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“Naomi?” Dylan had stood up and was leaning over the bed. Naomi had fallen silent, her eyes were blank, she was shaking, and her face had gone even whiter than it had already been. “Davis, go get her doctor. She needs painkillers and a sedative.”
“She hasn’t taken anything for the pain?” Jonathon was surprised, and impressed, that she had been able to focus at all when between her head and her shoulder she must be in agony.
“She refused,” Dylan brushed affectionately at the hair on her forehead. It was clear both Clara’s brothers thought of Naomi as another sister.
“No sedative,” Naomi murmured, making a vain attempt at getting out of the bed.
Dylan held her easily in place. “Sorry, Naomi, right now I overrule you,” Dylan informed her.
“Not fair,” she pouted.
“Itisfair because I care about you.”
“I have to help.”
Naomi said it so desperately that Jonathon took her good hand. “Naomi, you have helped,” he assured her. “You gave me a name, and that’s going to help me find your sister and bring her home.”
* * * * *
12:19 P.M.
It had taken Clara ages to convince them to trust her. Even now they were still on edge. Still unsure. Still scared.
The noises she had heard earlier weren’t the Doll Killers—it was the two children, Katie and Jimmy. Unsure who she was and why she was there and what she might do to them, the children had hidden behind the chair she was bound to.
When she’d heard their scuffling noises and then not seen anyone she had wondered if it was the children, but tied up she hadn’t been able to turn around, and with her mouth taped she couldn’t talk to them, reassure them that she was a victim, too. Clara had tried grunting and mumbling through the tape, but the children had refused to budge. Then she’d tried to turn the chair around, convinced that if she could make eye contact with the children she would be able to assure them that she was not a threat.
In the end, her efforts to try and move the chair had resulted in her sending it tumbling to the floor. She had landed painfully on her left shoulder and head. She hadn’t caused herself any serious damage, but now she was stuck in an awkward position on her side. From this position, though, she could finally see Katie and Jimmy. They looked so small, so scared, and their little faces were tearstained. While she didn’t know what they'd been wearing when they were taken, she guessed it wasn't what they had on now. Jimmy was wearing what looked like a brown, knitted, one-piece suit with checked trim and a matching hat, and Katie was wearing a pink and white cotton, short-sleeved dress.
The hypnosis had been like turning on a tap; once the memories had started to come back they hadn’t stopped. They continued to trickle back into her consciousness. As she’d laid there, looking at the children in their doll costumes, memories of herself dressed in a blue and white dress came flooding back. They'd put the clothes on her and Tommy shortly before they'd branded them with their doll’s marks.
Clara remembered being told to lie down on the floor. The man had sat on her back, the weight of him crushing her poor little chest and making it almost impossible for her to breathe. His legs had pinned her arms to her side, so she couldn’t fight back even if she wanted to. And by that point, she was too scared to fight back. The man had pushed her hair up over her head, exposing her bare neck, then he’d kept one hand on her head, the other between her shoulder blades to keep her still.
And then the pain had come.
The red-hot poker had pressed into her flesh, forever scarring her.
Memories of the excruciating pain had brought tears to her eyes, and she’d had to fight them off for fear of suffocating if she cried and got her nose all stuffed up. Her tears had helped to edge the children closer toward trusting her, and after a few more muffled begs for them to help, they had finally exchanged glances and whispers and then Jimmy had crawled carefully to her and pulled the tape from her mouth.
As soon as the tape was off, she had taken several deep breaths, although she’d been able to breathe through her nose with the tape on it hadn’t seemed like enough, and she had relished being able to open her mouth wide and breathe deeply. After that, she’d immediately asked the children if they were okay.
Still scared, they hadn’t answered. Just stared at her.
They were still just sitting there on the floor staring at her.
“My name is Clara,” she told them. “You two must be Jimmy and Katie.”
Their blue eyes widened when she used their names.
“The police are looking for you, that’s how I know your names,” she explained. “Do you know who brought you here?”
Again, the little boy and girl exchanged glances but wouldn’t talk.
“Do they talk about dolls a lot?”
Another shared look. Then Jimmy nodded slowly.
“It’s a man and a woman, isn’t it?”
