Alice and Her Doll

Chapter 3

*****

CRACK!

The attic door was finally opened after years and years of being concealed.

As Raymond pulled down the retractable stairs that was connected to the attic door on the ceiling, he looked up into the attic.

He saw little dust flurries floating around from the door being opened, but that was it. He could only see black. There was a window in the attic, but the attic was immense and the window was probably covered by a piece of furniture or something, or so Raymond thought.

"Jeez," Raymond gawked at the dark, cold attic. "Honey! Where's that big flashlight I have? I haven't used it years!"

"Check in the kitchen," Megan called from the cozy living room, where she was sipping her tea and watching a TV drama, "Lost."

Ray ventured downstairs and once he found his flashlight, he went straight to the attic and up the retractable stairs.

They were so old that the flimsy wood creaked and bent as he climbed toward the darkness.

Raymond flipped the switch on the flashlight.

Once he was in he attic, he scanned the room with his flashlight.

First of all, everything was clothed in dust and filth. There were dressers, lamps, bed frames, boxes of books, a clothes rack with tons of old articles of clothing hanging on it, blankets, toys, etc.

Then Raymond saw it.

He saw something in the darkest, dirtiest corner of the attic stir.

A rat, probably, thought Raymond.

As he cautiously walked toward what he thought was a rat, the thing started to shake.

Calmly, at first.

Then it shook harder.

And harder.

The unknown object was shaking and stirring and bouncing violently now.

Raymond,unsure of what to do, grabbed the closest object to him(an empty bottle of some sort) and he threw it at the object.

The "rat" stopped shaking.

Complete silence.

Is there nothing more terrifying than complete silence?

Ray's heart thudded in his chest as he slowly approached the still, silent object.

There was a thin sheet of fabric covering this object. Ray removed it all in one motion.

There sat the doll.

Its bright, green eyes.

Its curly red hair.

Its perfectly sparkled dress.

But there was something peculiar about this doll.

Blood was oozing out of its mouth.

It started to drip down on the attic floor as the doll slowly opened and closed its mouth.

Ray closed his eyes tightly, trying to get the horrid image out of his mind.

When he opened his eyes, the doll's mouth was not dripping blood.

He stared long and hard at the doll.

What? Ray thought to himself as a puzzled expression came over his face.

There was no blood oozing out of this doll's mouth.

Nothing strange about it at all.

Hm, Ray thought. Must have been the dust getting to my head.

But it wasn't the dust getting to his head.

It was real.

*****