“Miss. You seem stressed.”

The Witch jolted and turned around, nearly dropping her project. When had her dolls learned to be so stealthy?

“Ah! It’s only you. You’ve got nothing to worry about, you sweet thing.”

The doll shook its head. “Allow it to comfort you, miss.”

It seemed suspiciously like a command. But her brain was still too embroiled in her research to pursue that further.

“I suppose even someone as powerful as I am deserves a break. Help me relax, doll.” It felt better as her own command.

“As you wish,” said the doll, blank-faced. “Oh, but first. Would you check this one’s clockwork? It thinks it’s running irregularly.”

“Well that won’t do. Let me just-“

“Miss, you shouldn’t bend down, you’ll strain your neck. Please kneel on the floor.”

The Witch squinted. But it was only trying to help her out, and she trusted her dolls for that. So she acquiesced, lowering herself gently to aching knees and pressing her head against her doll’s chest.

“Sounds normal to me?”

“Keep listening closer, miss. You will hear it.”

So the Witch kept listening to each evenly spaced tick. Each one representing another step of winding down. Almost a physical manifestation of a loss of tension - oh, that was why they called it ‘unwinding’!

“Miss? Can you hear it?”

“Hm?” Her mind had wandered away. “Oh! Your clock. I haven’t found anything yet-“

“Keep listening.”

It was forceful, but the Witch didn’t really mind the indiscretion. It was keeping her focused on the task, after all, listening deeply and closely for irregularities. If they were this subtle she would need to put all her attention into her task.

“Perhaps you could use your breathing to measure the time?” suggested the doll.

What a great idea! If there was an irregularity in her own breathing she would definitely notice it. She nodded into the doll’s chest. (When had it started carrying so much of her weight?)

“No need to nod, Miss, this one knows that you’re listening.”

Oh, good. That made things easier.

“Try measuring out four ticks at a time. Breathe in for four ticks.”

The Witch did so, her lungs feeling a bit overfull.

“And out for four ticks.”

Again the witch did so, feeling a choking lack of air at the fourth.

“Good work. Please continue to breathe as such.”

After this was over she would have to have a talk with this doll about propriety. For now, she was too busy breathing in with the ticks of 1 2 3 4…

And out with 4 3 2 1…

But she found no irregularities. In fact, it was as precisely regular as one could want it to be. Overwhelmingly regular. If she wasn’t careful it felt like it might overwhelm her, dragging her along with it into its metered pace.

“That’s it, miss. Now let your shoulders drop.”

Now that it mentioned it, her shoulders were rather stiff. Once she let them relax she felt much better. And her helpful doll continued to point out parts of her that needed relaxing, the tickticking washing away their tension.

“You’re doing so well,” said the doll. “Of course you are. You’re a mighty and powerful Witch.”

She was! And that’s why she deserved to-

“To relax and let everything drift away.”

Oh yeah, that was it. Just focusing on the ticking. Her breaths were perfectly comfortable now. 1 and 2 and 3 and then…

4

and going back down 4 and 3 and 2 and……

1

Easy for a Witch, and yet growing harder by the second, even as it became more and more comfortable, easier and easier to keep pace as her doll’s words dripped into and through her head. “Letting yourself fall so perfectly for this one. As only you can.”

Yes, of course! Because she was powerful and capable and-

“Now let yourself fall to sleep, my Witch.”

And falling asleep! As only a powerful Witch could. Deeply and completely.

Above her, the doll smirked.

“Good night, miss.”

“All right, dolls! Put away these groceries.”

Cries of “On it, miss!” and “Right away!” echoed around her as the dolls busied themselves. She smiled as she watched. Ever since the head doll had helped her relax, she’d been making great progress. Which improved her mood greatly, having general knock-on effects to everything in her life. Even her socks matched! It was such a Good Doll, she should-

“Ooh! Cotton Candy!! Thank you, miss!”

Huh? Had she meant to get that? Usually she didn’t, it made dolls’ teeth all sticky… Oh well, they all seemed very happy about it. Especially the head doll, dashing away with four entire bags under her arms.

The Witch smiled and shook her head. She supposed she could let it slide, just this once…

(originally published on Twitter here)