THE DOLLMAKER

Once upon a time, in the sleepy town of Elders Hollow, there lived The Dollmaker. A reclusive old man, he never married nor had children, but he did make dolls for the children of the town. These dolls had porcelain faces with glowing yellow eyes.

Many people whispered that the eyes could see straight through you—into your very soul. Some even claimed the dolls could steal it.

One day, after The Dollmaker gifted one of his eerie creations to an eight-year-old girl, she went missing from her family’s flowerbed, where she had been playing faeries. Everything in the garden was frozen in place—except the doll. The doll was gone.

The townsfolk blamed The Dollmaker for the child’s disappearance. Chaos ensued. An angry mob marched to his home, demanding justice for the poor little girl, whose body had been found by the old river—her eyes missing, replaced with glass ones.

When the mob arrived, The Dollmaker was none the wiser, peacefully crafting more dolls with those glowing eyes in his basement workshop. Smoke soon poured in. There was no escape. The poor old man perished in the fire set by the townspeople.

The real killer? Never found. Still waiting. Still watching. Still preying on the next child…