My eyelids begrudgingly fluttered open from the sunlight that filtered through my window, but immediately I turned over to my side to seize a few more minutes of sleep

"Valerie Verona!" a deafening yell resounded through the house

A mix of a yawn and a groan passed my lips as I hoisted myself off from my mattress. I shuddered as my toes touched the cold wooden floor.

"Coming!" I hollered back.

I made a beeline for the bathroom, but not before giving the porcelain doll on my bed a smile and an air kiss.

-----

"You absolutely have to read the new best seller!" my acquaintance Lisa exclaimed. My obvious dismissal of her request apparently meant "You are completely right! I will read it right now!" because she continued speaking.

"It won ten different awards. Thousands of critics praise how hauntingly realistic it is. Plus it's dark and terrifying, which is identical to your personality!" Lisa pressed, not noticing how I took longer and quicker strides to get out of her hair. Admittedly, my lips curved into the faintest of smiles at her truthful description of me.

I rolled my eyes for the dramatic effect. "I have no interest in horror books, especially when said book is called 'Shivers'. What kind of stupid title is that?"

"I'll give you my copy! If you read it, I promise I won't talk to you about it ever again," she pleaded, clasping her fingers together and pouting her lips. Despite my cold exterior, I always fell for Lisa's goddamned puppy face.

I looked to the heavens above and prayed for myself. "Fine!"

That was the only word she needed before shoving a hardcover book into my hands. I, in turn, crammed it into the deep abyss of my backpack and hoped that it would disintegrate. If only I had such luck.

-----

The entire rest of the school day, the book plagued my mind like a festering disease, so when I got home, I immediately snatched it out of my bag and flung it onto my bed without sparing it a single glance. Its blood red cover taunted me, as if coercing me to read it, as if it living. Maybe that's why so many people were drawn to the book.

The book in my suddenly freezing hands, I opened the cover to the dedication, which I almost always read.

"To my family members, who encouraged me to share my ideas, and to my doll, which was my source of inspiration."

I flipped the page again.

"Based on a true story."

My eyes perused these five words as my mind tried to understand its hidden meaning. I read the first page, then the second, then the sixty-two pages that followed. A string of nonsensical sounds was written all over the page, with the only command to "say these words out loud if you dare." My tongue tripped over itself as I painfully finished the last syllable.

However, the minute I flipped to the sixty-sixth page, I came across something that chilled me to the marrow in my bones. My eyes burned holes into the paper as I stared hard at it. Then, I lifted my head up to look at my own doll. My eyes shifted from the doll back to the book. Then to the doll. Then the book. This vicious cycle continued until I confirmed one thing: there was an exact picture of my doll in the book, down to the little crack beneath its eye.

Its pupil shifted so slightly, I wasn't sure if I had imagined it.

My heart threatened to leap out of my throat. Under the portrait was a caption: "To the person who has my beloved doll, I want it back. I am coming for you. We are coming."

I leapt out of my bed and screamed. I screamed until the walls of my room began to shake. Footsteps grew louder outside my door before it burst open to reveal both of my parents. My mother looked completely ashen and disheveled. My dad didn't look much better.

"Wherever you got that thing, please return it," I said, pointing my finger in the doll's general direction. It had its cute smile plastered on its face, but the look in its once innocent eyes seemed malicious.

My dad was the first to speak. "What are you talking about?"

"I was reading this horror book about this doll, and the book has this picture of that doll over there. It moved!" I burst out, slowly reaching out for the book before running away to the safety of my parents. I all but shoved the sixty-sixth page in front of their faces. "Here! Look at it, just look at it!"

They merely shot me quizzical looks as my dad gently pried the book from my fingers. "The page is ripped out, Valerie."

Dread exploded in my gut.

My mother raised her palm to my forehead and asked me, "Are you sick, honey? I think you're hallucinating."

"Please, just get rid of it."

I watched in horror as my mother waltzed up to the doll and held it. "I'll throw it out if you'd like," my mom offered. I simply nodded.

It might have been a trick of my imagination. Whatever it was, as soon as my parents turned their backs, the doll's face slowly turned backwards to face me. Instead of her smile, however, her evil sneer was burned into my mind.

-----

I made sure the trash can that contained the doll was tightly sealed with ten different zip ties. Even then, sleep expertly eluded me that night. I just laid there on my bed and stared at the ceiling for hours and hours. Gradually, my lids began to close ever so slightly. My body went lax as I began to drift off...

...until I heard a loud sound of metal clattering against concrete.

"Valerie. I'm coming for you." The voice was barely above a whisper, yet I heard it loud and clear. It made goosebumps erupt against my skin. It was cold, unbearably freezing.

"Mom! Dad! Help!" I screamed.

The unmistakable creak that the backdoor made when it was opened hit my eardrum. A long chill traversed my spine. My parents wouldn't be able to help me anymore. It was too late.

Trembling, I locked my door.

I saw a shadow, but it wasn't from underneath the door like I had expected.

It was from my window.

"Valerie, my master is calling," it said, tearing through the screen net with a huge knife and stepping in delicately. The mattress barely dipped under her weight as she landed.

My hands shot up to unlock the door, but the knob wouldn't turn.

"Valerie, don't you love it when I purposely jam the lock?" she said sweetly, tilting her head slightly. She walked the length of my bed and jumped off to where I was standing, frozen and rigid.

Her porcelain pink lips turned to a displeasing scowl. "Why aren't you smiling? I'm here to play with you, Valerie."

She pierced my shin with the blade. I let out an ear-splitting scream of pain. "You're not a very nice owner."

She withdrew the knife, but my own legs couldn't support my frail body.

"Thank you for reading the incantation. My master can find me now that I've been summoned, Valerie. Isn't that great?" she asked. The knife plunged into my rib, puncturing some of my organs. A guttural scream erupted from the back of my throat, but she wasn't even close to done.

My parents were my last hope. "Mo-"

A sharp pain left my rib and traveled to the bottom of my jaw, where an excruciating experience similar to the fiery pits of hell spread. The tip of the knife went through my underjaw and up into the roof of my mouth. Hot, white pain blinded my vision as I sobbed.

Darkness began to creep into my blurring vision.

A large shadow loomed in the window where the doll had infiltrated. The doll's head turned one hundred and eighty degrees.

"Welcome back, master," I heard her greet before her bloodied body turned back to my dying one. "Sorry Valerie, but my master is here. It was fun playing with you."

"And Valerie, my name is Lucy."

She plunged the knife right between my eyes.

My parents screamed the next morning when they found my corpse.

-----

"A young sixteen year old named Valerie Verona was found murdered in her house on Wednesday night. Police have not yet publicly announced the details of her death, but a few officers have mentioned seeing the book "Shivers" on her bed with a page ripped out. The killer is still wandering the streets of-"

The television fades to black. A man completely immersed in darkness sits in his armchair, brushing the blood-matted hair of the doll situated on his lap.

"Thank you for finding me, master," the doll says, looking up with a bloodthirsty grin.

A sinister chuckle leaves the man as he runs his fingers through the doll's now silky smooth hair.

"It's quite alright, Lucy."

-----

I literally read this chapter in my school library and I cringed at how poorly I used to write back in seventh grade. It's been about five years since then (five years in which I haven't even touched Wattpad), and I admit this is not my best writing because a) I don't write horror and have no idea how to do such a thing and b) I don't have enough time to write this in a well-thought out story. However, I hope you guys enjoy my newly edited chapter, "The Doll."

Also, I apologize for the hyphen line breaks, but I'm used to breaking up my chapters on fanfiction and the habit has clearly transcended to Wattpad.

Let me know in the comments below if you guys want me to edit any other chapters!Hope you guys enjoyed reading.

Vote, comment, fan, do whatever the hells ya wants.

tbh got chills from just writing this...and i'm in broad daylight right now LOL