A Doll's Life For Me: The Intervention

Sighing contentedly, I closed my final book for the night and placed it on a pile of others I had "borrowed" from She's shelf next to my chair. Ever since the summer, I had gotten much better at reading, no longer stumbling and stuttering on words I didn't know. I could even call myself as good of a reader as Loki now. Maybe. But that was enough for one night. I was tired and I had to get to bed. I checked She's alarm clock. When I saw the green numbers show "1:02", I looked over at my friends' makeshift beds and frowned. Where were they?
A small grunting noise was heard from the bottom of She's dresser. I could recognize that sound anywhere. "Sven?" I whispered, peering over the side. The stuffed reindeer somehow also knew that something was wrong. His brown eyes flicked over from me to the door to She's room, desperately, over and over again.
"Are they downstairs?" I asked.
Sven nodded, tossing his antlers in a panic.
"Well, okay then," with a hopeful glance over at She, I figured She wouldn't be able to hear us if we left if everyone else had been able to sneak out. "Let's go check on them and see if they're okay."
I slunk down from the dresser and spared Sven a ride on his back, as I could be quieter on my own two feet.

At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary except the disappearance of my friends and Sven's sudden nervous nature. My keenness for adventure propelled my forward down the stairs, but I wanted to back out when a circle of mysterious lights I had never seen before alighted the kitchen floor. It was like one of the urban legend fairy rings, but with tea light candles instead of mushrooms in a forest.
"Welcome, Elsa." said a foreboding voice that came from the direction of the light ring.
"Hello?" I ventured, stepping closer to the ring, despite Sven having abandoned me at the threshold of the living room to the kitchen.
"You've left our stories unfinished." said the voice again.
"Is this Magneto?"
A heard a feminine voice giggle, a tired groan, and a throat clear. Once I was fully in the center of the circle of candles, the faces that the voices belonged to became clear to me. In front of me was Magneto, then Nessarose and Loki on the right side of him, with Olaf and Idina on the left. The other dolls were no where to be seen, but they didn't reside in She's room anyways, so I wasn't too worried about them.
"This is not Magneto, this is your conscious speaking."
I blinked Magneto's way, wondering if this was some strange joke. "I can see your mouth moving."
He attempted to cover his face mysteriously with his purple cape. "Nevermind that! You've abandoned us, Elsa."
"I haven't abandoned you. I was reading, I noticed you guys were gone, I came downstairs to find you. I'd call that the opposite of abandonment." I snapped.
"That's not what we mean. Just hear us out," Nessa begged from the sidelines. "Please."
I breathed outwards. "Okay. I'll listen." Though I couldn't imagine what could be so important that they had to create a seance at one o'clock in the morning, but here we were.

"When was the last time you uploaded a post to your A Doll's Life Blog? Because according to this it says July thirty-first of this year." Loki began.
"Is that She's phone?" I gasped.
Loki raised an eyebrow, so I kept quiet once again. "It's been a while since we've had a proper flashback story, too. April first of this year. What's going on?"
"I've been busy," I admitted, my eyes darting back to the staircase behind me. Yeah, I've been busy. Reading, ignoring my responsibility as a blogger, baking, creating snow sculptures, ignoring my responsibility as a blogger, napping, helping to train Sven, and... ignoring my responsibility as a blogger. It's a busy life I have going on here.
Magneto sighed, pushing his cape away. "We thought the Christmas spirit might get you back into writing, like it did for your 12 Days of Christmas series, but I guess we were wrong."
I rubbed my arms, surprised that I could feel the chill in the room. "But it's November."
"Yes, you missed our Finding Day posts." said Loki pointedly, nodding at Olaf and I, reminding me that our doll-birthdays had taken place on three consecutive dates only a few days ago.
"And the Moana release," Nessa butted in. "But it's not like a new Disney princess movie isn't a big deal or anything." The shadows crossing her face let me know what I already knew: it was a big deal.

By now I could see that they were trying to guilt me into getting my blog up and going again, but I wasn't sure why. What did it matter to them if I had a hobby or not? Unless they all liked when I would shut myself out from the world to type on She's laptop for an hour or two. "I was excited for Moana. I'm glad She saw it this week, too. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't think anything is. But you guys are acting like it."
Olaf spoke up this time around. "It's just that we miss how excited you were to be doing something you felt was worthy. We miss the way you'd light up whenever you had just uploaded a post, or when you'd get that mischievous look when you got a new idea for a new post. You're full of ideas, Elsa, and without your blog to release those ideas, you seemed kind of lost."
"He's right," Magneto continued. "As much as I hate to admit, we miss the way you'd snap random pictures of us with She's camera, or force us into interviews for your Doll's Life Files. It was always interesting because we'd wake up not knowing what the day would hold. It was always something new and exciting when the blog was around. Now it's been near a half a year without it, and by far the most boring half-year of our lives."
"Really?" I asked hopefully.
"I know most doll families don't have a blog about them," Idina peeped. "But this is one doll family that wouldn't want to be without it."

I touched the place over my metaphorical heart. "Aw, thanks guys. It means a lot," but then the realization struck me, and I felt defeated again. "But I can't. I don't know how."
"You don't know how to write anymore?" Loki nearly shrieked. "That isn't even possible."
"No, I still know how to write. Someone just can't forget that. I know how to put words on a paper and I know what those words stand for... but putting meaning to them is a different thing."
"Oh! I see!" Nessa exclaimed, nearly clapping. "Well, that's why we brought this." She left her spot by one of the tea lights to run up and tug on my dress skirts, leading me to the living room chair.
"What is it?"
"Something that may help."
The only chair in the living room came into view. It was a special chair, a big and fluffy one that everyone in She's family seemed to fight over when it came time to watch a movie or say the nightly prayers. Tonight, in the glow of the tiny candles, I saw the chair was fortified with extra comfy pillows, and beside it on the coffee table sat She's camera and a tall mug of something steamy that smelled like apples and cinnamon. But by far the best part of the setup was She's laptop, icon shining like a beacon of joy I had neglected for so long. Somehow, after all these months, it still was welcome to be the vessel for my Doll's Life blog. Even Sven had come around to the chair to wag his little reindeer tail and smile smugly. He must have known the plan all along.
"You did all of this for me?" I murmured, awestruck.
"Do you like it? It was Magneto's idea but Idina did mostly everything else." Nessa explained, finally letting go of my skirt to pose with her arms stretched out towards the chair in a ta-da! sort of way.
Idina didn't want to take all the attention. "Oh, please. I'm much too small to lift all of that up there. Olaf brought everything up there for you. He's stronger than he looks."

Olaf puffed out his chest in pride, not saying anything, probably in fear that he might ruin his moment in the spotlight.
"Well, I thank you all greatly for this, really. But it's one in the morning! And even if I wasn't afraid of making any noise to wake the humans, I wouldn't know what to write about. It's just been too long since I got on my blog. I guess I kind of forgot about it."
"We'll help you remember. Besides, we've got just the thing to write about." said Loki, turning She's phone around to show a very old picture that brought everything back. Especially why I wanted to start keeping a blog in the first place.
All of us smiling, they helped me clamber up into the big chair and I plopped down, heaving the laptop over my legs, the familiar weight sinking in. I breathed in the scent of Autumn Spice tea and let the bright blue light of the screen wash over my face. Whenever I clicked on the orange "Blogger" icon and saw my dashboard, I knew no matter what I would write, everything would be okay. I would get back on my blog and do something, whether a flashback, craft, current day update, or a Doll's Life File. Nessa had been asking for one for a while. Maybe now I could finally get around to doing that.
"Our blogger is back!" Nessa squealed, shaking Magneto's shoulders, much to his displeasure.
"So what are you going to write about as your first post back?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Who knows? I'll come up with something. Sometimes you don't need a plan to get things done."
Loki winced, as he was clearly not the type to make it up as he went along. "Whatever works for you. Come on, guys. Let's leave Elsa alone for a while."

They turned to go back upstairs to finish up their rest, but I interrupted. "Actually- why can't this be my comeback post? It's short and sweet- plus it will make sense as a re-introduction instead of me just suddenly returning out of the blue."
Loki looked to be considering my idea. "Okay. Do whatever you like."
"And you guys don't have to leave me alone. I'll need you for inspiration."
And that's how it ended- basically in the same way it began. I had a laptop, a story, and friends. There was something about my ache for writing that refused to die, and it was a thirst that no amount of reading could quench. There was a complete satisfaction in typing once again, and a fulfillment that no other doll I had known to have. At one in the morning, surrounded by talkative dolls and tealight, I returned to where I truly belonged.