Janina’s origin-The Laurence family’s deepest woes

*This story is under my folder “The Laurence family’s deepest woes”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.writerfeed.com/topic/117842-my-character-designs-lt-33-3?start=390. Enjoy!*

There once was a little six year old girl called Janina, who had her very own puppet doll that was almost as big as her! The puppet had curly black hair and wore a pink dress with a white apron, a pink bow to match! Her parents had gotten the doll and she always played with her, so she’d never feel alone! Janina even slept with her, too.

Even though the doll had moldy green wooden skin, that didn’t stop Janina from hugging her tightly. A friend was a friend and if her parents gave the doll to her, then she must have been a good friend!

Janina was brushing the doll’s hair at the moment, because the marionette had real hair that she could brush and Janina wanted to take good care of her. She sat on the floor of her room, bedroom door closed. Her parents were out doing some adult thing. Her twelve year old sister, Dina, was not allowed in her room. Dina was mean to her doll. Dina didn’t understand.

The door suddenly slammed open. Dina stalked in wordlessly, her brown eyes full of anger, reaching for her doll-no! Janina held on tightly, her nails digging deep into the wood. It hurt, but that was what people had to do for their friends.

“Give it!”

“No!”

She cried. She couldn’t help it. Dina had kicked her. 

And worst of all, she had stolen Janina’s doll!

Janina got up, running after her.

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Dina had run upstairs, to Mom and Dad’s room. The window was open. Janina had gotten there just as Dina was holding the doll out in the open window.

“Give her back!” Janina cried out.

Dina shook her head, saying, “Not in a million years,” because she was a meanie and had always been a meanie, so Janina had to-

CRACK!

The doll had slipped from Dina’s hands and landed on the cement outside. Janina had heard it. She knew how much higher their parents' room was.

“That was mean!”

“It’s just a creepy doll.” Dina shrugged.

“She’s not!”

“It was.” 

Dina didn’t understand. She never did. She was always on her phone, always putting on makeup, always being boring. Janina was not boring. Janina was fun and so was the doll!

So she stood next to the window, staring at the broken pieces shattered on the cement. Her doll was probably hurt. Janina had to help her.

“Janina, don’t. It’s just a doll!”

Dina was holding onto her legs, trying to stop her from making the jump. She kept yelling at her and was she crying? No, Dina didn’t cry. Dina was too rude to do that.

Janina pushed herself out the window harder, kicking Dina just as she had done before.

Then she jumped.

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Janina saw a faint light from the crack of the closet door. It looked like a bedroom, but not a very pretty room. She could see the shadows of the clothes hanging above her. She felt too tired to move.

“Look at this.”

She flinched, which made something crack behind her. The rasping voice belonged to a woman who sat next to her. The woman’s eyes were dark red and she kind of looked like she was wearing purple. It was hard to tell in the dark closet.

The woman held a hand mirror in a hand that looked too long to be a hand. Janina could kind of see her face. Not really, though. Her smile looked too big…

“Here, this will help.” The woman said, reaching above Janina.

The door cracked upon a bit more. Janina could see her face better…her green face, her sharp smile, her glinting eyes…her marionette strings.

The puppet’s face staring back at her.

“No more of that now!” The woman swiped the mirror from her hand and replaced it with a knife, “You’ll need this, just in case. I’m Lolanthe. You are?”

Janina clutched the handle of the knife tightly, just like she did when she used to hold the puppet…but she was the puppet and she was in a closet and where was Dina and their parents? Where was she?

“You don’t have to talk yet. But I’ll be here for you.” Lolanthe smiled. She had monster teeth. She was a monster and she was reaching out for Janina-

She ran, screaming as she stumbled with her wooden legs. She wanted to scream, she had to scream…

But she could not move her mouth. It was sounds trapped behind a smile.