Possessed Possessions : A Burnt Doll

 I was 20 back then and was moving into a new house with my girlfriend for the first time that day. I was super excited just by the thought of spending our remaining days together under the same roof as we had been together for 3 years. I woke up earlier than usual and called her to inform her that I would be at our new house in an hour as planned.

 I loaded all the things from my apartment in my truck. While doing so, I found a burnt doll which was surely not mine and I dumped it in a nearby bin. Without heeding too much attention to it, I closed my truck. Later, I went to the house of the landlord, who was the owner of the apartment I was currently living in to hand over the key before leaving. She got the key from me and said, “Hope you come back” with a cheapish smile which felt weird. Her words echoed in my head till I reached our new house.

 When I reached our new house, I was greeted by my girlfriend with a cheerful face which made me forget what had happened earlier. We hugged each other and decided to unpack and arrange all our stuff once breakfast was complete. We cooked and had our breakfast together while speaking of how our previous three years went the whole time. We were a happy couple with occasional minor disputes at times.

 We finished our breakfast, and she went to open my truck. She cried out my name and asked me to rush to my truck. I ran to my truck as fast as I could, only to see her go helter-skelter over a cockroach present inside. As I approached her to calm her down, I saw someone sitting inside the truck in my peripheral. I turned to see who it was and the seat looked empty. I gave a closer look only to find the burnt doll that I well remember dumping. I stood there in a confused state. My girlfriend pulled me towards her and asked me what got me so worried. I told her everything was fine and asked her to dump the doll that was present inside the truck.

 We arranged all our things and, when we were almost done, the clock struck 2. We ordered something on DoorDash as it was already late and we were hungry as well. The remainder of the day went well and it was time for us to sleep. I dozed off as soon as I got on the mattress since I was tired after all that we had done that day only to be woken up by my girlfriend. As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw her crouched down on the bed pointing at the door. When I asked her what was wrong, she whispered,” Babe, I heard someone walk in the hallway. When I shouted is someone there, I heard someone knock on our bedroom door” in a soft scared tone. I asked her to stay on the bed and entered the hallway to see what was going on. I turned on the lights to see if someone was present and was surprised to see the doll that I had asked my girlfriend to throw away, lying down on the floor.

 I put it in the bag that I carried for work and returned to our bedroom. I asked her if she dumped the doll as I had asked her to which she replied,” I threw it and I saw it in the garbage truck as well when it emptied our bin but why are you asking about it now?”. I told her,” Asked simply babe. There is no one else present in our house. Maybe you were hallucinating”. We cuddled each other and slept that night. I took that doll with me when I left for work the next day and dumped it in a bin far away from our home only to see it back in our house when I came back.

 I tried as hard as I could to dispose of the doll and no matter what I did, it kept coming back. Coincidentally, the number of fights between me and my girlfriend kept increasing. We often slept alone, with her in the bedroom and me in the hall as I needed some space for myself after an argument. One such night after having a dispute over something very insignificant, I slept alone on the couch in our hall. At around 3 AM, I woke up panting after having a nightmare. In that dream, I was returning home late in the night. It was pouring cats and dogs and I saw a woman standing on the road with her child asking me for a lift. The child had a doll that looked familiar.

 I asked her where they wanted me to drop them to which she said “Your house. I…I meant the locality of your house”.  I opened the door of my car for them to get in. The woman was trying to seduce me with her words and I heeded no attention to it. The voice suddenly changed from a woman in her thirties to a man in his fifties. I looked into the rear-view mirror to see what was happening and what I saw was enough to wake me up. I saw the doll which the child bought with her burn and the woman turned into a demon and started feeding on the head of the child she brought with her. I was able to sense the smell of rotten meat when I woke up and I reached out to pick up the water bottle which I had placed on the floor before sleeping.

 While rubbing the floor searching for the bottle, my hand struck something soft and I picked it up to see what it was. Yes, you guessed it right it was that doll I had been trying to get rid of. I threw it away as fast as I could and heard an angry man shout from the hallway along with the sound of it hitting the floor. I turned to see where the sound was coming from and saw the silhouette of a man. He stood 10 feet tall covering the entire width of the hallway. I saw him disappear right in front of my eyes when I turned on the lights. I ran into our bedroom to see if my girlfriend was safe and was relieved to see her sleeping like a baby. I lay beside her and explained what had happened the previous night to her when she woke up the next morning.

 We visited a priest she knew, along with the doll, to get an explanation of what was happening. The priest said that the doll had been used in a demonic ritual that was done by someone wishing evil on me. We arranged for an exorcism on the house we were living in as the priest had suggested, and the doll was burnt to ashes by the priest. We had not faced any disturbances in our house after that and the number of arguments and disputes we had reduced. We are happily married now and we were blessed with a baby boy last year.

 Even after all these years, one question still runs in my mind “Who would wish something so terrible on me. Could it be my old house owner…… or one of my ex-girlfriends? “