“Wow, she’s so fast!” Mr. Planx Exclaimed, “yes, she can make hundreds of unique dolls in just one night, sir” Herrington Knight, the manager of Doll Euphoria a local toy store specializing in dolls, which operates under the supervision and global management of Dolls Unlimited LLC, which is owned by Mr. Planx said nodding in agreement. “And she works for you, in your store? Mr.Planx asked, “Yes, that is correct sir. This video was taken by one of the surveillance cameras in the backroom.” “Does she know about the tape?”, “no. We don’t inform our employees of the cameras. We don’t want them acting on their best behavior for the camera and then turning around doing something illegal that could get us in trouble.” Knight explained. “I see.” Mr. Planx said rubbing his chin as he stared at the video. Mr. Planx stood silent, after staring for several minutes without saying a word he finally spoke “ This one woman could replace hundreds, upon hundreds, of employees and out do the doll creating machines of our competitors. We must get her to increase her output of dolls and above all else we must make sure, she doesn't quit and leave us for our competition, or go into business for herself, she must stay working here for as long as we need he, Mr. Knight. See to it that it happens, is that understood?” “Yes, Mr. Planx. I will make sure by any and all means necessary that she stays with our company till we no longer need her, if such a time should come.” “Very good. You may go now Knight” “Yes, sir.” Herrington Knight bowed to Mr.Planx and then left Mr.Planx’s office. Mr. Planx stared at the door after Knight left, “ I wonder if he's truly capable of keeping that girl in line?” *bell rings* “Ah, Mr.Knight you're back” the cashier at Doll Euphoria said smiling as Herrington walked through the door. “another slow day I see” Herrington said with an annoyed expression, “yes sir. People can’t stop shopping those big name toy stores....*the cashiers head fell slowly as she spoke, looking up again at herrington she resumed speaking* people just don't appreciate quality toy or dolls anymore I guess. Herrington raised his eyebrows, “whatever. We simply have to draw their attention to us, what they think isn't important, what matters is that the consumers think what we want them to. If they don't want old fashioned quality toys, we simply drawn them with advertising about how much better old fashioned made toys are till that is all they can think about. Now, that you understand, get those toys sold! Go, out into the streets if you have to. I pay you to work not to run your mouth is that clear?”, The cashiers eyes grew wide and her face took on a frightened look, some how through her terror she managed speak “Yes, sir” she mumbled and headed for the door. Herrington watched her as she walked to the door, “good, make yourself useful, let me know how it goes. I’ll be in my office.” “Yes, Mr. Knight” she replied as she opened the door, “Oh, by the way how is the new doll maker doing?” Herrington asked but the cashier had already left. “Oh, well. I'll find out myself” he said with a huff, he closed his office door and walked past the cash register and checkout desk to the far left backside of the store. He stood in front of the door to the back room, it was like any other door in the store but it was padded locked and was painted the same color as the far wall of the room which is a deep black color. He undid the lock and opened the door just a crack, he peered in through the crack in the door, and looked around the deep dull grey room, in the backroom were five to ten toy artists working on their little masterpieces that would eventually be displayed in the front window of the store, in an attempt to attract buyers to stunning wares inside the store. Most of the artist were women of various ages but there are one or two men as well. Herrington kept looking till he found the one, the doll maker with quick hands and exquisite attention to detail, a female of unknown age dressed all in black as if she was in perpetual mourning. Her hooded cloak constantly covered her face, occasionally one could glimpse her raven black hair or the pale alabaster skin of her face but beyond the her womanly figure is mostly shrouded in mystery. But Herrington didn't care about her appearance, her lack of identification or her inability to produce a birth certificate, all he care about was her amazing ability to make dolls. He watched as her hands moved like a flash of lightening and before his eyes her latest project materialized between hands and sat with human like eye on the table before her cloaked silhouette. A small porcelain doll about twelve inches tall, light brown hair, olive eyes, and ivory skin, with an ornate, red lace dress. Herrington smiled as she churned out doll after doll like a machine, but with a quality that far surpassed any machine just like a true handmade masterpiece. Satisfied with her work and progress having seen more than one hundred newly made dolls sitting beside her, Herrington quietly closed the door to the workshop, so as not to disturb the workers, her in particular. “Good. If she keeps this up we will be the top toy company in the entire world! Maybe the entire universe, if their really are aliens I will make sure each their little extraterrestrial offspring is carrying one of our dolls!” he quietly declared to himself, has he leisurely strolled to his office and closed the door tightly behind him. Once in is office he immediately picked up the phone, he had lots of work to do, with all the product she was turning out he needed to find contact the other stores and tell them to make room on their shelves for these better dolls that would make them rich. But even beyond Doll Unlimited LLC, Herrington needed to make connections, absorb the properties of neighbors and other toy stores and grow their platform. Go beyond mere advertising and expand the business till they consume every other competitor, if they can't out advertise the competition, then why not just get rid of the competition? Before her passing last year the late fiona Knight age eighty seven, Herrington’s Mother couldn't help but remark on her death bed how much Herrington had become like Mr.Planx, ambitious, cold, and calculating, only caring about furthering his own goals and his own company. And perhaps she was right, it seems like all he thinks about since the doll maker appeared his gaining notoriety and fame for Doll Euphoria, any personal ambitions he had that don't have anything to do with the company seem to have disappeared.

“Yes, this is Herrington Knight of Dolls Unlimited LLC, but more specifically I am the manager of Doll Euphoria the local store here in town. I would like to get a loan to expand my store. Yes, Yes, just look into our global assets and outreach you'll make the right decision Mr. Blak. Thank-You I look forward to hearing from you, good bye”. “There. Now all the bank has to do is say yes, once they do that, I will take the money, buy out the neighbors and increase the size of our front display, get a bigger outdoor sign, and most importantly give greater room for her finished projects. I might even expand to the internet, create listings on Esale and give her creations over to the highest bidder and make twice or even three times as much off the sale of the same amount of product I sell in the store. Doll Euphoria and Dolls Unlimited will be a global giant and power house by the end of the year”. Herrington smiled at the thought, his mind constantly churned with thoughts of expansion of the company. His green eyes flickered with inspiration, he paused his mouth to look in the mirror, he took his pocket comb and attempted to smooth out his unruly medium brown hair but it still looked the same as if immune to the comb. With a sigh he threw the comb on the floor, sat in his chair behind his desk and fiddled on the computer. He created one bizarre advertising campaign after another, on his computer only to be unhappy with all of them. “doll playland paradise”, “dolls of your wildest dreams”, “doll of the month club”, “all these ideas are terrible, I can’t use any of them, parading cashiers through the streets might be the best campaign idea at this rate. Still a bit odd but would probably much better received by young and old alike, especially young men.” Herrington mumbled to himself. In the end he drew up plans to hire more cashiers or even actress’ to play Doll Euphoria cashiers and do a meet and greet on the street around the store and hand out small palm size dolls. “Unconventional but I think it could work, it would certainly draw attention to our brand in a short amount of time, which could boost our abysmal sales and set us up financially to not even need a loan to fund the expansion. I’ll have to pitch all of this to Mr. Planx tomorrow, I’ll also update him on her work, our storage must be expanded asap, to accommodate her creativity.” Yes, I will make everything ours! Herrington mumbled his plans to himself before dozing off into a deep nap.

The doll maker Herrington had been watching, stopped her work, she heard a faint thud sound she knew it had to be the work room door. Nothing else could possibly make that sound, it was distinct and out of the ordinary. She has been working for Doll Euphoria for four months now, she’d long since grown used to the everyday sounds of the workroom and her fellow employees. The sounds of the windows opening and closing every morning and evening (one of the employees has temperature issues), the squeaks of the mice, even the very slight sound the peeling paint on the walls make, she has heard and noticed all of it. The constant smell of wet paint no longer bothers her nose either, no this was definitely door. “hm?” She looked at the door silently, it was closed now but someone had been peeking, she knew it could only be one of two people that ditzy cashier or the manager Mr. Knight. Figuring that the cashier had no reason to watch them, her business only in selling toys, she deduced that it must have been Mr. Knight. Not that it mattered she didn’t much care for being watched regardless of who does it, the vary thought of being watched made her head race and her skin crawl. That aside though if Knight had been peeping at them while they worked perhaps the door would have been left unlocked? Knight always padlocked the door during working hours, no one is allowed to come or go through it during this time, which was most of the day. The doll maker, who calls herself Shadow didn’t care much for sunlight but getting out in the fresh was always a good thing, not that it mattered the sun had long gone down by now anyway, it was nearly seven at night. Shadow stared at the door making sure there was no movement from the other side, once she was sure Knight wasn’t there she looked around at her fellow (though inferior) doll makers who thankfully were to busy slaving away at their old fashioned toy making to pay attention to her. Now that she knew she would be caught she quietly and stealthily got up of her stool and walked over to the door, she placed her ear to the door just to do one last check, nothing could be heard. With one extra glance back at the workers she she twisted the door knob and tried to open the door. It must be her lucky day because the door opened with ease, once she had it slightly ajar she peered through the opening and looked into the main room of Doll Euphoria, nothing. Not even the cashier could be seen this was the perfect opportunity to stretch her legs and get some fresh air without being noticed or getting caught. Now that she was certain the store was empty she opened the door fully and walked out into the store and closed the door carefully behind her. As she walked be the checkout counter and the register she glanced at the cash register, being an ex-thief it was a tempting thought to take a little something from since she knew she would not get caught and that even if she did they would never fire her, her work was too good and too far beyond that of everyone else, that's what she figured was *Job security* can't get fired because they need you’re assets too much. She walked past the cash register without taking a thing not even a nickle, that is what you call integrity and honest living, just as she was about to exit the store she heard a new unusual sound, the sound of snoring. She raised her eye brows, her curiosity having been piqued, she walked over to the door to Knight’s office. “It’s definitely coming from here” she thought, carefully she ignored the inner warning of curiosity killed the cat and opened the door just a little, just enough to see Herrington Knight snoring away in his desk chair. “Well, well. What do we have here? A sleeping manager I believe. Not a vary good habit that's for sure, sleeping on the job that is. No, no not at all” she said to herself quietly as she shook her head. “Well, since he’s asleep I might as well let myself in”, she said with a grin as she walked straight into his office with absolutely no regrets or hesitation what so ever. “He almost looks kind of cute when he sleeps. Well, for a job crazed twenty-eight year old who still plays with dolls anyway.” she lightly chuckled. He did seem to be in an odd business for someone of his age and youth, especially considering it’s not even a successful business. “Ah, what’s this?” she thought looking at Herrington’s compter “my, my this boy must work to much, a parade of cashiers through down town. What kind of business is he try to run!” She thought with horror and disgust. “sigh. This boy needs help.” just then Herrington moved a little in his chair, she quickly ducked behind his chair and waited for him to stop moving, he slightly adjusted his position without even stirring, his head was now crooked and it his arms sprawled out every where like some kind of octopus only without eight limbs. “That's right stay asleep.” she told him quietly, “now what can I get into, since I am here? I will probably not be able to do this again, at least not anytime soon. So, I need to make the most of it.” Shadow was in very deep thought as she looked around the room. She noticed his office was pretty bland, nothing much just his desk, his chair, his computer, a picture of his grandmother and him. Well, there was his sell phone but a business man would notice that missing, next to it were his car keys. “Ah, these I can use. Well, okay not right now but maybe in the future.” She thought to herself as she picked them up and put them in her pocket. “Okay, nothing else to see here, guess I’ll let sleeping managers lie and go outside for a bit. Though this was a fun little detour, a trifle disturbing but still amusing.” She thought as she exited hiss office, back in the sales room she stopped at looked at all the toys on display. She could easily tell which ones were her workmanship, her’s were of finer materiel, had much more detail added in the eyes and clothing. They also typically were much paler clothing, than the other dolls, deep reds, greens, blues, and black were the typical clothing colors of her works. “I should get outside before Mr.Knight wakes up” and with that, she walked outside for the fresh she’d been trying to get for a while now. She breathed in deeply the cold night air, looking up past the shiny lights and mile high buildings she could just barely seen the stars in the clear dark sky. “It’s such a beautiful night, I wish I did not have to go back in there, but there is no way they would let me out of my contract. Plus,I love getting money for creating dolls, and they are quite privileged to be able to sell my works in their tiny toy store.” She slowly breathed in again, “ah, this is so much better, one could almost forget the world with a night like this.” Having said that her deep thoughts were interrupted by the sound of police sirens not to far away. Shadow’s first instinct was to run but then she thought better of it, it is not like they were after her, might as well go check it out briefly, it was not like she got out of the workroom very often her contract was very strict and very detailed about things like that. Moving east of Doll Euphoria she found the police cars and a crowd of gawkers who also came to see what all the fuss was about. Everyone crowded behind the police crime scene tape that was already in place, pushing and shoving each trying to get a better look. Amongst the pushing and shoving she noticed the younger girls in the crowd seemed more interested in the young police men than the crime scene. She rolled her eyes, “like they would really pay attention to some silly girls when they have work to do. Those police men would not be worth their salt if they did such a thing.” She thought to herself in disgust. Just then she noticed one of the young scrawny police boys make eyes with a young scrawny girl in the crowd, she about lost her dinner, witnessing such a pathetic scene. “Ugh, flirting while on the job distasteful and in public to boot, gross. Gross and disgusting” she mumbled to herself. Shadow turned her head in an attempt to compose herself before she did something drastic, something she would maybe, possibly, just slightly regret later...for a little while. No. It was not worth it, she had to soothe her temper and ignore this atrocious display. “Alright, forget about it” she lightly, very lightly beat herself on the side of her head in an attempt to beat the image out of her head, so far it seemed to be working. “Alright” she said as she took a deep breath “now let’s figure out why the police are here. Something must have happened for them to be here, but what? Rubbery, murder, kidnapping?” She went though the list of possible crimes in her head, there were still no clear signs of what had happened. She thought it was too tame of a scene to be murder, Robbery was  definitely a likely candidate for the police to be here. Now, if she could just find out for certain. She watched as the police tried to keep the gawking crowd back, “people really have nothing better to do then spy on others d they? Why not get a hobby? I hear knitting or crochet  are excellent past times too.” The crowd refused to be left out of the excitement if something was going on they were determined for it to include them as well. You would think they thought of themselves as important people or something. “Alright, that's enough!” The police chief shouted above the crowded street. “There is nothing to see here. It was just a small robbery at the jewelry store, do you hear? So go home and let us do our job. Are we clear?” he asked the crowd, who quickly ignored him. “What was stolen?” a small slender female reporter said jumping in front of the police chief, “alright since you are all so nosey perhaps you would like to spend a night in a jail cell yourselves? You can keep it warm for the criminal.” The police chief said laughing a bit like a santa clause wanna be, “unlawful imprisonment of concerned free citizen? Is that even legal?” The reporter asked the police chief with a serious look in her eyes, the police chief just stared at unsure of how to answer her question. Some how the thought of putting in her jail was looking better and better to him. Shadow’s jaw dropped open, the reporter accusing the police, the police chief none the less of doing something illegal was scandalous enough but then she dared to follow her accusation with “is that even legal?” the word unlawful must not have been clear enough for her. “Wow, what a bizarre and confused sentence...and from a reporter too, man wonder who thought it was a good idea to give her a job” Shadow thought. “Anyway, now that I know what all the fuss is about, I can go back to the store now..”Shadow having lost interest quickly breezed past the crowed.