[spookies] where is my doll?

The cold wind blew up north where a little town had a small festival hosted for the villagers and the travellers who passed that mountain, celebrating. The white snow that was hailing down for a while finally stopped around midnight, the bright white moon hung up in the starry sky, giving the light to the Symprites below as well as the stars.

 Elvia, the white fluffy arctic, was holding her daughter’s hand, Lazuli, while they both walked around the festival to enjoy their mother daughter time together. Lazuli the swamp baby, she wore a big yellow scarf, and warm gold gloves to protect her tiny body from the cold and dry weather. Her other hand was holding her mother's hand, the other was holding a yummy frozen Speedy Saki Stick. She slowly licked the icy purple pink treat, it was fishy and salty in a good way! She could taste the sweetness of wild berries as well as the sourness when her little tongue made its way to the middle. The baby made a yelp! sound once she suddenly got hit by the strong flavour.

“ Was the Saki Ice Stick good, honey? “

Her mother giggled at her reaction, seeming like she knew her daughter didn’t like the sourness. Lazuli was almost 6 years old at that time, she tried to introduce her to new food so she wouldn’t be a picky eater when she grew older. Her strong white fluffy arm letted go of her hand and wrapped around her daughter’s back to comfort her just a bit.

“ Mama, it’s so sour! I thought it would be just fishy and sweet “

Her face frowned with disappointment but she once could feel her mother’s arm wrapped around her, she felt at ease. 

“ Well, we cannot eat only the thing that we want to remember? Food is scattered here up north and we have to appreciate every bite that we can find “

It was another lesson taught to her, the little baby nodded her head, she went back to eating the rest of the ice stick and once all the ice melted away with the berries in her belly, she finally reached the fish and could taste the sweet and soft meat of the Speedy Sake. She made a little happy face for her success.

Once the mother and the daughter reached almost at the deepest part of the town, there were not many Symprite around too it seemed, they stumbled upon an old book store. The roof was covered in thick white soft snow and it had this look that said it had been there for a decade. This caught Lazuli’s attention, she quickly pulled her mother’s fur and pointed at the “open” sign at the wooden door. 

“ Mama, can we have another book for me, please? You’ve read me every book in the house now, I want a new book for my bedtime story tonight!! “

Hercute baby voice and her puppy face won her mother over. But Eliva was not so sure to enter the store, well the candles inside were lit so someone must be in there right? She slowly made her way inside, the bell above rang to welcome her and both of them walked up to the counter. Lazuli’s golden eyes gazed around the store, to her everything looked interesting that opposed to her mother who was still wary, to her, it looked like someone didn’t do the cleaning very well. She softly hit that tiny golden rusty bell on the wooden counter, as they waited for a while, a small noise was heard and an old Arctic Symprite came from behind the dark old cranky door.

“ Good evening, my dear, what can I get for you tonight? “

She sounded old but sweet, her fur was not long and her body was covered with many layers of cosy clothes made from various creature’s pelt. Her face had wrinkles all over, but she still gave them a warm smile.

“ Good evening! I’m looking for a bedtime story book for my daughter. Do you have any recommendations for kids? “

Eliva said as the store owner slowly nodded, she went back behind the door and came back in just a min with three thick and dusty books.

“ I have three of these, the best in my generation! Heh heh I hope the little one will like it “

The old lady placed all of them on the counter, the white buff arctic carefully read the title of each, she surely had her hopes up as she didn’t know what “the best” of the old lady’s generation was like. 

“ THE HEADLESS BYUN “

“ SCARY SCARECROW “

“ WHERE IS MY DOLL? “

They were all spooky bedtime stories! This shocked the mother as she believed this maybe would not be the best kind for children?? Her expression was uncertain as she was gonna ask again if the lady had other less spooky or kid-friendly books in the back.

“ Do you have another one that’s less scary for a kid? She’s still really young and I am not sure if these are for her “

The store owner shook her head, she put her wrinkly hand on the “ WHERE IS MY DOLL? “ then gave her a reassuring smile again.

“ Well I only have three of these left as you know that Lunisolar Festival is coming soon so this kind of books ran out pretty fast, this one is the least spooky one out of the three “

The old Symprtie said, she had her reason and the Lunisolar Festival was indeed coming soon with Lazuli getting weepy that she would not get another book tonight. Eliva had no choice but to took some gold and hand them over to the store owner.

“ It’s alright dear, I will give you a discount since the little one looks fearless for the story Heh Heh…I hope you’ll enjoy it tonight, my kids sure did! “

“ Oh! Thank you! You’re so kind “

The white buff mother gave an awkward laugh as her daughter cheered. They both exited the store and headed home as it was really late. The stars still shone in the night sky. 

They arrived back safely, Lazuli quickly put her scarf and gloves away, she ran to the living room area while her mother was putting the stuff that they bought tonight away. The baby put some wood in the fireplace as she waited for her mother to light up the warm cosy fire. Eliva then set up some cushions as well as two hot chocolate mugs. She waited with the old book in hands for a while before her daughter came downstairs with her favourite stuffed animal in her arms. She sat down on one of the cushions and her decorated biote was wiggling with excitement.

“ All right, are you ready? “

“ Yes, Mama!! “

As they both were ready,Elive carefully opened the book and read the first line of the chapter of “WHERE IS MY DOLL?”.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------

WHERE IS MY DOLL?

By an anonymous writer 

“ Once upon a time, there was a lonely farmer Symprtie, he was very lonely as he lived alone on a tiny farm with the livestock that he had from his family. One day, he went foraging in the woods, alone as always, but he decided to go in a different way than usual. He walked deeper and deeper until it was almost dark, the sun was at the horizon when he made up his mind to leave. His forge was not a success but enough to feed one person, then he was stopped by something. It was a doll, a very old, muddy and smelly one. It looked like a little girl and it sat in a hole in a tree, as if it was waiting for someone to find it. The farmer felt a strange sensation, he felt like the doll was staring at him. He didn’t get spooked easily by the feelings that were blowing inside of him, he instead took the doll with him.

He arrived home late, it was dark outside as he lit up the candles around his house, he put the doll on the table in the middle of the house then he went back behind the door to store the goods he found today. When he came back to the main room, the doll disappeared, he was shocked, panic rose as he had never faced this kind of situation before. He looked around and tried to find the missing doll then he stopped when he spotted the doll on the top of the fireplace that was not lit up. He stared at the doll, wondering if he was hallucinating, but he just pushed all the thoughts away and went to sleep with the doll back on the table.

That night was filled with the sound of his animals crying in the dark, he woke up thinking that maybe some wild creatures were attacking his farm. He got up and about to go out with his weapon but he heard a voice behind him. ‘ Hello ‘ came from the lifeless doll. The man was stunned by the sound that it made, was it talking to him through his mind? Was this really happening?

‘ You are very lonely aren’t you? Do you want a family of your own? ‘

It asked the farmer, it didn’t move at all and in that room there were just him and the doll.

‘ What do you want from me? ‘

His voice was shaking as he pointed his weapon at it defensively. He didn’t trust the old dirty doll at all.

‘ I can give you a family if you let me be a part of it ‘

It answered with a cold creepy voice. This got the man thinking, but letting a doll be a part of his family, how could he do that? Is this some kind of magic?

‘ And how are you gonna be a part of my family? Is this some kind of your evil plan to get my soul? ‘

He was not buying it at that point. His eyes still looked at the doll with distrust, ready to strike at any giving moment.

‘ You’re a paranoid man! No I’m not going to take your soul, I’m just looking for someone like you. Someone who is very alone and longing for some love and warmth. ‘

It said blankly, this shocked him, it knew his life and the deepest wish in his heart. He lowered his weapon before walking closer to the muddy doll.

‘ Huh? I guess I have nothing else to lose, then do it, give me a family and you can be a part of it ‘

He gave it a yes, it was at the same time when the noise around his house was going down, his animals stopped crying and that made him confused a lot.

‘ Then it a deal, but I’m giving a warning, if you have this family and you don’t cherish it then I will take everything away from you ‘

The doll said seriously this time, the farmer felt a little annoyed but he just shook his head to accept the deal.

‘ Go back to bed, and I’ll see you in morning ‘

He turned around and went back to his bedroom, as he got into his bed, he was still wondering if this was just a fever dream. His heavy eyelids close with tiredness, slumbering into a deep sleep. He woke up the next morning with a knock on his front door. His tired body got up, forgot about everything that happened last night, the doll was gone from the table but he didn’t even notice. He pulled the handle and he was surprised, before him there were two Symprites, one was a beautiful woman with a basket full of fresh vegetable and fruit, she was holding a little girl’s hand and in the girl’s arms, he saw a cute looking doll.

‘ Good morning, honey! We both just got back from town, we saw that you were still sleeping so we didn’t want to wake you up. ‘

The woman said with a soft smile on her face, the little girl then ran up to him to show him the doll she had.

‘ Daddy! Daddy, look! I got a cute doll in the market today, there was an old Arctic lady who gave it to me! ‘

The young one looked so happy with the doll. The lonely farmer was still in shock, he couldn’t understand what was happening but before he could say anything, the two strangers that were supposed to be his family walked inside his house. They did everything so casually as if this was just a normal day to them. He slowly tried to talk to them but the conversation went smoothly like a normal family of three on a Wednesday morning. The man felt a relief of the love and warmth in his heart, he warmed up to them in just a few days without him knowing that the doll his daughter had, gazed at his all the time.

Months went by, the farmer's family lived happily but something inside of him changed. He started drinking and became lazy. All of the housework that he used to do all by himself, now only his wife was the only one who did it. When she asked him for help or some gold for the food, he yelled at her with a red face from the drinks that he kept buying and drinking madly. He forgot what his family was, now he spent his life ignoring that his wife and his daughter were not happy with his actions. 

One faithful day, in the windy afternoon, he was in a barn with his daughter. He scolded her for not doing the farm work correctly, his loud yelling brought his wife to the barn. She shielded her kid from his yelling as they had the biggest fight, blinded by madness, he threw an empty bottle from his hand, luckily no one was hurt from the glass splitters. Then something weird happened, the sun that was shining now was covered up by the moon, the red light from the eclipse soaked everything in a crimson bloody colour. The man looked outside the barn to see the sky was painted red, when he turned back to his family, they were gone but a dirty, and muddy doll was in their place.

‘ YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD LOVE THEM ‘

‘ YOU LIAR. YOU DO NOT DESERVE ANY OF THIS!!! ‘

He heard a strong demonic voice echoing in his head, it was too much to the point where it gave him a really bad headache, his eyes were pounding hard as if they were about to pop out of his skull. Mad wind blowing up around him, the farmer was on his knee, begging for forgiveness from the doll. It flew up to his helpless face before blowing up dust to dust. The moon moved away from what seemed to be the longest moment of this man. The sky went back to bright blue, this barn was destroyed by the gust and all his animals ran back to the forest in fear, leaving him alone on the hill of grass. The farmer was breathless, his mind was sober at that point, he quickly got on his hooves and went back to his house.

Whatever he was hoping to see was empty. Everything looked as if he was living alone for the past few months. The sight broke the man, he was no longer sane, he would walk around the town at night screaming ‘Where is my doll? Where is my doll?’ over and over again. The townsfolk were scared of him, when the sun went down the horizon, every house was shut and no one would come out and walk around at night, they all were scared of him. The story of the scraggy farmer man was told in different ways, some said he murdered his family and went insane or some said he was cursed but no soul will ever know what really happened to him.

• THE END “

—--------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliva looked at her daughter to see if she had any reaction, to her surprise she was not scared at all. The fireplace behind her was still glowing, she closed the book before she asked her daughter to break the silence.

“ What do you think about the story, Lazuli? “

The girl looked away with a frowny face, her tiny face said it all that she was thinking hard.

“ I don’t like what that farmer did to his family! He was so mean “

“ You’re right, honey. He was a bad husband and a bad father. I believe the moral of the story is that we have to be kind to our family and love them as much as they love us. “

The mother came up with another lesson to teach, but she thought to herself that the old lady was right, this one was not that scary for kids. Eliva slowly stood up to take her daughter to bed considering it was very late but something caught her attention.

“ Mummy, Mama a girl behind you “

The little Lazuli pointed past her mother's back where she saw what seemed to be a fading figure of a girl in front of the warm flickering fireplace. This shook Eliva, her fluffy fur stood up as she looked into the fireplace. Luckily, she saw nothing, then she let out a sigh of relief.

“ I don’t see anything, dear. Maybe it’s late and you’re imagining something, huh? “

Before she could finish the sentence, her daughter was yawning with a small drop of tears around the corner of her eye. She indeed was very tired. Eliva put a soft smile on her face, she took her little girl upstairs and got her ready for bed with her stuffed animal.

“ Goodnight, Lazuli. Mama, love you! “

“ I love you too, Mama! Goodnight! “

As she almost left the room, she turned around and not forgetting the most important step. The baby then went to sleep when her mother closed her bedroom door softly. The cold wind blew around the house, tree branches shook with snow on its dark bark, the sleepy girl fell asleep into a dreamy dream. 

(for the 3k words rewards!!)