HAYDEN HAD GOTTEN THE DOLL IN THE MAIL. She didn’t know who it was from, seeing as there was no name on the box and no return address. The doll was beautiful. It stood three feet tall and had long dark brown hair. Its blue eyes looked far too real in her porcelain face. The doll's features had been made to give her a delicate and pleasant countenance.
As she took the doll out of the box it had come in, Hayden noticed a sealed envelope attached to the bottom. She looked at the front of it, which read, “to you,” took the card out and began reading:
Now that I’ve found you
We’ll never be apart
Hayden was totally unaware that she had been reading the message aloud. As she continued looking at the card, she was suddenly overcome with a weird, eerie sensation as though someone were watching her. She looked toward the doll and saw that the doll was looking right back at her, which was weird because she could have sworn her head had been turned down when she had taken her out of the box. What was even creepier was the fact that it looked as if the doll was trying hold back a smile; the type of smile that said, “I have a secret.”
Putting the note on the table, Hayden picked the doll up and stood it in the corner of her living room. For the next ten minutes she walked through her apartment tidying up and trying to shake off the eerie feeling she had gotten from the doll.
At about two o clock that afternoon, Hayden thought that it would be good idea to get out of the apartment for a while, so she decided to visit her sister. Her older sister, Paige, was the only family she had left. Ever since they were little girls the two of them had been extremely close. As she walked out of her apartment building, Hayden signaled for a taxi; fifteen minutes later the driver pulled up to her sisters building.
“Thanks,” Hayden said to the driver, handing him a ten dollar bill.
Hayden walked up to the buildings intercom and rung for her sister.
“Hello?” Paige asked.
“Hey Paige, it’s me.”
The door buzzed as her sister let her in. Hayden took the elevator up to the fourth floor and as the doors opened she was met by her big sister.
“You didn’t have to meet me, I could have rung the doorbell.” Hayden said as her sister hugged her.
“It was no bother, I missed you. Paige responded. “So how are things?” She continued as the two of them walked to the apartment.
“As good as can be expected.” Hayden responded. When they reached the apartment, Paige made some tea and the girls sat down.
“I’ve been thinking about mom a lot lately.” Hayden stated.
“I hope you haven’t been blaming yourself for what happened. You know that wasn’t your fault.” Her older sister responded seriously.
Hayden couldn’t help but think about the hard time she had been having over the past couple of years, taking care of her mother who had developed schizophrenia. Her mother had made her miserable to the point where she couldn’t have anything else to do with her. Hayden had decided that their mother would be better taken care of in a mental institution, to which Paige had agreed. Both girls had continuously visited their mother in the hospital for months, but eventually their mother became more violent and the visitations stopped completely. A year later the girls’ mother died alone in her room at Point View Psychiatric Hospital. Hayden took it especially hard; she loved her mother more than anything, but during her last years she had become a totally different person, cursing her out, hitting her, and having hallucinations. In the end she couldn’t take it anymore, she wasn’t strong enough for it; she wasn’t strong at all.
