Doll Face

Listen to the Warnings

"No, Quint! Don't go there! That's a very, very bad place!"
A boy about five years old stopped running towards the massive old house at the end of the road and turned to look at his mother.
"Why?" His bright, big blue eyes full of curiosity.
"Because the Dolls live there." His mother replied sweetly.
"Who are the Dolls?" The boy asked confused, his nose crinkling.
"They are very bad and scary people. They will take you in and eat you if they think you're not a good boy. Now come on, let's just... stay away from them okay?" His mother grabbed his hand and they began walking away from the house together.
"Okay." The boy agreed, taking one last look at the house.

Ten years later.

"Hey, Quint! Check this out!"
Quint turned his head to see one of his friends, Mark, stand in front of the Dollhouse's gate. Quint and his friends often came down this end of the road, to see how far each of them were daring to go before they chickened out.
Mark was the one out of all of them who had gone the furthest so far, touching the gate. No one had really been able to go past that. No one wanted to. He was at the gate again now, and he had put one of his legs over it, and was standing with both legs on either side of the gate.
"New record! Mark this down somebody, because I've done it again! The record is now one foot past the gate!" Mark cried out and Quint and the others cheered.
"No way, man!" Jonas called back, and as soon as Mark reached them, he slapped him hard on the back, making a loud thumping noise. Mark cried out in shock, but his girlfriend, Sarah, rushed over to him and glared playfully at Jonas.
"You better not have broken him!" Sarah squeaked, her voice was quite high pitched. Lilly, Sarah's friend and Jonas' twin, rolled her eyes.
Darcy, Lilly's boyfriend, laughed. "Ya ken he's fine, Sarah."
Sarah just stuck her tongue out at him. "Whatever. Hey, it's getting late, I think we should go now. What do you think, Mark?"
Mark shrugged. "Sure, whatever. Although I say we should come back tomorrow, and we'll see if I can beat the record again."
The others nodded, except Darcy. Jonas smirked. "What, are you afraid, Darcy?"
Lilly piped up. "Leave him alone, Jonas."
Darcy shook his head. "Nah. It just be Halloween 'morrow night. And ya all ken dat it be haunt'd then. Ya all ken da story of da littl' lost lass." The others nodded in reply, and shuddered simultaneously.  The tale of the lost girl was that she went up and knocked on the door of the Dollhouse asking candy when she was pulled inside and never seen again.
"Come on guys, you all know that's just a rumour. Probably spread by the owners of that house to make sure no kids bother them on Halloween. Besides, no one lives there. I mean, there are no cars, no bikes, no nothin'. No one comes out, and no one goes in. It's probably just full of rats. That's all." Mark said, and the others nodded in agreement. Even Darcy, although he did nod slowly. They all looked at Quint then, who had stayed silent the whole time.
"You coming, Quint?" Jonas asked, sounding bored.
"Yeah, totally." Quint replied, nervously.

Earlier that day...

Quint didn't know why he had agreed to go to his Grandmother's place. She was extremely old and boring. Every time Quint went there, she would begin telling him of stories she had when she was younger. Lately, her favourite seemed to be the one about how she had survived an explosion. However Quint didn't really believe she would have actually survived an exploding hospital. Even if she was a lot younger then.
If she wasn't telling the same story over and over again, she was fast asleep on the couch.
Quint knocked on the door. "Grandma, I'm here!" He called out although he already knew the door was unlocked, his grandmother felt safer if people didn't just walk in unannounced.
"Oh, my darling Quince! How good it is too see you!" An old silver haired and dark wrinkled skin woman wrapped her stick like arms around Quint.
"It's Quint, Grandma," He corrected her. Another annoying thing about his grandmother was that she was often forgetting things, especially Quint's name.
"Oh that's right. And stop calling me Grandma. It makes me feel old. Just call me Josie like I told you."
She turned then and began walking inside, Quint following behind her through the flowery wallpapered hallway into the lounge room.
The lounge room also had flowery wallpaper, which made the room seem brighter as the sun shone in through the windows. The couches were a soft grey colour that in this light looked a little pink. The carpet was white with a small wooden coffee table sitting in the middle of the room. There was no television, as his grandmother did not like people watching the TV in the middle of a conversation.
"I'm glad you came to visit, Quintley, you see I bought some plants that I want to plant in the backyard and I forgot weather you dig the hole first or after."
Quint sighed. "Gran- I mean Josie, you know that you dig the hole before you place the plant in the ground." He didn't bother correcting her again, as she would just forget and say some other name about a minute afterwards.
"I was just messing with you dear," she replied smiling.
"Okay then Josie." Quint sat down on the couch, and pulled out his phone.
"Oh no you don't." Josie pulled the phone out of Quint's hands and slid it into her pocket. "I want you to help me out. Come on, time to get your hands dirty." Quint sighed and stood up, following her to the backyard.