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Written by DJ Shaw
Prologue
Growing up, I lived in the same neighborhood for most of my childhood; and in that neighborhood stood a house that the realtors had a hard time keeping occupied. The kids in the neighborhood, we had our theories as to why the tenants would move out almost as soon as they moved in, except we never voiced them to our parents. Adults never want to listen to children when they discuss things they feel aren’t real or true. Seriously, now that I’m the adult I don’t like to hear my children tell me that they’re pretty sure the house up the street is haunted; however, as a kid, yeah, I totally believed in all of that. It seems like once a child becomes an adult, which is a state of mind if you ask me, they lose all that innocence that helps them get connected to supernatural things like ghosts. Now, I didn’t lose that ability, because I can still sense and see things most adults can’t, but I digress.
Back to discussing a house in my childhood neighborhood that’s been standing empty for the last eighteen years. Let me tell you why this house was so hard to keep occupied. A murder took place in this house back in the late 1990’s, involving a family that had lived at 1515 Estate Avenue in EastCliff, Virginia for generations. The realtors had no choice; they had to disclose this knowledge to any persons interested in renting, or buying, the home. Some people braved through it, and others decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Even though the house had been around for generations, not many people wanted to deal with the history that followed it. When I say generations, I mean it was built on that land by a great-great-how-ever-many-greats grandfather for his wife back in 1800. From that man, the house would be passed down to the eldest son of whatever generation happened to be living there at the time. I’m sure you get the picture.
Now it just so happens that the oldest son of the last generation who inherited the house back in 1997, wasn’t entirely stable and believed that his wife was hiding something from him. You could hear the two of them fighting four houses down when they would get into their screaming matches. I’m not sure what made him snap, but snap he did, and it was bloody.
I will never forget Halloween that year, that’s the night the murder happened; Halloween of 1997. I remember wondering where the little girl’s doll was as the police were carrying her out of the house after they found her hiding in the basement.
***
ROSE VASQUEZ COULDN’T believe that she was back in her hometown of EastCliff, in her old neighborhood; right down to the house she had grown up in, living with her mother again. To top all of that off, she’d had to drag her seven-year old daughter, Diane, with her. Rose had lived in Beckton for thirteen years, built a life for herself and her daughter. She’d had a great job as the assistant to the editor of the small town’s fashion magazine; it didn’t pay much, however it certainly paid the bills and had been a pretty great gig. She’d found an awesome guy that she’d started to have feelings for after her amazing divorce disaster three years after moving to that small town. Yeah, she’d enjoyed her life out in Beckton. All of that had been thrown out the window with one simple phone call. The call from her mother’s doctors telling her that her mother had suffered a heart attack and needed to be taken care of until she got back on her feet. Rose just hoped it wouldn’t take too long for her mother to get better, so that she and her daughter could return to the life they had left behind in Beckton. She was sure that Ester Vasquez was going to milk out all of this attention and having her only child home for as long as she could.
“Hi, Mama!” Diane called, pulling Rose out of her dreary thoughts.
“Hi, monkey! How was your first day in your new school?” Rose asked, while sweeping her daughter up into her arms for a hug.
Diane giggled, “It was good. I made a new friend!”
Rose tickled her daughter, “Oh yeah? That’s great, monkey! Any homework?”
Diane sighed and wrinkled her nose, “Yeah. You would think that the teacher would give the new girl a break and not give her any homework on her first day.”
Rose laughed, “Yeah, well it looks like the teachers don’t do that here, monkey. Off to the dining room and start on that homework. I’ll be in soon to check on it.”
Diane headed off, mumbling about stupid teachers and new schools as Rose went to the other end of the house to check on her own mother.
“Well it’s about damn time, Rosie,” Ester greeted her as she walked into the master bedroom.
Rose sighed, “Sorry to make you wait, Mother, but I do have a seven-year old daughter that started in a new school today and I needed to greet her when she got off the school bus. Not to mention the fact that she has homework that she needs to get done. Now what do you need?”
“I can’t find the remote to my television and I want to change the channel,” her mother snapped, completely unfazed by what Rose had just told her.
Rose walked over to her mother’s bed, pressing the button to raise the head up so that Ester was in a sitting position, “It’s right here, Mother, on your lap. Anything else I can help you with??”
She picked up the remote and handed it to her mother as the woman shook her head.
“That’s good. I’m going to go check on Diane and see if she needs any help with her homework. Dinner will be ready at six, sharp. We hope you will join us tonight at the table. If not, I will bring you a plate as soon as my daughter finishes eating. We’re having smothered pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans,” Rose said as she made her way out of her mother’s room, not waiting around to hear whatever complaint her mother would have about the food.
I swear, she is trying to get under my skin already and we’ve only been here three days. Maybe I should tell her she should pace herself; she thought as she made her way into the dining room.
Diane was sitting at the table gazing out the window when Rose arrived, “That’s not doing your homework, monkey.”
“I know, Mama. Can I talk to you about my new friend first?” Diane answered as she opened up her new bright green folder and started pulling out papers.
Rose chuckled, knowing that if she didn’t let her daughter talk about her new friend they would be fighting about her homework for the next hour, “Anything to get out of doing your homework right, sweetheart? Okay. Tell me about your new friend.”
Diane perked right up, “Her name is Siobhan, she made sure to spell it out for me and told me how to say it. Sha-vaughn. Though she told me that I could call her Savi for short because all of her friends call her that. It’s much easier than trying to be sure I pronounce her name properly. I can’t wait for you to meet her, Mama. She’s real pretty and so smart! She says she lives around here but she couldn’t remember her address. And she rides my bus so I’m guessing she lives in this neighborhood somewhere. Anyway, she was telling me this really interesting story about that creepy old house up the street. You know the one on 1515 Estate Avenue?”
Rose cringed inwardly. She knew it was only a matter of time before her daughter started hearing the stories about that house, although she hadn’t thought it would be so soon.
“What about the house on 1515 Estate Avenue, monkey? It’s just an empty, creepy old house,” she answered, trying to deter the inevitable for another day.
She should have known better because her daughter was very much like her, “Apparently, that house has been in this neighborhood for a very long time. In fact, it’s been said that it’s the first house built in this neighborhood like 115 years ago, maybe longer! But for some reason in the last eighteen years or so it’s been empty. No one has lived in it for longer than a month since the year 1997. The place hasn’t had anyone in it at all for the last thirteen years or so. Savi was saying it’s because the house is haunted. She says that when she walks by it every morning to catch the bus to school she can hear voices calling her name; telling her to come in and explore. Isn’t that creepy?”
Diane looked at her mother and shuddered, waiting for Rose’s reaction. She seemed disappointed when the older woman didn’t seem freaked.
“Is that so?” Rose asked, lost in a memory.
Rose remembered the last Halloween she would ever go trick or treating, back in 1997. She and a bunch of her teenage friends had been making bets as to when Mr. Crispin, the man who lived in the house on 1515 Estate Avenue at that time, would finally lose it and walk out on his wife and daughter. They were completely taken by surprise by what he did instead. None of them had been expecting him to kill his wife. Rose could still hear the police telling Crispin’s five-year old daughter that everything was going to be alright; that they had called her grandparents on her mother’s side to come look after her. She also remembered wondering where the little rag doll that seemed to be a part of that little girl, had been when the police had tucked her into one of their cruisers.
“Mama? Don’t you think so, Mama?” Diane’s voice pulled Rose’s mind into the present from those dark thoughts of the past.
“What was that, monkey? I’m sorry, my mind must have wandered a bit,” she answered her daughter, still trying to shake that disturbing memory away while absently going through the pile of papers that had come from Diane’s folder.
Her daughter let out an exasperated sigh, “I was saying that I thought it was pretty creepy that Savi hears voices calling to her when she passes that house. Then I asked you if you thought it was creepy too.”
Rose hid a smile as she answered her daughter, “It does seem a little creepy that she hears voices coming from a creepy house on the corner of the street where your bus picks you up. Monkey, did you stop, for even a second, to think that maybe this girl is pulling your chain because you’re the new kid; that this is all a prank?”
Diane looked up from her spelling words, “What do you mean? Would kids actually do that? Pull a prank that creepy on the new kid?”
Rose still had the smile on her face when she turned to look at her daughter, “Of course they would, monkey. It’s close to Halloween and you’re new to this town. People, especially children, have a weird sense of humor this time of year. Can I see your list of spelling words?”
She was trying to change the subject and get Diane back on track, however her daughter wouldn’t be detoured as she handed over the paper, “No, I can’t believe Savi would do that to me, new kid or not. She’s just too nice. I’m gonna walk home with her tomorrow and see if I can hear them too, okay, Mama?”
Rose looked up from the spelling list, not sure what she should tell her daughter. On the one hand, if Diane didn’t hear the voices, then she could chalk it up as a prank on the new kid and move on from this whole thing. But on the other hand, what if she did hear those voices? Rose remembered those voices. They weren’t always nice when they had been calling her eighteen years ago.
“Um, sure, monkey. You can totally walk home with Siobhan tomorrow. I think you should invite her over for dinner one night this week so that I can meet her. And of course, I’m going to have to meet her parents too, sooner rather than later. You know, just keeping tabs of who my child is around and all of that,” Rose answered, deciding it would be easier to play it as safe as was possible in this town.
Diane grinned, “Of course, Mama! Thank you so much!”
***
THE GIRLS WERE FIDGETING in their seats and talking in animated whispers, waiting for the bus to reach their stop. Diane was so excited to be walking home with her new best friend that she wanted to jump up and down in the aisle. Siobhan was just happy to be bringing a friend home. Even though she was the same age as most of the kids on the block, they had always treated her differently. So, when she’d heard that her class had a new student, Siobhan jumped on the chance to make a new, and much needed, friend,
“Oh! Look, Savi! Our stop is just up ahead! I’m so excited to be walking home with you. My Mama hasn’t never let me walk home with a friend she hasn’t met first. Do you think I’ll hear those voices too?” Diane asked her friend in childish delight.
“Shhhh. Keep your voice down. I get hassled by the other kids over that house enough as it is, I don’t need them teasing me about getting the new girl to believe me,” Siobhan hissed in a near panic.
Diane quit bouncing and truly looked at her friend for the first time since they boarded the bus at EastCliff Elementary, “I’m sorry, Savi. What do you mean? What kids are teasing you? I’ll give them a piece of my mind.”
Siobhan gave her new friend a half-smile, “Thanks, Di, but I’d much rather just leave them be. I learned early on that if I just stayed outta their way then they pretty much left me alone. Well, until we’re in front of the house on 1515 Estate Avenue anyway. You’ll see for yourself soon enough how bad it can be.”
Diane gave her friend a thoughtful look, “Oooh-kay. Well, the bus is getting ready to stop.”
She grabbed Siobhan’s hand, “You ready to get this show on the road?”
Her friend didn’t look nearly as excited as she was, but she chalked that up to Siobhan admitting to being bullied.
The bus stopped with a whoosh, the stop sign swinging out on the left, and the doors were pulled open, squeaking as they rested on the inside of the bus.
“That’s us, Savi, are you ready?” Diane asked.
Siobhan took a deep breath and stood, trying to give her new friend a smile, “Sure thing. Just wait until you see this house, Di! It’s real pretty.”
The girls jumped down the steps, talking to each other in hushed tones.
“Oh, look, Tiffany, it’s the freak,” snickered a girl in front of them who was maybe a year or two older than them.
Diane stepped off the bus and right in front of the girl who had opened her mouth, “I’m sorry? What was that you said, ‘cause I’m sure I didn’t hear you right.”
The girl looked from her friend, Tiffany, and then back at Diane with a sneer, “Well, what do we have here? It’s the new girl, hanging with the freak. How appropriate. I’m pretty sure you heard me just fine, new girl. I’m just wondering if you know who you’re hanging with, though the way things are working out it looks like you are completely in the know. Are the two of you going to be walking home together every day?”
Siobhan tugged on her friend’s hand, “Come on, Di. Let’s just go. It’s not worth it.”
Diane squeezed her hand, “No, Savi, this is completely worth it. If you’re not going to stand up for yourself then I’m gonna do it.”
She turned her attention back to the two girls who were giggling and gossiping about her friend, waiting to see what the younger girls were going to do, “I don’t know if we’re going to be walking home together every day or not, but we are totally walking home together today. What’s it to you?”
Tiffany answered instead, not wanting to be left out, “Isn’t that sweet, Brittany? They’re walking home together today. Whose house are you walking to this afternoon, girls?”
Siobhan tried to get Diane moving by tugging on her hand again, “Mine. Di, let’s go. My mama times my walk and if I don’t come through the door at a specific time she begins to worry.”
Brittany snickered, “They’re walking to Siobhan’s house. You know what that means don’t ya, Tiffany?”
Tiffany giggled, “Oh yes! They’re gonna be walking by 1515 Estate Avenue. Uh, Siobhan, isn’t that the house you swear is haunted? The one you’ve said you hear voices calling you inside?”
Siobhan let go of Diane’s hand and looked down at her feet, “Yeah, I did say something like that. You know what? It really doesn’t matter what I said, and it absolutely doesn’t matter to me what you think. My mama told me that you’re always so mean to me because you’re jealous. And you know what else? I believe her. You’re just jealous that you can’t hear the voices and I can. Let’s go, Di. I wasn’t kidding when I said my mama times how long it takes me to walk home and we’re gonna be late. I don’t want mama mad when she meets you for the first time.”
Diane smiled, then stuck her tongue out at the two girls before turning on her heel and walking away with her new friend, “You’re serious? Your mama keeps a clock on ya about your walk home?”
Siobhan nodded, “Yup. She worries. It’s been a whole lot worse since I told her that I’ve been hearing those voices in that haunted house up the street. But that’s okay, ‘cause she loves me.”
Diane could still hear the laughter from the two older girls behind them, “Does it bother you that those two were picking on you like that?”
Her friend ducked her head, “Sometimes.”
Then Siobhan perked up and gave Diane a smile, “Except it didn’t bother me today! Thanks for sticking up for me. I was afraid you were going to decide just to go on home instead of coming over to my house today after what they said. I’m really glad you didn’t though.”
Diane smiled back, “Why would I have changed my mind about walking home with you? We’re friends, aren’t we? Speaking of that, my Mama wanted me to ask if you could come over to my house for dinner this week.”
Siobhan’s smile widened. She’d never been invited to anyone’s house before, much less to a dinner with a friend’s family. Things were starting to look up for her.
She grabbed Diane’s hand and squeezed it, “Let’s ask my mama and you can give yours an answer when she picks you up this afternoon.”
Diane nodded, “Okay!”
The two girls slowed their pace, coming to a complete stop in front of the house Siobhan had told Diane about. She strained her ears, hoping to hear the voices that her new best friend had talked about the day before.
“Do you hear her?” Siobhan asked with a dreamy smile on her face.
Diane shook her head, “No. Not yet. What’s she saying?”
Her friend turned to face her, her eyes looking a little glazed, “She’s saying that we should go inside. That we need to take a trip down to the basement. Says there’s a surprise waiting for me.”
Diane was beginning to get worried about her friend. Siobhan sounded different and it scared her a little.
“What’s this surprise?” Diane asked, while watching Siobhan turn to face the house.
Siobhan giggled, “If she told me that it wouldn’t be a surprise, silly. Come on! Let’s go check the place out.”
Siobhan took off at a run across the front lawn in a hurry to find her surprise. The look of the yard only added to the creepiness of the house. Nothing about the place screamed welcome to Diane and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to get to Siobhan’s.
“Savi! Don’t we need to get to your place before your mama comes looking for us?” Diane tried to get her friend’s attention, hoping the mention of her mama would snap her out of whatever daze she seemed to be in.
Except Siobhan had already disappeared into the house and Diane had no choice but to follow her. She wanted to make sure that her friend didn’t get hurt. The house looked like it hadn’t been cleaned or looked after in years. As Diane approached the door that Siobhan had gone through she saw a red paper taped to it. Not knowing what that was about, she slipped through the crack that had been left and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dimmer light.
“Savi? Savi, where are you?” Diane whispered, scared that something horrible had happened to her friend.
The house looked even worse on the inside, with the covered furniture and poor lighting. Siobhan could be hiding anywhere. Then Diane remembered that her friend had mentioned the basement. With her heart in her throat, Diane made her way into the kitchen. What used to be cheery yellow wallpaper was now a faded, ugly color that had begun peeling from the walls and the odor of rotting food was so strong that she gagged.
“Savi? Come on, Savi. This isn’t funny anymore! Where are you?” Diane called quietly.
“Down here, Di! You should see this place!” Siobhan called from an open door to Diane’s right.
Trying not to vomit, Diane walked slowly to that door, “We need to get going, Savi. We’re gonna be late and your mama is gonna be real mad when she has to come looking for us. I bet she’s not gonna be too happy to find you in here.”
Siobhan laughed like she’d just heard the best joke in the world, “You’re such a worry wart, Di. Come on down here and help me look for my surprise.”
Diane took a deep breath, gagging once again at the overpowering odor of rotting meat that was wafting up from the basement, and started slowly down the stairs.
The odor became stronger as Diane took the last step, “How can you stand that smell?”
Siobhan called from her left, “What smell? What are you talking about? Come on over here. She says that I’m getting hotter as to where she hid my surprise. Come help me find it. Please?”
Diane was trembling with fear and the urge to retch as she made her way over to where she had heard her friend calling, “Let’s make this quick. I really think we should get outta here and get to your house before your mama comes lookin’ and gets real mad.”
Reaching Siobhan, she stopped a minute and watched her friend as she searched through the shelves on the wall for whatever surprise the voice had said she had, “What are we looking for exactly?”
Her friend looked at her, her eyes completely glazed over, “She says it’s a rag doll with a cute white Victorian dress and black yarn hair.”
Diane’s eyes roved over the shelves, looking for the doll her friend had described. She didn’t want to leave the wide open space of the basement, afraid to be caught with her back to a wall. She suddenly felt as if she was being watched and it caused goose flesh to rise on her suddenly sweaty skin.
“Is that it?” Diane asked when her gaze settled on what looked like a doll leg peeking out of a box on the bottom shelf.
Siobhan looked to where her friend was pointing, “It is! Oh, you’re amazing, Di!”
She ripped the box in her haste to get it open to reach the doll, “Oh! Isn’t she pretty?”
Siobhan walked over to Diane with the doll clutched to her chest, completely oblivious to her friend shaking in her need to get out of the house.
Diane made her way back to the stairs, breathing through her mouth so that the smell was less powerful, “Good you found it. Now can we leave?”
Siobhan laughed in delight, “Of course we can, silly. Let’s go, Di. My mama is gonna be looking for us since we’re so late.”
Diane followed her friend up the stairs and out the front door, worried about how differently Siobhan was acting.
***
ROSE LOOKED UP AT THE house in dreary wonder, How is this place still standing? I would have thought that it would have been condemned and torn down ages ago.
She walked up the front porch steps, careful not to put too much weight down for fear of going through the rotting wood. She looked at the front door, dread sitting in the pit of her stomach as she breathed in the faint smell of rotting meat. She noticed a red paper taped to the slightly open front door and took a few tentative steps to read it.
––––––––
Keep out!
Condemned!
This dwelling is not safe for persons to enter.
Scheduled demolition:
Friday October 31st
ROSE SHOOK HER HEAD, a tight smile on her lips, Better late than never I suppose. How many children have gone into this house? How many children have gotten hurt in their morbid curiosity to check out the murder house of EastCliff before the town decided that the eye-sore was ready to be torn down?
She only hoped that Diane had been smart and had strayed from the temptation of going inside that rat trap. Rose shook her head again and walked carefully down the rotting front steps and down the walk. She needed to get her daughter and meet the family that had been hosting her for the last few hours. She couldn’t remember a time that she had been so nervous to meet a new family. When the two of them had lived in Beckton, Diane had had the same friends since she had started preschool so there was no need for meet and greets and Rose found herself a little out of practice when it came to the social scene.
She walked down the street, looking at the addresses so as not to miss Siobhan’s home. When she found the house she was looking for, she just stopped in front of it and stared for a few minutes. Her daughter’s new friend lived in a two story modern day house painted white with light blue accents. The house made Rose think of one house in particular that she had been looking to move into back in Beckton. She hated having to come back to her hometown and wished, not for the first time in three days, someone else could look after her mother. When her phone rang she jumped.
Looking at the caller ID she smiled, “Hi, Jack. How are things with your new promotion working out?”
Jack had been Rose’s love interest when she’d lived in Beckton and she still missed him terribly. He had taken over her job as assistant on the magazine she’d worked for and he seemed to like it. He made sure to call almost every day so that the two could talk. Rose hadn’t had the heart to break things off with him even though she wasn’t sure how long she was going to be living with her mother again.
He laughed; the sound rumbling through the tiny speaker into Rose’s ear, “This assistant gig is pretty sweet. I’m still not sure how you were able to give it up. How are things in EastCliff? How's your mom doing?”
Rose scowled, not wanting to talk about her mother, “Mother’s the same, not wanting to do much for herself even though the doctors have told her to try. I’m holding up pretty well and Diane has made a new friend. Speaking of, is there any way I can call you back later on tonight? I have to pick Diane up from said new friend’s house and get home to make dinner before too long.”
Jack laughed again, reminding Rose just how much she had given up to be the dutiful daughter, “Sure thing, doll. Give that little girl of yours a great big hug and kiss from me, will ya?”
Rose smiled warmly, “Absolutely, Jack. I’ll call you after dinner when I get a moment to myself. I promise.”
They said their good-byes and Rose tucked her phone into her back pocket as she made her way up the walk and the porch steps. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. She could hear the girls laughing and talking through the closed door and a woman say that she was coming.
The door opened and Rose smiled warmly, “Hi. I’m Rose Vasquez, Diane’s mom. I’m here to pick her up so she can get started on her homework before dinner. I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.”
The woman who answered the door returned Rose’s smile with a stiff one of her own as she opened the screen door, “Oh! Of course. Hello, I’m Carol Rogers, Siobhan’s mom. It’s so nice to meet you, Rose. No, Diane was no trouble at all.”
Rose stepped over the threshold, getting the feeling that Siobhan’s mother was just on auto-pilot as she took in the flowered wallpaper on the living room walls and the almost matching furniture, “It seems our girls were fast friends when they met yesterday. My daughter just couldn’t stop talking about Siobhan when she got home from school.”
Carol’s eyes were darting around her living room before settling on her guest for a few seconds, “Oh yes! Your daughter has been a godsend. It’s so wonderful to have Siobhan bring home a friend. Why don’t you make yourself at home while I go get the girls?”
Rose wasn’t sure why, but she got the feeling that Siobhan didn’t have many friends. Add that to the fact that her mother seemed to be a very jittery and non-trusting person, and Rose wasn’t sure how to make herself at home. She suddenly wanted to get her daughter and get out of this overly cheery environment.
“Mama!” Diane called, bringing her mother’s attention to her from glancing around the foyer.
“Hi, monkey! Are you ready to go? We need to get home so you can start on your homework and I can get started on dinner,” Rose said as her daughter came flying into the living room, a waif of a blonde girl on her heels.
Diane stopped in front of her mother, “Yep! I invited Siobhan over for dinner on Friday. And her mama said that she can stay the night, if that’s all right with you, Mama.”
Rose looked from her daughter to the pale girl standing next to her, then finally moving her gaze passed the girls to the nervous woman standing behind them, “That’s perfectly fine with me, monkey. However, I need to talk to Grandma about it first. At least give her a heads up that more than one monkey will be in the house for the night. It’s her home and you know that she hasn’t been feeling well. You can let Siobhan know a definite answer on the matter when you see her on the bus ride to school tomorrow, okay?”
Carol was wringing her hands, her eyes darting from side to side, “That would be wonderful! Thank you, Rose. We’ll see you on Friday.”
Rose’s smile slipped a little as she watched the nervous woman in front of her, “Would it be all right if Siobhan just walked home with Diane on Friday?”
Standing in that living room, Rose was certain that she didn’t want Siobhan’s mother in her house.
Carol’s gaze finally settled on the guest in front of her and for the first time in her entire visit Rose felt she had her attention, “Absolutely! It was lovely to meet you, Rose. Diane, you’re welcome back here any time. Siobhan, say good-bye to your friend, it’s almost dinner and bath time.”
Siobhan gave Diane a hug and that was when Rose saw the doll. The young, pale girl was holding the rag doll from Rose’s past in a death grip. She would have sworn the doll had given her a wink and an evil smile as she stared, her blood running cold at the thought.
“Uh, it was nice to meet you too, Carol, and Siobhan you are just as pretty as Diane told me. We really must be going now. Monkey, are you ready?”
Diane looked at her mom with a small smile, causing Rose to notice how pale her little girl was, “Yep! See you tomorrow, Siobhan! Oh, and thank you for having me, Mrs. Rogers.”
Rose looked down at her daughter and gave her an encouraging smile. It was nice to see that Diane had remembered her manners without any prodding from her. The two of them walked down the porch steps in silence.
It wasn’t until they were walking by 1515 Estate Avenue that Diane spoke again, “I had fun with Siobhan today. But, Mama...”
Rose had been wondering about the woman and child she had just met. She wasn’t sure why that woman was so nervous and jittery, all she was sure of was that the mother of her daughter’s new friend certainly looked vaguely familiar. And that doll! It scared her to think of where Siobhan had gotten that ugly thing.
Her daughter’s voice had broken her out of her musings, “What is it, monkey? You sound so serious.”
Diane waited until they were passed the creepy house and close to home before speaking again, “Something happened this afternoon and I think you should know.”
Rose watched her daughter shuffle from foot to foot and knew that whatever had happened she wasn’t going to like it, “What happened, monkey? Are you okay?”
Diane looked up at her mom with tears in her eyes, “We went into that creepy, old house. I tried to talk Siobhan out of it but she said the voice had told her there was a surprise for her in the basement and she ran inside! I couldn’t stop her! I didn’t want nothing bad to happen to her so I went inside after her, hoping I could talk her into leaving and getting to her house. But she refused to leave until she found that stupid doll!”
The tears her daughter had been trying so hard to keep at bay were falling freely down her cheeks when Rose knelt down next to her so they could be eye to eye, “What doll, monkey? What doll are you talking about?”
Diane looked at her mom, shock written clearly on her face, “You’re not mad about me going into that house?”
Rose wasn’t exactly happy about her daughter traipsing through a condemned home, especially one with so much history, however she was more focused on the doll at the moment, “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m completely upset about you going into that house when you should have known better, however I understand you doing it to make sure a friend didn’t get hurt. Diane, I need to know about the doll Siobhan took out of the house.”
Diane looked down at her feet again, “She was holding on to it when she hugged me. She hasn’t let that ugly thing go since she found it in that box in the basement of that house. It really smelled in there, Mama, and I really wanted to leave as soon as I stepped inside but Siobhan was already in the basement when I finally went inside. Mama, that doll is worse than the house was.”
Rose nodded her agreement, It was the doll! All this time, the demon has been in the doll. It’s happening all over again. Oh my god, and the town tearing down that house isn’t going to stop it. I have to get that doll away from Siobhan before someone really gets hurt.
She had already decided on a plan of action as she stood up and they had started walking once again, “When you see Siobhan tomorrow, I want you to tell her that the sleepover is a done deal and that she should walk home with you on Friday, okay, monkey? Make sure she brings that ugly doll.”
Diane wasn’t sure she wanted the doll in her house, “I don’t want that creepy dolly anywhere near me, Mama! It scares me!”
Rose unlocked the front door, and then picked her daughter up, giving her a fierce hug, “I know you don’t, monkey. And I’m sure it scares you. It scares me too. However, I’m worried about what might happen to Siobhan and her family if we let her keep it. Trust me on this, monkey. I have a plan.”
***
BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON, Diane was a nervous wreck. Siobhan had been carrying the doll with her everywhere. She would play with the doll on the playground at school, even in class when she should have been paying attention to the teacher. The other students in the school began to whisper about her when Siobhan started talking to the doll like she was having a full conversation, even the older girls who had bullied her earlier in the week had started to give Siobhan a wide berth.
Siobhan had become a completely different person. She was meaner and way more direct than she used to be. Though it seemed like she was only targeting the kids that had teased her, Diane couldn’t help wondering if it would remain that way. Siobhan had reached a point where all she seemed interested in was playing with her ‘new’ dolly. Diane was almost convinced that Siobhan wasn’t going to be walking home with her when their bus finally arrived at their stop.
As the bus came to a stop swinging the stop sign out and opening the doors to allow the kids off, Diane stood in solemn silence and slowly made her way down the aisle, not sure how to explain Siobhan’s change of mind to her mama.
“Hey! Di, wait up! Aren’t we having a sleepover tonight?” Siobhan called, hurrying to catch up with her friend.
Diane’s head snapped up and she spun around, “Uh, yeah. Yeah, we are. My mama has everything all planned out. We’re going to eat tacos and Spanish rice for dinner, then mama’s gonna pop us some popcorn while we’re getting our sleeping bags all set up in the living room and get ready to watch some Halloween movies. I’m so excited!”
Siobhan jumped off the last step of the bus, “That sounds awesome! Yvette and I are excited too! Which way to your house?”
Diane looked at her friend in confusion, “Who’s Yvette?”
Siobhan laughed as she followed her companion down the street, “My dolly, silly. Her name is Yvette.”
Diane nodded thoughtfully, “Oh, okay. You know you haven’t parted with that doll since we found her. Have you heard any more voices from that creepy house?”
Siobhan shook her head, “Nope. But I already got the surprise so I guess the ghost was happy enough to finally find some peace.”
What the pale girl wasn’t telling her best friend, was that Yvette had been the voice all along. She just wasn’t in the house anymore.
The girls were each lost in their own thoughts as they approached Diane’s house and walked through the front door.
“Mama! We’re home!” Diane announced loudly as they hung their backpacks on the hooks next to the door.
“Hi, monkey. Hi, Siobhan. How was school?” Rose asked as she appeared from the kitchen, smelling like taco meat.
Diane gave her mama a fierce hug, “School was good. I don’t have any homework tonight. Did you get the Halloween movies?”
Rose gave her daughter just as fierce of a hug as she’d received, “I certainly did. Why don’t you go show Siobhan your room and play for a little while? I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
Diane nodded and grabbed her friend’s hand, “Okay, Mama. Come on, Savi!”
Rose watched as the two girls raced down the hallway, keeping an eye on the doll that Siobhan was swinging in her right hand.
She needed some time to finish the banishing potion before the girls settled down to watch their movies. She made her own way down the hallway, deciding to check on her mother before the girls got too loud.
“Mother? Are you awake?” Rose said softly as she entered the dim room.
“Of course, I am, Rosie. Who could sleep with all that racket going on in the front of the house?” Ester snapped at her daughter as the light was turned on.
Rose rolled her eyes, “How many times have I asked you not to call me Rosie? Please, Mother, you know I don’t like it. And I’m sorry about the noise. Diane has her friend over tonight. You remember? I told you? That she was having a sleepover? I promise everything will calm down right after dinner because they will be watching Halloween movies and eating popcorn.”
Ester looked at her daughter and blinked, “No, I don’t think you did tell me about a sleepover for my granddaughter, Rosie. The damage is already done so I guess I will have to get through the night with it.”
Rose grit her teeth, trying to count to ten so she wouldn’t lose her temper, “I’m sure I told you, Mother. The girls and I are having tacos for dinner tonight, would you like some tacos and Spanish rice or would you rather I make you some soup?”
“Tacos are fine, thank you,” Ester answered while picking up the television remote and turning it on.
Rose shook her head, “Okay, Mother. I’ll be back in an hour with your dinner. I need to get back into the kitchen and finish cooking the Spanish rice and then popping the girls’ popcorn.”
Her mother just grunted in answer as Rose turned around to leave.
She sighed and rolled her eyes again as she made her way back into the kitchen. Need to finish up that banishing potion and get dinner on the table. I can always work on the popcorn after the girls get settled in the living room with their movies. I hope this works. This town doesn’t need another high-profile murder and I’m afraid that if I can’t banish that demon from our world, that is exactly what this town is going to get.
She stepped into the kitchen and took a deep breath, making sure that the smell of taco meat was covering up the slightly sweet smell of the banishing potion. Satisfied, Rose walked over to the stove and began to stir the bubbling potion. She turned the burner off and placed the pan of liquid on the back burner while opening up the oven door to check on the already made tacos and Spanish rice. She needed the potion to cool before she could put it in the plastic storage bowl and she needed to put the potion in the bowl before she called the girls to dinner.
While the liquid was cooling, Rose decided to check on the girls and take her mother a plate of food. There was no sound coming from her daughter’s room, as she made her way down the hallway and she realized just how quiet everything had been since the girls had run to the room. Rose rushed down the hallway to her daughter’s room, hoping to hear a sound, anything except a scream. Her heart was in her throat and a sick feeling had settled in her stomach as she opened her daughter’s door and saw the girls playing quietly. Rose sighed in relief and leaned against the doorjamb just watching them for a few seconds while she tried to catch her breath. It wasn’t until her heart had slowed to a normal pace that she realized Siobhan wasn’t clutching the doll. Her gaze quickly traveled around the room until she found the demonic toy.
“Hi, Mama. Dinner ready?” Diane’s voice brought Rose’s gaze to her.
She shook her head with a smile, “Not yet, monkey. Soon though. I mean, it’s ready it’s not on the table yet. I thought I would feed Grandma first tonight and then get everything on the table before calling you girls out. What are you doing?”
“We’re building a city with Legos,” Siobhan chimed in, still placing the blocks as Diane looked at her Mama.
“So I see,” Rose said as she smiled at her daughter and their guest.
Diane placed a block on top of the one Siobhan had just placed then stood, walking over to her mama, “Go feed Grandma, Mama. We’ll be okay until you call us.”
Rose saw a flash of fear in her daughter’s eyes and prayed that the banishing potion would do its job. Unfortunately for her to be able to use it, she had to wait until the girls were asleep.
***
EVERYTHING WAS QUIET as a cemetery during a funeral when Rose got out of bed later that night. She had heard the television in the living room click off an hour before, she had waited to make sure the girls were truly asleep. She tiptoed to her closet, opening it up and kneeling so she could pick up the plastic storage bowl she’d hidden within.
I hope this works. I’d really hate to make the demon that thrives on chaos and destruction angry. Especially in my own home, Rose thought as she carefully made her way into the hall.
She stopped by her mother’s room on her way into the living room to make sure that the woman who had given birth to her was okay. When Rose heard the soft snores that her mother was known for, she continued on down the hall to her destination. She could hear Diane snoring as she entered the living room, looking around for Siobhan and the cursed doll. Rose found her in front of the fireplace where she’d placed her sleeping bag. Creeping slowly along the floor, making sure to avoid the loose floorboards on her way to the pale, blonde girl, Rose’s gaze continued to search for the doll. Her heart almost stopped when she found it.
The rag doll was standing on its legs of stuffing on the fireplace mantel, as if someone had deliberately positioned her. An evil grin was upon her face and what appeared to be drops of blood on the white, satin of her dress. And she was whispering! Rose couldn’t make out the words but her skin began to crawl as she tiptoed closer. She had no illusions as to whether the demonic toy knew that she was approaching or not, especially when the doll’s head moved and its beady eyes began to follow her progress across the floor.
Rose was about three feet away from the fireplace when the rag doll jumped off the mantel and took off down the hallway. She ran after it with her heart hammering in her chest with fear that the horrible little doll was going to hurt her mother. When she careened around the corner and stopped in front of the master bedroom’s door she found the creepy, ugly doll standing on her mother’s chest with a kitchen knife in its hand.
Where the hell did it get a knife? Rose thought in shock.
The wicked little being was so intent on stabbing her mother that Rose was able to get close enough to grab it up, careful to avoid the knife.
She gave the doll a triumphant smile as she plucked the knife out of its hand letting it clatter to the carpet beneath her feet, “It’s over, Djinxach. Your time here is done.”
The doll’s glassy eyes seemed to shine in the dark room and Rose almost dropped her when it answered back, “Oh ho, I think you’re wrong, Rosie. You could have been free of her, you know, all those years ago if you had just listened to me and come inside 1515 Estate Avenue. You can be free of her now, if you put me down. Give me the knife and set me on her bed. You know you want to be free of this burden and return to your life back in Beckton. I’ll even do the dirty work for you.”
Djinxach laughed, “Oh, don’t look so surprised. I’ve known all along where you moved while I lay trapped in that crumbling house. Being in this tiny toy body, I wasn’t able to follow you and walk you through the best way to dispose of the noose around your neck. Show you your true potential.”
Rose was shaking so bad that she again almost dropped the demonic doll, “No! You’re wrong! I’m not going to kill my mother. I won’t let you kill my mother.”
She turned around, clutching the doll so hard that it would have snapped if it had been one of the new china, glass dolls. She rushed down the hall to the kitchen, the doll in her right hand and the storage bowl in her left.
“It’s over for you, Djinxach. You’re not killing anyone else. I’ve bought you a one-way ticket back home,” Rose said as she set the container on the counter and ripped the lid off.
The demon laughed again, “Please call me Jin. After all, we’re old friends, you and I, and all my friends call me Jin. Well, except the children. Children call me Yvette. It’s easier for them to pronounce. Well, that and the fact that back in 1997 I found that giving a child my real name drives them to do things not fully sanctioned by me. Oh, that poor, poor Crispin family. I do often wonder how sweet, sweet Nicole has been fairing over the years. Has she finally been released from the hospital the state was forced to put her in?”
Rose watched as the doll tried to get her to let go, only to cause her to clutch it that much harder. She was sucked back into a memory of that Halloween night in 1997, the night she and her friends watched the police take that five year old girl away from the home where her parents were being wheeled out on stretchers, sheets covering their faces.
Nicole. That was the little girl’s name, she thought.
She remembered the look on Nicole’s face as the police cruiser pulled away from the curb, remembered how she’d turned in her seat to watch the stretchers being loaded into the back of the ambulance. At the time Rose had thought that look, that morbid curiosity, had been because she was in shock; that she didn’t understand that her parents were dead. However, if the demon was to be believed then all of that was wrong, that all of her memories of that night were wrong. That Nicole had been the one to kill both of her parents.
“Uh-uh. There is no way that little girl killed her parents! She was so small,” Rose shook her head, as if that would somehow help her delay the truth.
Jin gave her a cruel smile, “Oh, you wouldn’t believe how much strength can be in such a small body if given the proper incentive, Rosie. Are you sure you don’t want me to rid you of your burden?”
Rose was done talking with the demonic doll. Time was running short. If Jin was to be believed then she had a special connection with her young puppets, the children she controlled, and it was only a matter of time before she realized that Rose was determined to get rid of such evil, and Jin called out to Siobhan.
“Come on, Rosie. You know you’d be much happier going back to your life in Beckton. Your boyfriend. Your plush job. Just let me help you get rid of that ball and chain in the master bedroom. Things would be so much better for you, and for Diane, if you were free of her,” Jin was trying to get her to change her mind, to do something she’d only had dreams of doing.
Rose moved over the storage bowl containing the green liquid that would rid her of the horribly convincing influence she held in her hand. Siobhan would be better for it and Rose knew her own daughter would be much safer.
She moved the doll, holding it over the thick liquid, watching as it seemed to reach from the bowl for the demon, “Oh, it wants you, Jin. It’s ready to send you home. Are you ready to lose your hold on all those children you’ve been keeping in your influence all these years?”
For the first time since Rose had grabbed her up the demon looked worried, “No, Rosie. You don’t know what you’re about to do. This will hurt poor Nicole more than being married and having a child of her own ever did.”
Rose hovered over the bowl, the doll’s legs dangling loosely, “Nicole has a child?”
She remembered the evening earlier in the week that she had met Siobhan’s mother, “Oh, my Lord! Nicole is Carol Rogers! Siobhan is Nicole’s daughter! That’s why she can hear you. That’s why you were able to break her down so easily.”
Jin let out an evil laugh, “Oh, yes, Carol is Nicole. She changed her name when they let her out of the hospital so she could have a fresh start, afraid that everyone in this town would remember her and what she had done. That they would somehow know that she was the reason both of her parents were dead. Except the cops covered it all up, had said that her father had killed her mother and then grew tired of looking for his daughter, he killed himself. Except that’s not how I work, is it Rosie? And Siobhan wasn’t as easy to break as you would think. I’ve been working on that girl for the last two years. It wasn’t until you and your daughter came back into town that I was finally able to break her.”
The demon had taken on her mother’s voice as she had been talking, and Rose dropped the doll in shock. The only problem with the demon’s plan to sound like her mother was the fact that Rose had still been hovering over the storage bowl full of green liquid and the demonic doll had fallen right into it.
“No, no, no, no, no! Rosie! Help me; quickly, pull me out of here! Hurry! I can still help rid you of your problem!” Jin screamed as the potion began to soak into the doll’s body.
Rose shook her head and put the lid back onto the bowl, muffling the demon’s cries for help. She took one last look at the bowl, then ran out of the kitchen to check on the girls sleeping so peacefully in the living room. However, she’d forgotten to return the butcher knife to its home in the knife block.
The first thing she noticed as she entered the living room was Diane sleepily rubbing at her eyes while trying to sit up. The next thing she noticed was that Siobhan wasn’t anywhere in the room.
“Diane. Diane, honey, do you know where Siobhan went?” Rose asked her daughter as she helped her to her feet.
Diane shook her head and whispered, “No, Mama. She just woke me up as she tripped over me on her way out of the room.”
Rose nodded, “All right, monkey. I want you to get up on the couch and sit there until I come back into this room. Don’t move for anybody other than me. I’m going to go check on something in the kitchen.”
She made sure that her daughter did what she was told and then rushed into the kitchen.
Rose found Siobhan holding the butcher knife and looking at the closed storage bowl, “Siobhan, honey, what are you doing?”
Siobhan gave a soft laugh, “I don’t know. I want to pull the lid off of this bowl but I don’t want to. Does that even make any sense?”
Rose nodded, “Believe it or not, honey, it makes complete sense to me. Now hand me the knife and we can go back into the living room. I’ll tuck you back into your sleeping bag all nice and snug, tuck Diane back into hers just as snug, and make myself comfortable on the couch. Doesn’t that sound good?”
Siobhan blinked twice, looked at the bowl, then the knife in her hand and finally at Rose, “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds really good. I’m real sleepy. Thank you, Ms. Vasquez.”
Rose took the knife from Siobhan, returned it to its home in the knife block, then picked the lost little girl in front of her up and headed back into the living room.
“What’s going on, Mama?” Diane asked as Rose entered the living room, carrying her friend.
“It’s all over now, monkey. It’s time for you girls to get some sleep. Except I’m going to be sleeping on the couch, if that’s okay,” Rose answered as she set Siobhan down next to her sleeping bag.
Diane smiled, “Of course! Now it really is a sleepover!”
Rose laughed as she tucked their guest into her sleeping bag, “Everything’s going to be okay now, sweetheart. I promise. Get some sleep.”
Siobhan smiled and snuggled into her sleeping bag, yawning, “Thank you again, Ms. Vasquez. I really am sleepy.”
Rose kissed the pale girl’s forehead, “Anytime, honey.”
She crawled over to her daughter, “Your turn, monkey.”
Diane gave her a wide, sleepy grin, “Yay! Good night, Mama.”
Rose tucked her daughter into her sleeping bag nice and tight and kissed her forehead, “Good night, monkey. Sweet dreams, see you in the morning. I love you to the moon and back.”
Diane giggled, “I love you to the moon and back, too.”
Rose stood and made her way to the couch, pulling the blanket down from the back, “I’ll see you girls in the morning.”
She listened to the girls snoring softly as she ran the events of the night through her head. She couldn’t believe that the demon was finally gone. Rose rubbed her eyes, feeling suddenly very tired. She had something that felt tacky on her hands and while she had been rubbing she had transferred it to her forehead and eye.
“What the...?” Rose started.
She got up and made her way into the guest bathroom right off of the living room. Flicking the light on, she looked into the mirror and was shocked by what she saw. There was blood on her right eyelid and swiped across her forehead. It was cold and sticky and made Rose not only wonder where she had gotten it but when it had happened.
Mother! Oh god, no! Rose thought as she raced out of the bathroom and down the hallway into her mother’s room.
“Mother? Mother, are you okay?” Rose whispered as she turned on the light.
The sight that greeted her had her retching and reaching for the phone.
Her hand was shaking so badly that she nearly dropped the receiver a few times as she was dialing, “911 operator. What’s your emergency please?”
Breathing heavily Rose answered, “It’s my mother. Uh, something horrible has happened to my mother. We need an ambulance. Oh god, please hurry.”
A small gasp came from the tiny speaker, as if the operator hadn’t expected it to be a real emergency, before she replied, “Okay, ma’am. I need you to stay calm. Can you tell me your address?”
Rose racked her brain trying to remember her childhood address, “It’s uh...Um my address is uh...”
She swallowed hard, tears threatening to drop, then tried again, “My address is 2089 Cherry Drive. Hurry. Oh, god, please hurry.”
Rose dropped the phone as the tears broke free and she kneeled by her mother’s bed, holding her cold hand. The ambulance was going to be too late to save Ester. Rose cried quietly and prayed that the girls in the living room would remain asleep. They didn’t need to see this. They would be woken up soon enough when the ambulance and police arrived, however Rose had to admit, to herself at least, that her mother was dead. And it was all her fault.