Last Trip down Memrie Lane

Chapter 10
Chapter 10 - End

10

It was a few moments before Harley could grasp the fact that something was different. The floor was the same but it had a dusty, forgotten feel. Harley looked down at it and grasped it with familiar hands. Her hands. And she got the very real feeling of being able to control her body and thoughts, as if she was no longer a passenger in her body but the driver. She looked around. She was back in her slightly stained gothic Lolita baby costume. She looked up and saw the face of the Bella that she met earlier that day, a million years ago. Her face was hard and stern and had none of its previous warmth. She felt utterly insignificant in her baby dress as she lay on the floor looking up at her.

“Well?” said Bella with blank emotion. “Got something you want to say to me?”

Harley gulped. “I… I didn’t… what was that?”

“Thought to get a nice look at my memories, did you? Wanted to come snooping around in my family history?”

Harley stammered to her feet. “What… no! I didn’t! I just… where are my friends! Where’s Laura and Tania?”

Bella’s mouth slid into a small smile. “They’re still here. But that’s not my concern anymore. What were you doing in my mirror?”

“Your mirror? What was that thing? Who are you?! What just happened to me?”

“I’ve been dumping out my memories into this mirror. What you saw was my past. Pieces of my life I’ve chosen to remember and pieces I’ve tried to forget. And you come here with the audacity to sneak peeks at my life?”

“Those were your memories? I was… I was inside your memories? You’re really… you’re really MAGIC?”

Bella’s face fell. “That is not the word we use for it. But yes. I suppose we were. My life was ruined because of it. I ruined my family with it by my own fault.”

“Who are you?” Harley said with a slightly fearful ring in her voice.

Bella sighed. “I am Bella Rosaline Diane Memrie of the line of Memrie, a blood-line of Magi and Sorcerers. I am the last member of my family all of whom have died from murder, disease, or despair. My father’s wishes to keep us all safe backfired as we were overcome with grief. Many of us couldn’t take it. So I’ve been living here for nearly a century trying to keep my family’s spirit alive. I’ve been trying to redeem myself for ruining my family ever since. But I have nothing. Nobody to speak to and care for. Nobody to spill my heart out to.”

Harley gathered her words. “But… Molly. You made her alive. You could make another one!”

Bella’s eyes flickered. “You think so? You think I should I should just make another one?”

Harley gulped. She wanted nothing more than to humor this crazy woman, get her friends, and leave as fast as possible. “Yes. Absolutely. I felt what you felt. You felt so… so happy when you had her.”

Then to Harley’s great astonishment, Bella smiled. It was not a cruel or wicked or malicious smile. It was warm and full of truth. She looked as though she had slipped backwards in time to relive a memory. “I thought so too. Having that doll… no… that child there to care for made me feel like my life was worth something. I was never the best at my craft as you saw. I could only do things that I put my heart into. And I poured my heart out into that child. I gave her everything. I cared for her more than I ever cared for anything in the world. She was mine, my little Molly. Wouldn’t you do anything to have that care for someone?”

Harley was at a loss for words. But she quickly decided that the answer she would give to make this woman happy was also the truthful one. For a moment she forgot all else and said, “Yes. It was a beautiful thing the two of you had.”

“I’m glad you agree. That’s why I have a test for you. You care for your friends, right? Well you have to get them.”

Harley stared at her. What did she mean? They were downstairs, waiting impatiently, no doubt. “What? I’m sorry I can’t stay. We’re already late as it is. I don’t have time for games.”

Bella then outstretched her hand and slid the door closed with a THUD. Harley looked around for some other means of escape. It was only then that Harley realized that she was in the same bedroom where Bella spent most of her youth. There was the corner table next to the bed which she had turned into a crib for Molly. It looked the same but somehow updated, but nonetheless devoid of any other way out besides a long fall from the window to the outside grass below. “Now then,” Bella said and she clicked her fingers. Suddenly Harley’s shoes felt as heavy as lead. She tried to move her feet but she couldn’t. “I have your friends here. All you have to do is get them if you care about them so much. You saw how much I love dolls. You’ll love them too!”

And from behind her back she pulled two ragdolls. One was red-headed and wearing a Little Red Riding Hood outfit. The other had golden hair and was wearing a kitty outfit. Harley’s jaw dropped in astounding fear.

Bella walked over to the shelf, where many dolls were sitting, lining the shelf. Many, many more dolls than in Bella’s last memory. As if the collection had accumulated over the years. As if every Halloween more and more dolls were added to the shelf when people would come knocking at the front door of Memrie Manor. She placed the Laura and Tania dolls on the shelf in the exact center, four feet above the ground.

Harley could barely find her words for fear. It couldn’t be. Her friends couldn’t be sitting there on the shelf as dolls. “My friends! Laura! Tania! Why?! What have you done to them?! Change them back!! ”

Bella smiled. “I know how you felt when you were in my memories. I know that you’ve felt what I felt. You know what it feels like to have a dolly of your own. So go get your friends.”

She snapped her fingers again, and Harley felt her feet lighten. She immediately walked to the shelf, slowly, not wanting to believe the what she was seeing was real. One thing was certain as she approached the line of dolls on the shelf: It was higher off the ground than she thought. She got closer and saw that she would have to reach for them. They were high up. She got closer. The shelf was very high indeed. She reached the shelf and lifted her arms as high as they would go. She could only just barely reach it with her fingers.

She jumped up. She was so close. If she could just reach and get them down them she could get them back to normal, beg Bella to change them back. She struggled to remove the image of the people on the floor of this room with their vacant empty expressions and no sign of life behind their eyes. She jumped again, came up short, and fell down to the floor. It was as though she fell farther than she had jumped, like the world beneath her was dropping ever lower, or the shelf was sliding upwards against the wall. She jumped again, more desperately. Again she fell to the floor farther and the shelf became higher. Something was changing. She felt something on her body shifting but she paid it no mind and jumped again. Again Harley fell farther and the shelf became higher. Why was it so high up?! She looked up at the shelf. It looked like it was twenty feet above her.

She gave one last feeble jump for the shelf, fell down and lost her balance. Harley stumbled and fell backwards, landing hard on her soft behind.

But it didn’t hurt. The fall felt cushioned. She looked down at herself. Her legs seemed shorter. Her arms seemed stubbier. And the pink of her dressed seemed thicker and less like a Halloween costume. She pulled back her dress and looked down. What she saw back her gasp a high-pitched gasp.

Wrapped around her was a very soft and very real diaper. She gasped in horror and started to cry. She wanted to get up and run, but when she tried, she lost balance and fell onto her knees and hands. She wheeled around to look at Bella, but tears filled her eyes when she saw the Bella had grown to the size of a giant.

Or was she simply small as a baby?

She didn’t want to believe it. But when Bella strode over to her and scooped her up, Harley noticed that she didn’t have any strengths or motor skills to fight back. She simply whimpered like a baby as she felt her baby dress and diapers flow slowly over her body. “Awww shhhhh…. It’s ok sweetie. Don’t feel sad. Mama’s here.”

Harley began to cry again. She couldn’t find any words. It felt very familiar. Not too long ago she had felt a similar feeling: the feeling of fright and need to be comforted. But the inability to make words took hold of her. Her eyes flicked around the room for some means of escape. It was only then that she saw the entire room had changed. It had no trace of the previous room. Instead it looked like a baby’s nursery. A huge pink crib stood next to a baby’s playpen and changing station. A rocking horse sat in the corner. Harley began to cry in horror.

“Shhh… it’s ok. I’ll be here for you forever. And now I have someone to care for, just like I had all those years ago. And it wasn’t hard to change your clothes into this little baby dress. It was so infantile to begin with. I know you’re scared now but don’t worry little one. It won’t be long until you feel perfectly fine.” And Bella placed Harley in her new crib and snapped her fingers again.

Suddenly Harley felt a strange sensation: the feeling of something draining from her brain. She struggled to make words or think an adult thought, but everything she tried would melt from her mind to be overtaken by a childish thought. She tried to pull at the bars of the crib, but as soon as she saw her hands, she pulled a thumb to her mouth and began to suck instinctively. With her free hand she tried to pull off her diaper, but before she could make much of an attempt, she forgot why the feeling of a diaper bothered her in the first place. It felt so natural. She rolled onto her back and tried to swing herself into a standing position, but that soon melted away to the feeling of wanting to rock back and forth.

Her adult mind was quickly draining from her, only to be replaced by these new babyish thoughts and feelings. She fought to hold onto her adult mentality but it was so difficult when the world and everything around her seemed so fresh and new all of a sudden.

Then Bella appeared above the crib and looked down at Harley. Harley’s mind filled with anger and fear, but that soon drifted away as she looked into Bella’s eyes and saw motherly love above her.

”NO!” Harley suddenly thought. ”I won’t do this! I’m not a baby! I’m not baby! Not!”

She kicked her feet in anger!

Bella giggled. “Poor baby. Let it go. Feel the baby inside out you wanting to come out. Don’t fight it.”

Harley heard the words as they seemed to slither into her ear, saturating her brain. “Don’t fight it… Let it go…” seemed to echo inside her skull. She didn’t want to agree, but a small part of her obeyed the words she heard.

That tiny part of her forgot to fight and instead accepted the fate she had. Part of her felt the diaper and dress around her body and felt contented. In one corner of her mind, it didn’t feel wrong to sit there in a diaper sucking her thumb while this woman watched. It felt like the right thing to do. As soon as she thought it, that part of her began to grow, gaining momentum, fueled on by Harley’s sudden acceptance of what was happening to her.

She tried as hard as she could to keep thinking like the adult she was. She needed to go… somewhere… somewhere where she and her friends were supposed to be… Her adult thoughts fought to stay with her. There had to be some way of escape. There had to be a way out of this.

Then she heard “Let it go. Be my baby. I’ll be your mama” float over her, covering her.

Something about the tone of Bella’s voice, her sweet melodic motherly voice touched the part of Harley’s mind which was growing and gaining control. The baby side of her grew bigger and bigger, filling her up.

”I guess…” Harley thought in spite of herself,I guess this isn’t so bad. At least I’m warm. At least diaper is comfy… And I safe and mama loves me… mama? Mama!

And she looked up at Bella and saw nothing but love in those big eyes, those big eyes which had lived for so long and saw so much. Bella had finally gotten what she wanted, a little baby to care for as her own. And Harley’s fear had slipped away from her. She forgot all about the party they were late for, the family and house she had left behind, the candy buckets and velvet curtains downstairs.

Bella smiled. She knew it was over. She had been slowly changing Harley’s mind deliberately, making sure there were no mistakes. She lowered two dolls into the crib to sit next to Harley. Harley rolled over and looked at them. They were funny looking. A baby doll in a red thing and a baby girl with a kitty tail. They were cute. They looked familiar to her. Harley simply drooled and crawled to them. The feeling of the diaper rubbing and stretching against her skin didn’t bother her at all. She reached out and touched the two dolls.

They were soft and warm. She grabbed them and hugged them both and let out a baby’s coo of comfort.

Above her Bella smiled, “Aww that’s it little one. It’s the least I could do. Nobody had ever seen my memories before, much less understood them. I’m glad you’ll get to stay my baby forever. I’ll take care of you forever. And don’t worry. Every year I’ll make sure you get new dollies to play with every year.”

Harley looked up at her mama. She didn’t really understand what mama was saying, but mama sounded sweet and loving. Harley lifted her arms wanting to touch her.

And Bella knew that any trace of Harley’s former life was gone. Her adult mind had disappeared, vanished like those people’s mind all those years ago. Only now there was a little baby’s mind in its place: a new child for her to nurture. She picked up the wanting child, pulled a pacifier from her pocket, popped it in her mouth, and the child began to suckle on it gently, relaxing into a deep haze of comfort.

Bella lifted Baby Harley in her arms and held her the same way she had held her Molly for the first time. As the baby sucked away happily Bella whispered to her in the brightly lit new nursery of the manor house down Memrie Lane, “Happy Halloween, sweetheart.”

And the baby in her arms fell limp and nestled against her mama in a deep peaceful sleep.

The End.

Thanks for reading and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!