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"Toys in the Attic"

Then & Now Antique Gallery,

Chauncey, Tennessee.

Two weeks ago.

Geraldine Cook loved to shop for antiques. The remnants of yesterday returned her to her younger days, a time when life was much simpler.

Today, she escaped into the past once again as she strolled through Then & Now Antique Gallery with her daughter and granddaughter.

"Oh, Kathleen!" Geraldine nudged her daughter. She wandered over to a shelf that held a variety of glass vases. She picked up a ruby one covered in gaudily painted daises and turned it upside down to check the price tag. "Ten dollars? My word, that's a steal! I saw a vase almost exactly like it on The Antiques Roadshow. It was worth over fifty-thousand dollars!"

Her only child, Kathleen Singleton, heaved a sigh. "Yes, well, that vase on Antiques Roadshow was probably blown and hand-painted by some famous dead French artist. This one probably came from Family Dollar ten years ago."

Geraldine frowned at her and set down the vase. "You're too cynical, Kathy."

"Brianna, don't stand so close to the vases," Kathleen told her eight-year-old daughter. "You might break one of them."

The girl moved away from the collectibles and followed her grandmother deeper into the store. "Look, Grandma!" Brianna cried out, pointing ahead of them. She grinned big. "Dolls!"

"Oh, I see them!" Geraldine stroked her grandchild's pale blonde hair as she led her to the display of porcelain dolls. The store must have had at least fifty of them. They were arranged in neat rows that filled several shelves and table tops. "Aren't they lovely?"

Brianna nodded energetically. "Which one are you gonna get today?"

Geraldine carefully scanned the line of dolls. In a less than a minute, she made her choice. "How about this one?" She selected an ivory-skinned doll with auburn ringlets and chubby, rose-colored cheeks.

Kathleen winced as she studied the doll. The plaything's glass eyes stared at her unnaturally. "Why that one, Mother? It gives me the creeps." She gulped. "Your whole collection gives me the creeps."

"Don't be silly, Kathy," Geraldine said, fingering the doll's emerald gown. "They're dolls."

"I think she's pretty," Brianna spoke up.

Geraldine beamed. "I think so too, sweetie. Let's go pay for her, alright?"

The three generations headed to the cash register.

Geraldine couldn't wait to get home and add her newest doll to her collection. The moment she entered her apartment, she went straight to her extra bedroom, a room she fondly called "The Doll Room."

The Doll Room was packed to capacity with display cases that held such a high number of dolls, Geraldine had lost count years ago. Various races, ethnicities, time periods, and sizes were represented on Geraldine's shelves. Her porcelain treasures covered the walls from top to bottom, each doll possessing some characteristic that made it unique from the others.

Smiling with satisfaction, she placed her latest addition inside a glass cabinet.

"There you are." Geraldine carefully adjusted the hem of the new doll's Victorian-style satin dress. She brushed its red-orange hair away from its face. "Such a beauty."

She took one last look at her prized possession, closed the cabinet, and locked it.

Two days had passed since Kathleen Singleton had gone antiquing with her mother, and they had not spoken since then. This was because Geraldine wasn't answering her phone.

Concerned about her aging mother, Kathleen drove to the older woman's apartment. She used her copy of Geraldine's key to let herself inside.

"Mother? It's me." Kathleen's voice echoed in the small place. She crept through the apartment, worried about what she might find. "Are you okay?"

She rounded the corner to the guest bathroom and screamed.

Her mother's bloodied corpse rested in front of the shower.

Next to her lay the newly purchased auburn-haired doll.