Chapter Text
(Editing and uploading on my tablet is a bit difficult with my pc on the fritz so apologize for the layout and flow.)
‘I fucked up.’
Jonathan must have repeated it a hundred times while he rushed home, breaking nearly every law on the way.
He just wanted to get a little toy for his daughter, something cute that went along with the theme his wife had planned for the nursery, now that she was ready to move the crib from their bedroom.
‘I fucked up.’
Pulling into the small driveway, he nearly forgot to turn off the car before opening the door, and running inside.
He tossed his keys and consolation prize, a stuffed purple and blue butterfly to the floor.
“Heather?” He called out, his voice was shaking and he could barely keep it together.
The lights were off downstairs, which meant she was probably in their bedroom. He bolted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time.
“It’s about time Jon. What took you so long to get home from work?”
Heather, his beautiful wife, was sitting in their bed holding their six week old daughter Victoria. He nearly started crying at the sight.
“I am so, so sorry, I really messed up this time.” He said as he rushed to her side, pressing kisses to her cheek then gentle ones against his daughters soft black hair.
“What?-“
“He challenged me to a game.” He interrupted her, rambling as he started to pace around.
“He’s not human, he’s got some kinda magic powers, maybe he’s an alien or something, I dunno. I lost, I thought it was a joke, I didn’t even know what I had really agreed to, and I lost.”
Jonathan looked at his family.
Looked at them like it was the last time he would see them, and started to cry hard, fat tears falling down his cheeks.
“He’s coming, any second, but the Toymaker said I was allowed to say goodbye. All this because I played a game with him, and I lost.”
His wife looked confused. “What are you talking about? What Toymaker?”
But then she looked at his face and body, really looked and her eyes widen in terror.
“What did you do?”
He couldn’t say it. Saying it made it real.
“What did you do?!” She demanded once more.
After a few seconds of trying to calm himself down, he pointed at himself.
“My life, I lose my life and…” He trailed off before looking at their daughter sleeping soundly regardless of the commotion.
Heather tightened her grip on their child. “Are you trying to tell me that you gambled away our child or something?”
“Oh vut he did!” Said a new voice from the corner of the room.
Sitting in the rocking chair by the crib was an older man, or was he young?
The grey tinted hair with perfectly set curls and wrinkles across his face said older, but the longer you stared at him the younger he seemed to look.
Dressed in a white button up shirt, a lovely deep red vest with a matching bow tie. A leather work apron tied around his waist, and brown slacks.
It all made him stand out, like he came from an entirely different time period.
In his arms was the baby, awake and giving soft coos, which he returned with coos of his own.
Jonathan tried to stifle a cry, while Heather looked down at her arms where Victoria used to be.
“Give me back my daughter!” Heather shouted, moving to climb out of the bed when the Toymaker shot her a glare, shaking a finger at her, like a naughty child.
“Now, now. No ge-needing to yell, you vould be upsetting zee precious liddle säugling.”
Heathers body was shaking with fear and anger, but she didn’t move, not when a man who appeared out of thin air was holding her delicate child in his arms.
“Please.” Begged Jonathan. “Please don’t do this, I didn’t know.”
“Vell now you do, we played, I von, you die und ich ga-getting zis adorable säugling” He looked at the baby in his arms, clucking his tongue at her and making faces.
“You know, ich have never held ein baby before, und ven you told me how special und unique she vas, why I was ga-thinkink to myself, vat a vonderful baby doll she vould make. Oh ja, look at those eyes!”
He stood up, and vanished before appearing next to Jonathan, showing off his daughter as if he had never seen her before.
“See? Zis one looks like zee sky.” The Toymaker motioned to the baby’s left eye before suddenly appearing by his wife’s side.
“Und zis one, green like zee Earth. She is like zee horizon, vich is vat I shall be calling her. Ein much better name than Victoria, Ja?”
His wife tried to grab their daughter, but the man had turned away, vanishing and reappearing in the rocking chair.
“Now zen, are you done with your koodpyes? It’s getting late, ja?”
“Please.” Jonathan tried one last time.
The Toymaker played with the baby’s hair, trying to smooth and tame the frizzy mess while ignoring his pleas.
“What if I challenge you to a game?” Asked Heather, her body was no longer shaking, at least not visibly, she looked determined as she stared this man down.
Jonathan wanted to tell her stop, that this man was dangerous, and not to be messed with, but this was a mom who was going to do anything in her power to save her child.
“You could, but vu can’t stop his deal I’m afraid.” He looked annoyed, the mock accent sliding away as he continued. “One way or another the child is mine.”
“What was my husbands deal?”
The Toymaker began rocking in the chair, Victoria was starting to fuss, done with the stranger in her face and getting quite unhappy.
“Oh, somesing along zee lines of…”
His voice changed, almost a perfect imitation of Jonathans own voice.
“You can have my child over my dead body.”
And then that mock accent was back. “Which is something I can vork vith if I kill him.”
“Okay then. I challenge you to a game, and if I win… You can’t kill him, he has to die of natural causes, like old age. Nothing to do with your weird magic or by your own hands.”
Jonathan felt a glimmer of hope as he looked to the Toymaker.
Would this work?
“You ridiculous humans und your attachments.” He grumbled, before waving a hand at her. “Und vat game shall we be playing?”
“The silent game, not a word or sound.”
He laughed, loud, it echoed throughout the room, mocking and grating on their nerves.
“Ein interesding choice, conzitering how noizy you humans are. Very vell, but if I vin then I shall be adding you to my kollection.”
Pointing at a clock on the wall that wasn’t there before, he waited, watching the seconds tick by before counting out loud.
“Fünf. Vier. Drei. Zwei. Eins.” Then silence.
Not even Jonathan dared to make a sound, he didn’t want to risk it as he watched his wife stare at the Toymaker.
Minutes passed while the Toymaker made faces at the baby, whose cries would stop for a moment before continuing, every time Victoria would get more, and more upset. He tried puffing out his cheeks, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue, but nothing helped.
What are you planning?
Heather had sat back down on the bed, watching him struggle to console her infant, hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
The Toymaker made an offering motion to Jonathan, who was so tempted, but his wife had a plan, at least he hoped she did.
Heather was pointing at the bottle on the nightstand, made not long ago in preparation for Victoria’s nightly feeding.
With a silent sigh the Toymaker walked over and grabbed the bottle.
The Toymaker raised an eyebrow as he tried to offer her daughter, her arms twitching like she would reach out to take her, but Toymaker pulled the infant away.
There was far too many teeth when he smiled this time.
With the bottle in hand the Toymaker brought it to Victoria’s cheek, making her root and fuss for it, trying to get a rise out of Heather, but when she made no reaction he finally gave the baby what she wanted.
Greedy and loud gulps filled the silence as the Toymaker watched their daughter, so mesmerized as he walked back, and forth between Jonathan and Heather.
Soon the bottle was empty, a few moments of peaceful bliss, but then the baby started to cry again. Not as loud, but still quite unhappy.
Clueless to what the cries of a baby meant he looked to Jonathan then Heather.
She motioned to her shoulder, mimicking the motions of patting an invisible baby.
Jonathan eyes widen slightly, he understood now what she had planned. Gods she was smart, he just hoped it worked.
Gently adjusting the baby in his arms, he placed her head against his shoulder, giving gentle pats while making his way back across the bedroom, shoes silent with each step he took.
Both Jonathan and Heather were trying hard to keep a straight face, they knew what was going to happen soon.
Victoria gave a small burp, and seemed to settle down, he looked to the parents with a mocking smile, like he was doing such a good job, and would continue doing so when he took her away.
A gurgled coo and suddenly the Toymaker’s body went stiff, a small sound of disgust leaving his lips as he pulled the infant away from his body.
His shoulder was soaked in spit up.
He realized too late what had happened, and turned around to glare at Heather, who was smirking. “You lost.”
Jonathan stepped forward, carefully taking his daughter back and couldn’t hold back the sigh of relief.
“Why would it just spit up all over me when it was clearly hungry? What is wrong with you humans?”
The accent had slipped in his disgust as the Toymaker snapped his fingers, the warm spit up had vanished from his shirt.
Heather joined her husbands side, looking over their daughter before glaring. “I won, now leave us alone.”
Even though the Toymaker had lost, he hardly seemed bothered by it, more like it was an inconvenience.
“Yes, for now. She still belongs to me though and once he-“ Points at Jonathan.
“kicks the bucket, I’ll be there. You humans have such short lifespans, a blink of an eye compared to the centuries I have lived through.”
Jonathan felt the renewed hope diminishing, and he could see the same look on his wife’s face. They won for now, but how long would that victory be?
No one knew when he would die. Tomorrow? Next week?
He had to shake the thoughts from his head, knowing that thinking like that would only drive him crazy.
“Enjoy your time for now.” Said the Toymaker stepping closer, making them flinch while he gave Victoria a little pat on her head.
“Hopefully next time ve meet liddle Horizon, vu von’t spit up on me.”
In the blink of an eye the man was gone, just like he had appeared.
No signs or trace of him, except for the fear he left behind in their hearts.
Turning to his wife, Jonathan was prepared to apologize again, but she cut him off.
“You better live for a really, really long time.”
He could only nod, pulling his wife into a hug, hoping he could live to a very, very old age so their daughter could live her life without having to deal with this Toymaker. At least not for a long time.
Two months had passed, and the holidays arrived.
Jonathan was trying his best to keep distracted, being an attentive father and dutiful husband, but his wife was struggling. He could see it in her eyes, always on the lookout, never able to relax and really enjoy her time as a new mother.
To help ease her mind, he changed his diet, and even left his construction job for a safer office job.
It helped a little.
On Christmas morning, Heather was getting comfortable on the couch with Victoria held tightly in her arms, waiting for Jonathan to hand them their presents.
“Oh, this one is from dad.” He smiled, passing the bag to his wife. She smiled and cooed at the little pieces of clothing.
“Just in time for her to wear, with the way it’s been snowing she’s gonna need it.” She said, while showing him the little sweater.
Jonathan grabbed another present, a small one wrapped in brown paper with a beautiful blue bow.
“I don’t remember this one.” He murmured.
“What’s the tag say?” She asked.
He turned the present around, not seeing anything.
“Doesn’t say.” Shrugging his shoulders he opened the gift.
Inside was a dress, blue with white lace edges, it looked old but well cared for.
“Looks like a dress you’d see on those old porcelain dolls.” He commented.
Out from the dress fell a small card.
Jonathan picked up the card, looking over the neat handwriting.
-To my little Horizon.
The perfect dress for the perfect doll.
TM-
“Does it say who it’s from?” She was leaning forward, trying to see the card.
Trying to keep a cheery face, he folded the card, placing it with the wrapping.
“From my mum, unfortunately it’s a bit small, but maybe we can save it for dress up. You know, when she older and has some dollies.”
Heather smiled and nodded. “I think Victoria would like that.”
Jonathan couldn’t let her know, and would keep it a secret every year when a mysterious gift would arrive on Victoria’s birthday and during Christmas.
He wouldn’t let the Toymaker win mentally, wouldn’t let this destroy them, and rob their joy.
He would keep the presents that were meant to mock and turn it into reminders to stay strong.