Saturday. A dim room, with the TV light reflected off the shiny floor.
  Lain back against the couch, her eyes fixed on the screen. She was alone, she and her only friend, the doll.
  A pierrot that had large eyes which spoke of innocence, a perfect face with a sewn smile. It lay on her breast, in her arms. It was tarnished by dirt and wear, was small as compared to her, yet it was the only companion that existed beside her.
  Monotonous voices emerged from the TV, no more emotional than a toenail, and yet a tear rolled down her cheeks and fell onto the doll. Unwilling to let her only companion see this show of emotion, she buried her face in it.
  "Saturday, and you're my only companion."
  Within minutes, the doll was soaked.

  Once upon a time, there lived a doll, a pierrot doll by the name of Tetsu Matsumoto. His mistress called him "Lil Tete". It was a cheerful little doll, with a sweet little smile on his face and earnest eyes.
  Why yes, he was the favorite amongst the toys; the ex-star Veggie-cat hated him for stealing his mistress' attention and care. The other toys seldom came out of the closet, and when she was off to "Skool", Tetsu would be lying in his cradle, alone and sad.
  During this time, Veggie tried hard to make him feel sad. He told little Tetsu, "Time will take your beauty away! Soon, you'll be nothing more than a piece of RAG, just like ME."
  Little Tetsu was, honestly, worried. Yes, he would soon become a piece of rag, to be abandoned like the old kitty Veggie.
  However, whenever his mistress came back, he would return to her warm arms and Veggie's threats would vanish in the wind. She took him everywhere--to see her friends, to take photostickers, to the costume party. It made him happy to see her happy.
  When she cried into him, he would, of course, feel sad. He allowed the tears to flow into him, so that when she saw his smiling face again, she would return to normal and start feeding him Meiji Kids Gummy again.
  One day, little Tetsu saw something in the air. They were tiny specks; they had always existed in the air as tiny dust particles.
  "Are you Tetsu Matsumoto?" The specks asked.
  He nodded. "What do you want? Who are you?"
  "We are the Army of Time and we have come to claim you," They announced, and showed them their IDs. "Please come with us in a non-resistant manner."
  "No!" Little Tetsu cried, and struggled as thousands of them tried to drag him away into the Dustbin Prizon. "My mistress still needs me. I can't go!"
  "We understand, but your time is up! Just think of Stresseman; we took him just when Germany needed him. Your situation is peanuts compared to theirs; the Germans voted for the Nazi. Rules are rules. If you break them, we'll bring you to the High Courts of Heaven and sue your ass bankrupt."
  Little Tetsu gave a struggle regardless of what they said. And because he was being a pest, the Time Army decided to eradicate him and ran him down with tanks.
  "Well, too bad. I thought it'd be fun if we kept him in the concentration camp for making our job so difficult." Laughed one of the Time Soldiers in satisfaction at seeing little Tetsu's multilated body.
  And so, leaving little Tetsu in the room, his innards ripped out from under his ribs, his head dislocated and his legs shredded, the Army of Time left with a report of casualty to make.

  She knew that the more she held it, the more she laughed and cried with it, the sooner it would die.
  Because she knew that this time would come.
  And yet, it still hurt her, to have her only friend multilated in the masquerade of time.
  Oh yes, Time had taken not only that.
  Friends leave.
  Love leaves.
  Nothing stays.
  She stroked the corpse of her ex-companion with gentle fingers.
  Suddenly, she realized that something wasn't right. Something was flowing out of the wound of this little doll... Like blood, precious blood that flowed in the life of this little dead thing.
  And yet it wasn't blood; it was clear, and colourless.
  She dipped her finger into the puddle which gathered, and licked it tentatively....
  It was...Salty.
  So this was where her tears went to.
  At this realization, she collapsed onto the multilated doll, as if she was dead herself--without anything and anyone to absorb those tears, she knew she would die someday anyway.