It's been five years since that horrible day. Five years. It's almost hard to believe it's been that long. I'm 17 now.

Even though my parents saw, even though my sister and my brother saw, I was still told to go to a shrink. Not because I was crazy, but because they thought I was going to have horrible nightmares for the rest of my life. They were right.

No matter how many times I tried to convince myself he wasn't real and that I was imagining all of that, his horrific smile seeps into my mind.

It doesn't help that I was all over the news for a while.

"Preteen Girl Thinks She's Seeing Dolls Come to Life!"

The worst headline in history.

My best friend at the time, Margo, hated my guts. She thought I hurt her little sister. I would never. It took years of explaining for her to even remotely bother being my friend again.

I don't want to go into detail about my story, but to shorten it, I was really into ventriloquism as a kid. I got a dummy, he turned out to be alive, and my other dummy killed him. The end.

Dennis, the dummy that saved my life, was given to charity by my parents. He was okay with it, though. I knew that after that ordeal I would give up being a ventriloquist for good. He wanted to make people happy and laugh, so that's what he's doing now.

As for the other dummy… Slappy.

Slappy. That name was forever burned into my skull. His face still gives me nightmares. Those piercing green eyes stared into my soul as I slept.

My sister, Sarah, witnessed him coming to life. I never asked if she still had nightmares too. She's in town this weekend, so now's a good time to ask...

"You're making progress, Amy! This is the most you've talked since you came into my office," the soothing voice of Dr. Crier uttered. She's my psychiatrist.

"Well, yeah, because explaining it makes me feel like I'm crazy," I replied.

"Don't use that word," she frowned. She folded her arms, her hazel eyes locked onto my blue ones. "You are not crazy for believing your doll came to life. You know, the great Sigmund Freud once said 'children have no fear of their dolls coming to life, they may even desire it.'"

I rolled my eyes.

"Dr. C, I didn't 'desire' Slappy to come to life. I didn't want it. I DID fear it. He almost ruined my life!"

"Amy, come on now, you know he didn't really come to life. We've talked about this."

"Does this fear mean nothing to you?" I exclaimed. I leapt up from the comfy couch I was laying on. "I have been scarred for the rest of my life from this dummy. It wasn't a nightmare, it wasn't in my head."

"Okay, Amy. Okay. I think that's enough for today. We'll meet up next month so you can talk more, okay?" Dr. Crier patted my back. She let out a long sigh and escorted me out.

I strolled along the side walk. I didn't live too far from Dr. Crier's office. It was nice taking walks, especially during autumn. It's a bit cold and breezy, but nice. The leaves were almost off their branches and the road was flurried with them. The road was shrouded in mist. It was beautiful.

I took a different route home today than the usual one. It's a bit longer, so I wouldn't call it a short-cut.

CRUNCH

What was that?! I looked behind me. Nothing.

CRUNCH

"Who's there?!" I called out into the foggy nothingness. It must have been me stepping on the leaves.

AMY.

I heard a faint whisper. It creeped me out, but I continued walking. The sidewalk felt eerie. Somebody was out there.

AAAAAMY.

"Alright! That's it! I've had enough! Come out right now or I'll clobber your face in!"

No answer.

I groaned and took a step forward. I look forward, only to see a horrific face staring back at me.