"Oh honey! I'm so glad we could afford this place!" She exclaims excitedly to her fiancé as she unlocks the door leading into her new shop. When I saw the opportunity I just knew it was perfect.
"Well I just knew how much you loved making these things." He says examining one of her dolls. It was brown-eyed and had cheek bones shaped sharp enough to kill a man. It creeped him out to look at them but he did it for her. She was filled with so much passion as she set up all her dolls and began hanging price tags off of them.
He walked to the door and flipped the sign to "OPEN" as he went to leave. "Have a good day." He said kissing her cheek and leaving. A ding came ringing as the door opened with a bright smiling face standing at the entrance. It was a young girl about the age of six.
She walked around grabbing at the dolls dresses and looking at each one. "I'm sorry." Her mother apologized when the girl almost tipped one over. "Come on Abbey, I said you could pick a doll, not stay here all day." She says. Abbey looked a little longer eventually coming to a doll in a little white shirt and a pink skirt. It had short curled brunette hair and blue eyes. "I want this one, Mom." She grabs it and bring it to the register.
"That's my 50's doll. Probably the only one I made of that kind!" Says the woman at the counter smiling. "It's beautiful isn't it?" The little girl shakes her head yes. Abbey walked all the way home holding the doll in one arm and her mother's hand in the other. As soon as they got to the house Abbey introduces her new doll to her old ones.
Time passes and the mother comes peeking through the cracked door. As she watches her daughter she realizes she only talks for the other dolls. She disregards it and goes out to the kitchen to grab a snack. She brings back crackers and cheese and opens the door to the playroom wider. "Abbey I brought you a snack." She says. "Mom! You aren't supposed to be in here!" Abbey yells. She no longer is playing with her old dolls.
The mother places the plate on a purple plastic table. "I'm sorry. I know you girls need your playtime." She laughs leaving the room. "I'm sorry Darlyn... I didn't know she'd come in here." Cries Abbey. The dolls head turns to the door and back to Abbey. "She's gone now... I promise." Says Abbey hesitantly.
A few hours later, it is getting late. "Abbey time to go to bed!" The mom yells down stairs. "Okay mommy!" she says back. "I have to go now, Darlyn. My mommy says it's time for bed." She says as she plays with the dolls hair. In a small raspy voice the doll speaks, "Don't leave me." A tear falls from Abbey's eye. "I have to." She says. "Don't... Leave... Me..." the doll repeats. "I'm sorry Darlyn... I'm tired." She pauses, "and you should be too." She lays the doll in a miniature bed and tucks it in.
She tosses and turns all night unable to sleep. Her Little Pony alarm clock flashes 2:00AM on its screen and finally she gets up sneaking down to her playroom. She turns on the light to see the doll no longer in her doll bed. Abbey walks around the house calling her name and when she couldn't find her anywhere else she decided to check her mom's room.
Slowly she opened the door trying not to wake her mother. "Darlyn... Darlyn..." She whispers. She sees the doll sitting on a chair by her mother's bed. Her skirt was neat and her hands on her lap. Abbey grabbed the doll and glanced over to see her mother lying in her bed.
Her mouth was open and her eyes as well. She had a cold stare and her cheek was wet with blood. A note on her nightstand stood out to Abbey and she read it. "She's gone now." The note quotes. Abbey dropped the doll screaming. The dolls stare matches that of the others as it looks at the panicking, crying young girl.
The next morning police knocked on the door. The neighbours had called complaining of the screams they heard disrupting their sleep. When nobody answered the door, the police let themselves in. They searched the house cautiously. "Guys over here!" Yells a police officer from the bedroom.
The mother was lying as she was the night before and now the girl lay motionless as well, both staring into nowhere. On the chair sat the doll with her skirt neat, her shirt stainless and her hands folded in her lap.
