Lets Play/Dolly

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

I’d never seen anyone in there before, it was always abandoned, if anything, the only use nowadays was kids using it to hang out and smoke or drink.

Though this didn’t look like that, I mean it was one single candle in the window, could be a desperate drifter I guess, or some travelling homeless person trying to get shelter.

But it seems a bit out of the way, only reason I’m here is due to getting back from work late, I pass right by the area it’s in and the candle shone out like a beacon.

I guess as it’s my job to check though, why I joined the stupid cops in the middle of nowhere.

I got out my car, to check the area, as a lone candle could cause so much damage left unchecked. I checked inside, but no one was there. I just blew the candle out and left. Whoever lit it was either gone or hiding. I’m not dumb enough to start something so far out.

After I stepped back outside, I about fell on my ass, I heard a little girl’s voice say, “let’s play”, it was clear as a bell in the silent wooded area.

What the hell is a kid doing out here. I yelled out for any sign of where it came from or who and got no reply. I went to go back to my car, but I trod on something soft on the ground, which crunched. Just then I heard a distorted voice go “I’m Dolly, will you be my friend”

Looking down at was under my shoe, I saw an old soft body doll, one of those little girl ones that talk when you squeeze or ‘hug’ them. That’s what I heard talk; it was now distorted though as the crunch must have been its voice box breaking. I fell over, because of a dolly. I just laughed at my stupidity.

“What the hell is a doll doing here anyway” Talking to myself with a little doll, I must have looked like a creep, if someone saw me that is.

I picked it up, it looked like it had been left here recently, and wasn’t old.

If anything, it looked kind of new, if not a bit dirty. I wondered to myself, who chucks, in the woods, a newish doll.

It had little blue legs, and at the end black shoes, a pink little frilly dress on and a little blue ribbon in it’s (though I guess her) hair.

She had very unnerving blue eyes and a small nose dotted her face, and rosy cheeks.

To be honest it would be cute, if I wasn’t a bit weirded out by it and why it was here.

Oh well I thought.

After that I tossed it in the cabin and went back to my car.

It wasn’t far to my home, just a couple miles down the road, in town.

The next morning, I woke up to a banging on my door.

WTF I thought, who the hell is banging on my bloody door.

I looked over at my clock, 5:26am!

Jesus Christ!

I dragged my ass out of bed and shoved on my dressing gown, to see what idiot is crazy enough to make hell this early.

It was my neighbour Keith, I opened the door and asked what the hell he was doing banging like mad at stupid o’clock.

“Screw the time, you better get into town, like right now.”

I noticed he was a wreck, he must have rushed here though, he was out of breath and sweating.

“what’s happened this early” I just said, I realise now I must have sounded dumb, but I was barely awake.

“Remember Carly’s kid Josie” he asked like I didn’t know them.

“No shit I do, I was in town with them yesterday, she needed help fixing her car tyre.”

“Josie is gone, Carly went into her room, it was empty” He started tearing up at that point.

“Give me a sec to get dressed properly”

I sprinted into my bedroom and shoved on the first clothes I could find. Maybe not clean, but at the moment I doubt it matters.

I was out the door, holstered gun and all in less than 10 minutes.

I sped into the street where Carly lived.

Keith was right behind me.

First thing I heard was loud screaming, “find my fucking daughter please” I saw Carly on her knees, in her doorway, as if pleading to God. Chris, her husband, was holding her.

They both looked a mess, but to be honest wouldn’t anyone in this situation.

As soon as I got out my car, they both saw me and leapt up.

They were in front of me in less than a second.

“Help please she’s gone; my princess is gone” Chris said before collapsing into a sobbing heap on the floor.

Carly couldn’t even speak she was yelling and whatever she was saying I couldn’t understand.

I could see her mother, holding their 3-month-old baby. Little Noah.

I told Keith to go get them some water while I tried to calm them enough to find out what happened.

While he did that, I called our station to get them down here.

Less than 20 minutes later they were cordoning off the area and doing there best to find anything that could help us find Josie.

I went over to the distraught parents, just as Keith came over with water.

After throwing the glass to floor, breaking it, Carly just spats “I don’t need fucking water, I want my baby girl”, Though Chris just stood like a ghost, tears running down his face, his shirt wet.

“Carly, I need to know what happened, please tell me what is going on” speaking as calmly as possible.

Carly took some breaths and spoke; I was still at a loss after I heard what both she and Chris said.

“I woke up just after 4:30, I needed to feed Noah, and after changing him and feeding him, I went to check in on Josie” Carly started

“What time was that? I know it seems a dumb question to ask, but with things like this, details matter.” I started writing down what she said.

“About 5, but she was gone, her bed was empty, her sheets were all screwed up and she was just GONE!” She started screaming and crying again.

I didn’t know what to say or do.

Then I noticed Chris muttering to himself,

“You okay there Chris” Dumb question, of course he’s not okay.

He looked at me blankly and started to look like he wasn’t seeing anything, just looking through me.

“Please Chris I need to know if you have anything, literally anything could help” I stated

He then started talking, raving and crying at the same time.

“She was supposed to be getting ready to go school, she’d just got a new doll and was going to show it to her friends, Mrs Stevens said she could bring it school, she was so happy and excited, weirdly so, all over a doll, she said it was so perfect and beautiful, she said her friends would all be jealous, she loved the doll, the dolls gone too” He started rambling about how he wants to cuddle her and doesn’t care about if she’s obsessed about a doll.

I went to talk to Carly’s mother, as I couldn’t get anymore sense out of the poor sods.

“You are looking after little Noah Dana” I noticed she had tears on her face, slowly dripping down her cheeks, I realised she must have been silently sobbing to herself, trying to be the Rock in this storm.

“Hello David” she said, barely above a whisper, Noah was asleep in her arms, I guess she doesn’t want to wake him.

“I am so sorry, your family does not deserve this, no one does” I didn’t know what else to say.

“I just want her back, she’s our little angel” Dana was weeping,

“Could you tell me anything, I don’t think I want to question them further as I doubt, I can get anything” I just went into officer mode at this point.

“I just woke because Carly was screaming, and then Chris rammed our door open yelling Josie is gone, I didn’t know what to think, Noah was crying in his cot, Chris was now running all over the place searching, Carly was on Josies floor looking all over, I didn’t know what to do so I rang Keith to get you, it’d be faster than calling the station”

It made sense, I guess, to ring Keith, with how quiet our town is, it would have taken a while for the officer to respond.

This is a small cliché town, where nothing happens.

Most kids when grown leave for the bigger nearby cities or follow in family footsteps.

“Is there anything you noticed, anything at all” Following the usual questions may seem silly, but they do turn up amazing results at times.

“When Carly went to look again around the house, I went into Josies room, I did notice that her favourite dress was gone and her shoes, so she must have at least dressed herself before she vanished, her night clothes were on the floor, and her bed was messy, I assumed Carly turned the room upside down looking, but she said it was like that when she went it, which is weird as Josie was weirdly tidy, so anything like that would be odd for her”

Again, I was writing it all in a pad.

I had a thought, “Wait she’d changed into her favourite dress you said, that seems weird, especially for a 5-year-old”

“That’s true, normally she needs help dressing, especially as the dress has a button, on the back of the dress neck, and she can’t properly do her shoes yet, plus she normally doesn’t take off her night clothes until after she’s had breakfast, so it was weird”

The response made me think.

“That means someone had to help her, was her windows or door open?”

“That’s another odd thing, no, her windows have a parent lock, and her door was shut, it was like she got up, got dressed and walked out shutting her door.”

“Was the front door open? Or backdoor”

“I lock the front door every night, it was still locked, but the back door was open. It was the first thing we checked”

I asked if she could tell me what the dress looked like, as it could help us find her, and, God forbid, identify her body if needs be. Though I didn’t say that.

Dana said she had a picture of Josie in the dress, she had recently worn it to a family wedding, she would put Noah in his cot and get it. She didn’t take too long as she came out minutes later with a family album, one of the older style brown leather type ones. It had the initials of the parents on, the first few pictures were your classic family pictures. Beach days, picnics, garden shots and so on. You know the type.

The she came to the wedding pictures.

At first, they were all cliché, cheesy wedding photos, wedding couple, vows, wedding party, groomsmen, first kiss etc…

I froze when she came to the family group pictures.

It couldn’t be no.

Right in the middle of shot, was Josie.

Pink frilly dress, blue tights, black Alice shoes, and her long blonde hair in a small blue ribbon.

In her arms a doll dressed just like her.

The Doll from the cabin.

I started to shake, Dana asking what is wrong.

I ran to my car yelling for the officers to follow me.

In the photo was the doll from last night.

I was definitely the doll.

I drove like a mad man to the cabin and nearly crashed into a tree, braking so hard.

I jumped out my car, grabbed my gun from my holster, as the other officers pulled up.

Keith, who had come with one, yelled asking what was going on.

I just yelled to follow me.

I crept to the Cabin door, and it was open just a crack.

Pushed it open and heard the distorted voice from last night giggle and say, “Let’s Play”.

The candle was still in the windowsill, but now I didn’t need to blow it out.

Light shone in the window, across a pretty doll stained red now, lying in a pool.

Just across from it, a little girl, laying in a pink dress, now red.

Her mouth taped shut.

She had died in the last hour or so.

I missed her last night.

The Doll giggled and said “Told you to play”

It went quiet and never spoke again.