Page 74 of Pretty Stolen Dolls

So she phoned for the doctor to be quick, quick, quick.

The doctor came with his bag and his hat,

And he knocked at the door with a rat-a-tat-tat.

He looked at the dolly and shook his head,

And he said, “Miss Polly, put her straight to bed!”

He wrote on a paper for a pill, pill, pill,

“I’ll be back in the morning, yes I will, will, will.”

My cell buzzes in my pocket and I slip it out while waving for the people who have gathered to stand back. “Phillips,” I snap into the cell.

“Did you like your gift?”

Ice floods my system, solidifying me and rooting me into the ground. “You bastard,” I hiss.

“Oh, please. I did you a favor,” Benny says with a click of his tongue. “Did you know your precious Bo was fucking that whore?”

“She was innocent,” I bite out.

“There’s no such thing,” he snarls. “She was a dirty little whore. How could he ever go to her when he had you?”

“You’re an animal,” I choke. “You…my parents—”

“Would still be here if you didn’t fucking run.”

They’re gone because of me.

I ran, ran, ran.

“Why now, Benny?” I scream. “Why wait all this time?”

Dillon is in my face, attempting to steal my phone, but I duck away from him.

“Benjamin,” he snarls. “And every time you call me Benny, I’m going to cut a slice out of Bo.”

No.

“Why now, Benjamin?” My arm wraps around my middle and I try to stop myself from falling into the abyss of Benny’s insanity while focusing on Dillon barking out orders on his cell.

“I was curious about what you would do, I suppose, and coming for you wouldn’t have been easy. So I tried to get by without you.” He breathes heavily into the line. “But I couldn’t. They weren’t you.”

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

“Who weren’t? There’ve been no other bodies,” I say aloud.

Dillon is circling me like a shark now, his hands on his hips and a firm glare on his face.

“Hmmm. Are you ready to come home now, dirty doll?”

I choke down the bile rising in my throat. “Tell me where you are.”

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