Living Dolls

On an old broken down street that was seldom used sat a derelict house occupied by a widowed mother and her children. Her husband had died at a young age of a heart attack leaving her in dire straits to raise the kids, Matt and Veronica. Matt was a rough and rambunctious little kid that reminded his mother, Stacie, of their father. Stacie had no feelings for their father, for he had been abusive for their entire marriage. When he had died of his heart attack, she viewed it as divine intervention. God had smited him down from the high heavens for ever laying a hand on his loving creation. She carried a bit of resentment towards Matt for being so similar to his father, but she adored Veronica. Veronica was perfect in her eyes. So loving, so cute with her curly brown hair and striking green eyes.

Only one other house sat on that street and in it lived an older couple who visited them frequently. Stacie usually shoed them away as she didn’t really like their company. The kids always liked when they came by as they were always nice to the children.

“How are those cute kids of yours? It must be hard raising two children on your own, we could take them off your hands from time to time if you’d like some time to yourself.” They would frequently say when they’d knock on the front door.

Stacie was a strong woman, she struggled to make ends meet but she did the best she could. Frequently she’d be forced to leave the children home alone when she’d have to go to work on the weekend, she hated doing it but what choice did she have?

One afternoon, the children were being their normal playful selves and Stacie was off to her job at the local grocery store. She’d be leaving them home alone for a couple of hours and she told them to be careful. Matt and Veronica decided to play their usual game of hide and go seek. Matt was the seeker, and Veronica was the one hiding this time. Matt counted down from ten as he buried his head into his hands on his bed in their room that they had to share together.

“10, 9,8…” Veronica heard her younger brother counting down as she looked for a spot that he wouldn’t be able to find her in. She scoured through the house; their mother’s bedroom was too obvious and too close. She couldn’t even reach the attic in the hallway that connected the bedroom and led to the living room. She motioned to the living room, as quietly as she could; she looked to the kitchen to her right.

“No good spots there. The living room is too wide open.” She thought to herself.

She looked by the front door and just off the entrance was another door that led to the basement. Mom always told her and Matt to never go down there as it’s filled with monsters that love little children like them. She opened the door as quietly as she could and closed it behind her. Before the stairs was a spot to step down onto from the door, she hid up against the wall where the door opened to hit that way if Matt dared to look for her there, he’d surely forget to look behind the door he had just opened. Foolproof plan she thought.

“3,2,1! Ready or not, here I come!” Matt yelled and it was as if his words echoed through the walls. Veronica heard him and quieted her breathing, thinking it would make a difference.

Veronica heard her older brother rummaging through the house, starting off in their room then to their mothers. He couldn’t reach the attic so he didn’t bother to think his shorter sister could reach it either. He went running into the living room and even let out a screech, thinking a scare might force her to scream a little alerting his attention to where she was. Nothing, not a peep. She must not be here he thought.

“The kitchen!” He exclaimed.

He rummaged through the kitchen but deemed it to be clean, he even checked the patio, despite the fact that anything outside was cheating. She could have wanted to gain an edge this one time and use a spot out of bounds. It was then that it hit him. A spot out of bounds, like the basement. The dangerous basement filled with all kinds of creepy crawlers, the only spot they have never tried to hide at. He opened the door as fast as he could and it just barely came short of hitting her straight in the face. Veronica stopped breathing entirely nervous that Matt would hear her.

“I know you are down here, down here with all the creepy crawlers that Mom warned us about.” Matt whispered as he crept slowly down the stairs with a smile that screamed victory.

Silence, nothing was heard at all. If a pin dropped to the floor it would have echoed through the air and been as loud as a car crash out on the old road that barely anyone used. Matt continued slowly down the steps and felt the carpet under his feet getting wet the further he went down. Something was leaking in the basement, but he didn’t care. He walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked around expecting to see her somewhere in the beat up basement filled with boxes. It seemed familiar though, it was his father’s stuff and cobwebs covered all of it. He winced at the site, and began to grow tired of the game. More so, he wanted out of the creepy basement. She had to have been down there, he thought.

“VERONICA!!” Matt yelled at the top of his lungs.

This time it worked. His plan to scare her into making a noise. Any noise could have been heard in that silence and she gasped from the top of the stairs. He turned to face her with the happiest of smiles on his face as he saw her feet under the door that concealed her. She knew she had been found and came out from behind that door like a bat out of hell. Matt jumped back, slightly shocked himself. Veronica came running down the steps after her older brother, but the stairs were long and she was not used to running down stairs nonetheless. Her feet moved too quickly causing her to trip and come tumbling down the stairs, Matt thought to do something to help, but he had no idea what to do and watched in dismay. It seemed as if time had slowed down as he watched her roll like a ball down the hill. He heard snaps, unsure of what was snapping, and cracks as her body fell at the bottom of the stairs where she lay lifeless. He went to her, as she fell in a way where her right leg and left arm were turned in a way that didn’t seem normal.

“Veron…” His voice broke midway through saying her name as a puddle of blood came out from under her head getting bigger and bigger.

Matt didn’t know what to do and continued to take baby steps backward as the puddle widened. He didn’t want to touch; he didn’t want to make matters worse. He wanted Mom. Where’s Mom, he thought. She’ll know what to do. Veronica will be okay, she’ll be okay. He continued to tell himself as he backed himself up against the wall with his knees up while his arms wrapped around them and he continued to rock back and forth. Time seemed to stand still as he sat there rocking back and forth waiting for his mother. Eventually, he heard the front door upstairs creep open. He looked up as he heard her stop moving once she saw the basement door open. Matt would never forget the scream he heard once his mother had seen Veronica lying lifeless at the bottom of the steps. It would echo through his mind forever like a wailing siren lost at sea. She hurried down the steps and grabbed her daughter up into her arms where she continued to cry and scream hoping that God would hear her and spare her this heartache. She would get no such mercy.

“She..just fell. Is she going to be okay, Mommy?” Matt struggled to ask as he continued to rock back and forth up against the wall. His mother stood up, with tears running down her face and stomped her way toward her son while throwing her open hand back then whipped it back at his face smacking him hard.

“THIS!!! It is your fault!” Stacie yelled angrily as tears continued to run down her cheeks, ruining her makeup in the process.

She quietly walked back to Veronica and picked her up bringing her into the wine cellar they had in the basement. Matt just heard the wailings of a woman who had lost her daughter followed by many more noises which he did not want to investigate.

“Go to your room!” Stacie yelled from the other room.

Matt obliged his mother’s wishes and stepped over the blood left on the floor as he walked up the stairs. He went to his room, which he shared with his younger sister. There he sat, alone, looking at his sister’s bed and crying over what he had seen. He wasn’t going to be able to play hide and go seek with her ever again. He wouldn't be able to play anything with her. The constant he had in his life was missing. That paired with his mother’s wailing screams echoing through the walls of the house was all a bit too heartbreaking for young Matt. He didn't know how to act or what to do.

He rolled over on his side and closed his eyes trying to block out everything. He didn’t want to think about his sister, maybe when he opened his eyes she’d be back he thought. At most he didn’t want to hear his mother’s screaming anymore. All at once, it seemed to stop. Then he heard what he thought was thunder, instead it was her heavy footsteps hitting the stairs as she came running up and into his room slamming his door wide open.

“What did you do? You took away my baby!” Stacie cried.

“I didn’t do anything. We were just playing…” He was interrupted.

“Just playing? Just like your father you are. No more of that. No more of that, I say! Things are going to change.” Stacie continued to cry.

Matt jumped up, confused by what his mother was doing. She left the room for a second to get a trash bag from the bathroom across the hall. With the trash bag in tow, she began emptying out Matt’s drawers of his clothes. He tried stopping her only to be thrown back onto his bed.

“Stop it Veronica, your brother is gone now. Okay, there is nothing you can do about it. His choices led to this path.” Stacie snapped.

Matt was stunned by what his mother had said. Something snapped within her that made her still see Veronica and not her son. She wanted to see Veronica, and only her. She refused to be left alone with the living reminder of the man that abused her for all of those years; she had dealt with so much trauma.

Day turned to night, days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. Stacie had tossed out Matt’s bed leaving it at the end of the driveway for trash to pick up along with his clothes. Stacie had begun to dress Matt as if she were Veronica, at any point if he were to act up and fight her dressing him up like a girl; he would then be thrown into a dark closet. He would sit alone in that dark closet by himself for what seemed like an eternity, rotting away. In a way he had slowly deteriorated from being the young boy and turned into a husk that would lifelessly walk through the house. At first, he was confused when he was thrown in the closet. Then that confusion turned to sadness. Then that sadness he had felt turned to acceptance. His acceptance over the matter of time turned to anger. He had to free himself and get away from his mother who had clearly lost her mind. The only saving grace he had was his neighbors who had still come by from time to time asking to see both him and his sister. He devised a plan in his mind on the last time he was thrown in the closet for being deemed a bad child. He’d come out of the closet acting the way his mother had wanted him to be. An obedient child deferring to the wishes of its parent.

“Go wash yourself off in the bathroom, Veronica.” Stacie said to her child.

Matt took this as his chance. In the bathroom was a large broom around the corner from the door. As his mother followed him into the bathroom he reached for the broom and smacked her in the head with the wooden part of it, knocking her down to the ground. As she fell, he bolted down the hallway into the living room and out the front door. He raced down the street, not caring if a car was on his trail for if it was at least they’d be able to take him away from his psychotic mother. From an outsider’s perspective, it had to have looked strange seeing a boy running down the street in a girl’s clothing.

“VERONICA!!!!” He heard his mother yelling but didn’t care to look back. Eventually the woods broke into a clearing revealing what he believed to be his neighbor’s house.

He had never seen where his neighbors lived, but he knew that only one other family lived on the street, it had to be them. Their house was down the road secluded deep into the woods, almost as if it was being devoured by all the trees surrounding it. Luckily, a car was in the driveway too. He knocked on the front door frantically until they answered. The husband answered the door first with a concerned look on his face. Matt rushed inside the door.

“Please, please, call the police.” He said as he gasped for breath.

"So good to finally meet you Matt, but why are you dressed like your sister?" The man asked.

The wife was in the kitchen preparing the boy a glass of water to calm him down as the two huddled around him asking what was wrong. Matt had explained to them what had happened to his sister and what his mother had done to him over the course of months. She had gone crazy. Yet, the couple was so concerned for his well-being that they had forgotten to call the cops. Matt disregarded their questions and continued to urge them to call for help.

“PLEASE, call the police!” He yelled once more.

As the wife rushed to the phone, and the husband still huddled around Matt. Matt took the glass of water, finally taking a moment to relax figuring that he was finally safe and away from his mother’s psychotic grasp over him. Matt was simply relieved once again to feel as if he was cared for. A feeling he had begun to long for. He took a sip from the glass of water, but it tasted a little funny. He dismissed it and continued to drink more. The more he drank, the more he noticed his view had become distorted. As if he had been looking through a shattered mirror. Everything was in place, but just off in one way or another. He noticed the wife hung up the phone and began to signal to her husband. Something was wrong. Everything turned to black and he had fallen asleep.

Matt came too, but struggled to move. He even saw a reflection of himself as he quickly realized he was trapped inside some sort of container meant for his size. Even his clothing was different. He was now dressed in a suit that fit his size. His arm itched as well, he looked at it and there were markings on it as if he had been shot up with something. He continued to struggle, trying to break free but the reality of the situation had hit him. He escaped one nightmare into another one. This one instead of a closet, he had no freedom whatsoever. He was imprisoned. The couple came in front of his container. The two beamed a great big smile that he wanted to rip off. The husband leaned in and kissed his darling wife.

“To think, doctors said we couldn’t have our own children. Now look at us.” The husband gleamed.

“Us and our living dolls. They are so pretty.” The wife smiled as she tilted her head on to his chest.

The couple looked upon Matt and many more children in similar containers with the happiest of expressions. Most of them had fight left in them like Matt, except for the few that had begun to rot away in their containers.

“It is a perfect collection. All for you baby.” The husband whispered.