The Doll

Several years ago I ran a series where readers sent me pictures and I wrote micro-fiction based on those images. I shared the images and those stories with their permission. This is one of those stories.

When Rachel arrived home from the party, she dropped her bags in the floor to rest a moment. It’d been a long trip and a late night, and she needed to rest before she could rest.

On the couch for a moment, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “Just for a second,” she told herself, sighing deeply. But before she could rest, she heard something move. It startled her out of her quiet, causing her to jump. She looked around, toward the items she’d brought in. “Oh,” she laughed a little at her surprise. One of her packages had fallen over.

Reluctantly, she got up to inspect it. At the party, a friend had given her a gift. They both had similar tastes in creepy, macabre items. Rachel had admired a doll, and generously, her friend had given it to her.

She picked up the box the doll had been carefully packed in and took it out. “Now,” she said, “Where to put you, little lady.” She looked around the living room and found an empty spot on a bookshelf in the corner.

Adjusting the doll, she stood back and admired it. “Perfect.” After a moment of looked, she yawned and stretched “I’ll just leave the rest until morning,” she told herself.

Rubbing her eyes, she stumbled to the bathroom and began her bedtime routine. As she rinsed her toothbrush, she heard something from the living room. She turned off the water and listened again, hearing nothing. “Hmm.” She walked out, turning the light off as she went, and glanced in the living room.

The doll had fallen off the shelf and landed face down in the living room carpet. “I thought you were up there pretty good. Oh well, I’ll find a better place for you in the morning.” Rachel sat the doll on the couch and turned in the direction of the bedroom. She thought twice, and decided instead to head to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Back down the hall she passed the bathroom and reached in to turn the light off. “I thought I’d gotten that already.” Thinking nothing of it, she continued her journey to the bedroom and finally reached the closed door Thinking of bed, she sighed and reached for the knob.

Thump.

The sound was becoming familiar. She walked back to the living room, and there lay the doll, face down in the floor in front of the couch. She stood over it for a moment, squinting her eyes, thinking. “Nah. I’m just really tired.” She picked it up once more, and sat on the couch. But she had second thoughts, and sat the doll upright in the floor. “If it wants in the floor so bad, there it’ll stay.” She half-consciously thought.

Detouring to the kitchen, she took the now empty glass and sat it in the sink. Before she turned, she thought she heard a scurrying sound. But he heard it no more, so she thought nothing of it.

Yawning on her way back to her bedroom door, she stepped up to it, and saw that it was cracked. A cool breeze came from the darkened room and she reached a hand up and pushed the door open.

The room stood dark, except for the tiny red beads of glowing light across from her. While awake and shaking now, she reached a hand inside the room and clicked on the light switch.

There she sat, the little doll, eyes glowing red, head cocked to the side, wide scarecrow stitched grin spread wide on her face.

“Are you my new mommy?” it asked in a high pitched yet scratchy voice. “Can I sleep with you tonight, mommy?”