The Magic Dolls

(If you're an impatient reader, you can skip the story setup by jumping to Chapter 4.)

Troy walked through the bustling market, entranced. The stalls were lined with a scattered collection of vintage collectables and handmade objects, but his attention wasn't on the things on sale. Instead, his eyes were glued to the blonde woman shopping in front of him.

He'd spotted her shopping a few minutes ago and thought she was stunning. Before he could approach her, she'd moved on, so he'd followed her, trying to work up the courage to talk to her. Of course, he wasn't very confident, so that was taking a while, but he didn't mind the view in the meantime. She was wearing a short skirt that pretty tightly hugged her thighs, and even with the small steps she was taking, It seemed to Troy one wrong step might accidentally reveal too much.

As they were walking, Troy caught her looking back a couple of times, and though he looked away when she did, he started to get paranoid. He tried to convince himself she was just looking back at the other stalls, but questions started flowing through his mind. Had she noticed him following her? Would she think he was a creep?

After wandering between the stands for a few minutes, the woman ducked into a small stall selling vinyls, and immediately started talking to the owner. The stall was too small for him to coincidentally shop there as well, so Troy walked into the stall opposite that one, pretending to be interested in the weird collection of trinkets they had on their shelves.

Next, the woman started browsing the records opposite him, and he tried to get a look over the low shelf of the stall at what bands she liked. Before he could make out any band names, something he could use to start a conversation, the woman leaned forward, giving Troy a direct view down her blouse at her cleavage. His mouth went dry at the sight of her breasts, watching them jiggle as she flipped through the stack of albums in front of her. It was like he was getting a private show.

Then suddenly, the movement stopped.

Troy looked up at the woman, confused, only to see her looking back at him, furious. Shit, he'd been caught red-handed.

Time seemed to slow down, as Troy ran through his options. One thing was clear, there was no way he could ask her out now. He should never have followed her around in the first place. He tried to decide if he should apologise, or just- shit, he'd already taken too long.

"You creep!" she yelled at him, loud enough to draw attention from any nearby shoppers. "I thought you were following me!"

Troy felt himself shrink. "No, I mean... I, uh," he stammered, taking a step back. "I was just buying this."

Troy quickly grabbed whatever box was in front of him on the shelf, and walked away towards the checkout counter. He blushed, feeling like everyone was watching him. Just pretend it didn't happen, he told himself, trying to forget the look of disgust on the woman's face.

Troy was so inside his own head, it took him a moment to even register which stall he was standing in.

Troy had been to the market a few times in the last six months, but he had never seen a stall setup this elaborate. Labels and warning signs were placed in different sections, alerting customers to the dangers of some seemingly harmless objects, like a stopwatch or a pair of glasses. Chains held down mundane things like books, while an ink pot and quill sat on a pedestal, or a TV remote behind a glass case. It was an imposing display, but Troy supposed it was the perfect set up to sell an ordinary comb or a toy ray-gun for a vastly inflated price. Funnily, the stall also had a 'One Item Per Customer' sign, but with objects this disparate, Troy wondered whether one person would even be able to find two separate items they wanted.

Troy looked down at the hot pink packaging in his hands and internally cringed. Between everything that had happened, he hadn't even paid attention to what he was about to buy. Aside from the title, Similitudo, the vibrant box wasn't forthcoming with a lot of information. A plastic window on the front revealed its base contents - three featureless mannequin dolls, along with vague call-outs on the packaging like 'Recreate Your Friends' and 'Influence Others'. He looked around the box for a price tag, then back to where he thought he had taken it from, but the space was no longer there. He hoped it wasn't too expensive, it would be awkward to take it back now.

The old lady manning the booth raised an eyebrow as Troy approached. Troy guessed a hefty bearded man buying some dolls in an effeminate pink box must stand out a little, even among the other oddities around the booth.

"I see another object has found its owner." she mumbled. "Odd, I was sure these were going to get snatched up by a young girl next week."

Troy smiled politely, unsure how to respond. "I, uh, couldn't find a tag for this. How much?"

"Let's see, three dolls, hmm..." The old lady reached under her cash register and pulled out an old, beaten up notebook. She flipped through it, eventually stopping on one page and squinting at the writing. "$120 for three, or one for a trade in kind."

120 for three dolls?! Troy couldn't believe it. His first instinct was to question it, but something about the old woman's demeanour told him not to. He didn't really want to draw any more attention to himself anyway. He tore open his velcro wallet, and handed over the cash. He guessed he wasn't picking up the new Dragonscape DLC this month.

As he handed over the money, the old lady slid a small booklet into the shopping bag, where she'd already bagged the dolls. "The manual," she whispered, like she was doing him a favour, "just in case." She held out the bag for Troy to grab.

"Thanks." Troy nodded as he took the bag, and then left, wondering why dolls would need an instruction book anyway.

Once he was out of earshot, the old lady looked around her stall and sighed. "Strange, I must've misread the leaves."