Do you like scary stories? How about monsters and things that go bump in the night? If you do, then I have the collection for you. This is an anthology of short scary stories, all of which are original; with more being added as time goes on. If you...
It always rained in the mountains. It rained when Tom and his family woke up and it rained when they went to sleep. The rain only stopped on rare days, and on those days Tom would head down to the lake. Now his pa had told him not to take anything from the lake, except for fish. So Tom took the small boat out on the lake and began to fish.
It was a good day and Tom caught plenty of fish. But just as he was about to leave, he caught something big and heavy. Tom began to pull it up when it got close to the surface. Tom nearly jumped out of his skin. It was a face!
But as he looked closer, Tom realized that it belonged to a doll. Tom fished it out of the lake and put it in the boat. It was an odd doll made of dark wood with joints made of metal rings. It had black, glassy eyes and a loose jaw filled with painted white teeth. The doll looked sad to Tom, so he decided to not listen to his pa and take it back home with him.
That night, his family enjoyed all the fish Tom had caught and Tom went to bed a happy boy. He'd taken the doll into his room and put it on a chair. Tom then went to sleep.
Later that night, Tom heard a voice in the dark. It sounded like a child, but was very hollow.
"Tom... Tom..."
Tom woke up and looked into the dark nervously.
"Wh-who's there?" He asked.
"It's me. The doll you took from the lake." The doll said in its hollow voice.
"Dolls can't talk." Tom said, noticing that the doll was standing at the foot of his bed now. Its lanky arms made a jingling sound as it moved.
The doll said, "I can talk though. I can also make fish swim into your net and make the rain fall from the sky. I can do lots of things."
"Why were you in the lake?" Tom asked.
"Because my old family didn't want me anymore." The doll said.
Tom thought it was strange that a family didn't want such an odd and wonderful doll. He wouldn't be so mean.
"I'll be your new owner." Tom said.
The doll did a strange little dance, its joints jingling. It then laughed a hollow laugh.
"You've made me so happy!" It said. "You won't regret having me as a friend. I'll never leave you."
And Tom didn't regret having the doll as a friend. At least, for a time. He and the doll did everything together. They played in the woods, did chores, and went hunting. One time the Doll even scared away a Grizzly! It was a good doll, but since he'd taken it out of the lake, Tom noticed there had been no rain, not even a drop.
Tom's father, being a superstitious man, asked Tom one day, "Did you take anything from the lake?"
Tom lied and said he did not. What was the harm in it? The answer to that question came several nights later.
You see, the doll did not like the way the father was acting and while Tom had done a good job hiding the doll, he couldn't hide his new friend forever.
Tom woke to hear the doll jingling one night. He was in the other room. Tom went to check on it, but it was standing above his parents' bed! It was holding his father's axe.
"Don't hurt them!" Tom yelled.
This woke up his father, who saw the axe. He grabbed the doll and the axe fell to the floor. The doll let out a hollow shriek that chilled Tom to the bone. His father then dragged the thrashing doll into the den.
"I won't go back! I won't go back!" It shrieked.
The doll was strong, but Tom's father was stronger. Tom's father lit the fireplace. When the flames grew as tall as pine trees, they threw the doll inside.
It screamed as the flames burned its body. Then, suddenly, the doll jumped from the fireplace and ran out of the house, into the night where it jumped into the dark water of the lake. The hollow sound of its screams echoed in Tom's ears long after the night quieted down.
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Tom told his father about the doll and how he had taken it from the lake.
His father explained that lonely spirits live in the mountains. Some are good and some are bad. He said that the doll was a very bad spirit and they would have to move away from the lake.
They left that night.
The next day, it was said that the sky rained harder than it ever had before. It rained so much in fact, their old house was washed away.
From that day forward, Tom hated the rain. And though he and his family moved away from the lake and those gloomy mountains; on nights when it would rain, Tom would wake up to the sound of jingling. And, if he were to look into the darkness of his room, he would see a pair of black, glassy eyes staring back at him.
