Princess Ann

When I was a kid, I used to beg my parents to not buy me dolls. I hated dolls. They said mean things to me, and threatened to hurt me if I told anyone. My parents told me I had an overactive imagination, but they did take the dolls away. The only time I had to worry about dolls was at other people's houses, or when my friends came over.

During this period I learned that if I didn’t let the dolls know I could hear them, than they were less viscous. More likely to talk to each other then me.

Another thing about them is that I can feel heat radiating off them, they even have a small rapid heartbeat. They're alive, even if no one but me notices, they bleed silver. How do I know? I had a cousin who would pull off their arms for fun. I use to secretly cheer him on.

Now when you're eight and at a slumber party, it's hard to avoid dolls. Plus you can't ask the other girls to put them away and play dress up. That's how you become the weird girl.

So I played with, a doll they called Princess Ann. Or rather I held her away from my body and shook her a bit. Princess Ann watched me while I did that. I tried to shake her less, but when I tried the other girls would stare. I didn’t want to be the weird girl. So I pretended, I couldn’t feel Princess Ann's heartbeat in my hand, or her laughing eyes staring at me.

Most dolls have a constant stream of hateful things and threats coming out of their unmoving mouths. I was too afraid of the doll in my hand to realize that the room was quiet.

It was announced later that we would be playing babies. Dread gripped me, babies meant cradling in your arms, going near a dolls mouth, and talking to them. When I talk to dolls they talk back. I have never met a nice doll.

All dolls are hateful and mean, but Princess Ann was another thing all together. Other dolls did not speak in her presence, and I never heard her speak. She just stared, and she smiled. Not a painted on smile that other dolls wear, a real one.

Despite the fact that dolls can talk, have a heartbeat, and all of that, they aren't supposed to smile. In all of my years I have never seen a doll that could move itself. So I didn't expect anyone else to be able to tell that Princess Ann was wrong. When the other girls started switching babies or babysitting for each other, no one would take Princess Ann. They'd reach out for her at first, then pull away. They knew there was something wrong with her. No one, wants to admit that a doll unnerves them, so no one took her from me.

So I played baby with her, but I kept her far from me. If anyone asked I said she was sleeping in her cradle (My sleeping bag). She closed her eyes like she was really sleeping the first time I said that. No one else could see her do it, but they would stare at her before leaving. An unnerved look on their face.

She terrified me to the point that I got up and went to the bathroom, just to get away from her. I almost cried while I was in there because I didn't know what to do. If I told someone they'd call my parents and take me home, I'd be the weird girl. After a while someone knocked on the door to ask if I was okay. I came out, nodded, and slowly walked back to the bedroom.

When I walked back into the bedroom Princess Ann was gone. I asked one of the girls where she went, she said they thought I brought her with me. She left when I did.

Part of me was relieved but the other part was worried but when you're eight you don’t really consider things. Now that Princess Ann was gone, the dolls were talking again. But their voices were timid, they knew she'd be back. Thankfully, no one offered me another doll.

Later that night, long after we'd put the dolls in their closet, most of the girls were finally asleep. Now that their whispers were dying out, the doll closet was getting louder. The usual swears and hateful things, but then one of them screamed.

I have heard dolls scream before, usually when they know I know about them and they want to scare me. But this was different, this was a terrified screamed, and then the scream started to liquefy, like when someone gets their throat slashed. I'm use to not reacting to things, so I laid quietly on my sleeping bag and listened. The other dolls stopped talking, only the scream was emanating from the closet.

It stopped abruptly, only for another one to start again. This went on for several hours, still I laid quietly in my sleeping bag, tears streaming down my face. Too afraid to move, or wake anyone else up. When the sun was finally coming up, the screams stopped. After a while I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

I woke up to more screaming, but it wasn't coming from the dolls. Molly, the girl who was hosting the slumber party was standing in her doll closet, looking for her dolls. There were none left, just drops of silver coating the places where they use to be.

Her mother was ushering us to get up, convinced one of us was playing a mean trick. I felt something wiggle beside me in the sleeping bag, I squealed but everyone ignored me. I reached in slowly, and pull out Princess Ann, covered in the same silver as the closet. She smiled grotesquely down at me, her silence suffocating me.

Molly saw this, and immediately snatched her out of my hand. Then demanded I get out of the sleeping bag. When I started too, I felt lumpy things around me. Slowly I got out of the sleeping bag, I was coated in the same silver as the closet and Princess Ann. Molly snatched up my sleeping bag. Torn dolls started falling out. Severed heads, limbs, and torso's. Princess Ann's silence engulfed us all, and she just smiled at us all, while everyone stared at me.

Then, I was the one screaming.