Doll

I awoke to the sound of a loud thud in the middle of the night. My eyes peered through the moonlit dark room and looked at the bed on the other side. My twin sister slept heavily evident with her loud snore.

Suddenly, I heard a creek. The door was open. It couldn’t be the wind. We always have it locked. I lay my head down facing my sister’s side of the room trying to get back to sleep.

Instead, I saw a woman’s face staring at me right beside my bed. She had messy long black hair and pale wrinkled skin. I could feel her breathe heavily. Her face distorted as she smiled at me revealing an array of rotten teeth.

I choked as she stood up and looked down on me. She reached out with a twisted hand full of visibly long nails. That’s when I screamed. She immediately grabbed as if to prevent my escape.

“Mom!” I screamed louder.

“Valerie…” I heard the woman spoke my name.

I panicked even further still hearing her say my name. “Valerie!”

I woke up. I gasped. My mom was standing right beside my bed with my twin sister Luanne.

“Are you alright, Val?” mom asked.

“I had a bad dream” I replied.

“You woke all of us up” Luanne said as she rubbed her eyes.

“Sorry” I replied.

After the commotion , we each went back to our respective places. Mom got out and left the lights on. I looked at the drawer between mine and Luanne’s beds to check the time. Odd, I found Luanne’s doll sitting there facing me.

“Luanne” I spoke as she was about to get back in bed.

“What?”

“Your doll.”

“What’s Gabby doing over there?”

“Beats me.”

I turned off the lights. I felt rather uneasy as I got back to my bed. I saw Luanne put Gabby, her doll, among her other collection of toys.

 It then occurred to me that Gabby, Luanne’s doll looked almost like the woman in my dream.

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A few days earlier, it was me and Luanne’s birthday. It’s our first birthday since our parents divorced and dad left us. Even so, mom did her best to make our special day memorable.

Our friends were around along with some relatives. Me and Luanne had enough gifts to sate us, but dad wasn’t around.

After slicing the cake and making our wishes, mom gave us a present from an anonymous sender. It was address to both me and Luanne. We opened it and found a doll inside.

“Who’s it from?” Luanne asked.


Nobody answered. Even mom shrugged. Luanne took the doll out and waved it at my face.

“Get that away from me!” I said.

I’m not really fond of dolls. Their fake human appearance disturbs me. Luanne however adored them.

“Valerie” she said. “Can I have her? You don’t like dolls anyway.”

“Fine” I replied. “But I get more cake today. Deal?”

“Deal.”

The people around us chuckled. Me and Luanne have our fights, but we do settle things fairly at times.

“I’ll name you Gabby” I heard Luanne talk to the doll as I stuff my face with an extra helping of cake.

I’m guessing that mom acted innocent throughout this. But I bet that the doll came from dad.

----------

Me and Luanne came back from school one day only to find our house door wide open.

“Mom?” I called out. There doesn’t seem to be anyone home.

“I’ll have a look” Luanne said.

She dropped her bags and inspected the house while I stayed in the living room just in case mom gets here. I glanced at a full length mirror nearby and fixed my hair a bit. I stood up to get a closer view.

Behind me was the entrance to the kitchen which I ignored until I hear some pans crash on the floor. I quickly turned around. I slowly approached the kitchen and cautiously peeked. It was a mess. I backed away. Anxious, I turned away only to face the mirror again. I had a quick glance and saw a bony arm behind me coming from the kitchen. I froze on the spot as it was about to land on my back. A hand grabbed me.

“Valerie!” Luanne had a grip on my arm. “Is mom here yet?”

I looked at the mirror again. The arm was gone. I turned silent.

“Hey, are you alright?” Luanne asked.

“Y-yeah” I replied. “I thought I saw something.”

“Oh, look. What’s Gabby doing here?”

I stared at Luanne as she picked the doll from the floor. I could’ve sworn it just blinked at me.

Mom arrived back home eventually. She called the cops on the possibility of an intruder in the house. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about, but mom said that we were safe. However, seeing Luanne blissfully holding the doll did not put me at ease.

----------

That night, I couldn’t sleep. My eyes were wide open as if to inspect the ceiling. I was scared to look at the sides of my bed. The thoughts of seeing that woman from my dream felt like a possibility. I’m beginning to suspect that Gabby had something to do with this. I dare turn sideways. Luanne was fast asleep with the doll beside her.

At night, all sorts of noises could be heard. My mind was filled with thoughts figuring out where the sounds came from. I heard footsteps. They’re from the attic.

----------

It was the weekend. The day started with Luanne complaining about her missing doll. She made quite a fuss for the whole morning but she calmed down by lunch time.

The afternoon was bright and we decided to play random games.

“Let’s go at the attic” she suggested.

“No way” I replied.

“C’mon, Val” she teased. “Mom said we’re safe. Remember?”

“But…”

“Chicken!”

“Fine!”

We rarely go to the attic. The dusty place filled with old stuff never really appealed to me. Knowing that mom’s at home made me feel a little bit easy at least.

I coughed as we enter the place. The air felt ancient. There were all sorts of objects in the room. Disturbingly, mannequins were present making me shiver. Perhaps my fear of dolls started here.

Me and Luanne busily scavenged around some old stuff pretending to be archeologists.

“This is from the time dinosaurs roamed” Luanne pulled out a pic of mom as a teenager.

“I guess some are still around today” I added. We both laughed.

We found stacks of photo albums. Photos of our parents were what caught most of our attention. It was nice to see what mom and dad looked like while growing up. Quite a shame that they had to part their ways.

We heard something drop. The sound came from an old closet nearby.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Go check it out.”

“No way!”

“Chicken.”

“You do it!”

A creaking sound interrupted us. The closet was slightly open. We couldn’t see what was inside its darkness. A bony hand with long fingers emerged and closed the closet.

Me and Luanne ran downstairs screaming. Mom took notice of our panic.

“There’s someone in the closet upstairs!” I said.

Mom grabbed a nearby lamp and went upstairs. Me and Luanne felt like following her. As mom was about to open the closet, me and Luanne shivered behind her.

The closet was swung open with nothing inside save for some old clothes. Mom looked sceptic. She bent down and picked something up.

“Luanne” she said. “What is Gabby doing up here?”

The doll looked like it stared at me with suspicion. And blinked.

----------

I’ve been trying to tell Luanne to get rid of Gabby. I swear, that doll was up to no good. Luanne however refused.

“Don’t you get it?” Luanne angrily said. “It’s from dad.”

“Dad wouldn’t send us something evil!”

“Gabby is not evil!”

“Listen! That thing was always around whenever something weird happens.”

“What are you talking about, Valerie? How could a doll do all that?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” I mocked.

Luanne lifted Gabby up.

“Hey, Gabby. Were you behind all those?” Luanne asked the doll then motioned her head as if to say “No.”

“See” Luanne spoke in a vexing tone. “She didn’t do anything.”

In anger, I tried to take the doll. We struggled to hold unto Gabby until her head broke off.

“What did you do!?” Luanne sobbed as she pushed me knocking me down.

“What’s going on?” Mom appeared.

I was scolded for my actions. Mom tried to cheer Luanne up. I tried to explain everything to mom but she didn’t seem to take me seriously when I tried to put the blame on Gabby.

----------

We returned from school one day only to find our house surrounded by police.

“What’s going on?” I asked. Nobody answered.

I saw an ambulance nearby. Some guys in white carried a body covered in a cloth and placed it in the vehicle. I could not help but notice an arm dangling from the side. It was bony and the fingers had long nails.

Mom later explained everything. She told us that a woman had snuck into our house and stayed there for an undetermined amount of time. According to the police, the invader even hid under my bed when I woke up to her presence. Gabby, in particular, seemed to be the woman’s favourite item as she brings it along with her even to the kitchen to get a snack.

She probably did not mean us any harm as she did her best to stay hidden from us. Back at the attic, she snuck out of the closet as we ran downstairs then hid among the other items. However, she left Gabby in there for us to find. Today, on her way to the kitchen, she slipped and died. Mom arrived home and found the corpse.

I apologized to Luanne for wrongly accusing Gabby. Looking back, it seemed so silly to blame a doll. Gabby still scares me, but I my fear of her grew less.

----------

I felt at ease later that night. Yet, I couldn’t sleep due to the things that bump in the night. That shouldn’t bother me. The intruder’s caught.

I tossed and turned then faced at the right of my bed only to find Gabby beside me. Luanne must’ve placed her there.

“Hello, Gabby” I said. I heard Luanne snore. Gabby blinked.

“Hello, Val” she replied.