Chapter 19
Mark was furious at work. He rarely showed up to work with anger hot in his belly. Mark continue to build the wall of the house, thinking that his wife, and her absolute insistence that she not get a job. It really pissed him off, while he stood there and he worked and he sacrificed. How dare she. He picked up a two by four and started to carry it toward the saw. The board turned red in his arms as his nose started to gush on it. His anger faded into a quiet terror. Kelly having now job was nothing compared to being cursed. He dropped the board, clutching his nose and rushing to the bathroom. The grimy mirror showed his face coated in blood. He quickly scrubbed it, but what started as a drizzle suddenly waterfalled, and he ended up sitting with his head between his knees desperately squeezing his nose shut as a puddle started to form between his legs.
The third stage.
Carolina was on the first stage, sleepwalking. His daughter was cursed. Panic was crawling up his tight chest and pressing on his tongue, begging for a bleat of raw terror to escape. But he bit his lips tight together and closed his eyes tight. Maybe he was just imagining this. Kelly would calm him down, he needed to tell her, so that she could be his voice of reason.
So, he swallowed his anger, and called his wife. While it rang he threw a handful of paper-towels on the ground and started to clean up his blood puddle with his foot. One hand still clutching his nose tightly to keep it from spewing. “Hey, Kelly. I don’t want to fight. I think…”
“I’m pregnant.” She said, interrupting.
“What?” He was so unprepared he slipped in the blood he was wiping up. He twisted, one foot skittering out from under him. He had to let go of his nose to catch himself on the wall. The shock was unbelievable. “You are on the pill!”
“I am, that’s what is pissing me off so much. No part of me wanted a baby right now. I know that you were fine with us having another kid- but now… I just… I want to stay home with this one. I won’t go back to work! I don’t want to work, puking and pregnant gross. I don’t want to clean hotel rooms when my belly is fat and my cankles swollen. It’s not fair.” She said with a loud half-sob threatening to burst free, and he could hear her slamming pots and dishes in the background. “It’s not fucking fair!” And he could hear the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.
Fuck. How was he going to get her to take him seriously now? “Look, you can say home.” He said, hoping to end the conversation quickly so they could move on to the ‘hey we’ve got a cursed dollhouse’ part of the conversation.
But him relenting just caused serious waterworks. Her bawling was loud, and breathless, with goofy hiccups between sobs. She audibly tried to gather herself and he could picture her taking a breath and wiping her eyes. “Don’t tease me. Do you mean it? I’m sure we can figure it out. I can… I can figure it out.” She lost it again. He could feel the relief in her voice. A loud hiccup made her giggle.
“Yes. I’m excited to have another kid!” He said, trying desperately to sound excited. “Kids are great.” But secretly his stomach was turning, what if he couldn’t take care of three children? Coralina was on the roof this morning, and he had already brought in a cursed dollhouse. What on earth could he do wrong next?
The cycle of abuse.
What if it caught him? How do could he possible break a cycle if it had become supernatural?
“Mark, I know, I know that your terrified about being a dad. We’ve been doing great so far! You’ve been doing fucking great.” Kelly said, through sniffles. As if she instinctively knew that he was already spiraling. He was running lies in his brain of the ways that he was going to fuck up a tiny human. “It’s gonna be okay, but I will figure the budget out. I’ll do whatever it takes. Maybe I could babysit, if we really need? If it’s real tight.”
“Kelly, I have got to talk to you…” But then he glanced at his watch. Fuck, his break was over. “Shit, I gotta go, but… Look at the books under the couch. I think… I think that’s… Our dollhouse. I’m concerned.” And he hung up, without even saying goodbye.
Hopefully she would feel the urgency in his voice, and not just think he was screwing around.
