Thriller: Horror: Spirit Doll (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story)

by Stephen Kingston

  I walked out of the room, going into the kitchen to pull out the plastic plates we kept for the girls to use when we ate outside. They were the only plates we had left in the house now. I had had to wash everything in the cabinets to get off the glass powder from those as well. I do not think exhausted quite covered how we both felt now.

  I was turning back to the table when I caught something tall and black out of the corner of my eye. I was about to scream when my feet flew out from under me and my head bounced off the floor. As the world went dark, I saw a black shape, almost rounded like a head, peering down into my face. I blinked once more then the world went dark.

  When I woke up my body was sore and my head felt as if it was tearing from my shoulders. I figured out the pain was because my head was hanging down over my body as I slowly came back to reality. It took a moment or two longer to realize that my head was hanging over my body because I was tied to a chair. That is when the fear started.

  The chair spun in a sickening circle for a moment, the rotation so fast I felt as though gravity was steadily pushing me down into the chair. It finally flew back into the wall, the blow making my head spin even more as the air left my body. When the chair started to rise up the wall in a slow crawl, I started to scream. I hung there; looking around at nothing as a force lowered me then lifted me back up again. I was terrified the force would drop me from the 12 foot height of the ceiling, a landing that would surely do some damage if not kill me.

  “Wes!” I screamed out, not for the first time that day.

  I heard no voice but I heard footsteps pounding in through the front door and then Wes was there, staring up at me as the chair lowered to the floor once more. Wes pulled a pocketknife out and began to cut me loose, not saying anything as he took in the fact that my clothes were gone. I only had my underwear and bra on. Even my socks had disappeared!

  “Let’s go, leave it Clara, nobody cares if you are naked, let’s go!” Wes pulled at me as I tried to grab at my shirt on the floor.

  He pulled at my hand, not letting up, and I ran for the door with him. I saw the scattered bottles of beer, the pizza out of the box and forgotten on the ground, as we ran for the door. All I could hear was his voice urging me to run.

  We slammed into the door as it closed in front of us, the handle refusing to budge as Wes slammed at the door with his fist and rattled at the door handle.

  Wes grabbed me, pulling me back into the living room. He kicked at the board there, three inches of light still visible through the bare spot. I looked around as he kicked at the door, terror stealing my voice. Where was it? Where was the monster?

  Then our feet flew out from under us and we were thrown back against the wall. My broken laptop slid over the floor, scratching the bare wood, before it landed in my lap. The empty screen, no glass or pixels to produce light available, still somehow produced words.

  “You are my child. You cannot leave.”

  I looked over at my husband as the words appeared.

  “I have your daughters, my grandchildren. None of you can escape.”

  “No!” The word came out shrill and long as I fought to escape the invisible force holding me to the wall.

  Wes went still as he felt his phone vibrate and begin to ring. He pulled it from his pocket and saw the text message asking if we had the girls before both devices we had flew from our grips and our entire bodies were forced up along the wall and we hung there, pinned to the wall with no way to break free. This monster had my babies and I could not save them!

  Chapter Twelve

  I woke up from the drug haze of the medicine the doctors had given me and knew there was something wrong. My mind was clear; I had none of the fuzziness that sometimes hampered my days now, and an overwhelming urge to go to Clara. I knew it would take hours to be discharged so I waited for the nurses to pass before gathering up my clothes and dressing. I saw Clara had left my handbag and wallet and knew I could get a taxi to her house. I am sure she would not want Grams busting out of the joint so I did not tell anyone I was leaving.

  I waited until the nurses were busy with other patients then quietly slipped out of the door, my shoes quiet on my feet. I went straight for the elevator and out of the hospital when the elevator descended down to the ground floor. I headed for the taxi rank outside and climbed in the first car available, directing the man to Clara’s house.

  I could feel a sense of urgency, a cloying worry that almost smothered me as the time passed. Something was wrong with my baby; I had to get to her. I wanted to urge the driver to speed but knew he would not. I sat in the back, trying to calm myself, trying to tell myself she was fine but could not. My nerves were on the edge of snapping when a car pulled out in front of us and slowed down.

  Back at the house, Wes and Clara struggled, trying to find a spot where they could both break free. They stopped as the laptop floated into the air, coming to rest where they could both see it. More words appeared and the pair looked at each other confused.

  “She comes. She is mine now!”

  “Who is coming?” Wes asked Clara.

  “I have no idea. Let’s hope they bring a cavalry of exorcists with them.” Clara’s response was tired and Wes knew she wasn’t going to be able to fight much more. Wes wanted to pray but in that moment, he could not think of the words. All he could think was “please help” as he hung helplessly next to his wife.

  Betty walked up to the porch, the house dark and covered in boards. She was almost afraid this was the wrong house but she could see Wes and Clara’s cars outside. She knew this was their house, but she also knew something had gone horribly wrong. Betty turned the doorknob and walked into the silent, dark house.

  “Hello?” She called out as she walked into the living room.

  “We are here Mom! Help, do something, please!” Clara called out. At every part of her life when she had needed Betty her mother had been there. Seeing her mother walking into the living room was not a surprise now.

  Betty rushed over to her daughter but could see nothing holding her up so high from the floor. Clara and Wes must have been six feet in the air. The Lurking Spectre was here somewhere, she knew it. How would she get them down though?

  Betty heard Clara and Wes gasp and she turned around to see her old nemesis. Shadow Man, Lurking Spectre, whatever you wanted to call it, this mass of darkness, blacker than black, was the remaining soul of Travis Brown and she knew it. Whether the shape was wearing a fedora or not this was Travis Brown’s black soul come to life.

  Betty gasped and took a step back but the shadow followed her. There were no real features to the being, just shapes. No more than you’d see in a shadow, the black darkness that haunts the corner of our eyes that we can never quite focus on, no matter how fast we turn our heads. This is what the raping murderer was now.

  “Ah Betty. At last, you are mine. And you have brought our daughter!” A voice came from the shadows, sibilant and dry, the voice made Betty shiver. It was his voice, though changed. She would know that sound anywhere.

  “She isn’t your daughter! She is mine!” Betty protested but the shadow only laughed.

  “I have come for you, for now, Betty. The children can remain until it is their time, but for now, I want only you. I have wanted you for so long. I used to send my shadow out to follow you. I know you knew and I enjoyed your fear. Almost as much as I loved touching your skin and tasting you! Almost.” The shadow reached out to touch her skin and Betty cringed away once more.

  “Ah Betty. I only want to play with you as I once played with you in the hospital. Those were such fun times. I would laugh, you would scream. We would all have a good time. You are old now in this realm but in my world you will be young forever and you will be mine. Imagine it, an eternity of dancing with you, of having you. I am sure you are pleased. Come now dear, it is your time; I can feel your heart giving up the will to live. Let go, Betty, be mine.” The voice spoke to her but Betty did not want to listen.

  Betty could f
eel a pain in her chest and wanted to scream but the pain stole her voice away. The pain only increased as the walls around her turned to blood, the floor oozing with the substance as the blood flowed down from the walls. Wes and Clara cried out at the ooze flowing over them, stinking and sticky as it covered their faces and bodies.

  “Stop it!” Betty managed to yell out. “Leave them alone. I will go with you if you leave them alone!”

  A voice chuckled in the darkening room, the blood flowing over even the lightbulb in the ceiling, casting a red glow to the scene. Betty screamed as she flew into the air, her body tumbling as the force threw her around like a rag doll. She was flung around the room though she never hit anything.

  “My dizzy little madam, you do not quite understand do you? You are mine now. There’s no bargaining, no 'please'. They will be mine next. Now, come give me a kiss.”

  Betty’s body came to a halt in the center of the room, about five feet from the floor. Her body went limp as her brain finally had enough and she passed out. But she was not spared for long because the being intruded even into that haven, a demonic laughter chasing her from the depths. She awoke to a blinding light as her body fell to the ground, two thumps behind her letting her know Clara and Wes were free as well.

  As the blinding light filled the room the trio of humans huddled together, trying to see into the light but unable to without pain. What was happening now they all wondered?

  A new voice boomed out of the light, sweet, where the other had been bitter, kind where the other had been cruel. Betty knew that voice and she longed to see him properly once more. Her lost love, her only love had come to save her and her child.

  “Adam.” She breathed the word, a prayer, a thank you, a relief. Adam was here and she was safe once more.

  “Travis, will you never leave her be? Why can’t you allow her a moment’s rest? She has had a lifetime of your torment. Leave her be.” The voice came from the light.

  The trio looked around but could not see the Shadow Man, his darkness was being sucked up by the light Adam released. Even the blood that had stained every surface was drying up and blowing away under the force of the light. As the light filled the room the trio finally saw the man hiding in the darkness, the withered remains of Travis, now a bent and wrinkled imitation of himself. His eyes still burned with anger, though, with hunger for the things he could not have, and with hatred.

  “You. You wanted to send me away, you wanted her for yourself. I know what you were doing with her, breaking the rules. Well, I stopped you! I stopped you both, did I not? And I still had her, despite her mewling’s over you. I had her several times that night and we have a child because of it. She is the mother of my child. We are connected throughout eternity.” The withered little man danced in the light, his power waning as Adam grew brighter, a warmth coming from him now.

  “You have nothing with her, Travis. Absolutely nothing. You had her body against her will, you tried to steal her soul but you had nothing of her. You share nothing with her but memories that cause her pain. That was always your problem. You just did not know when to leave people alone, when you weren’t wanted. But like a child you had to have what others did not want to give you, even if it meant stealing it from them. You talk of rules but you made your own up and then broke them. You are not even supposed to be in this realm now. It is forbidden to us and even my time here has to be short.”

  “But I am the girl’s father. I share a bond with her. That is my girl. She is mine.” The evil little man jumped in place, his anger making him dance with frustration.

  “No.” Adam said, his body stepping out of the light finally. “You have no place here. We lost our time the night you decided to unleash your greed once more. We are not supposed to be here.”

  Clara saw how handsome he was and could see why her mother had loved him so. Angelic and sweet, strong and safe, Adam was everything her mother would have wanted.

  Betty’s heart melted as she saw him once more, years of torment melting away as she saw his smile. She could only really see his head, his body still only just white light. But just to see his face once more was a miracle. She breathed his name, no more than a sigh and held her hands out to him.

  Adam came into her hands, his face between her soft aged palms, and kissed the delicate flesh there. He touched her face, her head, then stepped away, looking over at Clara.

  “This is our girl then. She is as lovely as you Betty. You have done a wonderful job with her. I only wish I could have been there to watch her grow with you.” Adam’s face revealed his sadness, his pain at missing so much of his own life and theirs together.

  “How do you know she is yours, Adam? I could never tell, no matter how hard I looked at her.” Betty revealed.

  “Oh, it is simple really. Travis had the mumps as a teenager. His testicles swelled up into two giant balloons. He could not have fathered a child because that bout of the mumps sterilized him. I am surprised he could even have sex after that, his testicles were so misshapen. No, there’s no way he could have fathered this child, none at all. His body simply was not capable of it.”

  “But, she is mine!” Travis protested, his body withering even more before their eyes. “She is mine. I made her. I put the seed in this woman’s belly and that girl is the fruit. She is mine.” He was hopping up and down in anger. Now he was more a laughable sight, a pitiable sight, than a frightening one.

  Adam’s light began to grow once more and his voice shook in anger.

  “You are wrong, Travis. Now be gone!” A blinding flash of light absorbed the man and he disappeared, his body and his shadow gone.

  Wes, Clara, and Betty all felt a relief, a loosening of the tension, as the man disappeared and Adam’s light started to dim once more.

  “Betty, I can’t give you the years we lost and I can’t promise you many more on your own, but I can take this disease from you. It is gone and will plague you no more. The rest, your heart, your body, I can’t make that better, but I was able to take this disease. I hope the rest of your life is peaceful. Spend it as you have the other part of your life, loving our daughter.”

  And with that Adam was gone. He did not say goodbye or speak to Clara, he just left, taking the evil that was Travis with him.

  “But what about our girls? Where are the girls Momma?” Clara called out.

  Wes was already on the phone, picking out numbers when the front door slammed open once more. The girls came in, an adult woman behind them.

  “Momma! The Shadow Man wanted to play a game but it was bad so we said no. We had to come home to check on you. Oh Momma, we’ve been so worried about you and Grams!” The girls piled onto their mother in the floor and hugged her neck tightly. Clara was not sure what they were saying but she knew it was something about what she had experienced.

  “It is alright girls, we are fine. I promise. Everything is going to be just fine now.”

  But I was not sure it was. What if he broke the rules once more? What if he came back?

  “I am sorry, I did try to call you, but the call just would not go though and the girls insisted on coming home. I will leave you to it if you are all alright?” The woman looked down at the adults and smiled as Clara shook her head.

  “Oh we are fine sweetheart. You go on and take care of your own babies. I am going to make my daughter some dinner. I think she deserves a night off for a change.” Betty answered the woman, showing her to the door.

  The girls cuddled their parents and then followed their grandmother into the kitchen.

  “Grams, you seem different.” Twilla said as Lindy sat in a chair beside of her sister.

  “I believe I might be, sweetheart. I feel different anyway. Now, who wants some of Gram’s lasagna for dinner?” Betty asked the girls, her voice excited.

  The girls shouted their agreement excitedly as Clara and Wes walked in. It was late but they did not care. They were together and for now it seemed that the world was safe once more. Well, as safe as the
world could be anyway. Clara watched her mother, her heart filled with love as the woman danced around the kitchen with the girls. There was more to the change in her mother than just a lack of Alzheimer’s for Adam had taken that away. But he had taken away more than that, he had taken away three decades of guilt, of pain, and worry. Clara was the product of love and commitment; she was not the product of an evil act.

  Clara felt a new freedom herself. She knew who her father was and she understood the years of silence from her mother now. That man had been evil and living with his memory must have been torment. That she had done it alone had been an amazing thing to Clara. She knew her mother was strong but she had had no idea of just how truly strong the woman was.

  Wes watched his family, unsure of what had actually taken place, wondering if they’d all shared in some mass hallucination but there were things he could not explain. How had the girls known something was wrong? Why had Betty come home from the hospital? There were just too many unanswered question but he doubted he would ever know the true answers. Perhaps he knew them and he just could not admit it?

  Either way, Wes was happy and hoped that was the end to all of this. He wanted to get his family back on track now. Maybe they could finally do that now that all of the demons had been slayed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  One year later

  Charlotte, North Carolina

  Wes and Clara leaned over the crib, staring down at the angelic blonde child sleeping peacefully in his crib. Wes’s arm draped over Clara’s still recovering body, cradling her protectively after the ordeal of the baby’s birth. He’d almost lost her on that table but now she was home and recovering, their family whole.

  They cooed at the growing baby boy quietly, in love with the new life they’d created. Their daughters were close by, waiting their own turn to check the baby. They loved their little brother and liked watching him sleep. They liked smelling him and holding him after their mother bathed him and thought it was a treat when they got to feed him one of his bottles that their mother made for him.