"be careful what you wish for"

━━━━━━━━ ꧁ ♡ ꧂ ━━━━━━━━

Y/N rushed back to the house, the bad feeling still lingering in her stomach. Twisting the brass knob of the kitchen door in her hand, she called out for her little daughter from the table- a cold cup of coffee and a bag of cookies strewn all over the hard surface.

"You're back!" Her daughter laughed, rushing into the kitchen before stopping once she saw her frazzled expression, "Are you alright?"

"Mummy's fine luvvie. Wait- what're you hiding behind your back, Feli?"

The child with raven-colored tresses smiled mischievously.

"You have to cover your eyes first!"

"Oh, so it's going to be a surprise then," Y/N chuckled and covered her eyes with her hands. Felicia placed the thing on the table before removing her mother's hands.

"It's a... doll?"

Y/N stared at the doll wearing a white wedding dress; donning H/Cette hair, black buttons for eyes and lips sewed up into a little smile.

"Is this yours?"

"Nuh-uh!"

Strangely, the doll's figure and features seem to resemble...

"She looks like you, Mummy!" Her daughter pointed it out for her.

"Wh-where'd you find this, Feli?"

"In Grandmama's trunk! I wanted to find my tea cozy for Angelina but I found her instead!" She recalled, delicate fingers pointing to the doll.

"I don't remember ever seeing this in mother's trunk," she muttered, gazing at it in wonderment, eyes grazing all over the felt material, the satin dress and the big black button eyes that seemed to unnerve her more than anything.

"Can I have her now, Mummy?" The four-year old pouted impatiently and she shrugged, picking up the laundry basket and moving away from the doll who still continued to watch her from her daughter's hold.

Entering the laundry room, she began piling the laundry in the washing machine. While Felicia stayed in the laundry room to watch the clothes in the machine spin round and round and round, Y/N began to cook some beef ravioli. She figured she could make something good for her husband when he returned from work.

Once the laundry was washed and dried in the span of an hour, the mother called her daughter to the kitchen. The young girl came in, playing with the plush arms of Angelina and the new doll.

Angelina was Felicia's favorite doll. Completed with milk colored cloth for her skin and the classic big blue eyes, it was unlikely for most girls her age to prefer dark hair for dolls. When asked about it, she giggled,

"I want her to look like me and Papa you see."

And at that, Y/N thought that she must've loved her papa very much to say it so directly and so truthfully.

The H/Cette sat at the dinner table with narrowed lids pointed at the empty chair in front of her. Sighing, she turned towards Felicia who was busy playing with her dolls rather than eating.

"Felicia," she called with a gentle tongue, "Eat your food darling, or it might get cold."

Felicia showed her lovely little grin- one of the traits she inherited from her mother- and exclaimed very much loudly to an invisible crowd,

"I'm going to name her Delaney!"'

━━━━━━━━ ꧁ ♡ ꧂ ━━━━━━━━

Y/N woke up in the middle of the night to find an empty space beside her and the sounds she had heard the night before. She irritatedly slipped a hand through her H/C-colored locks, smoothing it as she put on her slippers and went downstairs.

"If somebody's going to wake me up for something so trivial, ONE BLOODY TIME, I will castrate everything and everyone in this..." She was caught off when she turned on the lights, "...room..."

There was nothing moving. Everything was so still and silent that it threw her off.

Squeak...! Squeak...!

That noise. It sounded something small and quick, skidding across the orange-red carpet as if it wasn't on the carpet at all.

Squeak..!

There it was again.

She followed the sound- and widened her gaze to see the new doll sitting in front of the big old brown door. It seems to be waiting for somebody to open the door for it. Pushing the doll aside, Y/N fumbled with the rusty door knob and it opened.

The red-brick wall that was made to shut off everything on the other side of it was replaced by a long hallway leading off into the distance.

It was calling out to her.

Y/N didn't want to explore it without Aidan. But then she remembered that they weren't exactly on the best of terms since he was overloaded with piles and piles and piles of work papers.

Despite her hesitation, she stepped inside.

And closed the door.

The air smelled good. Not the good-food kind, but the feeling-good kind, like roses and chamomile tea. It reeked of romance and relaxation.

She followed the candles that seems to light itself up whenever she drew near to what was lying at the end of the corridor.

Y/N stopped in front of a door and looked for the knob. Once she heard the satisfying click, she opened it to see the same room she was in before.

'Have I been going around in circles?'

It resembled every piece and corner of the drawing room. The snowglobes sat on the mantelpiece like how Felicia had put it in. The carpet they had since they moved in was the very same one that sat on the floor. The picture hanging above the chimney was the very same.

Y/N knew she was at home. She hadn't left.

Yet there was something different she couldn't put her finger on.

But the picture... it wasn't exactly the same.

The portrait they had above their own chimney once housed a sad-looking woman in an elegant Victorian dress trying to sew the holes on her fan. But the expression on her face was peculiar- she was looking at her fan with such a happy expression that Y/N thought that it looked a bit... evil.

She stared at the lady's eyes, trying to spot the difference between them and almost had it when she heard faint music coming from her husband's study.

Silent as she came, the H/Cette kept up her pace towards the study and opened the door just a slight bit to see a man playing piano. Her eyes scrutinized his broad back and the wispy black hair ending in curls above the nape of his neck.

The familliar baritone voice made her freeze in place.

'

My love, my darling love.

Can't you be a little mindful of me?

Would your existence rather remain

As a pigment of my fantasy?'

Once he had uttered the last stanza, the man turned around.

"My darling Y/N, welcome home."

Y/N held in her astonishment and horror once she beheld his face. It was handsome- quite terribly handsome. Smooth milky skin, a strong jawline, soft pink lips and big black buttons.

Big black buttons in place of his eyes.

Just as he strode towards her with arms open wide, she backed away twice the steps he was making towards her.

"W-Who are you?!"

"Why, I'm your other husband dear!"

"My husband doesn't look like you at all!"

"Your OTHER husband darling. Emphasis on the other," he pointed it out quite sharply for her taste that she began regretting ever stepping out of that big old door.

"I-I have to go back. I have to c-check on my daughter-"

"Felicia? Oh, she's here! Asleep and wonderfully tucked in by yours truly," he cheerfully replied and took her by the hand. His digits felt cold and inhuman, "Now, come on and eat some late dinner with me."

"Wa-wait! I can't join you for dinner if I don't know you at all!"

Smiling, the man turned around. His button eyes shining in the dim light.

"My sweet Y/N, call me Adonis."

━━━━━━━━ ꧁ ♡ ꧂ ━━━━━━━━