Jason nodded. “I was sure she’d eventually sleepwalk away from us. What an annoying little bug she was.”

Lou shook her head. “You’re not my family,” she whispered, if only to herself. “My brother is with me here.”

The boy’s eyes flashed amber, and chills danced across Lou’s skin. “I like the new Louise much better,” he went on, talking to his mother. “Not a peep all night.”

New Louise?

“I should bring her to the table,” said the man who looked like her father. He stood and pulled away the fourth chair. Then he disappeared into the hall. A few seconds later, he returned. In his arms was a figure that looked just like Lou. It wore her white nightgown. Dark hair obscured its features.

After a moment, Lou saw that it wasn’t real hair but tangles of thick yarn.

The man who looked like her father placed the life-size doll in Lou’s chair.

“Good morning, New Louise,” said the woman who looked like her mother. “How did you sleep?” She waited for a moment, as if she expected the doll to answer. “Oh, that’s right. You’re still asleep. You’ll always be asleep now.” Lou realized that the woman was now talking to her directly, taunting. All of them were. Jason and Dad too. “Much easier this way. For all of us.” The family chortled as Lou’s jaw dropped.

When the doll turned its head, its stitched eyes glaring, Lou finally found her voice. It gushed from her mouth in a scream of horror and didn’t stop, not even when Lou ran out of breath.

Jason paced several steps away from Lou and Rufus as they stared up at the bookshelves.

He tried to touch Lou’s arm, but before he could make contact, the room changed entirely. He was back home in the condo’s kitchen. A nightmare version of himself and the rest of his family were sitting in the dining nook and laughing so hard, they’d all turned blue. In Lou’s chair, there was a life-size version of the doll that had taken his sister’s place when he’d opened the dollhouse earlier.

Lou was cowering in a shadowy corner of the kitchen. She’d covered her face with her hands. When he reached out to take them away, Lou surprised him by yelping. He’d touched her! She blinked at him with frightened eyes and then jerked away.

“It’s me,” he said, keeping his voice low so he didn’t scare her. “I’m here with you.” Lou’s gaze flittered past him toward the maniacal laughter. “They’re fake. A bad dream. But I’m real, Lou. I’m here to help you. I’ve been with you since the beginning.”

Lou grew still, then swallowed and winced, as if grit were stuck in her throat. “Are we home?”