Quote:
You receive a mysterious package in the mail. It has your name on it, but no return address. Inside is an extremely creepy doll. Realistically it seems well made and well maintained, but there’s something off about it. If you choose to keep it, it seems to always have its eyes on you. Sometimes it seems to have moved from where you left it—and, since you received it, sometimes you hear a strange, echoing laughter. What do you do?
When Tress first discovered the package, she thought it might have been her sister's widower sending her something of her late sibling's. Because there was no return address, she couldn't have been sure, but the man had never been the most thoughtful. It could have been that he'd wanted to be rid of the thing so badly that he had refused to allow the possibility of It being returned to him. When Tress opened the package, though, she thought she might have been able to understand why. The doll, although of good quality, must have been extremely old because Tress couldn't recall it ever having been among either her or her sisters' possessions.
Nevertheless, the assistant school teacher and shop clerk was far too busy to try tracking down where it had come from or why it had been sent to her. She had wanted to try to donate it to an orphanage or give it to charity, but her two jobs in addition to her work as a Negaverse lieutenant kept taking precedence. The doll didn't seem to take well to being ignored or forgotten. As neat and organized as she was, when Tress placed the doll somewhere, she was distinctly aware of when it turned up somewhere else without her having even touched it. Because she lived alone, she knew no one around could have changed its location without her knowledge. Was something more supernatural going on?
Perhaps it was a youma. Even though it had nearly been a year since she had become a lieutenant, there was precious little she understood about youma. She knew enough to realize they weren't opposed to turning against the Negaverse if they were given the chance, so even if a youma was behind the doll's strange behavior, Tress wasn't particularly comforted. Even if she could confirm it was a youma, she knew a Negaverse officer ranking as low as herself wouldn't have had much luck at all attempting to get it to obey her. If she confronted it, perhaps by attempting to destroy the doll, she reasoned that it was more likely to best her than she was to best it. However, she didn't feel comfortable just trying to give the thing away now.
The strange, echoing laughter that she sometimes heard since she had obtained the package began to get inescapably irritating. Along with the distracting laughter, the doll would follow her from her apartment to her work places at her clothing store and even at Romano's. She couldn't read, grade schoolwork, teach, keep track of store inventory, garden, or even sleep well with the laughter so frequently assailed her ears. When she found the doll, its well-made face was often looking at her, smiling its painted smile and somehow seeming sinister. Eventually, Tress' patience reached its end. She had to do something.
One day, the tawny-haired woman deliberately took the doll with her. She kept it close by and in her sight or in hand at all times to make sure it didn't get into any mischief among her coworkers, customers, or Romano's students. Finally, at lunchtime, she took her food and the doll down to a park which she usually avoided due to the boisterous children running around the large playground located there. Tress was not a fan of children and the lowest age level of maturity she could handle being around were high schoolers which was one reason she could tolerate being an assistant and substitute teacher at Romano's. Her aversion to even that age group, however, attributed to why she wasn't a full-time teacher. Thus it was a testament to the level of her desperation that she had been willing to spend her lunch break at the loathsome playground.
Walking over to a corner of a sandbox, she placed the doll down in one corner and went to go sit on a bench. From there she watched, waited, and ate her lunch. It didn't take long. The children came for the bait like a dragon for a maiden in the old tales. In no time at all, several girls tried to claim the toy as their own with an aggressive display of screaming, grabbing, and pulling of both the doll's hair and each other's. This squabble attracted the attention of some curious boys who, in an effort to get in on the fun, decided to try and claim the mysterious treasure as well. Between the warring children, the doll was soon drawn and quartered, confirming the barbary of children om Tress' eyes. However, the deed was done and her problem was solved. Satisfied with the bothersome possession's end, the woman got up and returned to her work free of interruption.
Whatever the doll had been, it wasn't her problem anymore.
((Started 10/29, finished 10/30))
