Out of the Darkness

58

He didn't look at me when he said this, instead walked inside the house with me behind him. The house was quiet so we headed up the stairs to our rooms. "So, I guess just let me know if she comes back, okay?" he said quietly. I nodded at him again. "Thanks Sam." "No problem buddy. That's what friends are for. Later," he said, smiling then closing his bedroom door behind himself. I walked into my room, and took off the backpack that contained Anna. Or her doll. After I sat down on my couch, I pulled the doll out of the bag and looked at her. The eyes. That's what I needed to look at. My heart sank as I noticed that the emerald green eyes weren't full of life anymore. Now they were just dead, staring blankly back at me. My heart fell to my stomach, squeezing painfully. She wasn't in this doll. It was just an empty porcelain shell. It hurt, knowing that she wasn't in there. Anna had become a friend I guess. I knew how weird that was, but it was true. She had been by my side almost all of the time for a while now. I was going to miss her smile, and her quirkiness. The way she was so in awe of everything that we used in every day life. She was a mystery to me, but also so open. I didn't know who she had been, but I felt like I did know who she was. I thought about they way she blushed and turned her head every time I went without a shirt. The way she fucked with Jake on the Ouija board. Especially the way she had saved my life twice now. My friends as well. Anna had done a lot for me, and she meant a lot to me. I was staring into the doll's eyes while I was thinking about all of this, when suddenly, I thought I noticed a flicker, a small flare of light behind the glass eyes. I stared harder, unblinking for fear that I would miss it. Nothing happened. "Anna?" I whispered, gripping the doll tightly. "Are you in there?" I stared back at the doll, waiting for any sign of life. Nothing. Just as I was about to give up and set the doll down, another small flicker came to life inside the doll's eyes, lighting up the emerald color. "Anna," I said, letting out a sigh of relief. She was still with me. Maybe she was too weak after what had happened at the ship, and she didn't have the strength to do anything else right now. The doll's eyes were blank again, but that was okay. I knew that she was there. "Rest," I said, sitting the doll down at the foot of my bed. "Thank you for saving our lives." I fell back on my mattress, letting my feet dangle towards the floor. My mood had changed instantly. As soon as I knew that she was here, happiness and relief had flooded my body. I was almost giddy. It was weird. She was a ghost, but I felt a connection to her that I hadn't felt with anyone in a long time. Not like with Sam. Different, but similar. I couldn't really put my finger on it. I pulled out my phone and texted Sam, telling him that I thought she was inside the doll, and that hopefully she would be okay after she rested. "How do you know?" he asked. I sighed and started texting what I had seen, and felt with the doll. He didn't reply back for a while so I texted him again. "sam? u there?" I asked. Another minute passed before I got a response. "Colby...are you sure that you're not just seeing what you want to see? I would love to have her back with us too, but I think you're too connected to this, to her. You're getting too deep." I rolled my eyes. "No, I'm not. I'm fine. Trust me. I've got this. I just want to help her. Make sure she's okay." "okay," he replied back. "Just be careful Colby. I know how hard you fall for girls. Even if she is a ghost." How the fuck did he- whatever, it didn't matter. That would never happen. She was a ghost. There was no future possibility of that happening ever, so it was a moot point. "I'm fine Sam. I got this." All I could do from this point on was wait. Wait and do my best to keep trying to figure out who she was and where she came from. So I did. I did research every day, digging up details about girls who had went missing around that time. I spoke with families, making long distance phone calls, calling sheriffs stations for old records, and even the retired cops who were working the cases at the time. I marked off names, then would discover something else, and add more names to it. The work was tedious and mentally draining, while I still faked a smile for the camera when it was time to film for my channel or help any of the other guys. I wasn't unhappy exactly. I was just tired and starting to feel hopeless. Sometimes, the dolls eyes were flare brighter than before, letting me know that she was gaining strength, but other times, I got nothing at all. I told myself that she was sleeping or just building her strength, but I had no clue what was happening, and it was driving me crazy. People started commenting on social media about how I had changed, and they hoped that I was okay. "You really have to pull yourself together Colby," Sam told me privately one night. "This is your life. Anna's life is over. I understand that you want to help her, to repay her somehow. So do I. But you can't put your life on hold for her." I sighed, and leaned back on my couch where I was sitting. "I know. You're right. It's just...it's been 3 weeks Sam. How long is this going to take? How long is she going to be stuck in that doll? Is she even going to be able to come back out again?" "I don't know," he replied honestly, holding his hands out. "This is probably the weirdest thing we've ever done and there is no amount of research that can help us. You can still try to help her and wait and see, but take care of yourself and your life first. You can't help her if you fall apart." I nodded, and closed my eyes. An image of her when she became solid formed in my mind's eye. I remembered touching her soft skin, the look of complete shock and then contentment on her face. "There's also the research part of finding out who she is. There's so many different details that add into all of this. I feel like every step forward I get to take, something happens that knocks me back an entire mile. I just need a breakthrough or something." He stayed silent so long that it had me opening my eyes to see if he were even still in my room.