The Running of the Dolls

 

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The Running of the Dolls is an affectionate term for the annual hazing event that takes place on campus at the start of each college year. All members of the fraternity are transfigured into semi-animate dolls before being deposited at random around the city, with the challenge being for initiates to make it back to the fraternity clubhouse in one piece, and with as few people seeing them as possible.
   Attempts to stamp out the humiliating, degrading and dangerous initiation have so far prooved unsuccessful and the event has become popular, with people turning out in their thousands to catch a sight of and ridicule the unfortunate dolls on their travels. In the interest of safety at least, it was mandated this year that each doll must come equipped with an Apple AirTag, allowing for the tracking of each person.
This measure proved tragically misguided.
We’d just about managed to waddle your way across the freeway and were a mile out from the campus when a black van screeched to a halt behind you. The side door swung open and a man jumped out, a phone in one hand and a sack in the other. You spotted a dozen bound wriggling forms in the van behind him.
“Found another. Like shooting fish in a barrel this year,” the man exclaimed to the drivers, bearing down far faster than you could shuffle in your silicone shell.
A knife carved an opening in your abdomen, an arm thrusting through to rummage around inside your hollow shell until it found the AirTag within, tossing it to the side of the carb before the sack was forced over your head. You were dragged into the van and tossed upon the squirming, whimpering pile.
You hoped against hope this was merely an elaborate prank that was part of the hazing. This hope vanished the moment your blindfold was removed and you discovered your limbless torso mounted like a hunting trophy alongside your fraternity brothers on this lunatic’s walls.