Jump The Worlds

Story 3 Pt 3: Memories Chains

Staring at his co-worker as they stared down at the doll with a frown on brown tinted lips, Charles sighed out a groan and walked into the living room fully. "How the fuck did that thing get up here?" he asked as he placed his finished paperwork down.

Lin simply raised a carefully groomed eyebrow at him before he shrugged. "I don't have an idea," they said, handing it over when Charles' held out his hands for it. "It looks like the doll that my grandmother used to have as a kid actually."

"What kind of doll?" Charles asked, Lin shrugging and turning to the box of finished work, shifting through it.

"My mom is Japanese and so is my grandmother, and that side of the family practed the old ways. This includes giving a pregnant woman a hoko doll for the coming child. After the child is born, the dolls is given to the child. If the child is a boy, the child gives it up when they turn fifteen to have it consecrated at the local temple. For the most part, it was burned. But there were some that were simply buried in the ground in a bag to return it to the Earth."

"And what did the girls do?" Charles asked as he eyed the doll.

"They gave them up the day they married," Lin told him. "My mother had one that she gave up when she married my father. They went to Japan for a week of their honeymoon and took it to a temple that my family has gone to for generations, had it burned. It's to shed the childness for a new life." They snorted. "To see one in one piece like this though means that either that doll was dug up or the child never lived past a certain age and the mother was unable to give up a little piece of said child." They reached out and poked it with a sharp nail. "But it feels like it's filled with something not normal."

"Something not normal? Like rice?" Charles asked, Lin staring at him with dark eyes. They pointed at the doll with the sharp nail, the brown polish flashing in the light.

"If they did something like that to a hoko doll, then someone was doing some bad mojo. Dark crafting," they stated before tapping their nails together. "And that's something that I wouldn't want to deal with. Hon, I do suggest that you bury that doll somewhere. Deep. And preferably with some talismans, a few dozen religious icons. And in concrete." With that said, they picked up the box before going still at the giggle that whispered through the air.

Once more, Romeo and Buttercup went streaking through the house as they yowled.

"I think I'm going to have to find out what the damn doll wants first," Charles said, rubbing at his face and his lips pressing into a thin line. "You know anyone who would be willing to help?"

Lin swallowed as they clutched the box. "I'll send you a message when you can expect them," they promised. They swept out of the house quickly, Charles sighing and staring at the doll with a frown.

"Okay, yeah, you're going into a lock box until we know what I need to do with you," he told it. He shivered slightly at the feeling that seemed to come off of the doll as he picked it up, but still walked it over to his sister's heavy duty lock box. She used it for certain dolls but luckily it didn't have any other dolls in it as he placed the doll inside and locked it, shoving it into a corner for the moment.

Right under the small area that held the family bible that his sister kept, three crucifixes that had come down from their family line, and the protective pagan symbols that had always been a part of their family.

Sighing again, he ran a hand through his hair, going to hunt down the cats and finding them in his sister's bedroom closet, curled up in a corner. Shaking his head, he opened her bathroom door and made sure that the food and water dishes were filled. He knew that they would come out eventually but until they decided to, they wouldn't leave the room and trying to force them to was a bad idea.