The Doll Maker

Piper was on her way home with her brother and sister. They were talking about a new case they had been assigned. Piper and her siblings were detectives, of sorts. They took down the most notorious criminals: serial killers. Obviously, they were not normal triplets. They had been trained since they were small children. The triplets came into this way of life rather, you could say, unexpectedly. Their parents were killed by a man who was pure evil.

The children had come home from school to find their parents with buttons sewn over holes where their eyes were supposed to be. Upon further inspection during an autopsy, it was discovered that Mary and John's bodies had been hollowed out. The bodies had also been dressed carefully and every hair on their heads were perfectly placed. They were quite literally, human dolls.

Although the three children were very young—only six years old—they vowed to kill every single serial killer they could find and eventually maybe find their parents' killer.

Well today was their lucky day.

Zeke, the man who had taken in the triplets and trained them, had just called to tell them that an old case had resurfaced and he needed them home ASAP.

"Well who do you think it is?" Poppy, Piper's sister asked.

"Maybe the Jersey Strangler. We never caught him," Parker, their brother, chimed in.

"He's supposed to be dead. They found the body didn't they?"

"That's the only case we've been on that we didn't solve. Well... besides... do you think that maybe...?" Piper's voice trailed off but her siblings knew exactly what she meant. They rode the rest of the way home in silent anticipation.

When they got home, Zeke filled them in on the case. He explained that a couple's bodies were found in their homes after an anonymous 911 call. Their empty eye sockets were covered with buttons just like the triplet's parents. Piper, Poppy, and Parker were all silent.

"Oh, and this came for you today," said Zeke handing Poppy a small package with all three of their names on it.

"What do you think it is this time? More subtle reminders maybe?" Poppy's words were practically dripping with sarcasm. All three of them knew what was in that box. They had been getting them since about a month after their parents' death. There was never a return address on the box and they were always signed by 'anonymous.' The trio just assumed it was from a family member.

"Well open it," Parker instructed. Poppy opened it and passed around little packages of gummy googly eyes. The three had gotten used to the morbid treat. They didn't throw them away anymore or get mad about not knowing who sent them or why they were being tortured so. They just ate their snack and carried on with their day. After eating the contents of this months' package, they ate supper and went to bed early so they could wake and leave for their job the next day.

In the morning, when the children had eaten breakfast and packed their bags, they told Zeke goodbye and headed on their way. They traveled three and a half days to their destination - Yellville, Arkansas. When they arrived in the quaint little town, they grabbed a motel room for the night and ordered a pizza.

Parker found a local newspaper. The front page article was exactly what he was looking for. It explained, in gruesome detail, the murder of the parents of three small children. The article said nothing about where the children ended up. It was hard for Parker to think about his parents and what it was like growing up without them and even harder to think about it happening to another child.

Parker gave the newspapers to his sisters to read just as the pizza man arrived. He commented on the dangers of three teenagers in a motel room by themselves and Piper promptly told him to "can it" and do his job.

They ate pizza and went to bed. The triplets had a big day ahead of them.

<>

Three small children sat huddled in the corner of a dark basement. They didn't know where they were or who the tall man was who kept coming back to give them bread and water. The children's situation was much like that of a prisoner who had been thrown in the hole. It was pitch black, dank, and cold. Definitely not the ideal situation for three five year olds.

As the children sat quietly huddling trying to keep warm, the tall man upstairs was stomping around. The triplets had only been there a couple of days but they knew what happened when the man got angry. The only thing they could do was pray he didn't come after them this time. Even together, they were too small to fight him off or injure him at all for that matter. He seemed to heal very quickly anyway.

<>

Piper, Poppy, and Parker woke the next morning fully rested and ready for their day. They were excited to finally be able to track down their parents' killer. The man who took away everything they had. The downside was that there had never been any witnesses to the murders. The triplets had no idea what the man looked like. How were they supposed to know what to look for?

"Well I think we can start by looking for any doll shops in town. Or maybe even dress shops. Anything that has to do with hand sewing," offered Piper.

"Good idea. I'll go ask the desk clerk if she knows a place." Parker left the room and headed towards the motel's main office. Poppy and Piper gathered their things and packed them back into the car.

When Parker came back he informed the girls that there was a novelty shop down the road that sold a lot of handmade dolls. It wasn't a strong lead but it was their only one, so the siblings got in their car and headed down to the shop.

Inside the novelty store called "Gold's Treasures" was just about every knickknack you could think of. Porcelain cats, salt and pepper shakers— everything. And the place was full from floor to ceiling.

"Looks like they don't get a lot of business," whispered Poppy.

All three of the kids jumped as a deep, craggy sounding voice came from behind them, "Can I help you find anything?"

The triplets looked at each other wearily, "We were wondering if you had any handmade dolls pass through here recently."

"Oh yes. A man who lives outside of town makes them and brings them to me to sell. They go fast. They're just back here." The creepy old man led the triplets to the back of the store where several dolls were displayed neatly. They looked at the dolls for a few long minutes. No doll was the same but what really stood out about them was their eyes. They weren't buttons as the three had expected to see. They looked very real. This guy is a good painter Poppy thought to herself.

"Could you tell us where the doll maker lives? We wanted to get dolls to look like us," Piper asked the old man politely.

"I don't know where he lives. You can just tell by the way he smells that he works on a pig farm. That's how I know he lives out of town. The closest farm I know of is owned by the Matthews. You might ask them if they know of a place." The store owner gave the trio directions to the Matthews place. They thanked him and returned to their car.

When the three arrived at the Matthews farm, they asked a muddy kid about their age if he knew about a pig farm anywhere near there. He didn't. He also informed them that his parents weren't home and wouldn't be for another couple of days. Since that was a bust, Piper asked if there was a place in town where they could use a computer. The boy gave them the address of the local library and the siblings headed back into town.

At the library they were able to use one computer for an hour. They would have used their phones to research but there was no service. The town was like a black hole; no connection to the outside world, which also meant that the Internet ran at a snail's pace. Nevertheless, Piper found what she was looking for. There were several murders in surrounding towns with almost identical descriptions: parents of triplets or twins found dead in their homes with buttons sewn over empty eye sockets. In every case, the young children were nowhere to be found.

"Why would they kidnap all these children and not us?" Parker asked even thought he knew his sisters didn't have the answer.

"How would I know, Park? All I know is that we need to stop this guy because obviously, the police can't." Piper was getting frustrated. They had come all this way to find their parents' killer and they were at a dead end. How were they supposed to find a pig farm that nobody but a senile antique store owner knew about? They didn't even know what this guy looked like. The only information they had was that he made dolls and smelled like manure.

Poppy was lost in thought while her brother and sister bickered about what to do with the little information they had. If the man was kidnapping the children, where was he keeping them? And since no bodies were being found, what was he doing with them? She decided that she really didn't want to know and zoned back in on the present conversation. Piper was looking skeptical while Parker suggested they go to the police station to ask about the hog farm.

"Piper, it's the only thing we have to do right now. Maybe if they don't know where to look they can lead us to someone who will. It's our best shot," Parker sounded pretty convincing.

"Fine. Let's go." They thanked the librarian after getting directions to the sheriff's station and headed outside. When they were all back in the car and headed to the police station, Parker suggested they get some food. They stopped at a diner and had sandwiches before continuing on their way.

An officer at the station did know of a hog farm several miles outside of town. He gave them directions and they thanked him but before they could make it out he door he said, "Watch it out there. The owner of that farm is a little weak in the upper story if you know what I mean." The trio left with a cloud of dread hanging over their heads. They weren't ready to meet their parents' killer. They had worked every day of their lives since the murder but still they felt they wouldn't be able to stand the sight of a man who mutilated the bodies of the people they loved. The three knew they all had to be thinking the same thing for they all climbed into the car with heavy hearts and heads hanging low. They all felt they would fail the most important test of their lives.

<>

The three children were still huddled in the nasty basement when a shaft of light illuminated a rickety wooden staircase. The tall man moved slowly down the stairs. This time he didn't hold their water and bread, just a rope. He grabbed one of the children. The girl screamed as aloud as she could and fought hard but she couldn't get away. The man bound her hands with the thick rope and dragged her up the stairs. The little girl begged and pleaded with the man and asked him to please give her back to her mommy and daddy. Finally, the man became frustrated with her. He smacked her hard across the face and yelled at her to shut up. The girl cried silently as the man led her through the house and out to a barn. There he strapped her down to a table by her wrists and ankles. The edges around the table rose a couple of inches above the surface of the table as though it were to keep things from falling off.

The man left the girl alone for a few minutes. When he came back, he held a clay bowl and something wrapped neatly in a brown cloth. He set the bowl down on the ground under the girl and rolled another small table over beside her. Here he unrolled the cloth to reveal a knife with a symbol carved into the handle. It didn't look like anything the little girl had seen before so she just guessed that it was accidentally scratched into the wood.

The man lifted the knife from the table and ran a finger along the blade. Then he looked to the child. She was terrified. Good. The tall man took a step closer to the little girl on the table. She began to struggle against her restraints. He liked when they struggled. The man lightly caressed the girl's face with the edge of the blade. She stopped struggling and breathed hard, her eyes darting around the room frantically.

The tall man cut the girls' dress away so that her abdomen was exposed. She was crying and shrieking loudly. He then took the knife and started to slice open her stomach. When he had a satisfying incision from one side to the other, he began to tear the skin open wider to create a gaping hole into which you could see the grisly details of her insides. The child screamed and screamed, but that would not help her now. Once her abdomen had been successfully opened, the man picked up the bowl he had placed under the table. The child was nearly gone by now from the blood loss. She could hardly breathe. The man began to scoop out the girls' insides with his bare hands, cutting away tissue where he needed to. He did this until the girl was completely empty. Then he removed her eyes with the skill of a surgeon. He placed these in a plastic bag. The man took the bowl and the eyes back into his house and left the girl's body on the table to dispose of later.

<>

The triplets drove for 45 minutes before they found the hog farm that the policeman had told them about. It didn't look very taken care of. The hogs were exceptionally filthy even for hogs. The only vehicle was very old and looked like it hadn't been driven in years. There was a small barn but it looked like the hogs did not have access to it. They only had a small enclosure about 50 yards from the house which looked like nobody lived there. The windows were boarded up and there was only half a porch, the rest of it lay in a pile on the ground. The three were wary of stepping up on it for fear that the rest of it would collapse. Parker decided that it wouldn't hurt that much if it did collapse and bravely placed himself onto the porch. When it did not cave in, his sisters stepped onto it too. Piper knocked on the door hesitantly. A deep voiced, "Come in" came from within the house. Piper looked to her brother and sister, shrugged, and pushed the door. It opened with an ominous creaking sound.

As the triplets entered the house they took out small blades they fit between their fingers like brass knuckles. They had to be careful. This was the most dangerous killer they had been presented with in their whole lives.

"What are you waiting for? Come on in," waid the voice. The trio gave each other questioning looks but continued slowly into the house and through a short entryway into a living room. A very tall, thin man sat in a shabby old armchair drinking what looked like red wine.

"Sit down. I have been waiting for you."

"If you expect us to sit down and have a conversation with you-"

"Oh I wasn't expecting that."

"Where are those children?" demanded Parker.

"Safe," was all the response he got.

Poppy was inching closer to the tall man, her blade poised. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said without even glancing in her direction. Suddenly, Poppy grabbed another knife from her boot and flung it at the man. With a satisfying smack, the blade sunk into his throat. Poppy's action had been so fast, everyone in the room looked at her in shock, even the evil man. He continued to look at her, stare really. He didn't even slump over dead like Poppy expected him to. After a few moments he dropped his eyes to the knife protruding from his neck. Then he slowly brought his hand up to grasp it and yanked it from its spot. He gave Poppy a look that could still the blood in your veins. "I warned you about doing that, didn't I?"

As Parker and Piper stood still with surprise, the tall...whatever he was... contemplated his next move. These kids were definitely a threat. But Parker being bigger than the girls, looked to be the most dangerous. The 'man' turned on his heal and gave the knife a hearty pitch. It flew straight for parker's face but he saw it fast enough to duck and it only grazed his thick ginger hair. The knife stuck into the wall behind him with a loud thud. He turned around to look at it.

Piper and Poppy still stood with their fists poised, their small blades sticking out from between their fingers. The 'man' looked from Parker to the girls. Suddenly he lunged at Piper, tackling her to the floor. Poppy slashed at him with her brother trying to get him off her but it was no use. The wounds healed as quickly as they were made.

The man threw Poppy and Parker off him and wrestled Piper up and held her in front of him. He pulled the knife out of the wall where it had stuck when he'd thrown it. He held the knife to Piper's throat. He told Poppy and Parker to go into the basement which was through a door in the left side of the room. Once they had gone through it, he locked them in. Then he took Piper outside to the shed where the little girl's empty body was still strapped the the table. Piper gasped when she saw the hollowed out child. When piper saw her she knew exactly where the doll eyes had come from and why they looked so real.

The 'man' took a rope from a hook in the shed and tied Piper's hands with it. It did not go very well for him though since Piper fought hard the whole time. He then shoved her to the back of the shed where she fell down and sat in the dirt glaring at him. The 'man' began to remove the small child's body from the table. When he picked up the body he held it over the table for a few seconds to let the blood drain off where it pooled in the table. He took the body outside. Piper could not see but she assumed from the thump and scurrying of feet that he had thrown the body into the hog pen. Smart. They would eat everything but the teeth.

When the 'man' rentered the shed, he produced a bucket from a cabinet on the left wall. He placed it under a spout in one corner and twisted a handle. The blood that had once belonged to the little girl poured out of the spout and into the bucket.

"What in the almighty hell are you going to do with that?" Piper demanded, expecting not to get a straight answer. The 'man' simply opened his mouth to reveal two sharp teeth. They looked like they could rip through her flesh with ease and she knew what he was. She had not believed the stories her parents and Zeke had told her. They had insisted that monsters like these were real. Knowing what he was, was a huge advantage to her though, because she knew how to kill him.

"So, you kill the parents of small children so that you can drink their blood. Would it not be more efficient for you to take adults? They are bigger. More blood. Why children?" Piper thought that maybe ridiculing him would not be the best option but she did it anyway. She was too angry not to.

"You talk too much."

"I'm a girl. Did you expect any less? I have a lot more to talk about you and it would go much faster if you answered my questions. Or are you too scared to explain yourself for fear of looking like a freak?"

"If you must know, I drink from children because they cannot fight back. They are significantly easier to subdue."

"Then why kill the parents? I am positively sure that someone like you wouldn't do it out of the goodness of your heart. Put them out of their misery I mean. The pain of losing a child would be devastating."

Apparently, the creature decided that it would be easiest to answer Piper's questions. "I do it because I enjoy it. And I do take their blood. They do benefit me."

"What are you doing with the organs and why are you making them into dolls?" Piper was furious. Questions were popping into her mind rapidly. She was finally able to learn why her parents were killed and the reason infuriated her even more.

"Calm yourself. Blood will not effectively sustain life for my species so I supplement with the organs." Piper knew he had deliberately ignored her question about the state he left the bodies in. She decided to leave the subject alone. It was not one that she was particularly fond of herself. "So why didn't you take my siblings and I? You took all the other children, why not us? Were we not good enough for you or something?"

The creature did not answer Piper's line of questioning though. He simply removed the bucket from under the table and took it back to his house. Seizing the opportunity, Piper sprang onto her feet and searched through the shed for the weapon she needed to kill the evil thing with.

In the basement, Poppy and Parker almost fell down the rickety staircase. Once they reached the bottom a small voice said, "Are you here to rescue us?" The siblings realized these must be the most recent batch of stolen children.

"We're going to try," Poppy responded.

Poppy and Parker felt along the walls for anything that was not a wall, a doorknob, a sharp rock, anything. When they found nothing, they supposed they should try knocking down the door. Parker stumbled up the stairs. When he got to the top, he gave the door a hard kick. It only moved a little. He kicked again. A little more. Parker continued to ram his foot into the door karate style until it was broken from the frame. Then he hurried back down the stairs. He and Poppy both picked up a child and carried them out of the basement. There was a boy and a girl. They rushed into the entryway and looked out the window in the front door. When they didn't see any sign of the 'man' they sprinted towards their car. Once there, they put the kids in the back seat and hurried back to the house.

When they got back inside they looked through everything in the house for something that could be used as a weapon. They didn't find anything but a rusty, old kitchen knife but something else they found hit them by surprise. Poppy had opened a drawer in the kitchen and inside it was package upon package of gummy eyeballs. So, he had killed their parents and then sent them this morbid treat to torture them for over ten years. "This is mental," Parker murmured. At that moment, the backdoor opened and the man walked back in and into the living room. He hadn't seen them. They scurried out the backdoor and looked around for a place Piper might be. The shed seemed like a likely place.

When Poppy and Parker reached the shed they saw Piper searching frantically. She couldn't do much though with her hands bound. Poppy quickly sliced through the rope with her small blade.

"What are you looking for?" asked Parker, frustrated.

"The knife. The one mom and dad and Zeke told us about. The one to kill bloodsuckers!"

"What? Did you go insane? What did he do to you?"

"No! I saw them, his teeth. I know what I'm talking about. Find the knife. Now." Poppy and Parker began to search for a knife with a symbol carved into the handle.

After a minute or two Parker beckoned them, "over here!" Sure enough, when Piper looked at the knife, she knew it was the one they needed. They just had to stab the bloodsucker through the heart and he would be dead— well, kind of. He would become trapped in the knife until it was used to spill blood again.

The triplets had their backs turned to the shed door when a shadow appeared, covering the light it had been offering. "I see you've found my entrapment blade. It would be wise of you to hand it over."

The trio turned around. The bloodsucker stood in the door frame. He smiled at them, showing his hideously long canines. He did not hesitate in attacking them this time. First, he went for Parker. He hit him hard in the chest with his shoulder. They squabbled on the ground until the bloodsucker had Parker's lower body pinned to the ground. Parker held the creature at arm's length while it snapped at him with its large mouth.

Poppy snatched up the knife from where it had fallen when Parker was jumped. She took three huge steps and leapt into the air, coming down fast onto the back of the monster. When she landed, the monster rolled over onto his back. He only had time to be scared for a moment before Poppy plunged the blade into his chest. His eyes widened and then the life drained out of them, his body going limp. Parker stood and dusted himself off before turning to help Poppy to her feet.

Piper wandered over to the body, "We did it..." she whispered.

The three walked slowly from the shed back to their car. They took the children to the same sheriff's station they had gotten directions from. An officer said he'd like to question the triplets but when he came back from getting cups of water, they were gone.

"I know why he didn't kill us," Parker confessed when they were well away from the police station. "He wanted to torture us. He sent us those gummies every month to remind us that he was still there, doing the same thing to other families. Our parents were his first kill and he wanted to bask in it for as long as he could. So, he kept us alive and he kept tabs on us our whole lives."

"We don't have to think about that now. He's gone."

So the trio went home and told their story to Zeke who fixed them a big dinner and sent them to bed.