Mathew held up the doll in disgust. Seriously, his brother had to he joking. From the satisfied smirk and the obnoxious laugh Mathew didn't think he was. "Al." The fourteen year old boy told his brother. "We have been over this before, I am a boy, as in I have a penis, eh? Not a girl who plays with dolls!" he snapped half heartedly. The blond teen laughed harder.
"Aww, you don't like my present?"
"No." Alfred punched his twin lightly in the arm.
"You're so mean to me, Mattie! I swear, everyone always thinks you're the goody two shoes smart kid. While in reality you can never measure up to me, the hero. Always putting me down with your harsh words and lack of appreciation for gifts. Haven't our mother ever taught you better?" Matthew sighed and held up one if the porcelain dolls by the ankle.
"You forgot it was my birthday too and bought these at a yard sale for five dollars, didn't you?"
"You know me so well." Sighing he gave in and put the three dolls onto his desk.
"You're buying me lunch, you know that, right?"
"Me? Buy you food? I already bought you the greatest present in the world, you owe me. I accept pancakes as payment." The two teens left the room bickering.

A few hours later Matthew came back into his room. Seeing the dolls still there he rolled his eyes and went to get a good look at them. They were actually guys, he didn't know if that made this whole thing better or worse. One was a blond with shoulder length hair, wearing a purple cape and stylish clothes. Matthew snickered. So they made pimp toys back then? Checking a small tag he saw that apparently he was French and named Francis.
The next one was dressed in a formal suit and grinned with a far off smile. Antonio. His tag said he liked tomatoes very much. Once more there was eye rolling from the blond. And the last one was just creepy. Bright red eyes and white hair, his gaze seemed to follow him. Gilbert. So entranced by the look he didn't even register what the albino toy was wearing for a few minutes. A war outfit. Okay, maybe that was kinda cool.
It was a while until his eyes zoomed in and noticed a few dark brown spots on the pale fabric. Matthew's heart skipped a beat as he recognized old blood on cloth. He turned around to see if the other two had the strange stains also but nearly lept out of his skin instead. He could had sworn he had placed Antonio next to the lamp, not Francis. Swallowing hard his head was filled with images of the dolls coming alive and stealing his body to do God knows what with it. But he just laughed nervously. He was watching way too many scary movies with Al.
So Matthew left the room, but not before memorizing the exact locations of all three dolls. And not before noticing the dark splotches of color in the other two clothes.

That night as he stumbled into his room, half dead from too much homework and too much Alfred he was pleased to see all the dolls in their correct places. So maybe Al really was just rubbing off on him. He shut off the lights and climbed under the covers, quickly falling into the state of rest between awakeness and sleep. His head swimming with old thoughts and memories from that day he could barely tell reality from dreams. But a small scratch and hissing noise brought him out. His eyes snapping open Matthew raised his head slightly, trying to figure out where the noise came from. There it was again, the hissing sound and a small creak. The scuffling around continued, and the small teenage boy gripped the covers in fear as he waited for the worse. It was probably just Alfred, playing a stupid prank on him. The noises stopped for a second. A minute. And Matthew waited for his brother to jump out at him, or the low moan of the door telling him of his twin's departure. Nothing came.
It seemed like hours before he finally fell into an uneasy sleep. The next morning he passed it up as a dream, but as he passed the three dolls he noticed their switched positions. Francis seemed to be throwing and arm around the Spaniard, the other one being used to grope his ass. Gilbert leaned against his desk top lamp, as if he was just sitting back and watching the show. Matthew put the three toys into his closet, top shelf.

"Stop coming into my room." Matthew told his brother seriously.
"Wait, why am I banned from your room?" He asked confused.
"You know why! Who actually does that? Actually is so bored and weird to come into someone's room and play with some freaking dolls in the middle of the night?" He yelled quietly.
"Dolls? Why would I touch your toys?"

Peaceful blackness, that's all Matthew saw. He laid in bed happily and exhausted. No dolls or creepy demons to worry about. Even unconscious he felt it though. The gaze boring into him. Reluctantly he opened his eyes only to meet the red ones of the German doll. He screamed, loudly.
The cry of utter terror echoed throughout the house, quickly followed by several English and French curse words screaming for Alfred's blood. He was the first one to reach him, his twin was in danger, of course he had to be the hero and save him. But unfortunately the heroic and kind gesture was ignored as he was quickly tackled to the ground and being covered in punches.
"You Goddamn hoser! Stay out of my room!" Was yelled at him with a few more very unnice words. Fortunately he was soon ripped off of his brother by confused parents, trying to figure out where their quiet and well mannered son had gone and who this foul mouth and violent boy came from.
"Matthew!" His father screamed at him. "What's wrong?" For the first time the three confused family members noticed Matthew shoulders shaking with sobs and the quiet sniffles that had at first been drowned out by the cursing.
"He put that thing in my bed!" He yelled pointing at the Gilbert doll. His Mom went over and picked up the toy.
"Well I can see him not wanting to wake up to the sight of this. Alfred, why would you do this to your brother?"
"But I didn't do anything! I haven't even touched the toy since I gave them to him." Matthew's blood ran cold and his breathing picked up.
"Come on Matt. We'll keep the toy in our room from now on, okay?" He nodded, not really wanting to further embarrass himself by asking his parents to burn them.

That night, though he didn't think he would, he fell asleep almost instantly. All night he dreamed of the three dolls, now his age. Antonio and Francis played in a nearby pond, splashing water at each other, trying to catch crabs, and attempting to drown fish. Gilbert sat with Matthew, absent mindly running his fingers through the blond hair and singing a song in a foreign language he didn't recognize.
"Schlaf, mein Kindchen, schlaf jetzt ein,
Sonnst kann das Monster nicht hin."

The next morning Matthew checked his mother's and father's closet for the dolls. They weren't there. He checked his own closet, and there they were. On the top shelf, but definitely not in the right order he had put them in. Antonio sat his head in Gilbert's lap, his feet propped up on Francis'.

Matthew did a google search on the song's lyrics, surprised that he could remember them exactly, as if the Albino doll was whispering them into his ear at that moment. The song was a German lullaby, about a monster coming into a kids bed and eating him.

"Sleep, my child, go to sleep now,
Or else the monster can't get in!"

That day Matthew threw the toys out. Burried them in the kitchen's garbage.

This time the dream took a turn for the worse. The sky was dark, it was raining and the pond quickly overflooded. He tried to move as he felt the water reach his feet, but was pinned down by strong hands. Francis held his arms, Antonio his feet. Gilbert stood there and smirked in his face.
"The monsters aren't hiding under your bed, birdy. We're right here, in the open."

Awokened by the stench of rotten food he saw the three dolls sitting on his desk, smiling at him.

He had washed them in his bathroom sink. Towel dried them and hung their clothes in front if the heater so they would dry faster. He threw a sheet over the three. Seeing them naked made him blush, but not because of that. No matter how he set Francis, when ever he turned his back for two seconds when he turned back he would see the blond oggling Toni's ass.
He dressed them again, then gave them to the cute blond girl Lilli down the block.

Fire surrounded him in this dream. Whatever happened to "you can't feel pain in a dream?" He felt it. He felt the flames greedily eat his flesh and burn him. He smelled the scent of human meat being cooked, it made him want to throw up. But he heard it. Over his own agonized screams and the loud roar of the fire he heard the hissing laugh of a certain albino.
"Does it hurt, birdy? You know it really does pain us to be givin away. So feel it. Feel the pain of it."

Panting Matthew laid in bed, frantically touching his body trying to find any burn marks. He found only one, a long shiny pink one on his wrist.

The next morning Lilli's older brother returned the dolls. He said something about them being creepy and not wanting them around his sister.
Matthew shoved them in a small play box in his closet. He locked it and went to school.

"You know Francis drowned when he was your age." The dream was back to normal, no choking water or burning flames. "He fell into a lake, broke his leg, and ploop." He made a strange splash noise. "Toni, he accidentally set himself on fire. He's kinda an idiot, both of them are. So unawesome, right birdy?" He said shaking his head sadly.
"Wh-why do you call me birdy?" He asked confused. "And how did you die?" Gilbert smirked.
"Maybe when you're cool enough the awesome me will tell you."

Gilbert sat on Matthew's night stand, the other two his dresser.

Was he going crazy? Or was this really happening? Yes. The word was whispered in the back of his mind by a familiar german accented voice. But to what question did this answer belong to, he didn't know.

Matthew considered smashing the dolls. Burning them, crushing them. But he knew the payback in his dreams would be hell. So instead he sat them in the attic, next to a dusty window. He locked the door behind him in his way out, though he knew it was futile.

"Guess what, birdy?" An excited Gilbert pounced on him. "The awesome me has decided you are awesome enough to have your questions answered." They sat atop a tall building, legs dangling over the edge. "I call you birdy because you remind me of me." Matthew looked at the albino confused. "I know what you're thinking, how could you ever even begin to compare to this level of awesomeness? But when I was younger I always wanted to be a bird. That's what I decided I was gonna be when I grew up. I was going to fly away from home." He smiled at Matthew. "Turns out you can't fly with only using your awesome. So I fell, down down down. And cracked my skull against the street, blood and brain everywhere. But you sir," He pointed at Matthew. "You looked like you could do it if you wanted to. You look like you could fly."

The next morning the dolls weren't anywhere in his room. He didn't bother checking the attic, he didn't want to potentially ruin the moment.

And he was falling. He was having one of those dreams where you fall for hours and never hit bottom. On his way down he passed Francis. Ths French boy's leg was bent at an awkward angle and he looked as if he was choking on something. He blew a kissed as Matthew went pass.
Antonio, he was on fire. His pained screams echoed throughout the air as he desperately clawed and beat hinself as he attempted to put out the fire. He waved before going back to fighting a losing fight against the flames as the blond boy flew pass him too.
And then there was Gilbert, grinning right beside him. His arms were spread wide and he had the most peaceful expression on his face Matthew had ever seen. "Fly birdy, you can do it!" The blond looked down, seeing the ground fast approaching. Gilbert fell ahead of him, his skull shattering on impact with the sidewalk. Matthew looked horrified at the bloody scene below him before shrugging and spreading his own arms wide. This was a dream, he would wake up in a few seconds. He told himself this as his own head slammed into the ground below.

The bed was a mess of gore. The pillow stained red and and leaking onto the bed. Once blond hair dirty and matted, his skull completely crushed.
Outside his window in the ground laid the albino doll Gilbert. His body was completely shattered. Above him was the dusty open window, it almost looked like he had jumped.