Out of the Darkness

37

She opened her eyes but didn't say anything. We kept quiet the entire 30 minute drive to the next house. My heart sank as we pulled up. The lot was demolished and in the middle of a destitute neighborhood. Now, it was overgrown with weeds, rotten wooden boards lay all around, and what looked like a drug deal going on right in the front for everyone to see. I put the car back into drive and got out of there as fast as we could. I guess that I would never be able to mark Eliza Banks off of my list. I could only hope that we would find out who Anna really was and that it wouldn't matter. We visited 3 more homes before I decided to head back home. At one of the homes, the family had moved and left no forwarding address. Two of the homes were still inhabited by family of the missing persons. I was shown a picture from each of the remaining family members, but neither of them were Anna. It did strike me that one of the girls shared a striking resemblance to the doll that was sitting right next to Anna at the old house. What did that mean? That there was a spirit trapped inside each doll? And why? Who was doing this and what was their purpose? All of these questions swarmed my brain as I headed back home. What was I supposed to do about this? How could I possibly help when I didn't even really know what was happening? I had a strong feeling that I needed to go back to the dreaded house to be able to figure some of these things out but I wasn't ready for that just yet. The guys and I barely even talked about that house. That one time, then we did post the video with a graphic warning for what the viewers were going to see. Then, we never mentioned it again. Twitter was blowing up with people tagging us, asking if we had heard or seen certain things. I didn't care. I didn't want to know what we might have missed. I remembered enough. So, I ignored the fans when they dropped these types of questions. I never saw any of the other guys answer them either. Since we hadn't really talked about it, I wondered if the place kind of haunted their dreams too. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed that Tara's car and Kat's car was there. When I stepped out of my car, I heard music blaring from the backyard. I didn't feel like seeing anyone or hanging out. I knew that we would have to film again soon, but for now, I was going to be a recluse for a little while. My brain felt like it had an overload of information all jumbled into it and I didn't know how to straighten it out. I glanced over to Anna before I climbed out of the car. She was just sitting there, staring in front of her. I assumed she would follow me, so I closed the door, and started walking. "Are you leaving me outside then?" her voice sounded in my ear. I jerked just a little from her startling me, but not as much as before. Maybe I was starting to get used to her just popping up. I turned to look at her. "What do you mean?" I asked, pushing my hair back from my forehead. She rolled her eyes and muttered something and muttered something that sounded like "dufus." She nodded her head towards my car. "The doll Colby. You forgot the doll." "Oh," I replied, then walked back to grab the doll out of the car. "My bad," I said, holding the doll around the waist as I started back towards the house. She didn't say anything, and I assumed it was because she was in deep thought. I entered the house and heard loud music coming from the dining room area. I sighed and shook my head. Could we ever just not have people over? Just for a day or two. I usually didn't mind, and even loved to hang out with my friends, but sometimes, like today, I just wanted peace and quiet. Some time to think through all of my jumbled thoughts without others interfering. I started to climb the stairs to my room when I heard my name. "Hey Colby!" I turned back and gave Jake a weary smile. "What's up man?" I asked, taking another step up on the stairs. "You wanna join us? We're just playing ping pong and hanging out." I shook my head. "Nah man, I got some research to do. Trying to find the next place for us to go on our next video. Maybe next time." He nodded, and scrunched his face up at me. "Why are you carrying a doll? It looks familiar. Where did you get it?" Shit. I had forgotten that I was carrying the damn doll. What was I supposed to say. "Uh, you know how Sam ordered those haunted dolls and stuff?" I replied. "I decided to give it a shot. I know the spooky aspect is his thing, but since it's close to Halloween, it seemed like it could be fun." "Why does it feel like I've seen that doll somewhere though..." he mused, staring at her. I saw the air shimmer closer to Jake, so I knew that Anna was standing next to him. "It's got a story behind it. Maybe you just saw it when you were looking things up, or maybe Sam spoke about it one of his videos. I don't know. I'm gonna go lie down though. Kinda tired. Have fun okay? Tell everyone I've got a headache but I'll catch them next time." With that, I turned away from him and started taking the stairs two at a time, the doll in front of me. I went into my room and shut the door, before leaning against it and sliding down until my ass hit the floor. "Damn it," I muttered, holding the doll out in front of me. "Sorry," Anna said, materializing in front of me. "Not your fault," I replied instantly. "I should've hid it. It's fine though. Jake will believe that story. Only now I will probably have to do a damn video with the doll." I closed my eyes and sighed, leaning my head back against the door. "This is starting to be really hard to hide. We need to hurry and figure out what happened to you Anna. I want to help you, I need to help you." "Why?" she asked, her voice soft. I opened my eyes and met her emerald gaze. For a second, just for a second, I wanted to tell her that I didn't have a choice. That whatever was going on had wrapped me up inside this entire thing, and I wanted to do whatever I could for her. But I didn't. Instead I took a deep breath. "Because I have too. You and the rest. All of you deserve to know what happened. I need to help stop it so that it doesn't hurt anyone else. It's not fair what happened to you, or to the others, but if I can help stop it. If I can help keep others from getting hurt, then I want too."