The Dollhouse
"Lucky break."
A.J. and Kari were playing Nick's nintendo while the others were out. Kari had been there only for a few months and already was excepting the guys as her brothers. Becoming a Carter was a little hard for her. With the death of her family, she thought she would never love another family.
"Hello?! Anybody home? I hear the nintendo so someone is in trouble!"
"Oh crap" whispered A.J.
"Quick! Turn it off!"
Just as the screen went black, Nick walked into the "room"
"Hey guys. We just got back from a book store. We got you some more Stephen Kings Kari."
"Alright! I've been in need of a new one."
As Kari pawed throught the books, she found a very strange looking book. It was golden tan with no title.
"Hey! Whats this?" she said while picking up the book. The guys took one look at it and confused looks came to their faces. Just then the others came in.
"Hey Brian. Did you put this in here?" Nick asked.
"No. Why? Did you?"
"No. Keri just found it"
"Well if it is here, might as well open it."
As Kari opened the book, she saw five flashes of light burst out of it and land on each of the guys. She just ignored it thinking it was just dust.
"This book is full of weird words." said Kari
"Well, read some of it. It might be a language we know."
"O.K. here goes. Ulkin tala mesh cortala de lein."
The guys all exchanged confused glances.
"I have no idea what that means." said Kevin.
"Well this has been fun but I'm going to go ride my bike. I'll be back in an hour." and with that, Kari dogded out the door.
"What do you think those words meant?" asked Howie.
"I don't know and I don't care." said A.J.
Just then, they heard Nick scream in the back.
"Nick?! Are you alright?!" yelled Howie. No answer. They ran to the back to find no one was there.
"Hey. Where did he go?"
Howie went back to the front of the bus. Just then A.J. spotted something. A doll was lying on the floor. A.J. picked it up to get a better look at it. It looked exactly like Nick. He turned around to find two more dolls. Kevin and Brian.
"Howie!" A.J. cried as he ran to the front of the bus. There sat Howie, now a doll, in the front seat. Then, everything went black.
Chapter 2
"Guys i'm home!" Kari had just gotten home
"Guys?" She walked to the back. She didn't find the guys but she did find the dolls
"Huh. The fans are starting to get good at their gifts." She picked them up and brought them to the table. Then as she walked to the front of the bus, she heard a sickning CRUNCH.
"Oh no." She looked down to see that she had stepped on the A.J. doll. As she lifted up her foot, she saw that the left arm was broken off.
"Oh man! A.J. is gonna kill me!" She mumbled as she put the doll on the table with the others. She was going to fix it later.
She went into the back, grabbed her laptop and came back to the table.
"Now is the time to try out that new voice program" She said to herself.
She plugged in the headset and grabbed the strange book the guys brought home. She was going to see if the program could translate the language into English.
"Lets give this one a try. Octa un chet haultaia de morn."
She looked at the computer screen to see what it came up with. She was very disappointed when she saw No Matches Found.
"Huh. This must be one old book"
As she was getting up, she heard a funny noise. It sounded like a couple of moans. Then she heard a voice.
"OH MY GOD!!! WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO US!"
She turned around to find the dolls were getting up and standing on the table. All she could do was stare. She could not take her eyes off them
"Hey. Where did my arm go?" asked the A.J. doll
"How the heck are we suppose to know? I was in the back now i''m 8 inches tall and standing on top of a table. Ya think we're gonna know."
Just then, Kari got her voice back and began to scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The guys turned and looked at her and screamed to. Then they heard a voice from the front seat.
"Um...hello? I'm in the chair and I can't get down!" It was Howie. Kari had not noticed him sitting there when she came in.
"Howie?" she went to the front seat and sure enough, he was stuck up there.
"What the heck happened?!" He asked her.
"I don't know." She replied
"Well could you at least give me a little help here?"
"Oh yeah, sure."
She picked him up gently and brought him to the table with the others.
"Now." sid Brian, "Care to explain something?"
"I don't know. All I can remember before this is that I read that book and you guys couldn't understand the language. Then I left. When I came back you guys were like this." Kari explained
"You came back and my arm was gone?" asked A.J.?
"Well, no. I accidently stepped on you."
"WHAT!!!!!!!!!!???????"
"It's O.K. I can fix your arm."
"Now thats a phrase you don't here to often." sighed Kevin
"Hey, SHUT UP!"
"Stop fighting! O.k. A.J. I use to fix my Ken dolls arms all of the time. You are just going to have to hold still. Man, I never had to say that to my dolls."
"Shut up and fix it."
She picked A.J. up and procceded to pop his arm in. When she heard his arm go click she put him down.
"K. Your done. See, I told you i'm use to this." said Kari.
"It didn't even hurt." said A.J. with amazment.
"Of course not. Your plastic."
"Huh?"
"I'll go get a mirror."
She went to her bunk, grabbed a mirror and went back to the table. She sent the mirror down.
"Oh dear." Said Brian as he saw that his hair was now plastic and moved nowhere.
"MAN!! How am I suppose to dye this hair! I can't even comb it!" As you can guess, that was A.J.
"O.k., now I need you guys to help me. Where did you get the book and how can I get there." asked Kari
The guys all looked at each other. Of course A.J. won't know. He was with Kari the whole time. The others were deeply thinking.
"It was Madame Prucillas book boutique" exclamed Nick.
Kari went and got a phone book. She looked up the address and wrote it down.
"K guys. I think its time I gave this lady a visit." told Kari
"But you can't even drive." said Howie.
"No I can't but I do have my bike. And you guys are coming with me."
"NO!" all of them said at the same time.
"Come on guys. You won't even be seen. I'll put you guys in my backpack."
The guys thought for a minute.
"*sigh* alright. We'll do it. As long as it gets us changed back. I hate having to look up to you. I should be the other way around." Whinned Brian
"Ha ha ha. That was so funny."
Kari went back and brought a backpack to the table. She opened it up and the guys got inside. She zipped it up but leaving a big enough hole for the guys to see out and to get enough air.
"Guys?" whispered Kari, "I'll tell you when there is a bump."
"Alright." yelled Kevin.
She got out of the bus, hopped on to her bike and started to the book boutquie. Not knowing if there was anything to change the guys back.
Chapter 3
It turned out the book place was a lot farther then she first expected. She thought it would only take a half hour. Yet she still wasn't there. The guys were getting a little antsy.
"Are we there yet?" Whinned Nick.
"No. And if you don't stop asking that I'm going to leave you here." growled Kari.
"*Sigh*. It sucks back here. If we wouldn't have opened that book we would be like this now." sighed Brian.
"I only have one question. How come Kari isn't like this? She was there with all of us yet she is still what we would consider normal." questioned Kevin.
"Good point. Maybe there was something else that made us like this."
"Well, we'll find out when we get there."
"Could you guys pipe down back there? People are stareing."
"There only stareing because your talking to us!"
"Good point. Anyway, we're here."
Kari locked her bike up outside and went in. The store was very weird. It was like you stepped into the past. There was a lady standed at the counter.
"Can I help you Miss?" she asked.
Kari cleared her throat. "Yes. Are you Madame Prucilla?"
"Yes I am. How can I help you?"
"Well, some friends of mine and my brother came in here earlier today and purchased some Stephen King books."
"Ah yes. Your famous friends."
"Yes, well, we also found another book in the bag tht they didn't buy."
She pulled out the tan colored book. Madame Prucilla looked at it in shock. She went over to the door and turned the sign to back in 15 minutes.
"Come with me." She motioned Kari into the back.
"You didn't open the book did you?"
"Well yes. And there were these weird flashes of light that landed on the guys."
"Oh dear. Go on."
"And I read off some strange words. Then I left. Then when I came back, there were five dolls in the bus."
"Oh no! That spell hasn't been used since that fall of China."
"Thats not all. I came back and I used this special program on my computer and I said some more words out loud. Well.. I guess I can show you the results of that one."
She open up her backpack.
"K guys, you can come out now." she coaxed.
"No way. I am not letting anyone see me like this." Yelled Howie.
"You want to change back, don't you?"
Silence for a minute. Then the guys came out one by one. Madame Prucilla gazed in amazment.
"This is unreal. But there is only one way you can change them back."
She went to a large book with a golden rim. She paged through it until stopping a a page.
"Ah ha!" she said, "The only way to change them back is gold."
"That's it? I have three thing that are gold. This should be easy." exclamed A.J.
"Oh no. Not that kind of gold. Only true gold will work. And it has to be done by the person who cast the spell."
All of them turned and looked at Kari.
"What is true gold?" she asked
"That is somthing you need to find. I know you can do it. You seem like a nice enough young girl. Oh, there is another catch. You have to do it before midnight tonight. If you don't, they will be stuck like this forever.
"What!? It's already 3:00!"
"Don't worry Karebear. I know we'll figure something out." called Brian.
"Yeah, like where to put a dollhouse." grumbled A.J.
"SHUT UP!"
"Alright that enough. We have to go now Miss Prucilla. Guys, back in the bag."
The guys moened a little but got back into the backpack. As Kari was leaving, Madmae Prucilla spoke up.
"You love them dearly, don't you?"
"Yes. They are my family. And family sticks together.
"Well. I know this won't help but, good luck."
"Thank you. I'll be needing that."
And with that, she was out the door.
Chapter 4
Kari was a bit tired from the ride up so she decided to take the bus. She went down, put her bike on the back rack and got in.
"Where are we?" asked Nick
"Don't worry, we're on the city bus." she whispered back
"Oh."
The bus ride took much longer than she thought. By the time they got back to the bus it was already 4:30. When they got into the bus, she set the backpack on the table and let the guys come out.
"You really need to get ventlation in there. It is hotter than heck." said Kevin.
"How could you even feel heat? Your made of plastic." laughed Kari.
"Come on guys. We really need to buckle down here. We don't want to be stuck like this. Kari, got any ideas?" asked Brian
"I have no idea. She wouldn't tell me what true gold meant. And i'm really scared that i'll never know."
The time flew by. It was now 9:00 and she still didn't have any ideas. The guys had all but givin up hope. Kevin was in his bunk, A.J., Nick, and Howie were on the couch watching T.V. (Hey, what else were they suppose to do?) and Brian on the chair next to the table with Kari. She did not know he was there.
She had thought for many hours and the stress had begun to take it's toll. She started to cry softly so the guys won't hear.
"Whats the matter Karebear? Don't cry." Said Brian in a calming voice.
She looked up to find him climbing onto the table.
"Oh, I didn't know you were there. I'm sorry."
"Tell me whats wrong."
"Well, i'm just so scared that I won't reach the deadline. Its my fault that you're like this. I don't want it to be my fault that you stuck like this."
"It's not your fault. I know it's not. I'd give you a hug right now but..."
"That's O.k."
"I own ya one when we get changed back."
"Oh Brian."
She picked him up and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. He returned it.
"Don't worry. Everything will be just fine. You'll see."
He hopped down from the table to the chair. All of the sudden, there was a swirl of lights and sparkles. That landed where Brian was standing. There was a big flash of light that nearly blinded Kari.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw what seemed like a figure. She rub her eyes and looked again. It was Brian. He was back to normal.
"Hey guys. I'm back!" Yelled Kevin who came out of his bunk
"Us to!" said A.J., Howie and Nick at the same time.
All Brian and Kari could do was stare at each other. Then the got up and wrapped each other in the biggest hug any of them had ever had in their lives.
"I told you you could do it." whispered Brian.
They ran into the back and she hugged all of the guys until she was all hugged out.
"Hey, what about the book?" asked Kevin
"I don't know." said Kari.
She ran into the front. But she did not find the book. Where the book had been lying, there was now a card. She picked it up and read it.
"Well, what does it say?" asked Howie.
"The only true gold that can be found, is that that comes
from the heart."
THE END