Where's My Dolly?

Hi, just a quick note to say I'm still alive and writing! And maybe a quick apology for writing Anna where it should have said Abby in my last chapter! I'll fix that soon, but for now, please enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 20: Another Strike

"Leaf… Leaf…"

Leaf could hear the distant sound of someone's voice calling her name. She tried to look around for a face but it she was surrounded by the stark darkness of the forest's shadow.

"I think she's waking up!"

Leaf tried to process her thoughts. What had happened? Did she blackout? Slowly she sat up with the help of a pair of hands and tried to piece together what she remembered.

A pick-me-up picnic. A nice chat of old times. Cake. Bush. Doll.

Oh yeah…

She could hear the rustle of footsteps getting louder and louder as the thing got presumably closer with a light! The light shone towards her and allowed her to take in her surroundings. She looked at the owner of the torch and saw Drew.

"Gary!" she croaked and threw her arms around him before she even saw his face. She was just relieved to be around someone she knew and trusted. Actually, she was just happy to be around something alive.

"Are you okay? What happened to you? How did you get that gash?" He asked her.

Instinctively Leaf moved her hand up to where Gary's eyes were and she was met with a gloopy feeling, probably from partially coagulated blood, and a slight numb pain. She tried to think back again to what happened.

She remembered taking off after the doll. Falling down in the dark, hidden hole and… Where was she anyway? This didn't feel anything close to a soft, warm bed.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking around her. She could see Drew standing a few feet away from her and Gary who were in the low ceiling place, if what was above their head could be called a ceiling. It was more like a roof to a burrow of some sort.

"We're underground, under one of the old trees." Gary explained to her. "We found you here. Do you remember how you got here?"

Leaf nodded. "Kind of. I was running after the doll and I followed it into this underground pass and…" Leaf paused for a moment to gather the rest of her memory pre-fainting. "I-I think it talked to me?" She recalled uncertainly.

"It talked?" Drew echoed from where he was standing. He would've joined Gary and Leaf under the tree if it wasn't for the lack of space and his slight dislike towards crammed conditions. "You mean the doll talked to you?"

Leaf nodded, a bit stunned by her own story too.

"What did it say?" Gary asked her with a look of slight disbelief and mostly shock.

Leaf shrugged apologetically. "I can't remember. I only remember it having a really deep voice! It completely threw me off and I kinda… Fell deeper down."

"You fell from hearing its voice?" Gary looked at Leaf strangely.

"Not just that! It was mostly what it said to me even though I can't remember it; I know it was something weird – even important maybe." Leaf tried to explain but it was hard when she was slowly regaining feeling to her head. The throbbing was now becoming more and more prominent and soon enough she knew she wasn't going to be able to withstand it.

"Let's get out of here." Drew suggested. "I have a bad feeling about staying out here for too long." he added with a slight shudder.

Gary nodded and got up then extended a hand toward Leaf.

Leaf couldn't recall a time that she had winced so much! The doctors and nurses wiped her gash with several different chemicals that made it sting and throb, causing her head to hurt more before insisting on a few stitches and finally sealing it with a clinical white bandage. She wasn't too keen on the bandage look but luckily her hair was long enough to cover the majority of it – it was likely to come in handy after the stitches were removed. The doctors did warn that a gash that deep was likely to leave a scar behind.

The nurse pulled the curtains back and finally let Leaf go to re-join Gary, who was sitting on the other side waiting for her. He stood up and approached her when she came out and asked if she was okay.

Leaf nodded. For some reason she was different from many girls and didn't mind the odd scar on her. It's not like it was going to huge. To Leaf, it was going to serve great anecdotal purposes one day, maybe with the odd exaggeration in it, though it was not going to be an easy task to exaggerate the story.

The walk back to Gary's was quiet and it was late by the time they got back. All the lights were out and the front door was locked.

"We have a slight problem." Gary said as he dug around in his pocket.

Leaf watched him. "You've lost the key." She said.

"Yup." Gary simply replied. "It's gone."

"Backdoor?" Leaf asked.

"Backdoor." Gary confirmed then started to lead the way into the vast garden then to the discrete brown door hidden behind the overgrown and untamed shrubs and turned the doorknob.

Even Leaf knew that that would be unlocked. It was a must since everyone in the Oak household had a horrible memory for the simple things like taking the house keys and quite often locking the doors too.

"It's good to be home." Gary said as he flicked the light switch and the kitchen came to life under the light.

Leaf nodded. "Just so we're clear, that was not part of the night's itinerary."

Gary laughed. "I'd hoped not." He had pulled out two glasses and filled them with water. He handed one of the glasses to Leaf and downed the other. It had been a long night and there was nothing more refreshing than having a glass of cold water.

"I think I'm just going to go to bed." Leaf said as she put the glass in the sink.

"Your head still sore?" Gary asked her.

"Just a bit." Leaf admitted. The doctors had given her some pain killers to take while she was at the hospital and if truth be told, Leaf didn't find them all that effective at curbing the pain that could only be described as having several little tap dancers tapping rhythmically away against her cranium.

"Let's go up then." Gary said then turned to leave the kitchen with Leaf behind him. He turned off the lights then led the way in the darkness, Leaf's hand fitted snugly in his, her slightly cold palms against his comfortingly warm ones. Somehow they had managed to find their way to the stairs and up them without turning on any lights. He stopped at the front of Leaf's door.

"If anything happens just come to my room."

"I would've come over even without the invitation." Leaf managed a tired smile despite knowing that Gar would not be able to see it.

Gary let out a low laugh. "I know. Goodnight Leaf." He said a left a small kiss on her forehead next to her bandage.

"Goodnight." Leaf said as she felt her cheeks flush a crimson colour. She was thankful that the lights were off. She slipped into her room, trying to avoid letting the door make any noise as it shut behind her.

The brunette stripped out of her dirt smothered clothes and jumped into the shower, cleaning her skin from the forest's debris and her mind from everything that had happened. The last thing she wanted to think about before going to bed was the doll and what it could possibly do to her during the night. If it managed to find her and Gary in the secluded forest it was likely that it was going to be able find her here.

Whatever Leaf was planning to use as a defence against its sneak attack was, she had forgotten it relatively quickly as she slipped into a deep slumber that she did not awaken from until the following morning.

Or at least she thought it was the morning. The awakening by the shaking of her shoulder was a harsh call. Leaf opened her eyes up slowly and groggily and allowed the light to filter in. But there wasn't any. The curtains in the room were closed, blocking out the natural light and the lamps were not on.

"Leaf, Leaf… Are you awake?"

Leaf rubbed her eyes. "Dr. Abby?"

"Yeah. Where have you been?" She asked in her hushed tone as she flicked the lamp on then blinked confusedly when she saw her bandaged head. "What happened to your head?"

Leaf sat up in the bed and tried to look upwards in her head. She could feel the adherence of the bandage on her forehead and suddenly remembered what happened, kind of. Some bits were still blurry whilst others were still a complete mystery. And her short sleep had not helped her to recover anything new – yet.

"What time is it?" Leaf yawned, ignoring the young professor's questions.

"It's almost five."

Leaf blinked rapidly at the woman. Who in the right mind would wake someone up at five in the morning? But then again, Dr Abby did try to bring a doll to life…

"Why are you here?" Leaf asked.

"Have you recovered the doll yet?"

"No." Leaf said, "But I saw it earlier today and it was crazy!" Leaf moved her arm animatedly and tried to convey the level of craziness that she was imagining in her head. "That doll is one speedy runner! It lured me into the forest and into a small ditch under a tree… Well, I may have actually fallen into the ditch myself. But I'm not entirely sure about that. It's all still a bit of a blur to me."

Dr Abby nodded understandingly. "And then what happened? Where's the doll now?"

"I must've passed out after I'd fallen."

"So you don't know where the doll is?"

Leaf shook her head lightly. "No. By the time I got up Gary was next to me… That reminds me, I kind of told Gary about you."

Dr Abby stared at Leaf. Her expression: nothing.

"In my defence, I only broke my promise because he saw you lurking in the garden. Apparently he heard you too." Leaf rationalised. Maybe she shouldn't have brought up Gary so casually.

Dr Abby stood there for a moment as she let Leaf's word sink in and contemplated on what to do next. Was it a good idea that the boy knew about her? After all, he is the grandson of the man who sent her away from her own home. But then again, he has been trying to solve the recent crimes without discussing with his grandpa so it may be entirely possible that the boy posed no threat to her presence here. But her thoughts were disturbed by Leaf who suddenly started to shove her to one side and approached the shut door.

Leaf could make out the sound of footsteps coming up the hall and that was strange to her. Gary was meant to be in his room, sleeping and possibly dreaming about some girl in a scantily clad bikini or something like that, not wondering the hall at an hour like… 5:20 AM.

Leaf raised a finger to her lips and whispered a small shhh as she pressed her ear against the door and listened to the footsteps. The noise had definitely gotten quieter. She leaned in harder and tried to listen even closely than before and she swore she could hear silence. It wasn't even the good kind of silence that one could fall asleep with ease in; it was the type the followed after a gun shot. And with that realisation in mind, Leaf threw the door back and darted across the hall. Something did not seem right to her, like the day she left her home to go to school and never saw her parents. The signs were there when she left the house that day, the strange smell that lingered for days and yet it never hit her like the silence that clung to her now.

Without knocking, Leaf shoved the door so hard that it knocked up against the wall and rebounded slightly.

And she was almost right about something being wrong. Gary was perfectly fine, lying in his bed with his blue sheets draped over his topless torso, sound asleep. What scared Leaf the most was that Gary was sleeping while the footsteps, the regular, rhythmic footsteps approached his door, opened it and closed it again before heading across to his bedside table and sitting itself down.

Leaf's eyes darted from the Gary then to his right where the doll sat on his bedside table. The doll. The doll had opened the door of the house. The doll had walked into the house. The doll had sat itself down right next to Gary with its eyes fixed on him.

And then it dawned on Leaf, the doll was after him next.

Dr Abby stood behind Leaf and looked at the doll too. She could see the blue eyes of the doll watching the boy sleep, a sight that sent shivers down her spine. She leaned forward and whispered in Leaf's ear, "We need to get a hold of that doll."

Leaf nodded and walked briskly up to it and snagged it off the bed side table. This time touching the doll, it felt a lot scarier. It felt heavier and warmer and… It just exudes life.

"What do we do with it now?" Leaf asked as she handed the doll to Dr Abby.

"We destroy it."

"I'll wake Gary first. He should at least know what was going on." Leaf said then tried to do just that.

Shake shake.

No response.

Leaf furrowed her eyebrows.

Shake shake.

No response still.

Leaf shook the boy again only more vigorously this time and looked over at Dr. Abby when she continued received no response.

Dr Abby seemed to be distracted with some sort of fabric in her hand. Her eyes stared intently at it as she felt the cold, moistness of it. She raised it to up towards her nose and took a gentle whiff of it and recoiled. The fact that she found the cloth with the doll was no laughing matter. She immediately went across the room, sat on the bed side and took Gary's wrist into her hands. "He still breathing but his pulse is slow." Dr Abby declared as she continued to check for Gary's vital signs. "Call an ambulance. He needs medical attention now."

Leaf nodded and reached across to the bedside table and grabbed Gary's phone to call for help but with her shaking hands, everything seemed a lot more difficult to do; but nonetheless, she eventually managed and waited by Gary's side.

Leaf sat in the waiting area by herself as she waited for the verdict from the doctors. Dr Abby had insisted she stayed behind and watched the doll whilst Leaf went to the hospital again. She did raise a fair point that she had to remain hidden from Professor Oak; only God would know what would happen if he did find out that she had gone against his word.

The doctors eventually appeared from behind the clinically white curtains. He had his stethoscope round his neck and a clipboard in his hands as he filled in a few notes then handed it to the nurse that was next to him. She scurried off in a hurry.

"Is my friend okay?" Leaf asked the doctor, a concerned expression graced her face as she looked intently at the doctor for reassurance.

"Who are you in relation to him?" The doctor asked professionally.

"A friend." Leaf replied with slight hesitance at the start.

The doctor looked at her sceptically and replied, "He should be fine now but I'm a bit concerned about his… recent activities. The police have been informed about this case." He said and then added, "And I suggest you alert his family too if you haven't already done so."

Leaf nodded. She understood clear and well what had happened, what was going to happen and what she needed to do but how was she going to explain this to Professor Oak? Actually, a better question was how was she going to get a hold of the man. The ambulance had come and gone and yet there was no sign of the man at home.

Leaf pulled out her phone and started to call someone who could help.

End of chapter 20. Hope you guys who are persevering with this story (if there's any at all) enjoyed it. I realise I'm an awful updater but I swear, I won't abandon the story!

~silver-hedgehog