The Doll

THE DOLL

   Hayden had gotten the doll in the mail. She didn’t know who it was from, seeing as there was no name on the box and no return address. The doll was beautiful. It stood three feet tall and had long dark brown hair. Its blue eyes looked far too real in her porcelain face. The doll features had been made to give her a delicate and pleasant countenance.

    As she took the doll out of the box it had come in, Hayden noticed a sealed envelope attached to the bottom. She looked at the front of it, which read “to you” took out the card and began reading,

                         Now that I’ve found you,

                         We’ll never be apart.

    Hayden was totally unaware that she had been reading the massage aloud. As she continued looking at the card, she was suddenly overcome with a weird, eerie sensation as though someone were watching her. She looked toward the doll and saw that doll was looking right back at her, which weird because she could have sworn her head had been turned down when she had taken her out of the box.

    Putting the note on the table Hayden picked the doll up and stood it in the corner of her living room. For the next ten minutes she walked through her apartment tidying up and trying to shake off the eerie feeling she had gotten from the doll.

    At two o’clock that afternoon, Hayden though that it would be a good idea to get out of the apartment for a while, so she decided to visit her sister. Her older sister, Alice, was the only one family she had left. Ever since they were little girls the two of them had be extremely close. As she walked out of her apartment building, Hayden signalled for a taxi, fifteen minute later, the driver pulled up to her sister’s building.

    Hayden took the elevator up to the fourth floor and as the door opened she was met by big sister. They hugged each other. Alice made some tea and the girls sat down.

    “I’ve been thinking about mom a lot lately”. Hayden stated.

     “I hope you haven’t been blaming yourself for what happened. You know that wasn’t your fault.” Her older sister responded seriously.

    Hayden couldn’t help but think about the hard time she had been having over the past couple of years, taking care of her mother who had schizophrenia. Hayden had decide that their mother would be better taken care of in a mental hospital institution, to which Alice had agreed. Both girls had continuously visited their mother in the hospital for months, but eventually their mother become more violent and the visitations stopped completely. A year later the girl’s mother died alone in her room at Point View Psychiatric Hospital.

      “You have to move on”. Alice told Hayden. “Mom would have wanted both of us to”.

       “I know,” Hayden responded plaintively.

       “I got a doll in the mail today.” She said, deciding to change the subject.

        “Yeah?” her sister said, happy to be talking about something else.

    “Yes, she’s beautiful, she looks...”

    “What?” Alice asked as she noticed her sister had stopped talking.

    “She looks a lot like the ones mom used to get us when we were little girls, only this one is taller.”

     “Who sent it?” Alice asked as she felt a sensation that was one of fear creeping up the back of her neck, fear not for herself but for her sister. It was ridiculous she knew, but she couldn’t help it.

      “I don’t know, there was no name or return address.” Hayden responded.

       “That’s weird.” Alice stated, trying to shake off the strange feeling.

  Pretty soon Hayden decided that she would better get back to her own apartment. Opening the door to her apartment, she wanted to get sleep because she was exhausted. She turned on the light and stopped when she saw the doll. Hayden couldn’t help but think that the doll looked like a real human girl standing in the corner. The doll-facial features seemed to be changing, seemed to be becoming more human like. Its eyes now were so intensive and alive that Hayden felt as if this thing wasn’t really a doll at all but something very different. As she stared at the doll, Hayden realized that it was beginning to look more like someone she knew. It was beginning to look like her mother.

   Grabbing the doll, Hayden ran to her hallway closet and threw it inside, slamming the door shut. She couldn’t knock the fear of the feeling that her mother was still around. She was asleep after that because too exhausted. A few hour later, as she opened her eyes she heard a voice coming from the hallway. It was the sound of a door creaking open, and then the small patter of footsteps.

   What did I do? Hayden thought as the doll stood in her doorway staring at her, the eyes which had once looked alive, now she looked dead, but still as intense as the first time she had took her out of the box. The doll was saying something and although Hayden couldn’t hear it voice, she was able to read the doll lips, “You know what you did.” “What do you want?” Hayden suddenly screamed at the doll as she found her voice. She stared in horror as the doll began walking toward her and Hayden heard its voice for the first time.

“Now that I’ve found you, we’ll never be apart.” Hayden screamed at the top of her lungs as she realized she was staring face to face not with a doll anymore, but her mother. When darkness come in, she didn’t try to fight it. Finally Hayden submerged in darkness.

 As she open her eyes, she couldn’t say a word so that she just stared blankly at the wall. From every corner of the room she knew that she in a hospital. Just then Alice stepped into the room holding something behind her back.

“Hi sweetie, how are you feeling?” Alice asked devastated as she though about how familiar this whole situation was. Hayden could feel a tears stinging her eyes as she began to share everywhere, that feeling again, she though.

“Oh no Hayden, don’t cry. Look I’ve bought you someone to keep you company.” Alice stated, holding up the four feet doll. Hayden looked up at the doll and screamed at the top of her lungs. She could heard scarcely audible voice that said “I’ve found you, we’ll never be apart.