Part One: Denial (Chapter 1)
"Please don't tell me he bought this, Margret..."
Margret looked back at her friend Linda, then sighed as she unpacked her suitcase.
"Well, you know how he can be, Linda." The redhead said with a slight smile. "Nothing ever misses his eye. Ever."
Her brunette friend made a face, holding a plain rag doll by her fingertips as if it was diseased.
"But why would Steven want this?"
"He said, and I quote, another man's trash is another man's treasure." Margret drawled playfully, putting away the clothes.
Linda gave it one last look and scoffed, flinging it towards the rest of Steve's...collectibles.
The tiny doll bounced off the jar of shark teeth Steve bought four years back and landed on top of the "authentic" shrunken head he bought in '97. A whole shelf was dedicated to the bizarre things the man would buy on their vacations, ranging from intriguing cultural items to questionable and down-right creepy collectibles. Their trip to D.C. was no different, for Steve somehow purchased, more like bargained as told by Margret, a skinny rag doll from a young woman.
It had no clothes, no hair, and no face; hell, it didn't even look remotely human, let alone appealing. In Linda's eyes, it looked like a doll UFO-enthusiasts would buy from con-men. Looking over his array of "treasures" with a second glance, the brunette couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"I swear, your husband is slowly going insane..."
"It's called being eccentric, my dear."
The women looked over to Steve, who leaned against the door with a smug little grin. His buddy Greg stood behind him, chuckling and shaking his head.
"Same difference." Linda walked over to flick his forehead. "We might need to check you into an asylum soon enough."
Steve tsked playfully and stuck out his tongue while Margret sighed with a laugh.
"Alright, knock it off you two~" She mused, hanging her dresses in the closet. "I swear, you two are always bickering about something."
Greg snickered, brushing past Steve to kiss Linda's forehead.
"What do you expect between a brother and sister?" He joked. "Their whole family is a bunch of eccentrics."
Linda elbowed her husband's stomach, scoffing with a flip of her long hair.
"How rude, darling. I prefer to be called ingenious."
"Same diff."
Greg chuckled as Linda elbowed Steve hard in the ribs, grabbing the rag doll from the collection. He looked over it curiously, taking note of the marking on its face.
"Hey Steve, where'd you get this thing?"
"Mhat?" The brunet yanked Linda's hold off his cheeks. "What?"
Greg lifted up the doll, and Linda sneered at it again with childish disgust. Steve straightened up, smiling a bit as he pushed his sister away, and reached for the doll.
"Ah, that." He chuckled a bit, holding it with too much interest.
"The chick who gave it to me was just handing these out to people on the streets in D.C. Just giving them away for free~"
"Yet you forced an entire $20 bill on her like some maniac." Margret snorted, placing shirts in the drawers. "The look on that poor girl's face was priceless."
"As I was saying~" Steve grinned to his buddy, who had his arms crossed and leaning on the wall amused.
"The chick kept passing these dolls out in the street, saying her "Mother" would come to everyone soon."
Linda made a stale face while Greg laughed it up like a guy's guy. Steve joined him with the laugh, but waved it off, trying to be serious.
"Ok, ok. She kept saying, "You can't escape Mother's sight." So I go up to her, right, and she had baskets full of these dolls. Hell, there must've been a truckload."
"Seems like her mother was busy, eh?"
"No, no. The amazing thing is that she claimed to have sewed them all by herself. She said "her Mother asked her to, and she always follows her Mother's orders."
"Sounds like a crazy person..." Linda muttered lightly, eyeing the doll with suspicion.
"She was just different." Steve insisted.
"She plucked a piece of your hair, Steven." Margret replied deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she closed the drawers.
"You should've seen him. The woman was doing this to everyone who came by her, just causally touching their hair and freaking them all out. Yet this guy-"
The redhead gestured halfheartedly at her brunet husband, who had the gall to look bubbly.
"This guy got all starry-eyed. Seriously, she could've pulled a knife on him and slashed his arm, and he probably would've laughed it up like an idiot."
"What a weirdo" Linda grimaced at her brother. "You and that broad."
"Ah c'mon, ladies" Steve just shrugged it off, eyeing the doll eagerly. "I'm alive, ain't I?"
"What did she even want your hair for, man?" Greg replied, slightly sharing Linda's awkwardness about the woman.
"Oh you're not gonna believe this, guys." Margret held her hands up in sarcastic excitement. "The woman pulled out this voodoo doll, with the pins and everything."
"It was cool."
The woman gave Steve a stale look, dropping her arms in exasperation. "It was creepy. Lord knows who this "Mother" figure was...if she's even real."
Steve sighed, rolling his eyes as he still held the doll. Greg began to eye it a bit, feeling not too certain anymore. The more he heard about this story, the more it didn't seem right to him. And, staring at the thing, the taller brunet noticed something else...
"Hey...what's that weird marking on the doll?"
He pointed to the thing, which had a large imprint on its forehead. A black circle with a large X stood out against the doll's pale skin, soft paint drips dried along its cheeks.
"Welp" Steve clicked his tongue, waving the doll around. "She said it was surveillance. That it would help "Mother" find me better."
"You're way too cheerful about this" Linda mumbled, narrowing her eyes uncomfortably. "What if that broad finds you again? Or worse?"
Of course, the brunet man brushed it off, chuckling carefree. "C'mon guys. It was probably a joke. You know people'll do anything to sell things."
"Well, whatever the case, I think it's best if ya left that thing in here" Greg shrugged slowly. "Y'know...just in case?"
"What? You're afraid I'll go crazy on you guys~?"
Margret patted his shoulder, sighing softly. "No, no...but knowing you, trouble can, and will, come from nowhere..."
"Oh, you guys are such worry-worts."
Chuckling, he tossed the doll back to the collection and walked out the room, the others leaving out, tired like parents with a wild child.
Steve was such a handful...
But...as Greg looked back to the doll, which lazily sat on the shelf, he couldn't help but think that something was off...
'...The story itself is a bit creepy..but it's the marking that sets me off...'
He closed the door slowly, letting the room be engulfed in the dark.
'...It looks familiar...'
End of Part One: Denial (Chapter 1)