Little Shadow a porcelain doll dressed all in black with black hair and blue eyes cracks all over her porcelain body shifted around in her small box. Her box is black with ornate gold & silver trim, within her box she stomped her foot against her box impatiently , if she had a calendar she would be tearing off the pages. Where was her master? She had no clue, but she was getting impatient waiting, days and month went by, all spent in her box. What season is this Fall, winter, spring, summer? She wondered, have any major holidays gone by? Why hasn’t her master been by! Spending her days trapped in dark box, she remembers the days when she used to frolic and play, now she throws tantrums about how she’s collecting dust, if she had a tape measure she’s sure the dust would be forty inches thick. Boom, boom, boom came from her case as she wildly pounded her fists against it, yet the case did not budge just rattled and twirled about the room. This way and that way, it tipped & it swayed along the dusty wood floor, the edges of the box created tracks along the floor, it bumped into tables and knocked down lamps, stuffed animals were crushed, plastic tea sets were toppled, a sugar spoon in the base board, a tea cup under the table, table clothe strewn on the floor like a picnic blanket. Oh the destruction from one doll and her case! All day long, all night as well chaos ensued from her impatient tantrums but alas for untold months or years it has been for naught, she heaved and she sighed has her stamina gave out for the night, the box twirled and teetered slowly has it came to halt, when the box finally stopped she sat herself down the best she could, she began to softly sob, the tears streamed down her porcelain cheeks out of frustration and loneliness. All alone she sat sobbing, her dress and hair grew soggy from the ever flowing river of tears, she wiped her cheeks for fear of molding or the box getting a musty, she felt she smelled musty enough as it is, why would her master ever return to a musty smelling doll? That’s like asking a human to smell moth ball to play with moldy cheese! No one likes moldy cheese, moldy cheese is thrown out if its bad enough, would she be thrown out too? “NO!” she screamed indignantly she may smell a little like a chair no one gets up from but nothing a bath and a spin in the wash can’t fix. Determined to get out of the box and clean herself up (admittedly she smelled so bad it was driving her insane) she kicked the door of the box bang, bang, bang, she kicked and she kicked at the door, finally the latch gave slightly as the shaking kicked it loose. With a click and a clang the latch opened and the door to the box flew open and Shadow toppled out of it onto the dusty flew unwashed floor. “EW!” She exclaimed in disgust, the floor was making her already dirty dress more dirty! “Gah!’, with that said off to find the washing machine and the powder room, she picked herself of the floor gently so as not to crack herself more, but alas the cracks by her left hand worsened and her left hand snapped at the wrist and flew into a heating vent. “Oh, great I can’t retrieve that my dress will catch on fire!” she was saddened and horrified on both accounts the lose of her hand and the thought of burning into dust, in the end she decided losing the hand was not as bad as dying by fire or simply dying. She dusted her dress with her remaining hand and once it was as good as she could get it she toddled over to the door, the door was large and heavy but she was determined to not let that stop her. She stared up at the door and thought a minute about how to go about opening it, as she had many things against her, she was small in size at only 2-3 feet high or about the size of a small child, she also was cracked all over and missing a hand and as badly as she wanted out, she didn’t want to lose her other hand to boot. After pondering for several minutes she finally decided to be brave and try to open it, she reached her hand to the door and clasped her hand around it, she took a deep breath and turned the knob and pulled on the door. But to her dismay it would not budge, the door was either locked, warped or jammed shut, she carefully pulled and pulled but the door did not move or wiggle at all. She tried and she tried but finally she realized she had no choice but to give up, it was no use she needed master to open the door, but master was not here “drat’s what to do?” she sat down on the dirty floor and started coming up with a new plan. After much thinking she decided to look around the room to see if there were any other exits or some other way out. She walked around the edge of the room and examined the baseboards and the floor, there was nothing useful, no back doors, not even a mouse hole or weakened walls from termite damage she could punch her way through (which was a shame she felt like punching something right about now). She stomped her foot in childish rage at her fruitless search, she jumped up and down, she did everything but roll on the floor. Having exhausted herself yet again she wandered the room again, finally she saw what she needed, a small vent way up by the ceiling, but how was she to reach it? She looked at the vent and then at the objects in the room, from the vent, back to the things around her, after going back and fourth dozens of times she eyed the table and the toy chest, “maybe I can push them and climb up?” So she went to the table and began trying to push it across the room, she pushed and pushed but the table was a bit heavy for a doll to push, so she kicked the table and it toppled over. “Ah hah!” she got a new idea, she started rolling the table along the floor, crash! The door bumped into the wall, “now how to get it right side up? “ she kicked the table top “it worked the first time” she thought, amazingly enough the table flipped right side up again. Now for the toy chest! Upon trying to move the toy chest she realized something, it was much heavier then than the table. Shove, shove, shove the toy chest wouldn’t move any more than the door would, “now what?” she looked around again, the table alone was not enough to reach the vent, she needed something else, but what? After surveying the room and finding nothing, she decided to look in the toy chest, but it was too tall, “grr” she was getting frustrated, suddenly she spotted her box! “There we go!” She ran to her box and dragged it to the toy chest, she climbed up onto her case, and peered into the chest, inside was a creepy clown stuffed toy “who put that ugly thing in here?” she rummaged through and found nothing but junk, finally her hand brushed against something she thought she could use. A jump rope! She yanked on the rope and it came free with a jolt and sent her flying backward onto the floor “how many times am I going to end up on this awful floor!”, she fumed for a few minutes then stood herself back up. She grabbed her box and a chair and placed her box beside the chair and the chair by the table, she wrapped the rope loosely around her shoulder and used the box and chair like stairs and worked her way onto the table. Once up, she took the jump rope in hand swirled it around like a cow girl and threw it up at the grate , it wrapped around the bars and secured itself firmly, using her one hand and her legs she ascended the rope until she got to the vent. She pulled one side of the vent open while still firmly holding onto the rope as best as she could, once it was open she very carefully wiggled herself into the open and crawled into the vent. Crawl ,crawl, crawl, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, she worked her way through the piping until she reached a fork “left or right?” she chose left and worked her way down the left piping, till she reached another vent opening. This one was a little more firmly attached but she still managed to work it free “good thing I bought that jump rope”, she tied the jump rope to a screw in the vent and threw the other end down into the hall, she carefully turned herself around in the vent, grabbed the rope and slid down the rope. She landed on the floor with a bump and a thud, her eyes narrowed she was on the floor, again! “I hate this floor!” screaming loudly she got up off the floor and began examining the hallway. “Where is the bathroom” she looked around but saw no doors, so she was unsure which way to go. At last she started down the hall in search of a bathroom and if possible a doll sized washing machine, tap, tap, tap her shoes went as she walked a long, at last she came to a door, nervously she stared it down, anything could be behind it, her master had a very strange sense of taste, keeping her masters eccentric tastes in mind she cautiously put her hand to the knob and began to turn it.

The door opened with a very loud screechy creaking sound, the knob squeaked as it turned. Shadow slowly opened the door just a tiny crack, she peered into the room to see what was inside. It was….a closet. Yes, a closet. It was dark but definitely a closet, through the dark shadow could just barely make out brooms, mops, buckets, coat hangers and other household paraphernalia. “Oh, phooey all that walking for a closet”, she huffed and fumed and turned to leave just as a large bottle caught her eye, “hm” it seemed interesting but it was too dark to read the label, to make sure. “Maybe there is a flashlight in here somewhere?” shadow began rummaging around in the closet, in the dark, in a house that is about as safe as a fun house of terror. In her search things were thrown, mops lost their heads and brooms lost their fingers. After it was apparent emergency lighting was not kept in a broom closet, she decided to look for a light switch. While she headed for the door so she could start there and work her hand along the wall, she tripped over a bucket, shadow fell forward and landed hard like a stone by the door with the bucket following closely after her just before it landed on her head with a thud. ‘Argh!” her breath made a hissing noise, as she attempted to removed the bucket from her gorgeous locks. The bucket was stuck firm on her head though, and freeing herself one handed was looking to not be an easy task. She sat for a minute and said a great many things while her head was trapped, upon feeling the bucket she came up with a plan. She stood up and walked carefully to the door feeling the room for clues on where it was located. Once she reached the door she lifted the metal handle of the bucket and placed it around the door handle using head movements and her hand. When the handle was in place, she put herself in a seated position beneath the door knob in an attempted to let the door free her. The bucket tugged on her head and her hair “ow” it hurt horribly but if she was to get free without help she had no choice. Eventually the bucket just barely started to budge and slide ever so slightly off her head, with a similar thud to the one it made when the bucket so rudely forced itself onto her person, the bucket finally came off. “I’m free!” “Finally, now to find a light switch”. She placed her hand on the wall nearest her and started walking to the other end. She walked along the closet but still could not find the light switch. “Fine. I’ll just take it with me and hope its of some use.” Through the darkness she grabbed the plastic bottle and went back out to the hallway, the closet was too dark to obtain anything of better use. “Sigh” and with that she began to walk down the hall again. Step, step, step, tap, tap, tap, the sound of he own shoes were beginning to annoy her and the smell of her dirty dress was nauseating, if she didn’t find a laundry room soon she was going to lick her self clean, she did not look kindly on that as an outcome. Her shoes tapped on and her dress continued to smell but no laundry room or bathroom to be seen. After who knows how much long, lonely walking in the dark hall shadow reached a dead end, who was it? She faced full bodied a sticky substance, chills went down her dolly spine, it couldn’t be what she was thinking could it? “Surely not..” her voice trailed off at the thought of man and doll kinds worst enemy, and enemy so scary, so fierce, it sends her master running for the chickens! Er wait I that’s running for the hills, oh well anyway. What is it? It’s so dreadful saying its name may send a pack of them running in your direction with mouths open wide and fangs glaring white ready to bite! Shadow twitched with fear, slowly she moved her hand around but alas her worst fears were realized. She….was stuck! The substance before her clung to every fold of her dress and body like a spandex body suit, she greatly hoped if it really was what she feared that it was long deserted. Her hopes were dashed however when she stood perfectly still but the substance began to move and jiggle ever slightly, shadow could hear the sound of drooling, hissing and shuffling. Something was definitely living here, and worse it was getting closer! Her body trembled as its fangs reached for her alabaster skin, with fear and trembling shadow realized she had no choice, if she was to survive, she must face her fear and run as fast as her beautiful legs could carry her and hope she fines a good place to hide until it leaves or forgets about her. With her intended plot in mind shadow mustered all her strength & courage and made a run for it, right past the ugly creature. She couldn’t see the monster of course but she knew its type well enough to know it was ugly, uglier than a baboon’s butt. She ran and ran and ran some more, as she ran she could hear it shuffling behind her, it was clearly intent on pursuing her. Shadow began to sweat fear, heat and exhaustion being the driving force behind it, she really hoped she would get away but she new they were fast creatures with really long legs and she was but a mere porcelain doll! As fear filled thoughts filled her mind, she could hear it getting closer, it was almost upon her, shadow began to believe this would be it, she in the end would never see her master or the outside world again! Or get her dress cleaned! Just as she believed all was lost and that the worst creature imaginable was to over take her and the worst death possible was to be her fate shadow reached the end of the hall, she thought for sure now that the end was nigh. As the beast made its final attacking lunge shadow noticed something, it was…. A door! “Yes! There is still hope!” She quickly turned and reached for the door knob, she was just about to be caught and bitten, she turned the knob and ducked into the room just in time. The horrid thing clawed the door with it long limbs, shadow panted heavy but was thankful she was safe, for now at least, having ducked into the room without knowing what was inside she knew at any moment she might kick the bucket anyway. Shadow reluctantly turn around to face her new surroundings. What she beheld was…a bathroom. It wasn’t the laundry room she was looking for but was still one of the things on her list. So she was quite happy. She would have been happier still if an ugly beast was pounding on the door but the creepy less then desirable atmosphere aside, it was definitely bath time! And oh how she looked forward to that. Shadow gingerly removed her clothes and under things before even turning on the water she was so excited. Realizing this she turned on the water, and waited for the tub to fill. It felt like a long wait, but the tub finally filled and she stepped into the warm water and reached for the ivory soap on the tub ledge. She scrubbed and scrubbed and washed her dirty self so clean a mouse could eat off her.