Secrets of a Doll

Chapter One: April 12th, 2000.

The sky was dark, and the entire stretch of the neighborhood was empty, with only streetlamps illuminating the sidewalk. A car drove up and pulled into the driveway of a pretty two-story home. The headlights of the car shut off along with the engine a moment later. The driver's door opened, and a teenage girl, about 16-years-old, stepped out. She had long, silky, blonde hair, almost close to a platinum blonde color. She had her hair curled and she was super pretty. She reminded a lot of people of a Barbie doll almost. She reached into the car to grab her bag and then closed the door. She was holding her cellphone up to her ear, talking to someone. "don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked as she walked towards the entrance to her house. "oh, you broke up yesterday? So you're asking me out on a date?" she replied in a light sarcastic voice. There was a pause here that gave the other person a chance to speak. She listened for about 10 seconds before she just about had enough of hearing them. She was about to pull the cellphone away from her ear when the person on the other end began to say something else that was inaudible. She let go of her phone, with only her shoulder keeping it in place as she dug through her purse for her keys. She reached the door at that moment and inserted the keys into the keyhole to unlock it, all while still listening to the person on the other line. As she stepped inside, she responded to the person with, "sorry, Logan" in a kind of like condescending voice that was so obviously fake, "it's still a no". She immediately hung up and then threw her keys onto the thin table standing against the wall closest to the entrance.

Before she had the chance to walk away her phone went off. She answered before even having the phone up to her ear and immediately started with, "I can't go out with you tonight, so leave me alone." She immediately hung up after saying this, put her cellphone back down on the table and was just about to make her way down the hall when she heard some noise in the kitchen. She stopped and turned around in the direction of the kitchen which was just on the other side of the living room. "Mom?" she called out as she took a few slow steps forward, "is that you?". Her mom wasn't supposed to be home until the next day but maybe she was able to come home early from that modeling offer she took. She didn't get any response in return. Maybe she didn't hear her. Without another thought she began to walk to the kitchen gateway. Once she was there, she entered the kitchen, expecting to see her mom there, but she wasn't. There wasn't anyone at all actually. She stood there a little taken aback figuring that she just heard something that was nothing. She called out, "mom?", in a soft tone again to make sure. She heard another noise; this time it was the television they had in the living room. She rolled her eyes before walking across the kitchen and grasping onto the doorway wall in order to lean into the living room. "Tiffany?" she asked as she looked around, again, no one was there. She let go of the wall and carefully stepped into the living room, eyeing the television. She began to look a little unsure and said, "Tiff, c'mon, this isn't funny." as she glanced around looking for her sister. She quickly took off towards the coffee table where the remote was, grabbed it, and turned off the tv in a more nervous attitude.

She walked to the center of the living room, not able to bring herself to go into another room. She had her back faced towards the living room windows which were covered by drawn curtains. Behind one of the curtains was a shadow of a person, who in a matter of seconds slowly pushed a curtain aside to reveal themselves. She remained oblivious to this until the person had stumbled into the small circle nightstand placed next to the sofa. She spun around, saw them, and immediately screamed before running away. As soon as she took off, he ran after her with a knife in his hand.

They both ran through the hall before coming to the stairs. She tried to run as fast as she could up the stairs, but the steps were slowing her down. He almost caught up to her and swiped at her with the knife but missed as she sprinted up the last step. She ran down the next hall as he was right behind her attempting to catch up. She turned the corner of the hall where her bedroom was and swung the door open. She closed the door and locked it just in time as he almost made it in. She kept her eyes focused on the door as she slowly backed away in terror, stopping herself by bumping into the side of a dresser. The sound of him banging on the door repeated over and over again until finally it stopped. She stayed where she was, scared to move, until a few moments of silence passed. She took a careful step forward, thinking that he might've left. She didn't have any type of phone in her bedroom, and she had left her cell downstairs. She approached the door slowly and reached for the handle. She unlocked it quietly and was just about to twist the handle when the door shot open.

She let out a scream as he violently grabbed her and slammed her into the dresser beside them. She leaned onto it in pain and before being able to recover at all he pulled her back once more and threw her onto the floor. She let out a small yelp as she landed on the floor. It was carpet flooring, so it didn't hurt as much as it should've if it was wood. She tried to get herself together and get back up but she wasn't given much time to do that because right in that moment he grabbed her to turn her around, so she was lying on her back. Her eyes widened in fear as soon as she saw that a knife was hovering over her. So, out of instinct and filled with adrenaline she kicked him off of her and he hit his head on the wall behind the two of them. As soon as he fell back, she quickly got herself up.

The very moment she was able to get up she saw a fragile flower vase placed on top of the dresser and grabbed it. "f.cker" she said as she let go of the vase, allowing it to shatter as it fell on him. Without wasting another second, she ran away towards her window to use it as an escape route since the door was blocked. She frantically unlocked it, lifted it up, and began to climb out as he stayed laying on the floor trying to recover. She stepped out onto the roof and carefully made her way down it, occasionally looking back up at the open window.

Lights flashing red and blue surrounded the house. There were only about two cop cars parked in front of the house, investigating the scene. Ms. Shirley, the neighbor who she had run to, was being questioned by a detective as well as an officer standing by outside in front of the home. The girl was standing next to a police car with an officer, waiting for any news. She had already been questioned and asked to describe the features of the trespasser by a detective. She looked shaken up and on the verge of tears. Neither of her parents were there yet and she was completely alone.

After a few moments she saw a detective walk out of the home approaching her. The helpless look in her eyes lightened up a little. The detective stood in front of her with a serious expression. "Miss, are you sure there was someone in the house with you?" he questioned. She stared at him for a few seconds a little lost as to why he was asking her this. "--of course there was," she replied, "he tried to kill me." The detective looked behind him towards the scene, stalling almost, like he was trying to find the best way to say what he wanted to say to her. He then glanced back over at her and hesitated before saying, "I, uh, we didn't find any signs of invasion or any damages." he told her. She hesitated a moment trying to process this. "So..what about the glass on the floor?? she explained, "–-you saw that, didn't you?" she asked in a lost tone. The detective tried to ease the conversation a little by responding with, "I'm sorry but we searched the entire house, nothing broken or damaged." She stayed silent for the moment until replying in a calmer tone, "--no, that can't be right", she argued. Within the next moment she had already walked past the detective and towards the house entrance. The detective followed behind her, asking her to wait outside the house until a parent got there. She simply ignored and refused to acknowledge anything that he was insisting at that moment. As she walked up the porch steps, the detective gave up and stopped following, knowing she wasn't going to be easily swayed.

She came upstairs and walked into the hallway. She walked down the hall passing by the different variations of portraits on the wall as she did. She came to the end of the hall and chose the path on her right. She approached her bedroom and stopped at the doorway as she saw no one in there. As she stayed standing at the doorway, she looked down at the floor beneath her. She expected there to be pieces of broken glass—but there wasn't anything at all. She scanned the rest of the floor in front of her all the way up to the dresser where the vase was dropped. He had covered up any signs of him being there. It was as if he was never there at all. She took a few small steps forward, each with caution. She studied her room carefully, attempting to find anything that the police might've missed. Her room was the same as it was when she got home. She looked towards the floor in front of the dresser. There should be broken pieces of glass there--but there isn't. She stopped where she was and took a second to think. Did it ever even happen? No. Of course it did. The flower vase isn't there anymore. Whoever this guy was got every detail right up until the flower vase. For a second, she had been totally thrown off.

As soon as she came to this realization she walked over to her nightstand. Which was on the opposite side of the bed. A window stood behind the nightstand with both curtains closed. She moved one of the curtains to the side by an inch so she could peek out at the front yard. Her dad's car was parked in the driveway as he could be seen speaking to one of the police officers. His attitude looked like he was beginning to be irritated towards the vague information he was getting out of the officer. Her sisters, who were twins were standing nearby alongside the car. She let the curtain fall back into place as she went and sat on the edge of her bed. She sat there silently and still visibly shaken up by what happened that night.