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๐ ๐จ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ญ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐ข๐ด ๐ง๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต, ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต, ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ, ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฅ๐ด ๐จ๐ช๐จ๐จ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ฆ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ซ๐ฐ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ.
๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ธ๐ข๐บ๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ฐ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ.
๐ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ด๐ฌ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ.
๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ข ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ญ๐ข๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฆ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ-
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ________________
ย ย ย ย Olivia Adler, or Ollie as she liked to be called, awoke with a silent gasp.
She had long since stopped screaming awake from nightmares. The adults asked too many questions when any of them, Coco, Brian, Ollie, or Phil did. As much as she hated lying to her dad, she would to protect him.
That spring, he'd nearly died because he knew too much. To keep that from happening again, to any of their parents, they made a silent pact to never tell them about what they had gone through, nor about the Smiling man.
Only, Coco had broken that pact that summer. It was to save Ollie from the Smiling man after the bargain she'd made to save her fathers life.
Ollie didn't blame Coco, even if, in the end, it just ended up with their parents turned into dolls.
Thankfully, they'd managed to beat him and get their parents back, but they had no recollection of the events that transpired that night.
Sometimes, Ollie was glad for that. Now, though, was not one of those times.
Cold sweat beaded her forehead. She wiped it away with one of her silky pajama sleeves, only to shiver at the feeling of it on her skin.
It was a little too similar to the clowns sleeves.
Even if she'd never been trapped in that chilling embrace, it still haunted her nightmares. The possibilities of what could've happened.
Ollie let out a ragged breath, hugging herself tightly as she curled into herself, trying to give herself some semblence of comfort. She didn't want to bother her dad at- she looked over to the digital alarm clock on her bedside table- 2:34 AM, over something as dumb as a nightmare.
But, as she shivered in the dark, glancing around at the shadows that seemed like they were moving in the darkness of her room, she made a decision.
Uncurling from her position, she got up, walking over to her door and stepping out into the hallway.
The colorful, vibrant walls of The Egg greeted her. It comforted some part of her to see something familiar, unchanging. Her mother had once said, before she died, that the colorful home reminded her of easter eggs, and thus it was nicknamed the egg.
The story she'd been told countless times made her heart lighten and warm.
As much as she missed her mom, she would always have these memories to remember her by.
She creaked her dads door open slowly, wincing at the loud ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ! It gave.
"Dad?" She whispered, standing in the doorway. Seeing that he wasn't stirring, she whispered again, louder this time, "Dad!"
"Huh?" He murmured, eyes half-lidded as he blinked them open, squinting as light came through the open doorway.
"Ollie..?" He sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What time is it? Did you need me for something, Olliepop?"
She wanted to roll her eyes at the nickname, but she also wanted to cry.
"U-uhm... Could i, um," her throat was dry now. She swallowed, biting back her embarrassment and nervousness. It was best to just get out with it. "Could i sleep with you tonight?" God, she felt like a little kid again.
He blinked at her owlishly, before patting the place next to him in the large bed. "C'mon."
She closed the door behind her, crawling into bed with him and laying down on her side, facing away from him.
She used to do this right after her mom died and the nightmares were exceptionally bad. Ollie still had those nightmares; wreckage of a plane in an open field, flames, cries and screams.
He tugged her towards him, and she curled into his warmth, blinking her eyes tiredly.
He started to hum, groggy vocals filling the air and rumbling through her. It was a song her mom used to sing to her when she was little. As she listened, her dark eyes slid closed, and she drifted asleep.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย _________________
The smell of bacon and chocolate chip waffles drifted up the stairs and into the room. Ollie groaned, standing up and stretching out tight muscles, popping her bones and joints.
She yawned as she went down the stairs, fingers tracing lines on the polished wooden railing.
Her dads voice carried through the kitchen, humming a cheerful tone as he worked his magic.
"Hey, dad," Ollie greeted him, sitting down at the table that resided next to the open kitchen set up.
"Oh! Hey Olliepop, tell me, do you want chocolate chips or blueberries with your waffles? Or both!"
"Hmm... i think i'll take the chocolate chips only," she responded, grinning at him.
He set down their plates and sat across from her.
The first few minutes of their shared breakfast was spent in silence, before he pulled out a newspaper. He read the newest article to her, written by Samuel Sherman and Zelda Zintner, Coco's mom and her dads lover, though they hadn't come out and said it yet.
It was about the carnival, and Ollie had to hold had a grimace.
Her dad and her worked on solving the puzzles and riddles on the back of the article after he finished, reading.
They playfully argued over what certain tongue twisters meant and what riddles made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Ollie found herself smiling, despite everything, for the rest of breakfast, nightmare long forgotten as she challenged her dad to a chess match, waggling her eyebrows in challenge.