Episode 3: The Woods Watch
329 Words
The house felt different after the doll spoke. The air carried an unnatural chill, and every shadow seemed to stretch just a little too far. Elaine refused to go near it, locking herself in the bedroom, but Thomas couldn’t look away.
That night, as the clock crept toward midnight, the whispers started again.
“…Daddy… help…”
Thomas shot upright in bed. Elaine stirred beside him, but he didn’t wake her. He followed the sound downstairs, his heart hammering in his chest. The doll sat exactly where he had left it on the kitchen table, its single eye gleaming in the moonlight.
“…Cold… dark… watching…”
A chill ran through him.
He turned toward the window. The trees stood silent, dark, a wall of twisted limbs and gnarled bark. But something was different. The longer he stared, the more certain he became—they had moved.
A tree that had always leaned left now stood straight. A branch that should have been broken was whole.
And there, just beyond the porch light’s reach, something was standing in the shadows.
His breath caught.
A shape.
Tall, thin, its limbs too long, its face hidden in the darkness. It didn’t move. It only watched.
Thomas stepped back, his pulse roaring in his ears.
The doll twitched.
“…Not alone…”
A guttural creak echoed from the woods, like old wood twisting under pressure. The shape in the darkness c****d its head.
Thomas grabbed the doll and stumbled away from the window. The moment he touched it, a sharp jolt of cold spread up his arm, as if he had plunged his hand into ice water.
“Lily,” he whispered. “Tell me what to do.”
The doll’s brittle lips parted. “…Find
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