[After Midnight]

It was the eve of Halloween, and little Lilly Whitman was upstairs in the nursery with her toys. The nursery was filled with tall glass hutches that held rows and rows of her grandmother’s porcelain dolls, passed down to her with her grandmother’s death. Each doll had the same button nose, and glassy eyes that rolled back in their head if you tipped them just right. Below the window and to the right, there were shelves that held her old precious teddy bears, and building blocks. They were covered in a soft sheet of dust, from years of being forgotten. 1

Lily wasn’t allowed to go trick- or-treating because she had a severe allergy to most things. The sun made her break out in hives, the grass made her eyes water, and she got cold easily. So instead of dressing up, she stayed inside and played with her toys, just like any other night. 2

Lily loved all her toys equally. She 3

made sure her baby dolls were comfortable in their miniature basinets, tucked in under warm cotton blankets, before she went to bed each night. But there was one doll which Lily favored over the rest. 4

The doll’s name was Angela, and Lily held her and fed her more than the rest of her dolls. She brushed Angela’s long wheat colored hair at least twenty times a day, and she brought her into her room at night to sleep in the cradle at the foot of her bed. 5

That night, Angela was acting a little stranger than usual. 6

Lily had just burped and fed her, and was holding her, when she pulled the string on Angela’s back. Instead of the usual response from her doll, she heard a quiet croak in her voice. The doll’s batteries were getting low, and now she sounded more robotic than human. 7

“Mommy, mommy!” Little Lily ran from the nursery, in search of her mother. 8

Her mother looked at her with a worry-some expression. “What is it dear?” 9

Lily held her doll up to her mother and exclaimed, “Angela’s voice! It sounds scary!”10

Lily’s mother merely took the doll from her hands, and took her to her bedroom, where she got brand new batteries.11

When the new batteries were inside, she gave the doll back to her, and Lily ran off back to the nursery to continue playing. 12

That night, when little Lily was fast asleep in her bed, her doll lay in her cradle, her head slowly turning to examine the room and make sure it was safe to get up. 13

Angela carefully slid down the leg of the cradle, and crawled to the nursery. 14

The other toys were patiently waiting for Angela, as they were every other night, but when they saw her they noticed a change in her behavior. 15

Lily had dressed Angela in a tiny lavender dress with lace at the neck and sleeves. Her eyes were wider than usual, because of the newly charged batteries inside her. 16

Angela pulled back the door to the hutch; careful not to pull too hard for fear that the glass window would crash into the wall and wake up Lily and her mother. The porcelain dolls jumped down and joined Angela and the rest of the toys on the floor. 17

The dark haired porcelain doll, with the rosy cheeks took one look at her friend Angela, and gasped. 18

“What’s wrong with your eyes? They’re pink at the edges.”19

Angela giggled mechanically. “Oh don’t worry about it, Celia. They’re the new batteries.”20

Celia stiffened a little, staring at the soles of her patent leather shoes instead. 21

“Alright toys, we only have a few hours to get this party started, so let’s get to it.”22

The toys worked together to pull back the dark curtains shrouding the windows. Rhonda, another porcelain doll from the hutch, turned on the old black radio next to the door, and turned the volume to just above a whisper. 23

It was the biggest party they looked forward to each year, besides the night before Christmas, and each toy was dancing and having a good time. Except for Celia, who was sitting in the corner of the room, all alone.24

A more upbeat song came on and the toys were getting into it, when a high pitched squeal was heard. 25

“Stop Celia, please!” Angela pleaded.26

Celia had one hand clutching Angela’s throat in a chokehold, and another hand ripping her left arm out of its stitching. 27

“It’s time someone else gets the attention around here. Someone more deserving.”28

Angela kicked Celia in the face, knocking her across the room and out into the hallway, next to Lily’s mother’s room. 29

“Oh no! You woke her up!” Celia said, petrified. 30

Angela picked her head up from the floor just as Lily’s mother opened her bedroom door and peered out into the hall. 31

Angela threw herself back down, pretending to be the lifeless doll she was supposed to be, while the toys hurried to clean up the mess they had made in the nursery. 32

Lily’s mother saw Angela lying in the middle of the floor and scooped her up, placing her next to Lily who was sound asleep in her bed. 33

When she was certain that Lily’s mother had gone back to sleep, Celia crawled down from her place in the hutch and tip-toed quietly to Lily’s room, where she found Angela cushioned comfortably between Lily’s right shoulder and the delicate pillow between their heads. 34

“There you go again. Always getting all the special treatment, while the rest of us are forgotten.” 35

Celia crossed her arms and stared at Angela in disgust. 36

Angela sat up. “Well it’s not my fault I’m prettier than you. I guess I’m just more privileged.”37

Celia snorted with rage, choking Angela with her tiny fists and shaking her head violently against the headboard of the bed. Lily was awakened by the loud screams coming from Angela’s trembling vocal cords, her string bashing against the corner of the bed. 38

Lily screamed at the sight of her two dolls ripping each other to shreds, as she yanked Celia’s hands off of Angela’s neck. 39

“Please stop it. I love you both the same.” She picked up Angela in her arms, and placed her back in her cradle. “There, now sleep my baby.”40

Lily yawned, pulling herself back into bed, when she heard an eerie whisper coming from the floor. 41

“Who’s there?” She asked, trembling beneath the sheets. 42

She heard no response, and closed her eyes.43

Then she felt something crawling on her leg. Something cold and porcelain. 44

She opened her eyes, and saw Celia had came to lay next to her. 45

“Celia!” She smiled. 46

Celia’s pace slowed as got she closer to Lily, the moonlight lighting up the dolls glassy eyes. 47

“Celia?” Lily’s lip quivered.48

“I…hurt…myself…” The doll’s string moved slightly, and Celia held up her arm. 49

The name Lily was etched into it, and each letter was gushing out cherry flavored sin. 50

“Don’t do that, that’s bad.” 51

Celia’s eyes rolled forward then rolled back, and the string was pulled again.52

“…Will you…bury me..?” 53

Her mechanical voice filled the room with an un-breathable silence.54

Lily couldn’t speak. 55

“..I hurt myself!” Celia repeated with more force. 56

“I…you…but you’re a doll.” Lily backed away from her, sliding down onto the floor and crawling on her hands and knees. 57

But Celia was blocking the doorway. 58

“Bury me!” 59

Lily screamed, as Celia sliced each of her eye balls out with a knife. When Lily’s mother opened her daughter’s bedroom door the next morning, she found her body completely dismantled and decaying in the middle of the floor, and Angela covered in her blood. Celia was sleeping with contentment in the cradle at the foot of the bed, a wide set grin painted maliciously across her porcelain face.60

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*I won an award for my age group for this story, at a local library. It was Halloween inspired.**