Chapter 1
Doll heads stare at me with blood stains covering their pale faces. Their innocent child-like demeanor makes me wonder what really happened last night in Destiny's Doll Shop. I've always been suspicious of dolls after seeing the movie Chucky. Those porcelain faces are too perfect to be fully innocent. But how do I prove it? How do I prove it was those porcelain people who plotted and murdered old Destiny Wilks?
Blue eyes follow me around the murder scene. The demonic gaze of beady eyes makes heat rise to my face. Solving crimes is in my job description but the suspects are still among us watching me photograph the body of old Destiny Wilks. I ignore them as I continue taking photos of the crime scene beneath my feet. To acknowledge them is to admit that I know what their capable of.
This isn't the first murder at the Dollshop but I'm hoping it will be the last. Destiny's body is covered in tiny bite marks. She looks half devoured and half consumed. She was eaten alive by mini piranha fangs. The image my mind congers up is enough to frighten the pumpkins in my patch. Spooks exist if you go looking for them.
Tiny hand prints the size of raccoon paws surround Destiny's body. Her curly long silver hair is stained with blood. The blood of her remaining brains. Her brain can be seen through the flesh of where her forehead once was. The skin is pulled back with tiny hand prints everywhere. A trail of brain follows her corpse towards the books shelf and on the bookshelf human remains are splattered like a decoration.
"What happened? Do you think an animal did this?" Officer Douglas asks as I toy around with the idea of answering honestly. I decide to lie so that the true enemy doesn't know that I know they are alive. Dolls are intelligent beings if they've been able to murder human after human on Halloween night. But this murder is different, Halloween is a week away and I am desperate to catch them before their serial killings continue.
"Of course it was an animal. Just look at these claw marks and bite marks. Probably a rabid raccoon family. Those little devils can be monsters if left unchecked."
That's how the news reporters will tell it.
Old Destiny Wilks, owner of Destiny's Doll Shop, died at the hands of rabid racoons.
But that's not what really happened here. The porcelain demons with blood stains dripping from their mouths did this. Their attempts to lick their lips quietly have been noticed by me. They smack their lips slowly as a means to mock me. Do they know that I know?
"Everyone knows that Destiny's Doll Shop is haunted. A ghost lives there. It's something else. Someone else did this, Cassidy. Wake up and smell the serial killer. This wasn't an animal."
I wish Officer Douglas didn't admit this around my porcelain suspects but he can't help himself. He can't help but be honest around dolls. He doesn't know that they murder people on Halloween. He hasn't studied his enemy or plotted their downfall the way I have.
"Sure it was an animal. Claw marks and tiny prints. It's definitely racoons. That's what we'll put in the file and that's what the record books will say. Do we have an understanding, Officer Douglas?"
He studies my eyes and hopefully sees the urgency within them. This is my body language now. Being stern and forceful is the only language that Officer Douglas responds to.
I write him a note and slide it to him. I make sure the dolls don't notice. It reads 'The dolls did it. Shhhh they are watching.' Douglas laughs. His giggles turn into chuckles as he gets louder and louder. My eyebrows raise as I roll my eyes.
"Yeah, got it. A raccoon did it or some other wild animals that size."
Officer Douglas leaves the crime scene. It's me left alone with the dolls. I don't look up at them. If I don't see them, then I am not a threat to their next victim. It's a shame I have to let their evil ways pass me by for a few days. But I have no choice their next victim is bait. The only way to catch them is to catch them once and for all.
As I leave the crime scene and prepare to call the morgue to come and take the body away, I hear low laughter. The voices sound like the humming of many bees coming behind the wall. The voices are spiralling and swirling in vibrations all around me. They surround me like a mini tornado. A vortex forms in the middle of the Doll Shop with the voices pulling me towards the middle.
"We know you're onto us, Cassidy Casper. We know that you know. We know that you suspect us. We know that you know that we murdered Destiny Wilks. You're next. This Halloween night we will haunt you, and bite you, and eat you. We will devour your soul and eat your flesh whole. Sleep well, Cassidy Casper, and say good bye to this world for you won't be in it for much longer."
The vortex leaves my body and the voices disappear. The dolls on the book shelf begin to shake and with a loud pop sound they all disappear into the vortex before my eyes. The staff of the morgue come and takes Destiny Wilks away. If anything is clear, I am the next victim of the dolls, they are alive, and I must prepare to kill them all before they murder me.
