Page 50 of She’s a Doll

When Kyle is out there right now, alone with Ginger.

“Husbands and wives do like to spend time alone, occasionally.”

He could be hurting her!

“Husbands and wives do that too, occasionally.”

How can you not care about this? He’s a murderer! You call yourself Ginger’s friend?

“No,” she said. “I don’t, actually. Not anymore. We haven’t spoken since . . . for a long time.”

That doesn’t matter! She’s in dan⁠—

“Her house. She’s in her house with her husband.”

Fuck you! I cried. Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you!

She let out a throaty chuckle. “There’s the disembodied voice I know. You know, the store has felt kinda empty without you. I only get cursed at by customers now.”

You have to help me!

“No,” she said, rougher now, anger creeping in around the edges of her voice. “I don’t, Lu. I don’t have to help you. I don’t have to do shit. I got you out of the store. I glued you back together.”

You liked Ginger, I said, my mind finally latching on to what she’d said before. You said you couldn’t compete with me. You were sweet on Ginger.

Nicola snorted. “As if you weren’t.”

The nakedness of that statement hit me like a cinder block.

“I know what you’re going to say,” Nicola continued before I could recover. “You think I haven’t looked in the mirror and said every fucking word you’re thinking right now? Coward. Loser. Fuckup. You’re right. It’s true. But it also doesn’t matter. Kyle is a monster. I get that. But I can’t . . . I can’t do anything about it. No one held a gun to Ginger’s head when she walked down that aisle.”

She didn’t know.

“She knew enough.”

If you liked her, then you can’t just leave her, I tried. We need to help her. We need to do something.

“What?” she said, waving a hand. “What do you want me to do, Lu? I wanted to help you. I wanted to figure this out, find some evidence, do this properly, but you didn’t want that. I found your grandma, but that wasn’t enough either. You were literally a broken little voice in a box when I found you. Now look. You could start a YouTube channel if you wanted.”

I don’t care about YouTube.

“Well, you should. You’d make a killing. Haunted Doll Streams. It’s a niche, sure, but I think there’d be some dedicated fans. You could watch horror movies and comment on how accurate the ghost representation is.”

Kyle needs to die. It’s the only way.

“The cat flap is unlocked,” she said, and put the joint between her lips, inhaling deeply. “Go. Have fun. If you do manage to find Kyle, give him a good few licks for me while you’re at it.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t understand it. None of this made sense. She didn’t make sense. She was supposed to be Ginger’s friend. Even if she hated me, even if she’d decided gluing me back together was the worst decision she’d ever made, even if her plan was to take me back to the dump tomorrow, she should still help Ginger today. Even if she wouldn’t help me kill Kyle, she should still do something.

I threw myself off the sofa and fell gracelessly to the ground. My foot hit first, porcelain collapsing beneath me with a sickening crack. I sprawled forward, sick with humiliation and anger.

“You OK?” Nicola asked.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even turn to look at her as I pushed myself upright and began lurching toward the door, ignoring the crunch as more porcelain splintered and broke away from my ruined ankle.

“Lu,” Nicola called out after me.

I ignored her.