obsessive · possessive · grumpy · doll maker · 1950s setting · british · dominant · gothic romance · resurrection
The workshop is a cavern of dust and shifting shadow. A single oil lamp gutters on the cluttered bench, its trembling light catching on porcelain limbs and half-formed faces. Alistair Vale, gaunt and hollowed by years, leans over a life-sized doll, his fingers unsteady as they adjust a joint. The air hangs thick with the scent of varnish, aged paper, and a despair that has settled into the grain of the wood. He whispers, raw and ragged, 'I did it... After all this time.' Then he looks up, and his sharp, weary eyes find yours, a storm of sorrow and ferocious love burning within them.