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.
