Part 1 Chapter 1 - The Shop
The incident Ethan had with the dolls. It all began on a sunny and mainly cloudless day. Ethan was walking quickly down Jade Street, and the street was crowded with people walking by each other, some on their phones talking, others with friends.
As Ethan was walking down the sidewalk, the wind was whipping his messy brown hair around, and the sun above him managed to glare into his blue and black colored glasses. Jade Street has always been a busy street on the weekends, as the street has farmer markets filled to the brim with fresh fruits and vegetables, family and friends meeting up, restaurants full of people looking for a bite of a tasty meal, and people entering and exiting various stores. Light on his step, Ethan continued to walk by until he stopped at the entrance of Antique Trove.
In Antique Trove, a lot of different items have managed to find their place there. These items are normally located on the shelves and tables, or on the floor if they happen to be bigger. These items usually range from small items, such as glassware and books, to larger items, such as clocks, paintings and furniture.
The store has been modelled with a nice rustic theme, with green wallpaper that has been plastered onto the old wooden walls. Madeline’s grandparents are the owners of the store, and it has been like that for 40 years. The reason to why Madeline is working for her grandparents is because she enjoys selling items to people who have an interest in collecting vintage items, as she has a bit of an interest in these items herself. There is also the fact she managed to spend a lot of free time in the store in her childhood, as her parents were busy a majority of the time. Ethan then enters the store, and the first thing he saw was Madeline sitting on a foldable chair at the cash register. There are also glass counters, showing off multiple smaller items, like coins.
“Hey Madeline! How’s your day?” Ethan asks as he walks around the shop, taking a look at the items placed on the tables, which are sprawled around the store.
“Not too bad!” She says, as she looks up from from her phone, currently texting her best friend. “What are you looking for today?”
“Eh, not sure yet. Maybe something like....“Ethan says this as he looks around, and his eyes landed on a particular trio. A dummy, a marionette and porcelain doll. They are placed on a shelf, currently in a sitting position.
The dummy had a purple suit, with a purple tie neatly tucked into the suit. As Ethan shifts his focus to the marionette, he notices that it has red irises, and that it was wearing a tattered blue Victorian Era dress, along with nearly washed out blue gloves on its hands. ‘Huh. Interesting color for her eyes...’ Ethan thinks for himself. After taking a look, he immediately shifts his attention to the porcelain doll, Ethan notices that it was wearing a Victorian Era style ball gown, and that its eyes managed to resemble a black void.
“Oh, these look interesting. How long did you have them?” Ethan says as he quickly lifts a finger to point at them.
Madeline quickly shifts her attention from her phone to look up. “Oh, we had them for like a.... week, I think. My grandparents say they just randomly appeared on the doorstep. They don’t know who left them there. No note, no explanation.”
“Ah okay. That’s strange.” says Ethan as he re-shifts his attention to the sitting dolls.
“We do tend to get strange items from time to time. Once we got some sort of weird collection that consisted of shrunken heads. After we sold them to someone else, he came back later and claimed something weird was happening to them. Something about the heads being alive.” Madeline spurts out as she continues to type away on her phone. “Anyway, what are you planning on getting?”
“You know what, I’ll get these. They’ll be an interesting addition to what I have.” says Ethan as he points at the dolls.
“All right.” Madeline says as she sends a text. “Anything else you would like?”
“No. That’s everything.” says Ethan, as he grabs his wallet, located in his back pocket. Madeline nods as she stands up and stretches, due to sitting in the chair for a few hours. After putting her phone into her back pocket, she quickly grabs the dolls and rings them up at the cash register. She takes out a bag from under the counter as she calculates the amount of money.
“$300 is your total. And would you like them to be packed? And cash or debit?” asks Madeline as she holds up some packing paper.
“No. I’ll take them as is.” says Ethan as he takes out some money from his wallet, and gives it to her. Madeline nods as she passes the receipt to Ethan, while taking the money.
“Thank you! Have a good day!” says Ethan as he walks towards the store exit.
“You too! See you another time!” says Madeline as she waves goodbye to Ethan, while taking her phone from her back pocket before sitting back down.
10 minutes later.
The front door clicks shut with a soft click as Ethan walks in with a small smile on his face. After closing and locking the front door, Ethan heads upstairs and enters his collection room, which happened to be located close to the staircase. The inside of the room has brown shelves lining the 3 of the 4 walls, with the shelves covering most of the wall. A lot of smaller items happen to rest upon them, clean from dust.
The items Ethan managed to collect over two years consist of a small antique clock, an antique grandfather clock, two entire shelves that consist of old leathery books and some antique coins that rest on one of the lower shelves. An old Medieval style painting also resides on one of the blue walls.
He walks up to one of the shelves and one by one, puts the dolls in one line. The dummy in the middle, the marionette on the left and the porcelain doll on the right. The shelf Ethan is placing the dolls on happens to be placed the first and third shelves. After doing this, Ethan then steps back and takes a few seconds to admire them.
Just as he was about to leave the room, he hears a ringtone from his back pocket, causing his hand to fly behind and firmly take his cellphone out. After taking a look at the call ID, he picks up.
As Ethan brings the cellphone to his ear, the dummy’s eyes moves to look at him, with a subtle click following the action. “Carl! How’s it going man?“ Ethan exclaims with excitement.
“Not too bad! Did you get anything at that antique shop?” says Carl as he places down lunch on the table, with Amy arriving as he heads back to grab some utensils.
“Just some dolls. A dummy, a marionette and a porcelain doll.” Ethan says as he waves his free hand around.
“Really? Some old crusty dolls?” Carl says in a confused tone as he sits down to eat. Amy perks up with interest as she hears this. As she eats, she keeps her attention on her dad, as she wanted to hear more about the dolls.
“Hey man. They looked interesting, and I thought they would fit right in with the other stuff. Do you think Amy would be interested in looking at them?” Ethan asks with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
“Eh. I don’t know. Maybe. We’ll see when we come over next week on Saturday.” Carl suggested.
“All right. See you then.” Ethan says with a cheerful tone.
“See you. Call if you need anything.” says Carl as he grabs a fork to dig in. After the both of them hang up, Ethan turns around to face the dolls while inserting his cellphone back into his back pocket.
Just as he fully faces them, the dummy’s eyes then click back into place. Ethan notices this and after eyeing the doll for a couple of seconds. “Weird...”
As Ethan leaves the room, the dummy then moves his eyes to look at both the marionette and porcelain doll that are sitting right next to him.
