China Doll

  THIS IS A SHORT STORY!!! ;)

 Ever since I could remember, there was a china doll on top of the fireplace. She is dressed in a ruffled silk dress and her hair is black as ink.

The doll was always cracked a little, on the lip and right arm but that was obviously because my mum had it since the early age of five. And that's 41 years. 

I can't quite put my finger on why but she always makes me shiver. I think it's probably the empty, lifeless yet human looking eyes that seem to follow my movements. I can feel her watching my back when I pass by...

I havn't let it bother me for years, so why should it now? To be honest, I think I'll just continue to ignore her. Walking by the doll one more time before heading up to my room, I'm trying to force the thought of her out of my head. It's late. My parents are asleep and I hate being alone downstairs. I run up the staircase and shut the door to my room. 

"Alone at last, we can sit and fight. And I've lost all fate in this blurring light-" My phone ringtone.

"Shut up", I mutter and press end call. I'm too tired to pick up and I honestly don't care if the caller's pissed. They can have a go at me tomorrow.

Ringing again. "Fine, fine! Just leave me alone after I answer this". I pick up the phone.

"Esther."

"Mum? What the hell? You're in the room next to me...just get yourself over here if you want something!!"

"No. I'm not. I'm downstairs. I've been downstairs ever since you were one year old."

"Eh? Stop the prank, I wanna sleep."

"You still don't understand? You've been ignoring me for all these years. You find me scary? Well I've been watching you all your life. She killed me because I loved someone more than her after almost three decades and she couldn't stand it.. That person is you. Now my soul is inside her body. You loved her instead of me. You ignored me. You left me." Mum's voice distorted into a screech more and more with every sentence. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The phone went dead...

My heart is racing. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and look into my own reflection's eyes. Please tell me you're sane, I'm thinking. My lip's bleeding. So is my arm. Both of them start opening up into a gash and my face turns milky white and my eyes blank. I recognise the wounds. I've seen them before.

"I have to kill you. Then we'll be both dead and reunited. You will be trapped inside her now, but we will stay together. Now she will have nothing to truly cling onto and she won't survive without it. It's the only way to get rid of her..." My mum's voice echo's in my head and my chest is palpitating. I look back in the mirror and now my whole body is still and lifeless. A knife sticks out of my head and red drips down my unmoving face.

I can feel my heartbeat slowing down and down until it is completely stopped. My senses don't work. I can't smell, hear, taste, see, touch. But I can feel my mother's presence close by and I know two things for sure.  I am dead. I am the doll.