"Eddie!" My friend, Priya, called out for me. "Come check this out!!"
I hurried over to her, being careful not to trip in the dark. We were at a children's playground, running around on swings and stuff. It was very surreal to be out this late. Looking down to what she was pointing at, I saw the corner of a box buried in the mulch.
"Wanna dig it up?" I asked.
"Eddie, what if it's a body or something?" She asked anxiously.
"Dude, the playground floor wouldn't go down far enough to bury a whole coffin." I smiled at her.
"What if..." She thought for a moment. "What if it's a dismembered body in a box? Like those kids on TikTok who found a dismembered body in a suitcase by the beach?"
I got down on my knees and took a big inhale through my nose. "I don't smell anything rotting. If it was a dead body, it would smell absolutely rancid."
"I'm scared!" She smiled. I could tell she was actually freaked out but she was trying to laugh about it.
"Don't worry, kitten whiskers." I said, doing a silly deep romantic British man voice. "Daddy will protect you."
"Pookie, you're so brave!" She laughed.
I tugged on the box until i managed to pull it out of the ground, leaving a big hole where it was.
"Some kid's probably gonna trip on that." Priya said. "Maybe we should fill it back up."
"Nah, kids love digging holes in the ground." I responded.
I opened the box and gasped to see a face looking back at me before realizing that it was just a doll.
"Hey, it's an old doll!" I smiled, picking it up. As I lifted it out of the box, its legs unfolded from under it, revealing its large height for a doll. "Woah! It's tall!"
I stood up and held it by my side to check how tall it was compared to me. It came up to just under my waist.
"Dude look at this!" Priya said, pointing inside the case. There was a plaque on the inside reading "Slappy."
"Holy shit!!" My jaw dropped. Goosebumps meant absolutely everything to me as a child and I still had a huge obsession with it. "Oh my god, it's him!? Shine your phone light on it!"
As Priya turned on the flashlight on her phone and pointed it at the dummy, my jaw dropped to see the resemblance. His hair was painted brown and neatly styled, he had on a dark gray suit, and his eyes were a shade of green that sent chills down my spine. He was in very good quality, yet he seemed to be a real antique.
"The first Night of the Living Dummy book came out in... hang on, I can remember it, don't look it up... 1993! I don't remember any merch that looked this... real."
"Maybe it's really him?" Priya asked, smiling.
"Aw man, I wish!" I beamed. "...Actually, no, 'cause he's like... evil. But that would still be pretty cool!! Hey, I remember the incantation to bring him to life!"
"Don't say it!!" She begged. "At least not until you get home and I'm not right beside him."
"Well, to be fair, I don't think that spell brings him to life. I think he's already alive but that spell makes you like... bound to him? His slave? Something like that."
"Eddie, this is creepy!" Priya playfully shoved me.
I laughed and put him back in his box, carrying him with me. "Okay, okay. Want me to walk you home?"
