Page 146 of My Sweet Dollie, You Have to Love Me
Startled, I jump up from the step that’s left a chill on the back of my legs and spin around, finding Annabelle.
“Why are you out here? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“I was just about to text you. Can we leave?”
“Yes, we have to. We have to get to your house ASAP.”
“Is it Ambrose?” I don’t want him hurt, despite the distance between us. “Is it Bubbles?”
“It’s neither of those.”
“So, what’s happened?”
“I’ll explain on the way. There’s a taxi bay just down here.” Annabelle points, leading the way.
She says nothing on her march to the shiny black car, but the look on her face tells me it’s bad.
CHAPTER 35
Ambrose—age nine
“It’s really cold today.”
I pull Dollie closer to me, both of us resting on the dresser as I continue the song I’ve been singing repeatedly for the last few weeks.
“You’re the reason for my smile, the reason I’m alive. You’re more than sunshine, more than air, the single thing I care… so much about.”
It’s Mom’s lullaby for her and kinda for me, too. She’d sing it at the door to annoy me each night before bed in the new house, and whenever I told her I was too big for lullabies, that the movies I’d watched hadn’t scared me, she’d enter and kiss my floppy hair.
God, I miss her and the floral scent that follows her around the house.
I even miss Dad moaning at me for staying up far beyond my bedtime.
“You’re the reason I’m here, my purpose, my dear. Forever and always, you.”
The song resonates with me so much as I sing it between cold gasps for air.
We’re freezing and soaked to the skin, shivering against one another.
“Do you think it’s Christmas yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think Santa knows where we are?”
“No. The Tooth Fairy didn’t, remember?” One of my teeth is now replaced with a new and bigger tooth.
“Yeah. I remember.” Dollie takes a big breath, creating a fog around us. “Your arm is bleeding? Did Chuckles do that?”
“No,” I answer truthfully. “I did it. While you were sleeping.”
I don’t tell her I did it with a piece of broken glass I found in the water. I don’t tell her that the broken glass is in my back pocket, ready for the next time he comes too close, or that I hope I’ll have the energy to drag it across his throat.
Fighting off thoughts of germs was difficult, but I was willing to take the chance after staring at a scar he gave me for hours. I needed to change it slightly so it would no longer be something he gave me.
It’s been a few hours now, and it’s still bleeding, making me feel a little woozy.
It’s probably because of my low energy level. Both of us can feel our energy levels getting lower. I’ve started only to eat when Dollie does. It’s my way of bribing her, and it rarely works.
