized skull smiling back at her, swallowing her whole field of vision.
Yes.
The doctor had a bad habit of stalling a bit when it got right down to doing the actual deed. The decisions had all been made well in advance, of course, and it wasn't like anyone was going to change their mind at the last minute. Certainly not the near comatose girl in front of him. She looked ahead, eyes wide and blank like someone had lobotomized her already and forgotten to tell him. Still, he took his time, just as his way of proving to the universe that he took his obligations seriously.
But he'd stalled for long enough. The surgical pick was in position and all he had to do now was bring the hammer down. He sighed, took a second to make sure his grip was firm, and nearly screamed when the patient's eyes lost that blank look and zeroed in on him directly.
"Damn!" he shouted, pulling back in surprise. Her foot shot out, striking him directly in the knee, and he dropped his tools when he collapsed. Before he had a chance to recover, she was on top of him, the pick's sharp point pressed against his neck.
This doesn't make any sense, he thought as panic started to overtake him. She shouldn't be violent. She shouldn't even be conscious.
"Do you have a key?" she asked.
He was in such a state of shock that it too him a second to register that she'd even asked a question. "What?"
"I want to know if you have a key to the exit," she said. Her voice was calm and clear, almost kind, but the pick was still pushing against his throat and he'd read her file. It didn't matter how reasonable she was acting, she was still fully capable of violence.
"No," he said. He swallowed nervously, and hoped that she believed him. "I'm just a visiting doctor," he explained. "I have to be let in and out just like the patients."
A mild look of concern crossed her face, but then she smiled at him.
"That's okay," she said. "I think I know where to get one."
Baby Doll could have gone her entire life without seeing Blue again and been perfectly happy about it, but she knew he had a key and she knew his office was close. Time was crucial - the doctor had almost certainly run for help the second she'd left him, and even with the surgical pick and hammer she'd nabbed from him she didn't stand much of chance against a team of caretakers three times her size. And once the cops got there her chances would be less than nothing.
Stop thinking of all the things that might go wrong, she thought. It'll only slow you down.
She skidded to a stop when she got to his door office, praying that he hadn't heard her running, and took a second to peek in the dirty window. There was a man with his back to the door that she didn't recognize, but she could hear Blue's voice in there talking to him.
Baby swallowed her revulsion. She gently opened the door a crack, and before the men had a chance to figure out what was going on she threw her full weight into it as hard as she could. The man who'd been standing in front of the door was thrown forward onto Blue's desk, and Blue leapt up screaming obscenities.
The stranger tried to right himself, but Baby slammed her hammer down on his head before he had a chance to turn on her. He slid to the floor, and with that distraction out of the way she was left to deal with Blue.
She wanted her sword, she wanted her gun, but in reality all she had was a pointy piece of metal and a small hammer. Unfortunately that meant she had no reach at all. Blue's desk was between the two of them, which left Blue in a much safer position than Baby would have liked.
"Don't you have an appointment? I really think you should keep it, it'll do wonders for your fucking attitude," he snarled. His hand snuck out towards one of his desk drawers, and Baby had no intention of letting him get at whatever was in it. She couldn't reach him, so she brought the hammer down as hard as she could on the desk itself. The wood splintered, and even though she hadn't hit him she still succeeded in making him jump back in surprise.
"Keep your hands up if you don't want a hammer in your head," she said.
Rage flashed across his face, and he only just barely managed to give her a tight, mirthless smile. "Alright, Baby Doll," he said, raising his hands in surrender. "We can play like you want to."
"I want your key," said Baby. "I know you have one."
"Absolutely," he said, smiling brighter, like he was trying to be friendly, but as far as Baby could tell he'd never looked friendly in his life. He always looked angry no matter how much he tried to hide it. You can't hide hate like that, not when it goes down that deep.
He reached for his neck as if to pull the key out from under his shirt, but his body language was all wrong. Baby was ready when he lunged forward, grabbing the edge of his desk and trying to slam the entire thing into her.
She leapt, and thankfully managed to land on top of the desk instead of pinned against the wall. Screaming in frustration Blue reached for her, but she had no intention of letting him have his way. She dropped the pick and grabbed the hammer firmly in both hands, and as Blue rushed her she brought it down as hard as she possibly could on the bandage where she'd stabbed him early.
Blue collapsed in a screaming pile, clutching feebly at his neck, and Baby leaned down to recover the surgical pick. Then she reached over and fished the key from around Blue's neck. He was too wounded to provide much resistance, and she could see blood from where the earlier wound had reopened. It looked awful, but he'd survive, hopefully just long enough to roll on her stepfather before being struck down by some karmic misfortune.
There was a clock ticking down in her head, a clock that had sped up at all the commotion Blue had caused with his screaming, and once she had managed to pull the desk out far enough to unblock the door she almost bolted. But then she remembered how the first thing Blue had done was reach for the desk drawer.
As it happened the drawer was actually locked, but it was a cheap lock and it only took one hammer blow to pop it open. And there was no way Dr. Gorski ever would have approved of him having it in the hospital, but still, lying there was more than she ever could have hoped for - a .22 automatic pistol.
For a second she couldn't even believe it was real, but it was cold and solid in her hand. "Have you had this the whole time, or did that stabbing really worry you?" she asked. Blue didn't respond other than to whimper. Baby Doll wasn't even sure he'd heard her, and honestly she didn't really care.
She'd worried about how she was going to get to the front entrance without being seen and swarmed. But that had been before she'd found Blue's gun. Nothing she had seen of the staff had lead her to believe any of them were particularly steadfast, and sure enough all of them had been quick to flee a known violent offender with a pistol. Now the trick was just getting out and far enough away before the police got there, because the police wouldn't be nearly as easy to scare.
But as she slid the key into the lock, a voice shouted her name. Baby Doll spun around, pointing the gun directly down the hallway, but it was only Madame Gorski. No, Doctor Gorski.
When she saw the gun Dr. Gorski immediately raised her hands up in a peaceful gesture. "Baby Doll, you don't need to do this," she said. Her voice was low and soothing, but Baby could hear a faint quivering of fear underneath it. Not that Baby Doll was judging. She probably wouldn't have been nearly as in control of herself in front of an armed lunatic.
"We can help you, Baby Doll. You know that's what we're here for, right? To help you." Gorski edged forward slowly, clearly trying her best not to startle or provoke Baby Doll, and tentatively reached out her hand.
Baby Doll was surprised by how much she wanted to reach back. Even after everything, she liked Gorski. If things had been different, if her stepfather and Blue hadn't gotten involved, if they had just let Gorski do her work in her own time... maybe it would have actually helped. But then again, if she were going to make wishes she might was well wish she'd never had a stepfather at all.
She still had the surgical pick with her, and she tossed it on the ground in front of Gorski's feet.
Dr. Gorski flinched as it clattered against the floor, but she didn't give up. "I know. But this... this isn't going to work either, Baby. It will be easier if you stay, yes? If you run, you will get caught, and it will only be worse," she said. She took another step further, and stretched her hand out again. "Please, Baby. Just stay. We can fix things."
"Will you do me a favor?" asked Baby Doll.
"Anything," said Dr. Gorski, and Baby Doll believed her. "Just stay."
"I can't stay. I'm sorry, but I can't." She was so close now, and emotion was threatening to overwhelm her, but she wasn't going to let it. "Just promise you'll check the paperwork?"
A look of confusion crossed Dr. Gorski's face. "The lobotomy paperwork," clarified Baby Doll. "I know you can figure it out from there. Just promise me you'll look at it."
"Okay," said Gorski. "Okay, but Baby Doll, you don't have to run away!"
It was too late for that, though, because Baby was already out the door.
They weren't very far out of the city when the bus came to a halt. Sweet Pea was only half paying attention to what was going on around her - they wouldn't be to her hometown for a while yet, and she didn't want to fully engage with the world until she had to.
"We stopping already?" called out a man from the back, and there was a rumbling of noise from the rest of the passengers who wanted to know what was going on as well.
"Sorry folks," said the bus driver. "Just have a special passenger to pick up. Shouldn't take more than a minute."
Sweet Pea took that as a cue to zone out entirely. She traced a finger against the glass of the bus window, drawing nonsense shapes as she tried not to think about the hospital, or her sister, or what she was going to tell her parents. It'd wouldn't do to start crying here, in front of all of these strangers who'd just start wondering what the hell was wrong with her. But the harder you tried not to think about something the worse it worked.
Up at the front of the bus, the driver was helping a young woman up the steps. "Thank you," she said, and Sweet Pea was so deep in thought that it actually sounded like Baby Doll for a second.
"There's a free seat in the back, right next to that pretty young lady in the dress. Maybe you two can keep each other company on the next part of your journey." It took a second, but Sweet Pea realized he was referring to her, and she glanced away from the window for a proper look at who he was talking too.
"That would be nice," said Baby Doll, smiling at the bus driver, and then she was smiling at Sweet Pea. I've completely lost it, thought Sweet Pea.
"Baby Doll?" she said, the words falling out of her mouth without her meaning them too.
"Hi, Sweet Pea," said Baby Doll. She slid into the seat next to Sweet Pea, and Sweet Pea had to remind herself to breathe. "It's me." Baby put her hand on Sweet Pea's, and something about the tangible weight of it snapped Sweet Pea out of her daze. It was really Baby Doll. Right here on the bus, not stuck in straight jacket with half her brain missing because she'd been kind enough to stick her neck out for a bunch of strangers.
"How?" she asked.
"I figured out a Plan B," said Baby Doll. "I hope I didn't worry you to much."
Sweet Pea laughed and draped an arm around Baby, wanting to make sure she wouldn't somehow drift away into the ether. "I'm so glad," she said. "I'm so glad you're here. I just... I just wanted to get out of there for so long. I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself now."
"I don't really know what to do either," admitted Baby Doll. "But I figure, we're free now, or at least as free as we'll ever be. We have time to figure it out. It'll be okay, I promise."
Seven days ago and Sweet Pea would have laughed at her, and it wouldn't have been a pleasant laugh. It would have been laced with years of cynicism and regret. Things changed though. People changed, apparently.
Sweet Pea tightened her grip on Baby Doll, pulling her closer. "I believe you," she said.