• ~Winter~


    ____Sleet slashed against the window screens again, but I didn't mind. It was a pitch black winter night, and I was just about to fall asleep. My covers were still cold, but that was ok too; to this day I still fall asleep faster when my bed isn't warm. The only thing bothering me that night was the snoring of my older brother directly beneath me. (Bunk beds are ok, but I was always afraid of falling off and hurting myself.)

    ____Sounds of the light wind were the last thing my ears swallowed before I fell asleep that night, tossing and tumbling to rub myself against the frigid sheets.

    ~Asleep~


    ____Next thing I knew, I was standing in my house's kitchen. It was daytime, and looked like it was Summer outside. My brother, Mike; and two of my cousins, Alicia and Laurie, were standing on the other side of a large table that separated us. (It was large to me, at least.) The three of them stood in a tight circle, laughing and joking about something. When I ran around the table to them, Mike pushed me away like he normally does.

    ____It was normal for him to treat me like this; my cousins just stood with him and laughed at me like nothing was wrong at all. What wasn't normal was the fact that when I opened my mouth to yell, nothing but air came out. I tried again to yell at him and call him "stupid" and "mean" and other potty-mouthed adjectives that 5 year-olds use, but I only got more and more frustrated in my attempts. Matt must have thought it funny that I didn't have a voice, because his laughter howled even louder. Even Alicia and Laurie had working vocal chords to mock me with.

    ____Stop it. Why can't I play with you? I thought.

    ____All of a sudden, in the midst of my silent yelling, my brother and cousins stopped their laughing and ran off in the direction of our laundry room. (If you could have called it running... It was more like they bulleted away.) Something was wrong with how they moved... but still; I needed to go after them. I absolutely hated being left behind.

    ____I tried to run after them, but my legs wouldn't move as fast as I wanted them to. I concentrated harder, but it felt like I was almost paralyzed. And they moved so fast... I thought.

    ____Turning a few tight corners, I found myself in the laundry room. Fresh linen rampaged my nose, but I was more distracted by my brother and his party. Again, the three children were huddled in a tight circle, but this time none of them were laughing or joking. They were looking down at the floor; like a strange bug was sitting there and they had discovered it. As I moved closer to them, I saw it wasn't any bug, but an emotionless little porcelain doll. Nothing seemed weird about it, but there was a cramped feeling in the room... like someone had just announced they were terminally ill. It was an awkward silence, and us four children simply stood there frozen.

    ____Nothing seemed weird about the doll.

    ____Alicia, the blond, innocent looking cousin, pointed a finger and gasped abruptly. What is it? I mouthed, but again; nothing came out of my mouth but air.

    ____Then it was obvious. The doll had swiveled its head on its neck to look right at me. I looked back into its eyes, and at that moment felt completely paralyzed. I focused on the doll as it slowly transformed itself while watching me. Its skin turned a dark shade of green; not forest, but a sickly throw up color. The doll's eyes shaded from light brown to dark red in seconds. The mouth opened, and its teeth were sharp and protruding.

    ____In the same abnormal speed that they had moved before, Mike, Alicia, and Laurie all sped into the nearby closet to hide. They moved in a blur, and the noise of the closet door slamming startled me as I kept staring at the porcelain doll.

    ____I was alone in the end, with the green, red-eyed, shark-toothed monster slowly crawling toward me. I tried to scream, but I had no voice. I tried to run, but my legs didn't work. My fear of being left behind was coming true in the most dire way; standing by myself with the smell of linen flooding my nose, and a porcelain doll coming to kill me.

    ____I woke up to the sound of sleet, and I screamed.

    ~Fin~