Anna peered through the window waiting for the yellow
taxi to arrive. This Christmas was going to be very special because her
Aunt Jean was coming from South Carolina with a wonderful gift. At least
that was what she thought!
Finally, the taxi
arrived. Anna’s
family rushed out to welcome her and help her with her load. The last
thing to be carried in was a giant object covered by a large sheet.
“This present
is for you dear Anna. I will let you open it in the morning,” Aunt
Jean said.
When it was time for bed Anna and her brother Brad moped
up the stairs lazily, tired from the excitement and full of chocolate.
They crawled into their beds too exhausted to say good night to their
parents and aunt.
It felt like just
an hour later and it was Christmas morning! Anna woke up Brad and they
ran to their aunt’s
room, but she was gone. They thought she was downstairs so they raced
down to find her.
Instead
they found an elegant dollhouse. It had old fashioned furniture and baby
blue wallpaper. While she was scanning the dollhouse she found a note inside.
It was signed by her aunt, but something about the writing looked very
strange. The note read:
Christmas Eve
Dear Anna, Brad, Ella and David,
I am so sorry I had to leave
early, but something is wrong with your Uncle Kenny. I apologize for
the short notice. Merry Christmas to you all! I will visit again soon!
Sincerely,
Aunt Jean
Anna was dismayed
at Aunt Jean’s quick departure, but curious about
the dollhouse. The dollhouse contained five dolls in realistic clothing,
but they seemed to have evil glares on their faces. When she held the
dolls in her hand, her fingers began to sting. Early that afternoon, her
father moved the dollhouse up to Anna’s
room, but every time she tried to play with the dolls, she had an uneasy
feeling. It made her even more uncomfortable when she noticed that
one of the dolls had a loose bun exactly like her Aunt Jean.
The day
zoomed by so quickly. Anna played with her other new toys, but thought
a lot about the dollhouse. When Anna went to her room at night, she noticed
her hamster had suddenly disappeared from its cage. Instead, there was
a doll propped up by the water bottle. She thought that Brad must be playing
a trick on her, so she decided to ignore it.
In the middle of the night,
Anna heard screams coming from her dollhouse, but when she turned on her
light, the cries stopped. When Anna woke the next morning the first thing
she did was check her dollhouse. It looked the same as it had the night
before. Later that day, Anna told her neighbor Tommy about the screams.
“It
was probably your imagination,” he snickered. Anna was furious
at Tommy for making fun of her. She ran inside her house and up
to her bedroom.
As she surveyed the dollhouse, she found red marks on the
baby blue walls. She ran downstairs to tell her mom. Her mother was on
the phone and waved Anna away. As Anna waited for her mom to finish her
phone call, she heard Brad scream.
She followed the screams which led
her back to her bedroom and to the dollhouse. There she saw Brad lying
on the floor being swarmed by the dolls. He had one of the dolls clenched
in his fist. Brad seemed to be shrinking before her eyes. She watched in
horror as Brad appeared to be transforming into a doll. She raced to go tell
her mom, but she could not find her anywhere in the house. How strange, thought
Anna, she was just on the phone.
The only thing she could think of was to
destroy the dollhouse. She ran to the kitchen and grabbed a lighter. She
sprinted up the stairs and pulled the shrunken Brad away from the dolls.
She lit the lighter and torched the dollhouse. Soon flames were bursting
out of the roof. Through the smoke, she saw faint figures in the dollhouse
waving their arms. Then Anna fell to the ground and everything went black.
When
Anna awoke, she felt her mom’s smooth, cold rings soothing her hot
face. Her mom helped her to her feet. Floating around her room were pages
from her books and clinging to the floor were charred pieces of her desk.
The carpeting was now torn and burned. She saw Brad on the floor with his
fist clenched tightly. Suddenly, Brad opened his fingers and let go of
the figure clenched in his hand. As the figure rolled on the floor, it
seemed to get larger… and
larger. It was Aunt Jean!
Later, Aunt Jean
told the whole story. “At first,” she began, “I
found nothing wrong with the dollhouse. On Christmas
Eve, I placed the dollhouse under the tree for Anna. When I turned my
back, the figures swarmed around me, just like they attacked Brad. Before
I knew it, I was in the dollhouse and I had shrunk to
their size. Their plan was to shrink the whole family for an army of
evil dolls.”
“I saved Aunt Jean,” Brad bragged. “I
heard noises coming from Anna’s room and went to see what was
going on. As I knelt down to look in the dollhouse, a doll caught my
eye. It looked just like Aunt Jean, so I reached for her. Once I had
her in my fist, the other dolls jumped on me. And that’s
the last thing I remember.”
“Luckily, I was
in the garage and smelled smoke so I grabbed a pail
of water and found my way to the fire,” explained
Mom. “I
put out the flames just in time.”
Now all that
was left of Anna’s dreadful dollhouse was a pile
of gray ashes.