Page 23 of Wicked Flavors

And yet Gwendolyn couldn’t shake the eerie feeling in the air. She watched her dinner make its final rotation inside the microwave. The hum only temporarily muffled the sounds of her upstairs neighbors’ still criminally boring sex. Everything was normal for what her life was, but somehow, Gwendolyn felt like something was just …off.

The feeling stayed throughout her dinner, and lingered after she made a cup of coffee. Gwendolyn was so preoccupied with her thoughts, she mistakenly sipped her drink too soon. The hot liquid burned her tongue, causing Gwendolyn to spit it into the nearby sink.

“Ow, ow, ow,” she groaned as she opened the freezer.

Gwendolyn cursed when she realized she had forgotten to refill her ice tray. In a moment of desperation, she opened a bag of frozen peas and popped a handful of them into her mouth. Her tongue wasn’t happy with her attempts to soothe the pain as the awful taste of freezer burn exploded along her taste buds.

This is ridiculous, you accident prone bitch,Gwendolyn thought tiredly.

She spat the lukewarm peas into the garbage and filled her ice tray with shame. By the time her coffee was cool enough to drink, the fireworks were shooting into the air. An exploding irritation that would soon become white noise.

“Okay, Gwen,” she said, newly acquired fabric in one hand and her coffee mug in the other. “Let’s go make a doll.”

When she came around the corner, her dolls were facing the balcony as they always did. Gwendolyn stared. Had she made up seeing the doll heads move that morning? The longer Gwendolyn thought on it, the less she was certain she had seen them move at all.

It must have been a dream.

TheMaddie Dollwas still where Gwendolyn left her. Bald headed and with no face, laying on her work station next to her drawing pad. Gwendolyn set her coffee down, turned on her work station light, and got to work.

The process once she stripped a doll was different depending on the doll. Sometimes Gwendolyn liked to start with the hair, and others, she’d start with the outfit. Tonight was more about the outfit, specifically the diamond pattern fabric she had bought. It was the only piece she needed to complete the design, and Gwendolyn was determined to get more of the doll completed before the Fourth of July.

With the aid of several old doll patterns, Gwendolyn fashioned a cropped, long sleeve jacket with puffy sleeves. The lapel was dramatic and high, with pink buttons over a black fabric. The diamond material was converted into a bodysuit with a cute peekaboo heart for the chest. Gwendolyn planned on sewing gold thread around the heart.

Gwendolyn set the patterns and pinned pieces next to her sewing machine. She still had several other pieces to cut and pin, but at least it was a good start. She set up her sewing machine and made quick work of stitching the two pieces. Gwendolyn would have to hand sew the more delicate details later. Doll making looked cute from the outside, but the intricate detailing involved usually came at the cost of her hands.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t do other things, though. Gwendolyn retrieved the hair she had set aside while waiting for her second cup of coffee, making sure to wait a whole thirty minutes before drinking this one. Her tongue still stung, but the extra caffeine got her through several rows of hair. Plugging each of the strands into thedoll was meticulous and slow, but there was something soothing about it.

Gwendolyn didn’t even notice when she finally succumbed to exhaustion at her desk…

And her nightmares were there to welcome her with several arms and a hot, insistent tongue.

The first thing Gwendolyn saw when she woke the next day was her dolls. They were still facing the balcony, all exactly as she left them the night before. The same lovely rainbow that she saw every day.

“Morning,” she croaked, voice stiff.

Her tongue wasn’t doing much better. It was tender in her mouth and she hissed as she ran it across one of her canines to test the damage. She’d really messed up the night before. Gwendolyn realized in her blurry state that she had fallen asleep at her work desk again. She tried not to make a habit of it, but Gwendolyn often forgot about time when she was working.

Heavy hands rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Dried tears fell from her face. She had forgotten to take allergy medicine last night. The nasty flavor in the back of her throat was an indicator that she had most likely been snoring, because she couldn’t breathe through her nose.

“Ugh,” she groaned. “Okay, okay, let’s start this day.”

Preparing herself for the incoming body pinches, Gwendolyn straightened in her chair. Her back protested—a lot.A sharp pain between her shoulder blades. Her chest wasn’t faring any better. There was a hardline across her chest, where all her weight had pressed into the table.

Luckily my nipples are okay,Gwendolyn sighed.

Leaning back in her chair, she raised her arms above her head and stretched. Gwendolyn quickly came to the conclusion that she would be taking as much pain reliever as she could. The sharp ache between her shoulder blades was also in her lower back.

“Why do I do this to myself?” she sighed as she looked up at the ceiling.

Then Gwendolyn frowned as something came into her vision. Above her head hung thin wisps of string? Gwendolyn squinted, it was close to her face.

Is that … doll hair?

Gwendolyn frowned, reaching for her forehead. She pinched the strands of pink between her fingers and pulled—

“Ow!”

—and immediately let go.

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