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

by Stephen Kingston

  Thirty-six hours after walking into the hospital Anne was still in labor, her pitiful screams now mewls of pain and exhaustion. Anne went in and out of consciousness, her body still fighting to get the baby out of her but the baby refused to move. Anne would occasionally snatch conversations but she wasn’t sure if they were dreams or reality.

  “If she dies it’s going to cost you more.” Anne heard Sophia say. Why did her Momma say that?

  “C-sections are expensive; we’re trying to keep costs down to make this profitable.” Doctor Nelson’s voice replied.

  Anne’s thoughts slipped from the voices as she went back to the land of darkness, not really asleep but not awake either. Anne went back to her unconscious world, the pain now more than she could bare and her mind kept retreating into a dark place where pain no longer existed. At one point she woke to the sound of another woman’s screams. Anne thought it sounded like Joan but wasn’t sure.

  She blinked and heard her mother once more talking to the doctor.

  “She’s about to die, at least get that baby out of her so we can make some money out of this entire mess. You’re wasting time, doctor.”

  Sophia’s steely voice, cold and uncaring, made Anne struggle for a moment, the unspeakable words riling Anne to fight the darkness but the pull was too strong and she fell back to the deep dark blackness where harsh words and cruel pain didn’t plague her. Anne drifted back to the depths, away from the horrible words that she hoped were solely a hallucination.

  Anne woke again, the sensation of movement jostling her back to reality, the pain a constant burning torment that seemed endless now. She knew she was dying, that this was the end, and wondered if she was actually in Hell now, the constant torment of pain and tearing, the scent of blood, making her wonder if this was how she was going to spend eternity. Hell was surprisingly cold and flame-free she thought before she lost her grip on reality once more.

  A sharp pain roused her once more, a stabbing and cutting sensation were the last things she felt before the darkness came to quickly claim her once more. She almost dragged herself out of the dark when she heard the sound of a baby crying but could no longer fight the darkness, she was simply too exhausted, too weak to struggle anymore. But Anne couldn’t stop the slight smile that stretched her lips; her daughter was here and screaming. Now she just had to rest a little bit. Just for a little while.

  Two days later Anne’s eyes opened and she realized she wasn’t in Hell but in a strange bed that wasn’t her own, sunlight streaming in from a window. She was resting on her side, something strange between her legs, with a deep ache within her body making her wince. Anne stared out of the window, wondering where exactly she was and what had happened to her. Why wasn’t she at home and why was her brain so foggy? Had she been ill? Was she in the hospital, is that where she was?

  As her mind cleared of the drugs she’d been fed and the exhaustion that had held her in the dark finally let up, her body finally starting to recover from the drugs, Anne realized something was different. She couldn’t feel her baby moving within her body anymore! Reaching down to her stomach she could feel that the mound that had been such a part of her life the last few months was gone. Where was her baby? Maybe she was asleep in the room somewhere!

  “Momma?” Anne called as she rolled over and saw her mother in a chair beside of Anne’s bed. Looking around she didn’t see anything the baby could be sleeping in and thought maybe the nurses had her.

  Anne’s body protested as she moved but she had to see her daughter. She didn’t know how she knew she’d had a girl, she just did. Where was she?

  “Momma! Where’s the baby? I want to see my baby!” Anne called out to her mother.

  “What? Oh, you’re awake Anne good, I’ll get the nurse. And you can’t see your daughter, you got what you deserved or the Lord decided to spare you both a life of shame. Your daughter died the day she was born and has been disposed of already. Count yourself lucky!” Sophia rushed from the room, her heartless words matching her heartless actions as she left her daughter screaming in her bed.

  Anne’s world collapsed with her mother’s words. She didn’t hear the heartlessness in the words, only the message that her daughter was dead and gone. She’d never even had a chance to look at her or name her!

  Chapter Four

  Through the devastation and loss Anne heard the doctor’s words but didn’t register them. Something had gone wrong, the doctor had been forced to perform a C-section but he was too late, the baby was dead before he could cut her out of Anne. Anne knew that was a lie, she’d heard the baby crying, she remembered it clearly.

  Apparently Anne would never be able to conceive again either; damage within her body forced the doctor to perform a hysterectomy on her. The news just grew worse and eventually Anne simply stopped listening to him, turning over in the bed to face the blank white wall. The total, overwhelming loss of the one thing that had made her life worth living, that had given her hope, left Anne unable to function. Her mother leaving her on her own in the hospital, never coming to check on her, also left Anne a victim. But Anne suspected her mother wouldn’t have stopped the drugs anyway.

  The doctor prescribed heavy medications at first under the guise of stopping her pain and then to make Anne sleep, his idea being that she would get over her grief as she slept. Anne’s mother left the day Anne woke up and did not come back until it was time to take Anne home. In the meantime Anne experienced strange physical sensations, nightmares that plagued her, and would awaken in the night to hear her little girl crying. The wails pierced her very soul and she knew, just knew it was her daughter crying.

  Anne sobbed when she was awake, begging the medical staff to stop torturing her and bring her child to her at last. She knew instinctively that her child was still alive and for some reason they were keeping the baby from her.

  “Anne you must stop this. Your child is dead. She didn’t even take a single breath. The child expired before she was even born.” Doctor Nelson told Anne sternly three days after she’d woke up from her ordeal and learned her daughter was dead.

  “Then why does Nurse Pracket keep coming in to take my milk? Why has my milk not dried up by now?” Anne challenged, her maternal instinct fighting with the drugs she was being fed. Her mind was fuzzy but she knew the slightest touch would cause the milk to flow. It shouldn’t be doing that by now, surely.

  Sighing the doctor turned away from Anne, signaling to Nurse Pracket. “Anne, we are going to have to consider electro-shock therapy if you keep this up. Your baby is dead.”

  Nurse Pracket dived at Anne as the doctor walked away, holding down the struggling, much lighter woman, and jabbed a needle in her leg. Anne’s body quickly relaxed as the medicine went into her veins, her cares disappearing with the drug.

  Anne woke up later that night, some contraption strapped to her breasts, a pumping action expressing the milk. The motion eased the pain in her swollen breasts and she fell back to sleep, yet again unsure of whether she was dreaming or if the event was actually happening. The drugs certainly did their job.

  Anne later heard her daughter crying once more and tried to leave the bed, determined to go to her crying child. Pulling herself along, too weak to even brush her hair out of her face, Anne pushed one leg in front of the other, trying to get out of the room. Someone Anne couldn’t see came in and caught her, taking her back to bed where her arms were tied down to keep her from leaving the bed once more.

  “Listen, that is not your child. It’s another woman’s child. But I’d love to strap you down and shock you a few times so if that’s what you want keep this up.” A harsh female voice said to Anne in the darkness. Then a needle prick took it all away.

  The next day Anne asked why she was tied down.

  “You were a very naughty girl last night. It’s for your own good that you’re tied to the bed.” Nurse Pracket responded with a gloating look.

  “I want my daughter, where is my daughter? Please, as a woman can
’t you have some sympathy and let me just have my daughter?” Anne pleaded with the other woman.

  Anne watched Nurse Pracket’s face and saw something in her eyes snap. To Anne’s surprise her restraints were cut and she was pushed into a wheelchair roughly. Anne felt hope rise within her heart and looked back at the nurse in gratitude. The look on the woman’s face soon dashed that hope.

  Terrible, gleeful, sadism showed through the placating smile the nurse wore as she pushed Anne to an elevator that took them up to the fourth floor. Anne struggled but the drugs, the birth, and the surgery left her too weak. She was strapped onto a cold table, her cries ignored and mocked, and that’s when the real terror began.

  “This is going to be so enjoyable. Ever since you first walked into Doctor Nelson’s office I’ve wanted to do this. So hoity-toity, so better than thou. Not anymore you aren’t, bitch.” The nurse said as she clamped something in Anne’s mouth then over her head.

  Anne felt cold liquid running over her head then heard a crackling noise. And then she knew very little at all as electricity passed through her abused body over and over and over again. Her body shook, it burned, and the pain was such that it was all she could focus on. And just when she thought it was over it would start again. Anne had no idea how long the torture went on but she knew it ended when Doctor Nelson walked in.

  “Nurse Pracket, who gave you permission to do this?” The doctor roared, checking Anne’s vitals and peeling her eyelids back.

  “She asked for the child again. I fixed that problem. Now she won’t keep asking about the breast milk issue. She won’t ask for the child, and she certainly won’t be making any accusations. We can keep her compliant until the formula shipment comes in and then we can send her home.” The nurse said before walking out of the room with a serene smile.

  The doctor looked into Anne’s eyes but knew the damage was done. Anne’s mental capacities might come back but for now, Anne was gone.

  Anne remained, as Nurse Pracket suggested, compliant for the rest of her stay. So compliant in fact that a child was brought in to nurse at her breasts before being taken away. Anne didn’t resist anymore, and the child sucked happily, but without the comfort that normally accompanied a mother feeding her child.

  Anne was unaware of it all, lost in her own world now. A world where she was holding her child while floating down a quiet river in a canoe. Occasionally some pain would twinge into her world but the doctor soon made that go away with a pill. Then her mother came to take her home at last.

  “What’s this?” Sophia asked when she was finally called to retrieve her daughter. Staring down at her daughter in the wheelchair, a line of drool running down Anne’s mouth, Sophia was disgusted. “This is going to cost you extra.”

  “We will pay, never fear. We have two more coming in this week so you’ll be paid again before the next due date. Just take her home and keep her warm and fed. I doubt you’ll ever have a problem out of her again. And if you do, you can always bring her back for another treatment.” Nurse Pracket informed Anne’s mother, a pleased smile on her cruel face.

  “Look at this mess. And I have to take care of her? I’m not sure it was worth this. You’d better be sending me a nurse out two times a week or we’re going to have to talk more money.” Sophia said, looking at her once vibrant daughter with distaste.

  Not pity, or shock, or heartbreak, Anne’s mother looked at her daughter with disgust before loading her into a car and driving her home. This was not the life Sophia had planned. Anne was supposed to leave and she was supposed to have her normal life back. She’d been burdened with the girl since she was fifteen, wasn’t that long enough?

  Pushing Anne into her bedroom Sophia dumped the now helpless woman on the bed, covered her with a throw and walked out to her front porch swing. This was not going to be easy if Anne stayed this way. Sophia was old now, and tired, but the Lord would provide a way, she just had to listen, she knew that.

  Sophia thought about what the doctor had said that Anne may still improve and spent a few minutes praying that she would. Not for Anne’s sake but for her own.

  Over the next few months the doctor’s words proved to be right, Anne started to improve but she remained almost childlike, her capacity never quite getting back to that of an adult. She found a baby doll somewhere and would rock it for hours on end out on the front porch swing, talking to it in a childlike voice. Anne never spoke to her mother again, only the doll she named Bridget. Anne didn’t fight back but she didn’t interact with the world around her either.

  Soon items began to arrive at the house through the mail. Nice things, things that Sophia had always wanted but could never afford. While Anne’s clothes became ragged and fell apart Sophia began to wear furs. Dishes that would never be used at a dinner party arrived and Sophia would spend hours staring at them while polishing the new silver she had.

  Anne’s body became thinner, weaker, and she became dependent on the pills the doctor’s prescribed her. Over the years her body began to crave more powerful drugs and while her mother was busy ordering things from the mail order catalogue the doctor would twice weekly bring medicines for Anne.

  Eventually Anne’s mother passed away and the doctor had to call a nurse to come in and care for Anne. Anne could now cook and clean and look after herself but the drugs she was taking made her forget the world existed. Anne would eat off of dirty dishes or leave food on the stove until the pots were so burned they had to be thrown away. The state stepped in and Anne was given a caretaker and welfare benefits to keep her fed.

  Rather than taking Anne off of the drugs, getting her body clean of their poison, and allowing her some semblance of a life Doctor Nelson just kept bringing stronger ones, until one particularly powerful one came out that caused Anne pain and terrible cravings if she had to go without the pill.

  As long as Anne had the medicine she was fine. She didn’t think about her missing baby, or how her mother had bought all of that junk with money she swore she didn’t have, or how the doctor kept bringing her drugs to keep her quiet. She just sat on the porch swing or stared out of the window, not thinking of anything but rocking her baby.

  Chapter Five

  April 1977

  Joan Parker looked around the small room with white painted walls, a crib, and other baby items before walking out and closing the door. Not yet, she couldn’t allow herself to have hope yet. Not until the baby was in her arms.

  Joan had lived a rough life, even after she married Scott, the man of her dreams. Her parents had died when she was young and she’d spent her teenaged years with her very timid grandmother in Louisa Falls, a woman whose fear of the world had infiltrated her granddaughter’s psyche. Two years away from thirty Joan had given up on having another child but then she’d discovered she was pregnant once more.

  Getting pregnant wasn’t easy for Joan; giving birth to a live child proved impossible so far. It was the one thing she and Scott wanted more than anything else. A child of their own to love and raise. Scott was an orphan as well but he’d been raised in an orphanage a few counties over. They wanted a family of their own and wanted to adopt but they didn’t have the money that adoption would cost them.

  Going in to prepare her husband’s dinner in the kitchen Joan wondered what those shots were the doctor was giving her. They must be some kind of vitamins because Joan didn’t feel as weak as she normally felt when she was pregnant. Her last two had left her feeling at death’s door she was so exhausted but not with this one. This baby was strong, she just knew it.

  Scott soon came home and Joan greeted him happily at the door, taking his hat and coat.

  “Welcome home, darling, how was your day?” Joan asked before kissing her man happily.

  “It was good Joan but I’m glad Doctor Nelson has reduced his fee, I couldn’t handle much more work. Dinner smells lovely, is it lasagna?” Scott asked after kissing his wife back.

  “You guessed it, my love. Are you ready to eat now or should I
keep it warm?” She asked as they walked back into the kitchen, the dining room actually just a nook in the corner of their tiny kitchen.

  “We can eat now.” Scott said as he washed up. “How did the doctor appointment go?”

  Scott’s words came out casually but the tenseness in his shoulders and in the jerky way his arms moved showed his calm words for a lie, Joan knew. She wanted to ease that tension but she knew Scott, like her, would not be calm until this baby was born and in their own home. They’d debated a midwife and having the baby at home but Scott insisted that Joan see a doctor this time and that the baby be born in a hospital, in case anything went wrong.

  “Everything is fine so far.” Joan qualified all of her statements about the baby and her pregnancy, terrified of jinxing everything. “Oh, there was a new woman there today, Anne Rasnake. She’s very lovely and we talked for a while. Meg was there too, of course, and we all had a nice little chat. Anne is coming to church Sunday so you’ll get to meet her then.”

  “That’s wonderful dear, you don’t have enough friends, you know. I’m glad you’ve met another, from the sounds of it.” Scott sat down to his dinner, complimenting his wife on how delicious it was.

  They went to bed that evening, Scott cradling her to his body, a couple hoping for more than they should some would say. Far from a wealthy couple the pair only wanted a real family, the opportunity to experience something they’d both missed out on in their childhoods. Hopefully this time was their chance.

  Across the street from Joan’s house, in the house that came as part of her husband’s role as the church’s leader, Meg Skaggs wondered if this was going to be the child that killed her. She’d feared birth since the very first time she became pregnant, all those years ago but Robert insisted she perform her duties without birth control. Birth control was a sin, he insisted.