Hello Dolly

Chapter 12

Sure enough, that day went by pretty fast as well as the whole month of September and October. It had been a little hellish too due to Tom trying to get me to snap any day. Him and Devon almost ended up fighting again a couple times but they were always separated just in the nick of time. Emily of course always defended me when Devon wasn't around even if it meant her getting into trouble.

One day while we had our chemistry test in class, me and her finished early and we went to the back of the class to lay our papers down in the boxes that were labeled according to class block. As we were making our way back, Tom stood up from his desk and walked past us to turn in his paper. As he did, he bent his head down and whispered "bitch."

I knew he meant me but I ignored him and kept walking. I was only a few feet away when I heard him yelp. I turned around, along with the entire class, to see what happened and sure enogh, Emily had kneed him right where the sun don't shine, getting him down on his knees. I heard him groan out in pain with his hands clasped down at his front.

Emily continued to walk past our table with a serious look on her face and sat down. When I did, we looked at each other and tried our hardest not to laugh. After Mrs. Akers helped Tom stand back up, she had Emily come outside the class with her to give her one of her speeches that she gives anyone who gets into trouble. She ended up giving Emily detention that entire week.

"It was worth it though." Emily said with a huge grin on her face as we walked to the next class.

At home, everything seemed to have gotten a little better. Lori hadn't gotten in trouble since the incident with her and her classmate. She had gone back to her normal sweet self. The thing with Lucy though was still the same. I didn't wake up to anymore scratches at my door anymore but I'd sometimes wake up to footsteps walking up and down the hallway at night. They always seemed to just keep walking up and down the hallway or they'd stop at my door and stay there for a few minutes before I'd hear them walk away.

I'd even find Lucy in different places inside the house when Lori wasn't with her. I one time found her sitting outside in the hallway just outside Lori's bedroom one morning when I woke up to get breakfast.

One morning, Lori was playing with Isaac in the living room and I was in the bathroom taking a shower. Mom called for her from the kitchen, telling her she needed her help for a minute. Lori placed him in his playpen and had accidentally left Lucy in the playpen as well. In the end, Isaac had grabbed Lucy and stuffed some of her hair in his mouth and left spit all over her face and her hands.

I came out of the bathroom and walked over to the living room and found him and took the doll away from him just as Lori came back into the living room. She just stood there and looked at the doll in my hand.

"What did you do?" She asked in disbelief, glaring at Isaac.

Isaac stood in the playpen, grabbing a hold of the edge of it and giggling. Lori walked over and yanked the doll out of my hand. She looked the doll over in her hands, examining it.

"She has spit all over her!" She exclaimed with disgust as she looked down at her hand which had strands of the doll's hair along with spit.

"Lori, he's a baby. He's still learning what he should and should not put in his mouth. It's not his fault." I said to her.

"You try telling her that!" She glared at me. She then turned back around stomped down the hallway to her room, slamming the door shut.

Ever since that day, little things have started happening to Isaac. Mom and dad found him with scratch marks on his face one morning but they assumed that he was just scratching himself in his sleep so they put on little mittens on his hands when he slept just in case he tried to do it again.

That seemed to help until we started finding scratches on his legs and arms. Dad and mom couldn't find the reason behind it and at first thought that maybe he was taking his mittens off and scratching himself since they'd sometimes find him with them off. Mom got really worried about him and took him to our family pediatrician to see if maybe there was a reason behind it. They did a sleep study on him one night at the hospital but they didn't see anything strange activity, like him scratching himself at all while he slept. Mom and dad then decided to have him sleep in their bed for a little while and the scratch marks haven't appeared since.

Another day, he was playing with his toys in the living room and I was sitting on the couch watching a rerun of Gossip Girl. Mom was standing out at the front porch talking to one of our neighbors about the upcoming bake sale. My phone vibrated beside me and I picked it up, seeing I had a message from Nicole, asking a question about our homework that we had to do over the weekend. As I texted her, Isaac had crawled over to one a small round table nearby that stood about four feet that was covered in a red lace cloth and had a vase with flowers on it.

I heard a small rustling noise and I looked up from my phone and watched as Isaac pulled the cloth on the table, the flower vase rocking in place.

"Isaac!" I screamed, jumping up from my spot on the couch.

I ran as best as I could with the cast on, wincing as small bursts of pain shot through my ankle. I grabbed him in time just as the vase came crashing down, breaking into pieces. Mom and our neighbor ran in when they heard the loud noise and found me sitting on the floor not too far from the broken glass, holding a crying Isaac in my hands.

A couple weeks later, we were at Uncle Matthew's house celebrating our little cousin Anna's fourth birthday outside in their backyard. Isaac was sitting on the ground not too far from us, playing with his toys along with our other cousins. A monarch butterfly had been flying around him for a little while now and he giggled and kept on trying to grab it every time it got near him. While we had gotten distracted singing "Happy Birthday" to Anna, Isaac had managed to crawl away from us and across the yard towards the road.

"Look at Isaac, daddy!" Anna exclaimed, pointing out at him.

We all turned around to see what he was doing. Mom, some of our aunts, and I screamed as we saw how Isaac was so close to the road. My dad along with two of our uncles and our cousins ran across the yard towards him. Dad managed to grab Isaac just in time as he began to crawl on the road, a huge truck speeding past him with the angry driver honking his horn real loud.

Ever since that last incident, mom has become paranoid and has childproofed just about everything she can in the house. She took the table that had the vase on it down to the basement and has her eyes glued on Isaac whenever he's playing by himself. Can't say I blame her because I'd do the same thing. But, for a while now, there haven't been any incidents since the last one, much to our relief.

Everything has been going alright at home but sometimes I get this weird feeling in my chest, like something's not right, and I always get that feeling whenever I'm around the doll. My parents don't seem to think anything of it, but I get the feeling that there is something very wrong with that doll.