Smile

“Mommy, mommy, can I get this doll?”

“Catherine, that china doll’s old and dusty. Wouldn’t you rather have a nice new one from the toy shop?”

“No, mommy. I want this one!”

“Just let her have it, Barbra. It’s very cheap, and she seems happy with it.”

“But it’s smile, George. Look at its smile!”

Catherine went straight to her room the moment they had all gone home. The china doll she had just been bought was not put on the shelves with all her other dolls and toys. She gave it its very own place on her chest of drawers. Her mother didn’t like the doll. She said its smile was creepy. That it looked to human compared to the rest of her painted porcelain face. But Catherine loved it. Apart from dinner, she spent the rest of the day sitting beside it, talking to it, and playing make believe. When it was time to go to bed, she reluctantly bid good night to the little china doll, in its little off-white dress and bonnet, and fell asleep.

That night, she dreamed of seven sad little girls standing over her. Six of them had injuries on their body, but the seventh girl had no mouth. It had been carved off and it its place was a red and dripping gap. They didn’t make any move to be scary. They didn’t try to hurt her. They just stared at her sadly, and with pity. Their non-movement was even more unsettling and disturbing than if they were trying to attack her. This was without doubt the worst nightmare she had ever had.

She awoke with a start, sweating, but she didn’t scream. The china doll had moved. It was now on top of the sheets, over her body. The question of how didn’t even cross her mind. She took unexplainable amounts of comfort in the doll’s presence, and hugged it tightly. The doll she loved so much would make those scary girls go away.

It was a school day, so Catherine got ready for school. It was only when she was fully dressed in her uniform and packed her bag did she realise it was six in the morning. She passed the time by chatting to her doll, which she had named ‘Dolly’.

“Hello, Dolly. How are you today?…That’s good! I’m great too!…I’m afraid I have to go to school today….bring you with me? I’d love to!”

She put the doll into her schoolbag as well, so that her mother wouldn’t find out. Catherine didn’t want to get in trouble.

It wasn’t until she arrived at her school that she took out her doll and displayed it at her desk. All the girls in her class were instantly as mitten as she was with the doll, though the boys, and the teacher, commented on how disturbing its smile was. Eventually, it was confiscated by the teacher and class began.

Catherine couldn’t concentrate on her lessons. There was a need to be with her doll. She didn’t feel right without the doll near her. At first recess, she got the doll back, but had to part with it again once classes began. The second stretch of lessons was even more unbearable that the first one. She couldn’t sit still. She put her hand up.

“Yes, Catherine?”

“Miss, can I please get my doll back?”

“You can get it back once the lesson’s over. It’s a distraction.”

So Catherine sat in silence, and longing, unable to concentrate. The bell for lunch was the sweetest sound she’d ever thought she’d hear.

She spent all of her lunch break with her doll. She turned down all her friends’ offers to play until they left, annoyed. She turned down all orders from teachers to get something to eat. She was hungry, but she didn’t want to part with the doll. They reluctantly allowed her to take it to the canteen.

It wasn’t long before her strange behaviour started to get her noticed. Two bullies from several classes older than hers got wind of her affliction with the doll, and took it upon themselves to steal it. When she was still eating her food, they ran up, snatched the doll, and ran, laughing nastily as they did so. Catherine was stunned. She sat there for a while, realising just what had happened, and then she abandoned her meal and gave chase.

The two bullies were tossing it back and forth between them, and when she caught up with them, began playing piggy in the middle with the doll. Catherine grew more and more angry, and more and more desperate. Her anger turned to rage, and her rage turned to emotions she’d never felt before. Emotions it was not natural for a little girl to feel, but would only otherwise be felt by a psychopath who was in love. She wanted to hurt the bullies. She wanted to hurt them very badly.

She leapt upon one, and began frantically clawing at his face. By the time teachers heard the commotion, and pulled her off, the bully’s face was covered in blood, and even when he was being taken away, he was still screaming in pain and fear. Catherine was sent home.

She dreaded the encounter with her mother during the entirety of her long walk home, hugging the doll to her chest. The doll accepted her love, and gave her comfort in return. The doll never judged, or shouted, or made her angry, or sad. She gazed upon its face. It was beautiful. There was not another doll like it. Its mouth did look like a human’s when compared to its painted eyes and hair, but that just made it more beautiful to Catherine.

She arrived home, and her mother was indeed cross.

“I received phone calls from the school earlier. You wouldn’t eat without that creepy doll, and you attacked another. I…I don’t know what to say to you Catherine. When your dad gets home, we’re all going to have a long talk, but for now, go to your room. As for this doll,”

Her mother snatched the doll from Catherine’s arms, and threw it against the wall. Its left eye shattered into pieces leaving a hole in the china doll’s face revealing the hollow interior.

Catherine’s rage now surpassed the rage she felt from her earlier attack. She leapt upon her mother like a wild animal, and bit into her throat until she tasted her salty, hot blood in her mouth. She wrestled with her mother, biting and scratching. ‘She hurt my doll!’ thought Catherine. ‘She needs to die. I need to kill her for what she did!’

Eventually, her mother stopped fighting, and slumped to the ground, blood bubbling from the gaping wound in her neck. If she wasn’t dead now, she would be soon, but Catherine didn’t care about that. She went back to her broken doll, and hugged it to her.

She could feel it. It needed her help. It was calling out to her for help. Well, she would help it. Whatever it needed, she would gladly give. She just wanted her doll back, in perfect condition. Whatever it took. Whatever the price…

Catherine’s mom lay dead on the living room floor, blood still pouring out of her neck and forming a puddle around her. Near to her, Catherine also lay dead. Her left eye had been replaced by a horrific and bleeding wound, and in her arms, was the doll. Its white dress and bonnet were saturated with blood. Its hair and right eye looked shiny and painted as you would expect from a china doll, but its left eye looked disturbingly real, as did its smile, which had grown wider.