Charlie

I was quite surprised I had actually done something instead of just freezing up.

When I heard the huge noise which woke me up, I had initially thought to call the police and I was about to dial the number, only to realize that I lived miles from anyone else, and like last time, it would take them up to half an hour to come. By then, whoever was doing this might be gone.

It was extremely stupid in hindsight, and I wished I had bought a firearm, but instead I took a deep breath and walked outside to see that the kitchen lights were on. Then, I saw the intruder who had caused the commotion lying on the floor.

It was a woman- no, not a real woman. It was a doll- the same one I had seen on the second floor.

Only that doll was now moving, its eyes blinking and its expression changing as it saw me - and then it turned around and grabbed a knife.

The moment that happened I guess my survival instinct kicked in and I grabbed a chair lying on the floor, and then used it to swat the knife out of her hands - that was what I had been aiming for, and while I did that I also sent her flying into the wall.

And then my heart began pounding as I realized what had happened and the reality of what I was facing down began to dawn on me.

What was she? She moved almost like a real person, so she didn’t seem like an animatronic. Not to mention she had reacted to my presence and there was an unmistakable intelligence behind those eyes.

So was she a haunted doll? A ghost? Or a demon possessing an object like Anabelle?

I immediately expected her to get up, limbs contorted in a broken and unnatural way as she ran forward to stab me over and over with the knife. If this was a horror movie that was exactly what would've happened, yes. I was ready to run, thoughts of calling the police had already left my mind as I realized I would need an exorcist instead.

Only none of that happened.

No, what happened was that she very slowly got up, and then started crying.

It was a faint sob at first, but then it turned into full-on bawling as tears - actual tears made of water - somehow came out of her eyes.

I was once again, stunned, speechless, though for a different reason than before.

What was this? Was this some kind of lucid dream? Had they put something into my food at work? Was I suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning or something? Or was the isolation getting to me and I had developed full-blown psychosis?

No, I thought. Everything that had happened till now, it wasn't all just my imagination. It couldn't have been.

I just couldn't believe what was happening.

There she was, wearing the exact same dress that she had been the day I first saw her. She made no motion to reach for the knife, which I grabbed and kicked away from her, depriving her of anything she could use to hurt me.

I don't know what it was that made me say it, perhaps it was just seeing how pathetic she looked at the moment - but I had to ask, "Are you... alright?"

"NO!" a voice screamed out. It was not echoing with demonic undertones or distorted like I would've imagined; it was the normal voice of a human woman in pain. She looked right at me- I saw her face with her adorable doll-like features again, tears flowing freely down her cheek. No animatronic could pull that off. "What kind of brute strikes a lady like that?"

I responded with the only thing that I could think of.

"What kind of a lady breaks into someone's house?" She called herself a 'lady'- so was this strange appearance of hers some kind of... disease? I had heard of this rare condition that caused people’s skin to become bark-like, much like a tree, and I would've much rather believed that this was some kind of one-in-a-million medical illness rather than an actual doll talking to me.

"I never broke in! I live here!" she screamed at me. "You're the one who broke in - you're the intruder - I just wanted you to leave!" Strangely enough, she seemed to be scared of me.

I couldn't wrap my head around this and so I took a seat. I felt lightheaded for a second, as if I might faint. After a minute, once I had regained some composure and didn't feel like I was going to pass out, I had to ask- "So are you a robot of some sort?"

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"No," she said, her tears finally stopping at this point as she started walking around, taking small steps while glaring at me. Perhaps it was my years of nursing training, but I immediately began assessing her to see if she had any injuries. She had no bruises and she wasn't moving like any of her limbs were fractured at the very least.

"What exactly are you then?"

"I don't owe the likes of you an explanation!"

"Fine then," I said, stubbornly crossing my arms. "I won't leave 'your house' then- I'll stay here as long as I want."

She sniffled. "And how do you know I won't stab you in your sleep?"

I smirked. "I have a feeling I could take you in a fight real easily given what just happened."

She looked ready to cry again - it was amazing how what had been a static face could convey such emotions. Her lower lip trembled before saying, "What does it matter what I am? I just want you to leave, so why don't you? I’ll make life hell for you if you don’t!"

"I moved in here fair and square and I own this house," I said. "I see no way that you would have any right to make me leave."

"No, this house was mine first! My family owns it! You're trespassing on my rightful inheritance!" she yelled.

"Sure," I said. "Let's go see if that argument holds up in a court of law- I have a feeling it won't given you're a talking doll!"

Her face was now downcast. "Why... why can't you just leave... why do you have to make this so... difficult?" Her eyes were moistened once more now.

Again, I wasn't sure why I was doing this, but I reached for a cabinet and took a napkin out, offering it to her. "Here, wipe your face."

She glared at me, but then took the napkin anyway and wiped away her tears. I then couldn't help myself while she was distracted and pinched one of her cheeks - like you would a toddler's.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, your skin... feels like it's almost real," I said, quite surprised. And I felt the moisture from her tears as well, strangely enough.

"H-Hey!" she said said again, swatting my hand away. "What kind of ogre touches a woman without permission?"

"But... you're not a real woman, are you?" I asked.

"I once was!" she retorted.

I didn't believe it. Even with it all happening right in front of me, I couldn't believe it.

"Are you... real?" I asked her. "I can't accept this..."

"A famous writer once said," she began, "'When you have removed what is impossible, then whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.'"

"..."

"...so, you read Sherlock Holmes too?" I asked her. Somehow, that realization snapped me out of my stupor and back to reality.

"You know the quote?"

"Everyone knows the quote."

"Some people don't."

"I guess not," I said. "So... why were you trying to kill me again?"

She looked at me as if I had insulted her mother. "Kill you? I've never killed or hurt anyone!"

"You could've fooled me with the way you grabbed that knife."

"That was just self-defense," she said. "I never wanted to hurt you, I've never hurt anyone. I just... wanted to scare you away... out of the house..."

"Why?"

"Because it's my house - my family's house," she said. "You don't belong here!"

I remembered a name I had heard earlier. "Are you an Evergreen?"

She started. "How do you know that?"

"Someone told me that this was called the Evergreen Manor."

"Not was, it is the Evergreen Manor!" she said. "See, you admit it! This house belongs to me! Now go away!"

"It doesn't work like that," I told her. "I bought this fair and square, and unfortunately for you, all my cash is tied up in the house. I don't think anyone'll buy it off me either, so like it or not, I'm staying here."

She glared at me in response, though she could not do much else. I think she realized that in this situation, I held the upper hand.

But hey, I didn't consider myself a cruel person and I was at least slightly interested in how she worked. "So, you're an actual doll then? How did that happen? Were you born like that? Or are you some kind of ghost possessing it?"

She stared at me for a few minutes before answering. "I don't know. I remember being alive a long time ago... and there is this... gap in my memory, and after that, I don't remember anything except waking up in this body in an empty house with my family gone. And I've been like this ever since."

"So you were human before this?"

"You talk like I'm not a person now!" she responded. I sighed. This argument was not going anywhere. "Okay, tell you what, I personally don't have any desire to be living in a rundown house with a demonic entity that possesses a doll, so-"

"I am not demonic! How dare you!" she cried out indignantly.

"That's exactly what a demonic entity would say," I said. Before she could protest further, I went over to her, and as she went to swat my hand away I grabbed it. That was fine as that was what I was interested in - she resisted, but unlike in the dolls in most horror movies she had almost no strength to her - it was like struggling with an eight year old child.

"Unhand me!"

"You... have a pulse," I said, and then let her go. It was amazing - to feel the evidence of a beating heart coming from her wrist. It was as noticeable as mine - and now a bunch of questions exploded in my mind. Back where I had once worked, I was friends with the radiology technician and I could've rang him up for a favor if I was still working there- I would've loved at that moment to put her in a CT scan or better yet an MRI and just get to know what was inside her- or even to just draw routine bloodwork. If it wasn't for what she had told me, I would've genuinely thought at that moment that she was a person with some strange kind of skin condition.

"Yes I do!"

"Okay, alright then," I said. "I get that you want to be left alone, but the thing is that I can't leave - but I don't want you ruining any more of my stuff. How about a truce? I'll stay out of your hair and you stay out of mine, and I'll try to find a way to leave, but for now, I'm stuck here." I had sunk so much money into this place that even if there was a demonic entity residing in it, I would either have to start demanding rent from it or perform the exorcism myself.

"But-"

"And hey, the main reason I'm stuck here is because of your antics in the first place," I told her. "After all, everyone thinks that this house is haunted, and quite frankly it looks like they're right, and because of that, I can't get a good price, and I can't leave. So you have only yourself to blame."

"Why I-" she began before suddenly panicking. "Wait, it's about to be da-"