Ring of Fire (Completed) Book 1 Vanelzing Series

Alexis Journal Entry 8

Alabama Summers are often long and hot, but if you're an Alabamian you get use to the heat and you learn to make the most of it. If you're new to the south, you stay inside and kept the air conditioner on you at all times. That Summer was almost the same as any other Summer for us.

It was the last day of school and I had invited Shawn over to the house to watch our favorite movies of all time, Star Wars. Believe it or not Shawn and I were huge geeks. 

I loved Star Wars. I had all the movies, even the originals  all on VHS. We loved watching Star Wars especially when we had time to kill.

The movie marathon was running later than we had anticipated. Momma and Daddy had already gone to bed. My sister Lizzie was sleeping in their room. Momma and Daddy had made her a palate in their floor to sleep on. 

I was glad that Momma and Daddy trusted us. I knew that Shawn would never do anything to jeopardize my parents trust. He respected them or it could be he was afraid of Daddy.

The first day I brought Shawn home to meet my parents, Daddy was cleaning his gun on the kitchen table. When I had my back turned, Daddy told him that he wasn't afraid to go back to prison. Just to be clear my Daddy has never been to prison. 

"You break my baby's heart and I'll make sure ain't nobody find you," Daddy said.

Needless to say Shawn was very careful around Daddy when he was with me. He always minded his manners said yes sir or no sir. 

But it wasn't just my parents that had Shawn on edge. Shawn didn't like my room. I collected porcelain dolls and I had a lot of them in my room. About 72 to be more precise.  There were dolls on top of my computer table, dresser and on a shelf above my bed.

Most of m dolls are Harley Quinns, Victorian dolls, or Angels. My favorite dolls is Alice. Shawn called her my asylum doll because she looked like a doll a mental patient would carry around in a horror movie. All of my dolls freaked him out.

One doll in particular made Shawn uneasy and in all honesty I didn't like it either. It was given to me as gift but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. 

He didn't like the way it was staring at him. It generally freaked him out. After Empire Strikes Back, Shawn got up to change the VHS tape to the next one. He turned the doll around so that she was facing the wall.

Shawn and I left the room to get snacks while we fast forwarded through the trailers. In those days you couldn't just skip it. We popped popcorn and made Kool aid. It was maybe a few minutes before we went back to my room. 

"What the!" I heard Shawn yell. I moved him out of the way to see what he was fussing about. My porcelain doll had turned around and was facing Shawn.

"This ain't happen'," Shawn said taking the doll and moving it to the bathroom. He shut the door behind him. Shawn never touched my dolls again. He wouldn't even come in my room if that doll was in there. He was freaked out.

He had never seen a doll move like that. I ended up giving the doll away because it started to make me uneasy too. I donated it to the Salvation Army. It could be someone else's creepy collector's item.

I had another one of my friends over that Summer. I told her what had happened to Shawn but she just laughed it off. I don't think she believed me. I shrugged it off. That night we read Junie B Jones books and watched movies. 

Around Midnight, she got up to go to the bathroom. I was in my room flipping through channels when she came running back in. She was freaking out. She grabbed my by the hand and started blabbering hysterically.

"Did you hear her? Did you hear the little girl?" Leah asked her shaking her hand. I shook my head no

"I didn't hear nobody. Why what happened?"

"Okay, I was in the bathroom sittin' on the toilet when I heard a knock on the door. I asked who it was. A little girl answered calling me Momma! She kept calling me Momma over and over. When I opened the door, there whatin' nobody there." she said.

"Hang on, I'll go look around."

"Nuh uh you ain't leavin' me here by myself."

I left the room with her closely behind me. I checked the living room, the kitchen, the laundry room. I thought it could have been Lizzie but when I checked in my parents room, she was fast asleep. It couldn't have been Lizzie. If it wasn't Lizzie then who was it?

My friend stayed next to me the rest of the night. She wouldn't even go to the bathroom by herself. She would ask me to wait outside the door for her. I didn't mind though. I would have done the same thing. It would have freaked me out too. She didn't come over after that.

Shawn said it wasn't the doll that was haunted it was the house.