Frank was a single parent to a precocious 6 year old daughter named Sarah after the tragic passing of his wife when their daughter was only 2 years old. It was difficult at times but he loved her and did his best to take care of her. Most of his work could be done from home but he had the occasional business trip so his daughter would stay with her grandparents. He knew her birthday would be two days after his return from his latest trip out of state so on his last evening before he would head home he decided to visit a quaint toy store he had noticed on his way back to the hotel he was staying at. The bell above the door chimed as he stepped inside, looking around at all the toys, figurines and dolls sitting neatly on all the shelves. An elderly gentleman looked up from behind the counter and offered a smile.
"Welcome to my shop. If I can help you with anything let me know.” Frank nodded and said thank you before slowly walking through the store not quite sure what he was hoping to find till he saw it. All it needed was a set of batteries, a dainty porcelain doll with long black curls that reached the shoulders, two pink bows nestled on either side of the head, soft red lips with flushed cheeks and bright blue eyes. On the shelf below it, it explained that when it was hugged it would say phrases like “I love you” and “lets be friends”. There was something about it that he could not explain but he could imagine how much his daughter would love it. He carefully picked it up from the shelf and carried it to the front of the store, setting it down on the counter. Joe the owner of the store raised an eyebrow as he looked at the doll then at Frank. “Are you sure this is what you want?” Frank seemed confused as to why he would ask that “ Of course”he replied matter-of-factly. “Please wrap it up for me, it is a gift for my daughter. “ Joe took the money, wrapped up the doll and handed the box to him but as soon as Frank stepped outside, he rushed to the door, slammed the lock into place and flipped the sign over so that it now said closed before lowering the blinds on the windows and shutting off the lights. He then retreated to his room at the back of the store and shut the door behind him, locking it as well.
He arrived home late on a Saturday night, setting the box in his office knowing his daughter would get dropped off the next morning just in time for her birthday party, well it was just going to be the two of them since she would have had her big party at her grandparents with her friends before she came home. He got up early that Sunday morning and placed the brightly wrapped box tied with a ribbon on the couch for his daughter to see when she opened the front door. He could hear her giggle as she hugged her grandparents and flung open the front door like a hurricane on two small legs, braids bouncing as she skipped in and shut the door behind her and ran straight for him shouting “daddy I missed you” He scooped her up into his arms and hugged her tight.”I missed you too my little princess” He set her down and pointed to the box sitting on the couch and she ran to it, barely able to help herself as she began to tear off the wrapping, her face a look of complete awe as she saw the doll and squealed with absolute delight. The doll was perfect and she pulled it out of the box, a huge smile on her face before she ran to her dad and gave him the biggest hug saying”thank you”over and over. After letting him go, she grabbed her new doll and chattering about how she was going to call her Tina and that they were going to have so many tea parties together and play dress up. In the other room he could hear the doll chirp “I love you” and he smiles to himself pleased that his little girl is happy. When bedtime arrives, he tucks her into bed with the doll next to her and for a brief moment he felt like something or someone was watching him but he figured it was him just simply feeling tired from the long travel and a bit of rest would do him some good. He shook off the feeling and returned to his room, quickly falling asleep.
The next morning Sarah came running down the stairs tightly gripping onto Tina before setting her down on a chair next to her while he was cooking his breakfast, hers was already sitting on a plate in front of her. Just as he is about to flip his eggs in the pain , his daughter casually speaks up” Tina doesn’t like you” like it she was simply talking about the weather. His left hand holding the spatula, freezes in midair, giving his head a slight shake as if he had mistaken what his daughter had said.” Sarah, what did you just say?” She looked up at him with her innocent brown eyes and simply repeated herself “ Tina told me she doesn’t like you” then went back to eating her breakfast as if the world had not just tilted on its axis with those words. He looked at the doll and back at his daughter confused because it was not like her to ever talk that way about him. He turned back to the stove a little bit rattled by it but did not want to make a big deal so he finished putting the eggs on a plate and sat down across from them. Sarah finally finished her food, picked up the doll and gave it a squeeze, telling it she loved her but the doll's response is what chilled him. A deeper voice, almost inaudible, chirped out of it “ I am watching you.” He dropped his fork on the table and stared at the doll, the eyes flickered to a solid black for just a moment before returning to their bright blue haze but the lips appeared to be much tighter than he remembered. “Sarah, you need to go get ready for school. You can leave the doll here till you get home” her voice was bright as she said “Ok daddy” before skipping across the house with the doll in her hands, “ I will leave her on my bed.”
He watched as Sarah hopped onto the steps of the bus then he turned and stared at the stairs, slowly making his way up to the second floor before slowly opening his daughter's bedroom door. The doll was sitting up straight on the bed and looked like it should but something about it still did not feel right to him. He picked up the doll and carried it down to his garage, laying it on his work table face down, pulling open the back of the dress to expose the compartment that held the batteries in place with a plate and a couple of screws. Setting them aside, he pried open the panel expecting to find perhaps corroded batteries or frayed wires that would explain the doll acting so strangely but all he found was…nothing. There were no batteries, no wires, just an empty space. This was completely impossible and his hands shook as he took a step back before he reached for a hammer he had hanging on the wall above one of his tool chests. The doll was defective and he was going to destroy it before it could…he didn’t even want to finish that thought. He would tell his daughter he had to return it to the store but he would replace it soon. He raised up both of his hands, clenching the hammer as he prepared to bring it down on the doll's head but before he could move any farther the doll moved. It didn’t just twitch a little, its head began to turn slowly until it was looking up at him, the blue eyes now completely gone replaced by solid black orbs, the small red lips were now curved up in the corners displaying a twisted grin that made all the hairs on his body stand on end. The lips slowly parted as a voice came out of the doll but it was not the usual voice or even the deeper one he heard before but his own daughters “Daddy doesn’t like Tina and she doesn't like you either” followed by “ Tina wants to be my family but you are in the way”
The only thought that crosses his mind is that he needs to burn the doll before it can do anything to him or his daughter so he drops the hammer to the floor and turns, making a run for the blow torch he kept near his welding equipment. Before he can reach it, the doll leaps off the table and lunges towards him knocking him to the floor. He falls back, hitting the cement floor with such force that he blacks out and the doll is determined that he will not survive but as it is preparing to take him out of the picture, the sound of the bus could be heard and the brightness of Sarah's voice as she gets off the bus. She flings open the front door and runs up the stairs to her room to find her doll is missing and she starts calling for her father but he does not answer her. She ran from the room looking for him then finally went to the garage. She finds her doll sitting on the table and her father lying motionless on the floor. Panicking, she grabs her doll and runs to the house next door and frantically bangs on their front door till they answer and through tears she tells them that her daddy is hurt and needs help.
The ambulance arrives within minutes of the call and they load Frank onto the stretcher, he is now conscious but groggy. His daughter runs up to him, still clasping the doll in her arms and gives him a tight hug, and he wraps his arms around her whispering that he will be ok. As he squeezes her, the doll speaks in a low voice that only the father seems to be able to hear and all it uttered were two words...
“Next Time”
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