pattern and come looking for him.”
“Last thing I want is for someone else on the force stumbling into this.” Morgan responded with a feeling of dread. He didn't want to think of what one of those things would do to an unprepared police officer, or anyone else. “It was hard enough to pull the trigger on something that looked so much like a kid, and I saw the two of them fighting first.”
Arthur stopped as if something just occurred to him and regarded his new companion seriously for a moment. Taking time to inspect the officer like a puzzle. It made Morgan uncomfortable.
“Why did you fire officer? Most people wouldn't have been brave or smart enough to shoot at a doll so quickly.” Arthur asked.
Morgan took his time in answering. Mei-mei provided him with a moments distraction as she hopped off of her stool and left the room, her little wooden shoes clicking against the kitchen floor. That line of questions had occurred to him too and he wasn't very comfortable following it. He reflected now though, trying to figure out why he had. “I trusted my instincts I guess. I mean I had seen those girls do some incredible things, they didn't move right and didn't bleed which registered on some level. In the end however I just felt like if I didn't hit her with something big she was going to keep coming and I was going to die.”
“Good instincts” was the reply Arthur gave as he turned back to the map after a short awkward pause. “Most Dolls wont care if you get hurt or not. Those that do have been around for a while and usually only do because their owner has impressed upon them that they should.”
Mei-mei walked back into the room humming quietly to herself. With her she carried a small duffel bag which she carefully placed on the floor and sat down beside, tucking her dress neatly underneath her. She then proceeded to pull out her smooth headed mace as well as a small axe with a half moon blade balanced by a wicked looking steel spike. Her humming never stopped as she carefully inspected each weapon and rummaged through the bag. It was quite a happy little tune.
“Now that is a little disturbing.” Morgan admitted quietly.
Arthur nodded his agreement as they watched her. “I am pretty sure that song is from a commercial. She loves watching commercials for some reason.”
Their plan was a fairly simple one. Taking Morgan's cruiser they dropped Mei-mei off in an alley a few blocks away from Seamus' suspected lair then cruised on to park in a dark alley nearby. In theory Mei-mei would scout around the location and, if no one is home, start looking for the stolen items and the other Doll's heart. Apparently a Doll's heart can and usually is kept outside of the Doll's body. If the building is occupied Mei-mei will lure the Doll and hopefully Seamus away. Morgan and Arthur would then sneak in after the Doll is lured away and find the ill-gotten goods and destroy the Doll's heart stopping it cold with only Seamus to deal with if anyone.
As simple as the plan was Morgan's stomach churned as they sat in the cruiser. The entire neighbourhood felt abandoned as he sat there, hidden in the dark alley across from the garage, and worried. It was obvious something was going to go wrong. There were too many unknowns. What if Seamus didn't leave? Was he armed? How heavily? What did a Doll's heart even look like?
The shop was old and dilapidated. Plywood covered windows complimented the grimy stone walls. Morgan found that it kind of reminded him of the ill kept basement apartment that Arthur was occupying. It had the same run down, neglected feel.
“So I have a question.” Morgan turned to talk to his companion through the sliding glass window that separated the back seat of the cruiser from the front. “Do all Dollmakers live in rundown buildings or is it just the feuding ones?”
“Ha ha Officer.” Arthur replied dryly. “I will let you know that I am actually fairly well off as they say. There wasn't much available that suited my needs for privacy on short notice. And Seamus is a criminal squatting for the equipment. I pay for my crappy little place.” He sniffed loudly. “Besides I think older places have character.”
Before Morgan could offer a rebuttal a crash broke the still night outside, freezing the two men in place and restoring the nervousness their banter had temporarily banished. He clutched the shotgun to his chest and pumped a round into the chamber as he turned back around. It occurred to him, as he glanced down at the gun, that he should have picked up some deer slugs for the occasion, but it was too late for that now. The sound of something heavy hitting metal shutters echoed through the empty neighbourhood, passing over the car in which they hid as it filled the alleys and doorways and cracks like spilled water.
The roll up shutters were on the other side of the building. The realization made Morgan panic for a moment, as he realized another potential complication. What if they never even saw the Dolls leave? He gripped the shotgun a little tighter before forcing himself to relax.
Morgan glanced back and found himself highly annoyed at the apparent calm Arthur displayed. Morgan was supposed to be the street hardened cop after all, not a jumpy, twitchy amateur. He allowed being grumpy to smother his jitters by reflecting on how he had gotten into this mess. Stuck between two murderous fake little girls, stolen books and some mysterious unnamed 'components' for another fake person. Almost all of it neatly explained by the man it surrounded that could himself make fake people.
It suddenly occurred to Morgan, as he sat staring at the building across the street, that he was taking Arthur a lot at his word. True he had seen enough that was well beyond his understanding, and he didn't really seem to have a choice. It itched at him to rely on someone else so heavily though.
In the end he decided that, as flawed as the logic was, that he trusted Mei-mei. She might do what Arthur said, but she seemed open and without guile. Morgan knew her secret and they had tag teamed the other Doll that night. If she had been trying to lie to him he thought he could tell. He also concluded that now was not the time to get sidetracked by such things and renewed his vigil of the street before him.
The neighbourhood held itself in an eerie quiet, like all of the light pierced parts of the night held a collective breath. So it was that Morgan jumped when one of the boarded up windows exploded outwards with a crack like lightning. Mei-mei flew out with the debris and rolled smoothly across the ground, recovering her feet instantly. The two men watched quietly. Arthur leaning forward and Morgan silently willing that they remain undetected. For her credit Mei-mei never even glanced at them or batted an eye, only turned to take a fruitless swipe at the small form that cannoned out of the window after her. Her opponent retaliated and Mei-mei slid away from her opponents swinging sword before turning and launching herself an impossible distance away.
The Doll that Mei-mei now skilfully dodged and countered against was the same one that had tried to kill Morgan a few nights ago. She had the same dark hair, dark complexion and he imagined he could see the flash of her strange purple eyes even from here. She wore a different dress and her leg seemed to be fixed, but there was no doubt in his mind as to the Doll's identity. Mei-mei bounded away from her opponent with gigantic leaps that no real girl could take.
Morgan felt his chest tighten and he gripped the shotgun a bit harder involuntarily. He really didn't want to deal with that seemingly unstoppable little demon again and he suddenly worried she wouldn't chase after Mei-mei. He worried that she would. The Dolls didn’t seem to feel pain like normal people, and Mei-mei was easily just as dangerous as the other, but he still worried, not wanting her to get hurt. Not that it mattered, he had to follow through with this plan and finish the job. He needed to do it for the community, his own piece of mind and, not insignificantly, his own compelling curiosity.
The enemy Doll raged wordlessly and threw herself after her quarry with equally inhuman leaps and bounds. Morgan blinked and let out a breath he had not realized he was holding, fighting down the disbelief that the plan had worked. It amazed him to see the difference between the two Dolls as they quickly moved out of sight, the sounds of their combat slowly fading away. Mei-mei always seemed calm and in control while the ot
her was always violent and angry.
“Well?” Arthur said from the back of the police car. Morgan let himself feel a small, petty satisfaction at the trepidation in the man's voice.
“Lets rock and roll.” Morgan replied opening his door. Cool night air folded itself around him as he stepped back to let Arthur out of the vehicle, bringing with it a sense of foreboding and the feeling of eyes on the back of your neck. The shotgun was heavy and the crunch of their footsteps seemed to ripple out across the ground in an effort to expose them. However they somehow made it to the once boarded up window the Dolls had opened.
The two of them crouched beneath the dark portal, Morgan with his shotgun and Arthur with the sledge hammer he had brought with him, the head of which he had wrapped in an old rag. Morgan had offered the man a handgun but he had refused, admitting to both being a poor shot and being concerned that the weapon would likely just make a Doll angry.
They listened very carefully to the echoing nothing that came from the orifice above them. Morgan peaked cautiously into the dark. The only inhabitants of the room were a desk sleeping under a thick blanket of dust and an old metal cart that had long since given up on carting