Young Writers Society

Trina/"The doll" | At the camp

The doll looked around. She was standing in a small clearing, with a fire lit up in the centre. There were two or three dolls standing underneath trees, but she could see most of them in the water, far away. She could see one leaning over the brown-haired doll who had brought her to this area before; he was floating in th water. Is he dead? she thought, then sighed with relief as she saw him get up and continue talking to the other doll who had been looking at him. She could see another doll standing in the water, and one who was walking towards it, slowly.

She stood behind the tall doll and the Barbie and looked at another doll who stood facing them. "Now we've got a real situation. How did she lose her memory?" he said, looking worried. "I don't really know," replied the tall one. "She must've fainted, because when we saw her, she was getting up off the forest floor. I have a feeling she hit her head realy hard on the ground, or something." The Barbie doll added, "She's losing a lot of blood from her shoulder. Can Coral heal her first, please?" The doll who was facing them nodded and said, "Coral, come here."

Another doll, with a mouse sitting on her head, stepped up and looked at the doll's shoulder. "We'll need to heal this quickly. She's already turning pale." This doll held up a Magic wand-like thing and waved it over the doll's shoulder. She watched as the wound started to close up, leaving a small scar behind. "She'll have that scar, but I've managed to stop the bleeding and close the wound permanently." The doll looked at all four of them, standing around her and felt a rush of courage. "Uh, thanks," she said to the Magic doll, and then looked at the others and said, "What're your names? But, more importantly, what's mine, and where am I?" She looked at them, and all of them were silent for a moment. Then, the Barbie doll spoke up. "Your name's Trina. You're a doll, but you've got this chip inside you called the "Himanity Chip" that gives you life, and makes you human-" "Otherwise you're just a worthless piece of plastic used as a plaything for real humans," interrupted the tall one. The Barbie doll glared at her and then continued. "You belonged to a human and were sent here, with twelve of us, and you're supposed to fight. It's like a competition where these teams of dolls fight against each other and one comes out victorious while the others die. It's mostly for human entertainment, I suppose. But for us, it's a matter of life and death and all that. You're on our team, which consists of Blue, who's the leader, Jessica, Coral, Soldie Doll, Scary Sarah, Lorcan, Hayden, Alia, Angeline, Eleanor, Kayli who joined us recently, and me, Francie. And you too."

Trina felt surprised and shocked; this was a lot of information to take in all at once. "Okay...." she said. She still didn't understand a lot, and felt confused. "Here, maybe this will help," said the doll called Alia, and hit Trina on the head.

Trina's head started spinning and hurt. She felt tears sting her eyes and yelled, "Oi! That hurt!" Alia looked at her and then tilted her head to the side. "So you still don't remember anything? The plane crash, the yelling at Hayden, the wandering off in the woods. Nothing?" Trina studied Alia's face. Were these dolls playing some kind of trick on her? "No. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," she replied.

All the other dolls looked at her, some with expressions of curiosity, and others with expressions of sadness and pity. She wished she could remember these people, and everything that happened, so she could understand what was going on.

For now, though, it seemed that they had more pressing matters to deal with, for all the others dolls had begun picking up their weapons.

Hayden | At the camp.

Trina had forgotten everything. Unfortunately, after she was hit in the head again, she still had amnesia.

Great. We really needed people to lose their memory. Oh so helpful.

Hayden marched to shore, past the group of people around Trina. He didn't want to fight. He wanted to climb into a hole and die. Especially after what happened with Red-eyes.

He took a few steps into the forest, slowly bringing out his knife. He looked up and saw a camera, nestled in the leaves. He slashed at it as bolts of electricity jumped and buzzed.

He took a few steps further, when he heard a plane roaring above his head, and then a large crash! Turning around, he waited, emotionless. Fifteen minutes later, after a series of vibrations along the floor, came a large shadow.

He looked up.

It was a doll elephant.

It must've been two and a half times Hayden's height. Its ears were like rags, flapping around. Hayden slowly backed away, and looked at who rode the elephant. Red eyes. "I'm here to massacre you all," he growled.

Hayden turned around and began to run, zig-zagging so Red Eyes would find it hard to aim. He found himself on the beach, and began to holler, "RED EYES, ELEPHAN--" before feeling a piercing pain in his leg, and collapsing on a heap on the floor.

Then, Red Eyes and his elephant were 100 metres away, straight in front of Hayden, ready to trample on him.

The rest of his team turned in his direction and froze.

Angeline watched in horror as the elephant moved to trample Hayden. She knew she had to do something, but all she could do was stand there. Just as the elephant had crossed about half the distance to Hayden, she snapped into motion. She didn't know if she could throw that far - she wasn't even sure if she could throw - but she had to try. In less than a second, her dagger was out of her pocket and raised above her head. She took careful aim, then threw.
She had been aiming for Red Eye, but the dagger hit the elephant's foot instead, which seemed to work just as well. He reared up and bellowed, giving Hayden time to disappear into the underbrush, but leaving her weaponless with an angry elephant staring at her and the rest of the dolls on her team.
"Run," someone, she wasn't quite sure who, breathed. You didn't have to tell her twice. Angeline turned on her heels and barreling towards the cover of the forest faster than you could say "go."

I stared at Trina, hard. How could she loose her memory, just like that? But that wasn't that mattered most. It was Alia. I guess, I was a bit too rude to her. Maybe I should apologize? That would be it! She is a little mesmerizing and mesmerizing people are pretty weird.

I started walking to Alia, focusing on what I would tell her. When I made my way, I saw Alia hit Trina's head a little harshly. But, I guess that didn't help Trina at all. She just didn't get her memory back. Wish I had a heal to get memory back.

I giggled when Trina cried "Oi! That hurt." She gave me a scary look. Probably which mean't ' It Isn't Funny. ' Oh great! I'm already messing up! I reached Alia and was about to speak something.

"Hey Alia. You kn--"

When my eye caught the same ferocious monster we were fighting before. Red-Eyes. With a new guy this time. A doll elephant. Don't these guys ever give up? Alia looked at my face trying to figure out my confused look. She followed my gaze and saw the same.

She shook her head. She looked at Kayli, again. Why was she doing that? Kayli's just a new girl. And none of this was ever her idea.

"I think we've got company!" Francie yelled to all of us. Woah! That's the first time I hear her yell. Nice one! I winked at Fran who winked back at me. I loved the feeling when friends are by our side. Its like being safe on the inside.

"I'll massacre you all. " Red-Eyes growled. I froze but to something else. The face was quite familiar to me. Somehow, I couldn't recall who he was.

Angeline aimed for him but her target was lost. She had hit the doll elephant which just made it worse. It was running for us.

"RUN!" I screamed to all of my teammates. I grabbed Fran's and Alia's hand. It was awkward though. Why am I grabbing Alia's hand? When I tried to leave her, my fingers wouldn't let go. Alia, who looked confused before, had become more confused.

She stopped in the middle of the forest to question me. Francie was beside me too.

"We have to go! We can't stay here!" Francie told us.

" Why? Why did you grab me?" Alia ordered.

"Because you deserved friendship. " I replied.

I can't believe I said that! Alia was astounded by my answer. Then again, she laughed like it was a joke or something. Then she took out her lemon and started sucking on it. Silence remained and after a few minutes-

"Friendship?" she asked.

"We have no time to waste! Can we talk later?" Francie asked. She sure was worried. I nodded and Fran grabbed mine and Alia's hand and ran like a horse. Only, we didn't know where we were going.

As we ran, we bumped in to Eleanor, Trina and Hayden. Boy, was I happy! More people, no death chances. But again, my hopes were crumbled and thrown away.

Francie ~ In the Woods

"We have no time to waste! Can we talk later?" I said, starting to panic as Coral and Alia stopped and starting chatting about 'friendship'. Jeez, they were going to get us all killed.

We started sprinting farther into the forest again and met up with Eleanor, Trina, and Hayden. I guess it was a good thing, but we'd be making more noise as we ran in our crazy directions.

I had no idea what to do. Blue wasn't anywhere near us and could be dead, for all I knew, and we were all just standing around with scared looks on our faces, waiting to be found by the elephant doll.

Hayden stepped up to the plate, "Ok, let's split into groups, guys. Quickly now, quickly! Anybody with weapons, over there, if you've only got one or no weapons left, stand by that tree. We're going to get rid of Red-Eyes and his illegal elephant once and for all."

I frowned at being bossed around by Hayden like this, but stepped into the group that still had weapons, violently brandishing my cane.

"Ok, you guys with no weapons," Hayden started, "You're going to go hooting and hollering through the woods, pretending your being tortured. Red-Eyes will follow you and then, us with weapons, will ambush him from the trees above.

"You all know where our first camp was, right? Lead Red-Eyes there, then we'll nab him from above. When you hear a scream, then start running there, taking the longest path you can, and limping and going slowly so Red-Eyes can catch up to you. Then, when he's right on your tail, sprint. Sprint as fast as you can, dolls, until you reach the clearing."

We all nodded, the bait-crew of dolls looking a bit shaky.

"Ok, we'll see you all there." Hayden led the weaponry dolls off to the clearing and a minute before we got there, he let out a battle-cry scream, to signal the bait-dolls.

We all gathered up in the trees around the clearing, and listened as the elephant and Red-Eyes crashed through the forest towards us, getting closer and closer as the bait-dolls did too.

Suddenly, the elephant burst into the clearing with Red-Eyes on it's back. The bait-dolls were sprinting and screaming just a few feet ahead of the beast's deadly feet.

Hayden gave a screech and dropped from the trees onto the elephant's back, right behind Red-Eyes.

The rest of the dolls in the tree followed, stabbing at the elephant and then at Red-Eyes. I dropped onto the elephant's head and thrust my cane into it's ear. It gave an unearthly howl of pain and reared in agony. I was thrown off of it's head and I fell to the ground. I heard the air escape from my lungs from a rush, and saw a grey blob coming towards me. It was the elephant's foot. I struggled to roll over but only made it half-way and the foot crushed the left side of my body.

I screamed and screamed. I couldn't feel my arm, leg, or torso, it was all just pain, pain, pain.

Suddenly, a form loomed over me. Red-Eyes. He'd escaped off the elephant's back. He gave and evil grin and flipped me onto my stomach before somebody shot a bullet into his back. I gave a crooked grin, but it faded from my face when Red-Eyes didn't fall. I moaned and knew the end was coming.

Red-Eyes took my cane from my right hand and plunged it deep into the back of my neck, right where my humanity ship wa-.

*A death! Isn't this the first? This thing hasn't been active in awhile, I hope it'll start up again.*


The bait-doll idea seemed stupid, but it was the best we could come up with on such a short notice. I had to be with the bait-dolls, having lost my weapon to save Hayden's neck. We limped around, moaning and groaning until the elephant came crashing towards us. Hayden said to wait until it was right on our heels, but I wasn't about to get stepped on by a fat elephant or stabbed by Red-Eyes. That elephant might be big, but it was fast.
"Run!" I yelled when the elephant was still some ways behind us. I didn't have to tell the other bait dolls twice. They all ran like mad-dolls towards the clearing. It was a long run since Hayden had wanted us to take the long way, and some of the dolls weren't looking too hot. We were all breathing heavily, but I refused to slow down, and I refused to leave any of them behind. So when Scary Sarah tripped, I turned around, sprinted back, and practically wrenched her arm off getting her back on her feet. Then we were running again.
Finally, mercifully, we emerged into the clearing. The ambush-dolls descended from the trees, but something went wrong. A horrible, piercing scream filled the air. It echoed off the rocks and trees. It seemed to come from everything and everywhere; existence itself, maybe. Everything seemed to be swallowed in those ghastly screams.
And then I saw the source. Francie, lying on the ground, her left side crushed as if she was made of paper, Red-Eyes standing over. Time seemed to slow with a horrid persistence. I knew what was going to happen from the moment I saw Red-Eye's awful face gloating over Francie.
Someone shot at Red-Eyes, but like I expected it was in vain. He plunged Francie's cane into the back of her neck.
"NOOO!" I didn't realize I was screaming until I had to breathe. Coral grabbed the nearest thing that came to her hands, a rock from the ground, and threw it at Red-Eye. it hit its target, embedding itself in his left eye.
And then Red-Eye was gone. He fled like a shadow in the night, but I knew he'd be back. And we would kill him when he came back.
Because this team had become a part of me, and I was a part of it. Losing Francie was like losing a part of me. But I would not go quietly, and I would not let Francie's death go quiet. We would have revenge.

Trina | At camp | Running (Again)



Trina watched as the doll called Hayden stalked off into the woods. She noticed the other one, Coral, looking at her suspiciously at first. When she yelled at the tall one, Alia, she noticed Coral giggle. What on Earth is so funny? She glared at Coral and then spun around as she heard someone yelling from inside the woods.

"RED EYES, ELEPHAN--"

Red Eyes. Again. Why does that name keep popping up eveywhere? She looked around to see Hayden running back towards them and watched as, out of the trees, a giant grey form appeared. An elephant. With some dude sitting on top of it growling, "I'm here to massacre you all." What the heck? Who's this demented doll? And why does he want to massacre us? Trina was really confused now. Did this doll want revenge or something? And if so, revenge on what? What had these dolls done?

After that, everything happened very fast and Trina had to take time to let it sink in afterwards. The elephant moved forwards to trample Hayden, but another doll, Angeline (or that's what Trina thought he name was,) threw her dagger at it.The elephant ran towards them, and all of them ran into the forest, including Trina. She was scared. What was going on?

She kept running and looked to her right to see two other dolls running along with her. Suddenly, she felt something run into her and fell down on the forest floor. Looking up, she saw Alia, Francie and Coral, who had also fallen down on the ground along with the other two dolls next to her after having bumped into each other. Behind them, a few more dolls gathered around and helped them up off the floor. They looked at each other for a moment, all of them breathing heavily and taking deep breaths to calm themselves down. Then, Hayden spoke.

"Ok, let's split into groups, guys. Quickly now, quickly! Anybody with weapons, over there, if you've only got one or no weapons left, stand by that tree. We're going to get rid of Red-Eyes and his illegal elephant once and for all."

Trina, who had been carrying a royal blue bag that she'd found when she'd regained conciousness, opened it and found a small silver gun, some poison darts and a frying pan inside. Realizing that these must be hers, for no one seemed to be looking for a frying pan, she went and stood next to the other dolls who had weapons. "Ok, you guys with no weapons," Hayden continued, "You're going to go hooting and hollering through the woods, pretending your being tortured. Red-Eyes will follow you and then, us with weapons, will ambush him from the trees above.

"You all know where our first camp was, right? Lead Red-Eyes there, then we'll nab him from above. When you hear a scream, then start running there, taking the longest path you can, and limping and going slowly so Red-Eyes can catch up to you. Then, when he's right on your tail, sprint. Sprint as fast as you can, dolls, until you reach the clearing."

Trina nodded along with the others, and noticed that a few of the dolls without weapons looked a little afraid. "Ok, we'll see you all there." Hayden led the dolls with weapons back to the clearing and let off a loud cry just before, probably to signal the others who were still there, weaponless.

The armed dolls walked back to the clearing and clambered up trees. They listened as the elephant and the doll came crashing through the clearing, with the weaponless dolls ahead of them. Hayden gave a loud cry and jumped from his tree onto the elephant and Trina and the other dolls followed, all of them stabbing at the elephant and the doll. Trina reached for her bag and grabbed the first thing she could lay her hands on - the frying pan. Trina looked at it and shrugged her shoulders. She had to hurry. She brandished the pan and brought it down on the elephant's head. However, this didn't seem to have any effect on the elphant. She jumped off the elephant and grabbed a poison dart from her bag. Maybe this would work. She aimed and threw it at the elephant's foot, and watched as it reared up and howled with pain from the double-attack, the second one being Francie's.

She crawled into the bushes, out of the way of the elephant's massive feet and watched in horror as Francie fell from the elphant and saw her being crushed by it. The demented doll jumped off and grabbed her cane that had been lying just a few feet from her. He stabbed her in the back of the neck with it, and Trina, unable to move from fright, watched as Francie lost that gleam in her eyes and stopped moving. She saw Coral throw a rock at the doll, and watched as it hit his eye. And he was gone. He'd vanished, just like that.

Suddenly, Trina felt memories come flooding back into her head. Tom's mansion, the plane crash, the first day of fighting, getting captured by Red Eyes and his team, the fire and running through the woods, all of it seemed to just flow into her head.

She stood, stunned, and remembered how Francie had been so friendly to her, and how they'd talked and defended each other against the dolls. She'd just lost a friend. Something Trina had never felt before, was now filling up inside her. It was sadness, and she didn't like it. She felt tears sting her eyes and wiped them away. She wouldn't cry. No matter what happened, from now on, she'd try not to get too close to any of the dolls. She didn't need to feel this sort of emotion again.

But she would take revenge. Francie didn't have to die in vain. Trina would come out of the Toy Box, alive and a winner.

*Drama's good, I like the post. Maybe someone could make a profile for Red Eyes and control him, so we could see what he's doing when he's not attacking our group.*


Without Red Eyes to control it, the elephant doll soon quieted down and actually became quite meek and gentle, like Angeline expected and elephant to be.
"We should kill it," someon said harshly.
"No," Angeline said in a soothing voice as the picked up berries from her hand with its long truck, "it didn't mean to attack us, did you Frances?" She scratched the elephant's trunk and it hooted, or bellowed, or whatever you call the sound elephants make. It flopped over on its side like a big dog for her to scratch its belly, waving its legs in the air. Angeline couldn't help laughing.
"You named it?" Hayden asked.
"Yeah," Angeline said, "why not? It could be useful; it could help us carry supplies. Oh, and look, here's my dagger." She pulled the short blade from the elephant's leg. It wasn't that happy about that, though.
"Hey, Coral, could you heal the elephant please?" Angeline asked, trying to soothe the large creature.
"We can't keep an elephant," Hayden snapped.
"Why not?" Angeline asked.
"They have super long memories. They never forget anything. Ever."
"So he won't forget that we were nice to him, and Red Eyes made him run a bunch and left a dagger in his leg!" Angeline snapped, "besides, it seems to like me."
"We'll take a vote," Hayden said, "all in favor of keeping it, raise your hands now." Angeline's arm shot high in the air. She looked around to see who else was willing to keep Frances.

Alia

"No." Alia said shortly. No elephants. Not that elephant anyway. In the last ten minutes, everything had happened so fast. Red-eyes, elephants, Francie, Red-eyes escaping again.

"That thing," Alia said, pointing at the elephant, "killed one of our members. We are weaker now than we were ten minutes ago. We lost one battle arm. And it's because of that thing." She said, jerking her head towards the elephant.

"But come on," Angeline said, "it could be useful!"
Hayden, who was just as against the idea as Alia was, said, "They have super long memories. They never forget anything. Ever"

"And you'd be torturing it." Alia butted in. When everyone looked at her for an explanation, she said, "Would you like having the death of an innocent on your hands? On someone who probably didn't want to attack you, but was forced to? However cold you guys say I am-" Alia turned and looked a a certain doll, "I'm not that horrible either."

"Okay then," Carol said, "what do we do with it?"

"I think," Trina said, as she swayed side to side, as if she was dizzy, "we should have a proper funeral for Francie first. She didn't deserve to die such a horrible death."
"You remember? Everything?" Carol asked with a tiny hint of happiness and relief in her voice.
Trina looked down, "Everything." she whispered.

My mind was in a swirl. I could hear running footsteps of the elephant. We needed a plan.

"Well? We can't just stand here looking at eachother, can we now?" I exclaimed.

"Alright then. Guess its up to me. " Hayden said.
Oh, here we go again. Hayden's heroic act.

"Okay, let's split into groups, guys. Quickly now, quickly! Anybody with weapons, over there, if you've only got one or no weapons left, stand by that tree. We're going to get rid of Red-Eyes and his illegal elephant once and for all." he went on.

I took out my Snowflake Wand and cast a spell towards the bushes. Bam! It burned into ashes. Well, my Wand was working perfectly well. Trina looked at me.

"What did you do that for?" she whispered to me.

"Just checking. I could burn these guys with this thing." I grinned at her.

"Ok, you guys with no weapons, You're going to go hooting and hollering through the woods, pretending your being tortured. Red-Eyes will follow you and then, us with weapons, will ambush him from the trees above.You all know where our first camp was, right? Lead Red-Eyes there, then we'll nab him from above. When you hear a scream, then start running there, taking the longest path you can, and limping and going slowly so Red-Eyes can catch up to you. Then, when he's right on your tail, sprint. Sprint as fast as you can, dolls, until you reach the clearing." Hayden finished.

Clever thinking. We all nodded to his "masterplan". He looked at each of us and gave his final words.

"Okay, we'll see you all there."

Francie, Trina and Eleanor stood behind the tree while Angeline, me, Alia and Hayden ran to take cover. I was ready for this. If the Red-Eye monster and his stupid little fat friend needed revenge, They'll soon be sorry. They better be!

We all heard a bullet going up into the air making a huge sound.
"TAKE COVER!" Angeline ordered all of us.

I didn't make my way to take cover. I wanted to fight. Not be a frightened doll who can just sit around the bushes and wait till they're gone. No. Not me.

The elephant ran towards us and I saw Red-Eyes with a pistol. Hayden made his attack first. All of us tried targetting the elephant but it just won't die. What elephant is this?.

"Its running too fast. We got to catch up." Alia said.
We ran after the elephant and fast as we can. I tried aiming for Red-Eyes but I kept missing because something was distracting me. I had a fishy feeling that something bad was going to happen. I couldn't run any longer and I felt to the ground, just sitting there, all blank.

I saw Francie getting stabbed over by the elephant and Red-Eyes releasing her cane from Francie's Humanity Chip. NO!

"NOO!" Angeline screamed. Red-Eyes escaped before anyone could tackle him. I crawled over to Angeline and took the heaviest rock I found and threw it over to the elephant. Sure enough, it hit. I felt rage coming out of me.

"NO...ONE...WILL, EVER! ESCAPE AFTER KILLING MY FRIEND!" I yelled more than ever and ran after the elephant and this time nothing distracted me. I was running. More like a unicorn.

"Coral! No!" I heard Hayden yelling behind me. I didn't take too much notice of it and climbed the back of the elephant. I took out my Wand and snatched Red-Eye's neck.

"Let go, you blithering idiot!" he cried.

I cut off Red-Eye's both arms and fell off the elephant. I ran over to Francie again. I was crying and sweating. All at the same time. I couldn't kill him! I couldn't kill him!

"Fran! Fran. NO!" I took her hands and cried on it. "I swear Fran, I'll kill him. He'll die in pain. BUT NOT YOU. DON'T DIE YET! I'LL HEAL YOU. I'll heaaall you.." I took my Wand and chanted.

I felt a hand on my shoudlers. Eleanor. What did she want?

"Coral. We all feel terrible for Francie. But you must know that you can only heal a person with the Humanity Chip. Her's is broken. " she explained.

WOW! Thanks Eleanor. You made my day! More like you made it worse.

"I...I can't?" I stammered.

Eleanor shook her head and helped me stand up. We walked back to the Camp with Francie on our hands.

***********************************************
AT CAMP:

I sat at a corner, gloomily. Many dolls tried cheering me up. Even Tom came by but it didn't work. All I could think of was Francie. My first friend. My loved friend.

I heard other dolls laughing and discussing stuff together. I heard Angeline raising my name but I didn't know for what. Kayli came by and sat next to me. She smiled at me and I returned it back but with all the sadness in it. She didn't talk to me for a while. Then again, the discussion came up to Red-Eye's elephant.

"That thing," Alia said, pointing at the elephant, "killed one of our members. We are weaker now than we were ten minutes ago. We lost one battle arm. And it's because of that thing."

At least someone understands.

"But come on," Angeline said, "it could be useful!"

"They have super long memories. They never forget anything. Ever." Hayden said.

"And you'd be torturing it." I looked at her confused.
"Would you like having the death of an innocent on your hands? On someone who probably didn't want to attack you, but was forced to? However cold you guys say I am-" Alia turned and looked at me. "I'm not that horrible either."

Or maybe not.

"Okay, then. What do we do with it?" I said finally joining in the conversation.

"I think, we should have a proper funeral for Francie first. She didn't deserve to die such a horrible death." Trina spoke like a brave lady.

I looked at Trina with wide eyes. She got her memory back! She was back! Well, that was good news.

"You remember? Everything?" I said in a crooked voice.
"Everything." Trina replied giving a warm smile.

I sat back and closed my eyes in belief. I was still not feeling normal. I could go mad at Francie's funeral. More like mental. She was that important to me.
Kayli took my hand and asked, " You okay?"

I looked back at her and shook my head. "Never going to better, I guess."

Trina | At camp

Trina looked up when she heard Coral say, "You remember? Everything?" and simply replied, "Everything," then turned around, walked and sat down underneath a tree. She hardly payed attention to the argument that was taking place between Coral, Alia, Hayden and Angeline concerning the elephant. Clearly, Angeline was fighting a losing battle.

Trina would've liked to have kept the elephant, since it had been named after Francie, but she knew there was no point in trying. She resisted the urge to burst into tears as she remembered Francie dying, and instead pretended to make herself busy by gathering some leaves and intertwining them.

Soon, without realizing it, she'd made a small basket-like thing with the leaves. Muttering, "I'll just get some fruit and stuff," she began making her way into the forest again, only to be stopped by Alia who grabbed her and said sharply, "Don't you dare. You're staying right here," and then, with a softer edge to her voice, "We're going to hold Francie's funeral soon. Don't you want to be there for it?"

Trina felt tears swimming in her eyes, and quickly brushed them away. She turned around and replied softly, "Yeah, sorry. After all, if it wasn't for me going to the forest we wouldn't have found Red Eyes and Fran-" she paused, gulped and continued in a stronger voice, "So, are we keeping the elephant?" "Nope," replied Alia.

They walked back to the middle of the camp, and Trina watched as Blue (who seemed to have re-appeared after all the unfortunate events) laid Francie's body in a hole they must have dug before, while all the other dolls stood around them. Blue and a few other dolls covered the hole and then stood back. Trina knew Blue said a few words, but she never heard them. She picked up Francie's cane and, once Blue had finished speaking, she went in front and laid it down on Francie's grave. She heard Coral burst into tears and stepped back. They stood in silence for a while and then Trina spoke, while everyone strained their ears to listen as she was talking very quietly. "I think we should... Maybe gather some flowers and lay them there. And we should have a tombstone too. That would make it a proper grave, wouldn't it?" She fell silent, and slowly moved towards a bush nearby. She could see a few wild flowers growing behind it, so she picked them and went in front to lay them down next to Francie's cane.

Ten minutes later, there was a tombstone over Francie's grave that said:


Everyone was sitting under trees in silence. Trina held back more tears and rested her head on the bark of the tree. She was tired. All of them were. They needed to rest for now.

Angeline could think of thousands of reasons for keeping the elephant; the fact that the elephant hadn't killed Francie, but Red-Eyes had, the symbolism of keeping the elephant, the transportational advantage, the fact it might know where Red-Eyes is now, the list went on and on and Angeline opened her mouth to say some of these, but no sound came out. Instead she just walked away, tired of speaking, tired of arguing. She picked up a shell-shaped rock and started digging. Others joined her, though Angeline couldn't tell who. As she dug, Angeline silently mourned for Francie, the girl she wished she had known better, who should have lived longer.
After the funeral, the stupidest argument in the world began, over who should have the right to kill Red-Eyes if he was captured. Angeline didn't join in the discussion, but just watched Coral sit on a log near the edge of the camp, alone and uncomforted. The dolls were about to draw straws for who should be allowed to kill Red-Eyes when Angeline finally spoke.
"No," she said, "Coral will." A hush fell over the other dolls, several glanced in her direction. Before they could start arguing again, Angeline stood up and walked off. She felt so, so tired. It had been a long day, and she just wanted to sleep, but there was something she had to do first.
She walked up to the foot of the grave. Unlike everyone else, she hadn't picked flowers to decorate Francie's grave with, but she thought her last gift for Francie would be just as meaningful.
"I promise you, Francie," she whispers, "I promise you I will fight. I will do everything I can to make you the last to die. I'll try, Francie, I'll try." Angeline wanted to say more, but the words caught in her throat. She walked away before the tears could fall. That night, she slept almost as soundly as Francie's slumber. Almost.

A quick reply to LemonyIce : Um... No. I was happy that Trina got her memory back. So, that was good news. But Francie's news is more disturbing to than ever.

Okay, guys. So, um. I might put up a reply again. And then, I'll only post next Thursday or Friday. I'll try though.

Kayli sat back, straight up. I could tell she was sad too. I hugged my knees and sunk my head into my cold arms. It was very disturbing. Francie. Francie. Francie. It was all in my head. That scene of her dying. I couldn't bear it anymore.

"Don't you dare. You're staying right here." I heard Alia telling Trina.

At least someone's got her friend. I kept sighing every time and it started to become really weird. I heard that Red-Eye's elephant wasn't to be kept. Thank God. If I see that fat monster again, I might kill it in Hell again.

"Its time guys. For the funeral. We need to give our love for Francie, don't we?" Tom announced and made his way to a small place where it was peaceful and I knew Fran would love it. Blue helped Tom bury Fran and Blue spoke a few words. I knew it was something that you say to every doll when it dies. I couldn't bear it anymore. She was a friend. And now she's gone. I burst into tears screaming loudly for Francie to come back to life. I took the sand dropped them on my head and kept doing that over and over again. I had gone mental. I knew that was coming.

"FRAANCCIIEEEE!!!" I yelled. I fell to the ground and cried on top of the buried hole. Tom and Jessica helped me stand up.

"I think we should... Maybe gather some flowers and lay them there. And we should have a tombstone too. That would make a proper grave, wouldn't it?" Trina said. And to that, everyone gathered some flowers and Tom had found a tombstone. After a few minutes, there it was: Written-



I was crying on Jessica's shoulder harder than ever. I closed my eyes and tried to relax but it didn't happen.

---------------------------------------------------
After the funeral, I was sitting up in my sleeping back looking at my Wand. I had dropped a Flake on to Francie's body which left my remembrance to her. I couldn't hear anything. Then, my ears had the nerves to listen to something. Suddenly, the topic came up to who should kill Red-Eyes. I looked away. Obviously, when I attempted to kill him, I couldn't. I can't possibly kill him again.

But then, Angeline stood like she had come to a decision.
"No. Coral will." she said and walked out of there. Everyone glanced at me. I looked at all of them with sadness.

One of the dolls groaned. The other's tried arguing over it but Angeline had just made a statement. And she was a tough-chick so it wasn't worth fighting over it. I made my sleeping bag, crawled underneath it and before anyone else could come over and tell bad things about me, I was deep asleep dreaming about Fran.

Alia

Trina got her memory back. Air escaped Alia's mouth before she even realized it. "Did I just... sigh?" Alia mumbled to herself, deep in thought, "Am I becoming... pfft, no! Of course not." It was when she was walking her way back to her back-packs when she saw Trina heading out somewhere. Is she crazy? For crying out loud, somebody just died! She also might not be feeling to good, since all her memory came back to her in a gush. Alia thought with softness. Snapping out of her thoughts, she slapped herself, and swore. "Why am I so soft now, dammit?!" she mumbled as she made her way to Trina. "Oye. Don't you dare. You're staying right here," and then, with a softer edge to her voice, "We're going to hold Francie's funeral soon. Don't you want to be there for it?"

Alia noticed Trina eyes swimming with tears, and she quickly brushed them away. Trina turned around and replied softly, "Yeah, sorry. After all, if it wasn't for me going to the forest we wouldn't have found Red Eyes and Fran-" she paused when Alia rolled her eyes, and raised an eyebrow at her as if to say 'shut up.'. Trina gulped and continued in a stronger voice, "So, are we keeping the elephant?" "Nope," replied Alia simply as they made their way back.

The funeral took place, and everyone (almost) were weeping their hearts out. Alia, though, was slightly amused. So this is the emotion everyone feels when someone close dies, huh? She looked around, taking mental notes of everything.

Once the funeral was over, Alia overheard other dolls talking about Red-Eyes. "I swear, I'm going to kill that freak!" She heard someone say. Alia just snickered. "Well you did have two chances, why didn't you?" She mumbled. Then, Angeline's voice rang cold throughout the camp.
"No. Coral will."
At that, Alia couldn't help but turn to look at Carol, whose eyes were red, and her skin pale. Fair enough.

Alia walked to where Trina and Hayden where, (they sat side by side.) and planted herself opposite them. Hayden raised an annoyed eyebrow. Clearly, he didn't like her. Well, no one did, but at least they didn't show it. As much as he did. Which was a lot.

"So..." Alia started, as she looked back and forth between Hayden and Trina, "You like - you know like-like. You call that love, I think?- each other, huh?" Trina, who was drinking water, choked on it, which caused Hayden to pat her back.
"Oh! Skinship!" Alia smiled and rested her head in her knees. "What does it feel like?" She asked innocently, as Trina and Hayden exchanged awkward looks.