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's 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 the card out and began reading:
Now that I’ve found you
We’ll never be apart
Hayden was totally unaware that she had been reading the message 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 the doll was looking right back at her, which was weird because she could have sworn her head had been turned down when she had taken her out of the box. What was even creepier was the fact that it looked as if the doll was trying hold back a smile; the type of smile that said, “I have a secret.”
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 about two o clock that afternoon, Hayden thought that it would be good idea to get out of the apartment for a while, so she decided to visit her sister. Her older sister, Paige, was the only family she had left. Ever since they were little girls the two of them had been extremely close. As she walked out of her apartment building, Hayden signaled for a taxi; fifteen minutes later the driver pulled up to her sisters building.
“Thanks,” Hayden said to the driver, handing him a ten dollar bill.
Hayden walked up to the buildings intercom and rung for her sister.
“Hello?” Paige asked.
“Hey Paige, it’s me.”
The door buzzed as her sister let her in. Hayden took the elevator up to the fourth floor and as the doors opened she was met by her big sister.
“You didn’t have to meet me, I could have rung the doorbell.” Hayden said as her sister hugged her.
“It was no bother, I missed you. Paige responded. “So how are things?” She continued as the two of them walked to the apartment.
“As good as can be expected.” Hayden responded. When they reached the apartment, Paige 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 developed schizophrenia. Her mother had made her miserable to the point where she couldn’t have anything else to do with her. Hayden had decided that their mother would be better taken care of in a mental institution, to which Paige had agreed. Both girls had continuously visited their mother in the hospital for months, but eventually their mother became more violent and the visitations stopped completely. A year later the girls’ mother died alone in her room at Point View Psychiatric Hospital. Hayden took it especially hard; she loved her mother more than anything, but during her last years she had become a totally different person, cursing her out, hitting her, and having hallucinations. In the end she couldn’t take it anymore, she wasn’t strong enough for it; she wasn’t strong at all.
“You have to move on.” Paige 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?” Paige 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?” Paige 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.” Paige stated, trying to shake off the strange feeling.
Over the next few hours, the girls drank tea and Paige decided to fix dinner. They ate and talked about more positive things. Pretty soon Hayden decided that she’d better get back to her own apartment.
Outside she hailed a cab and relaxed in the backseat. The driver pulled up to her building fifteen minutes later and Hayden got out. Opening the door to her apartment, Hayden realized she was exhausted; all she wanted to do was get some sleep. She walked to her living room, 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. She was so life like and she reminded Hayden of someone, she just couldn’t put her finger on who. Finally, Hayden crossed the living room and made her way toward the hallway; far too aware that the dolls eyes were following her.
She walked into the bathroom and jumped into the shower, turning the water as hot as it would go. As she stood under the hot water, Hayden thought back to the conversation she had with her sister about how the doll looked like the ones their mother used to buy them when they were children. It seemed like some weird coincidence, like maybe her mother had somehow sent this doll to her; after all, there was no name and no return address. Hayden eventually turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. Wrapping the towel around her, Hayden suddenly froze; there was laughter coming from the living room; a way too familiar laugh. Opening the bathroom door, Hayden slowly made her way down the hall toward it. As she stepped into the room, Hayden’s eyes collided with the dolls and a fear so great seized her that she could hardly breathe. The dolls facial features seemed to be changing; seemed to be becoming more human like. Its eyes now were so intense and alive that Hayden felt as if this thing wasn’t really a doll at all but something very different, something evil but at the same time, familiar. As she stared at the doll, Hayden realized that it was beginning to look more and 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 kept telling herself she was being ridiculous and that she needed to get some sleep; but she couldn’t knock the fear or the feeling that her mother was still around.
◊
Hayden didn’t know what it was that woke her up at first. Maybe it was the fact that she had a bad dream, or maybe she had to use the bathroom. But as she opened her eyes she suddenly knew exactly why she had woken up; there was a noise coming from the hallway. It was the sound of a door creaking open, and then the small patter of footsteps.
Please no, she thought as the footsteps got closer. Her door was cracked open and she couldn’t for the life of her move to close it. She could only sit in bed and wait for whatever was to come next. The footsteps continued and then stopped, right outside her door. Hayden could now see the shadow of two very small feet through the crack at the bottom of the door. Slowly her door opened a little wider and the doll pushed its head through the opening, the delicate, and pleasant look on its face now replaced by a look of pure evil.
What did I do?, Hayden thought as the doll stood in her doorway staring at her, the eyes which had once looked alive and life like, now looked black and 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 its voice, she was able to read the dolls 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 with her mother...
When the darkness came, she didn’t try to fight it.
◊
“How long has she been like this?” Doctor Niles asked the nurse as he observed her through the one- sided mirror.
“She’s been like this for hours, all she does is stare blankly at the wall; she hasn’t said a word,” The nurse responded.
Doctor Niles opened the connecting door and stepped into the room that Hayden had been in for the past few hours since being transferred from the hospital.
“Hello Hayden, I’m Doctor Niles. You’re at Point View Psychiatric Hospital.”
Hayden continued to stare blankly past the doctor, mumbling something inaudible.
Doctor Niles continued, “Can you remember what happened?
No response. Doctor Niles tried a new direction.
“Your sister is here I’ll go get her so that you can talk to her.”
As Doctor Niles left the room, Hayden continued to stare blankly but her voice grew a little louder.
“Now that you’ve found me, we’ll never be apart.”
Just then Paige stepped into the room holding something behind her back.
“Hi sweetie, how are you feeling?” Paige asked devastated as she thought about how familiar this whole situation was.
Hayden could feel the tears stinging her eyes as she began to shake everywhere; that feeling again, she thought.
“Oh no Hayden don’t cry. Look, I’ve brought you someone to keep you company.” Paige stated, holding up the four foot doll.
Hayden looked up at the doll with her mother’s face and screamed at the top of her lungs as she now understood that she had never really gotten away from her mother in the first place, and she never would.
“What’s wrong?” Paige asked genuinely perplexed as she looked from her sister to the doll. From what Paige could see it was the most beautiful and pleasant looking doll she had ever laid eyes on.
Just then Doctor Niles stepped in and turned to Paige, “I think it would be wise if we kept her here for now.
She’s beginning to show signs of schizophrenia.”
The End
My name is Carly Vanessa Davis. I’m twenty one years old and I’m from New York. In my free time I enjoy writing, playing guitar and drawing. I also enjoy reading, my favorite genres being horror and classic literature. I started writing for my own enjoyment when I was a freshman in high school and continued up until now. I’m currently working as a medical assistant.