Book Five, Chapter 54: Tea Party
From the outside, the House of Dolls looked picture-perfect, like an American Girl store or the type of place that only existed in the minds of young girls playing tea parties with their dolls.
Because there were dolls. Tons and tons of them.
It was a Queen Anne-style home, except for two of the walls—the ones facing the street—were mostly windows. Through those windows, you could see tables set up for patrons who might want to have a tea party themselves, as the Dollhouse was apparently a restaurant as well as a shop.
Who would go eat in a place filled with those soulless creatures? I didn’t know.
There were lots of fabrics around the house with a checkered pattern, similar to the one usually found on a picnic blanket. The entire place was dusted and perfect, situated on the corner of a street in a well-to-do neighborhood with old houses and large trees.
Out on the porch, four dolls had been set up in rocking chairs to greet the neighborhood. Only one of them appeared to be cursed, as its eyes just wouldn’t stay still.
For Carousel, this place was underwhelming so far. I had expected the walls to be made out of melted Barbie dolls or something. And yet, it was perfectly delightful—from a distance.
Because no matter how good it looked as we walked down the street, the closer we got, the more omens we saw peeking out through those windows in the front.
We stopped at the corner across the street from the house, and Antoine whipped out the Atlas, which he carried with him.