Thriller: Horror: Spirit Doll (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story)

by Stephen Kingston

  Lilly walked back out of the bedroom gently closing the door behind her. She couldn’t understand what had happened to the doll. It had to be somewhere. Had Chrissy been sleepwalking again and left it somewhere else in the house? Could it have happened while she was working and she was just too distracted to hear what was going on behind her? That was a scary thought.

  Lilly walked down the hallway, casually glancing in the bathroom and the spare bedroom that they had converted into a reading room for Brad. There was nothing there. She wondered if maybe Chrissy had taken her to the second bathroom on the other side of the house. That was a bathroom they didn’t use a lot, but it was possible. She vaguely remembered all of the weird things from her own sleepwalking days. They came back to her every now and then and it looked like nightmares. She really hoped her little girl did not have to struggle with this sort of thing for her entire childhood.

  As Lilly rounded the corner to the other hallway something caught the corner of her eye and she slammed the brakes on her feet instantly. She almost tripped over herself and came close to toppling head first onto the hardwood floors. Her hands instinctively lashed out to the walls, grabbing them for balance.

  She caught herself and slowed her momentum, her eyes never leaving what they had seen. She tried to focus and wished that she’d grabbed her eye glasses off the coffee table. She usually didn’t need the glasses unless she was reading, but she wanted to make sure her eyes were not playing tricks on her.

  Sitting in her office in the middle of her desk was the doll. It was propped up against her computer screen staring out towards the hallway. It was as if the doll had been there the whole time. There was no way, was there? She had just been in this room less than ten minutes ago. Other than the time she had taken to make a sandwich she had not been away from her desk.

  The door to Chrissy’s room had been closed also and that door always squeaked when you opened it. She had not even turned on the TV until after she finished making her sandwiches and sat down. She would have heard the door open before then. It couldn’t have been more than ten seconds before she was looking down the hall after hearing the squeaking. Not nearly enough time for Chrissy to place the doll there and then run back to her room and fall deeply asleep. She knew that her daughter was not faking sleep. And if she’d been sleepwalking there was no way she could have done that. By the time Lilly went into the hall she would have seen Chrissy. There was no other way for Chrissy to take that doll and place it in her office.

  The doll had moved by itself.

  That was the first time Lilly had allowed the thought to officially cross her mind without it being buried underneath a bunch of other junk. She did not know what to do with that thought. What in the hell was going on? There was something very wrong with that doll and she had known it from the start. Right away there was something that drew you into the doll and made you question so many things about yourself. It was almost like the doll communicated telepathically and made you feel really small so that you felt closer to it, as if you needed it. It was crazy.

  The doll had moved by itself.

  The thought kept flashing through her mind as if it was a broken record of a sickening mantra. She knew that it was not possible. Dolls did not move by themselves. They were not people and they never would be, no matter how much someone wanted to pretend that the doll was a person.

  Lilly concentrated on her breathing for a moment. She could feel that the air had grown thick and condensed instantly and there was a faint smell like dust and mold hanging in the air that she had never really smelled before.

  She had to get rid of it.

  Lilly knew that she couldn’t do that. Brad would be home soon and he would be furious if she threw his expensive present to Chrissy away and Chrissy would be utterly shattered to learn of this as well. She had become completely inseparable from the doll.

  Was she crazy? Was she actually willing to believe that the doll had some sort of mythical powers or that it was possessed or something? She had seen too many horror movies on late night Netflix binges. There was something wrong here. She needed to get a grip. There had to be a logical explanation, like Brad said. She didn’t want him to think that she needed to be locked away in the looney bin did she? No, there had to be an explanation. She would find it sooner or later.

  For right now though, what was she going to do with the doll?

  She would not be able to think of anything else if it was in her office and she damn sure wasn’t going to let it near Chrissy. She would hide the doll in the closet and tell Chrissy that it was broken and when Daddy came home he would fix it. That would work. It had to. Even if it didn’t, the damn doll would be out of her way.

  She approached the doll slowly as if she expected it to come to life at any moment and bite the shit out of her. Was it possible the thing was alive? Could that be real? She had heard of legends and myths of things like this happening, but she had always dismissed it all as voodoo legends and urban folklore. It was campfire tales kind of stuff. Surely she couldn’t accept it as a possibility.

  But she did. As much as she tried to talk herself out of it, to ignore her feelings, they were there and they were strong. She knew there was something evil about this damn doll. This was not normal behavior and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

  She was now standing only a foot from the doll, staring right at it. She was trying not to stare too hard into its eyes. It seemed to have the most hypnotic stare that just drew you to it. She had to avoid the gaze at all costs.

  Lilly took a deep breath and psyched herself up a bit. She reached out and grabbed the doll and quickly walked down the hall to the guest bedroom. She opened the closet door and sat the doll on the top shelf. Then she closed the door and placed a chair in front of it. There was no way that Chrissy could get to the doll now and there was no way in hell that the damn doll could get out of there on its own either.

  Lilly felt satisfied and went back to her sandwich and the last few minutes of the news. She was looking for anything to distract herself. A rum and coke would probably do the trick. Although she was only about halfway through her workday she decided to go for it. She needed something to calm her damn nerves.

  She made the drink extra strong and within four sips she was already feeling more relaxed. Lilly could not force her mind to move on to another subject. She kept feeling like she was being watched and she kept looking behind her constantly as if she expected the doll to be there.

  She suddenly realized that the doll was not that far from her daughter. The guest bedroom adjoined hers and she could not see either room from where she was. Lilly quickly went into Chrissy’s room, trying to stay far from the door to the guest room, straddling the wall of the hallway on the opposite side. She suddenly felt like she was eight years old again and she was absolutely certain that the boogeyman was under her bed and she was running to her mom and dad’s room.

  She woke Chrissy up (sort of) and carried her to the living room where she sat her on the couch with her favorite Star Wars blanket. The kid loved good movies; they were raising her right.

  Chrissy groggily finished waking up and rubbed her eyes a bit to rejoin the land of the living. She noticed that she was no longer in her room and that her Mommy seemed scared. Lilly could see it in the girl’s face. Sometimes she thought that kid was too smart for her own good.

  “Mommy? What is going on?” Chrissy asked.

  “Oh, nothing. It’s almost lunch time sweetie.”

  “OK. Where is Shelly?”

  “Oh, I noticed Shelly is broken in one spot. I’m going to have your Daddy fix her when he gets home.”

  “She isn’t broken.”

  “Yeah she is. There is a flake or something that came off her and it left a sharp edge. I don’t want you to get cut sweetie. Daddy will be home in a few hours.”

  “OK,” Chrissy said.

  Lilly knew that Chrissy didn’t believe her at all, but the child was too tired and probably too hung
ry to care. Lilly went to the kitchen, made Chrissy a sandwich with the crust cut off and a glass of milk.

  The child ate the sandwich in about three bites and gulped the milk in two. Lilly had never seen a child with an appetite as voracious as Chrissy's. It was impressive, she had to admit. Chrissy loved her food. She had never had any problems getting her to eat, although sometimes she did like to play with the food as she ate it. It made the food much more fun and tastier, according to her. Lilly thought that made perfect sense. When you had a four year old you had to let go of real logic on a regular basis.

  Chrissy finished her lunch and then lay back down on the couch. Eating often put the child to sleep in the middle of the day. It was a blessing that she so readily took routine naps, but she often failed to sleep through the night because of it. It was a tradeoff, Lilly supposed. But she was fine with Chrissy waking up occasionally at night if it meant that she got to work during the day when the child was napping. The sporadic sleep pattern did take a toll on her though and she found herself often wanting to take naps herself during the day, which she had to ignore for the most part.

  She looked at the clock and noticed it was barely 12:30 p.m. It would be at least five hours before Brad got home. Even longer if he left the office right on time and got stuck in rush hour traffic. She would have to stay in the house all that time with the doll.

  This is ridiculous, she thought. The doll is not moving by itself. Brad was right; there had to be a logical explanation to it all. She was allowing her own mind to spook herself out. She had to laugh at herself. The way she had been so scared was laughable.

  Then why did she still feel so scared? The struggle in her mind between what was real and what could not possibly be real was intense. She could not remember a time when she had felt so conflicted. There was something not right about that doll. She had to get it out of the house. She had to throw it away, whether Brad agreed to it or not.

  Maybe she could stage some sort of an accident with the doll? Some freak accident. Maybe Chrissy had thrown it out the window playing and it landed in the street. A car had come right by and run right over it and the bastard didn’t even stop to see what he’d hit. Do you freaking believe that?

  No. The road was too far from the house for it to be believable that Chrissy had thrown it that far. Besides Chrissy was not one to throw things, especially out the window. Chrissy was afraid of heights and would recoil from the mere sight of an open window. It had been a stupid idea from the start.

  Maybe they had been at the park, which Lilly took Chrissy to sometimes during the day when she wanted to give her mind a rest from the tedium of writing—usually when she was stuck at a rough spot—, and a dog had grabbed the doll and ripped its head off. We were just walking and this guy walking a Doberman passed us. Suddenly it lunged at Chrissy and grabbed the doll. It ripped the head off in the blink of an eye. They dog walker just kept walking and wouldn’t let me get his information to pay for damages. I’ve never seen him there before. That dog should be put down; it almost hurt Chrissy!

  That did sound a bit more plausible. She was not sure if she was a good enough actress to pull it off though. She had never been able to lie convincingly to anyone, especially Brad. He always knew when she was telling a little fib. It was like the guy had special powers when it came to her.

  She decided that she would get rid of the doll and then make up something about it later. Brad would be furious most likely and if she told him the truth he would probably argue that she needed to be committed or had some weird demented form of cabin fever since she had been working at home. She often wondered about that herself.

  Lilly waited until Chrissy was sound asleep and then she carefully got up off the couch, making sure not to disturb her sleeping angel. She walked slowly down the hallway towards the guest room. It was terrifying. Lilly instantly broke out in a cold sweat and her clothes were soaked clear through. She felt like she had just walked into a sauna and she was burning up. Her stomach began to do flip flops threatening to spill its contents all over the floor. She had to swallow continuously to keep her mouth from foaming and to help with the nausea. Her head was spinning in waves of dizziness. The walls on either side of her kept leaning towards her as if they wanted to seal her up in some kind of walk in coffin.

  She reached out to the walls to steady herself, but it was not working. Her hands clung to the drywall and the walls moved beneath her grip as if she was touching air. It was like she was being wrapped up in some kind of blanket of sickness and vertigo. She kept trying to look beneath her feet to make sure that the floor was still there. It felt like the floor was moving away from her and that her feet were suddenly up in the air. Lilly felt that she was going to fall down at any minute.

  She was getting close to the room, but she was not sure she could make it. She had never felt like this before. There was something wrong with her.

  Lilly turned around and began to move back towards the living room. She had to sit down and rest a few moments. She had to relax and get her bearings. The ground continued to sway all around her as she began to beat a hasty retreat back to the comforts of her living room.

  The couch welcomed her with open arms. It gently cushioned her body as she finally flopped down on it. She allowed her body to sprawl a bit and lean back against the leather.

  The room suddenly stopped spinning. The nausea was gone. Her sweat was gone, but her clothes were still wet. She could think and see clearly now. There was nothing at all wrong with her now. It was all OK. The sickness was completely gone.

  What in the hell had just happened to her. Did she have some sort of a panic attack? Could it come and go that fast? She had never had a panic attack before. She felt like her whole body was going to collapse and she was going to pass out. What would have happened to Chrissy? She didn’t know how to call 911, did she?

  The doll.

  It had to be the doll.

  The thought echoed in her disturbed mind and the grip of panic instantly returned, but this time its effect was sobering. Her mind felt razor sharp and ready to admit the truth.

  The doll knew she was coming. It knew that she was going to destroy it and it had attacked her. How? Was it telepathic? It was a supernatural doll. It was probably possessed by some evil force.

  What was she saying? Was she really listening to herself? She knew it sounded crazy. Anyone she told it to would have told her that she was crazy and that she needed some rest or that she might need to speak to someone.

  But it had to be true. There was too much unexplained behavior for her to think otherwise. That was just not going to fly with her. She was a rational woman and she knew what was happening to her. That doll had just sickened her worse than she had ever been in her life and as soon as she moved away from the doll it had stopped. That was no coincidence. She knew that if she went after the doll again the same thing would happen.

  She had to tell Brad. She had to make him understand that they were all in danger as long as that doll stayed in their home. It had to be destroyed or thrown away. They could not allow this to go on.

  She would have to force him to believe her.

  Chapter Four

  “Are you listening to yourself?” Brad asked.

  Lilly swallowed hard and let out a deep sigh. She had to be strong. She knew that Brad would never believe her that such a thing was happening or that it was even possible. She knew it sounded crazy and she had been hoping he would give her the benefit of the doubt since he was her husband. He had to come around. He just had to.

  “I know how it sounds,” Lilly began.

  “No, I don’t think you do or you would stop saying it. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Brad said. He began to pace back and forth as he did when he was nervous.

  “You aren’t even trying to listen to me. I’m not crazy; I know what I’ve seen.”

  “You are sounding crazy, I’ll tell you that. You are really going to flip out over a doll that you think is a
live. Do you realize how insane that is?”

  “Of course I realize it. I’m not a superstitious person. I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I can’t deny what I’ve seen or what I feel. I don’t trust that doll and I want it out of my house.”

  “It’s our house and we are going to discuss this before we do anything. You have to understand that you are mistaken. I think you’ve been working too hard or you’ve been cooped up in this house too long without any human contact all day, except for a four year old.”

  “That is not what is happening! That doll is dangerous. It is moving by itself. Chrissy couldn’t have done it.”

  “She is four years old; she is capable of a lot, especially if she is sleepwalking.”

  “She wasn’t sleepwalking. I went to the kitchen to make a sandwich and the doll ended up in my office. Chrissy was asleep. Her door could not have been opened without me hearing it.”

  “Oh, that is your logic? The door didn’t creak. Well, maybe it just didn’t creak that one time or maybe you were busy and didn’t hear it all the way down the hall and in another room. You ever think of that?”

  “Look, I don’t care if you don’t believe me. I have a right to be happy in my home and we are a team that is built on trust and compromise. I don’t want that damn thing in my house. I want it out of here. Respect my wishes, foolish or not. Respect my happiness.”

  Brad gave her that defeated ‘I know you are right’ look. He gritted his teeth and sat down on the bed. He didn’t say anything for several seconds and Lilly didn’t push. She just waited for him to get his mind around the decision. He had to respect her wish that she just didn’t want the thing no matter how stupid her reasons sounded to him. He had always been a rational and fair man and she knew if she played to his common sense on this then he would have to agree with her.