Back up generational

     A great mane of black that wafts about behind her, that seems to transform into a solid billowing mass of black like a storm cloud as seen at night rolling across the sky. There is no real indication of a human head or neck, instead hidden in black shadows that curtain this part of her body; where a face should be there is embedded instead in the darkness a glossy white Venetian face mask, not a heavily painted one, no, there is red across the entirerty of her lips and around her eyes that slicks off from the corners. Inside the eyes of the mask there is no sign of a human face; only two blue lights like those of distant stars that may become brighter and larger as the only indication of emotion. Her body is not at all human, although it is human like, at best we might compare it to the body of a doll. Her breasts are a tad large for her frame and may themselves be made entirely of cloth as there is little distinction between her top and what might pass for her flesh. Her arms are overly long and thin, again bringing to mind the arms of a doll; however her hands are a size too large and her fingers too long and pointed. Both her arms and hands covered in a white cloth that may even be embroidered upon closer inspection. She is wearing a clincher or perhaps a corset, white and lacy, although the laces seem to shimmer with odd shadowy lines as she moves. Below the waist she wears a great bell shaped many layored dress; when standing still it is white like a wedding dress but as she walks it shimmers with strips of black somehow.

   Her movements are graceful, purposful, if I said I saw this walking across a field among the mists one mornining and vanish beneath a pair of trees with crossed branches with no sign of her on the other side it should be no surprise; but of course my description wouldn't be so detailed if that were it, nor the fact I have seen more than one mask be worn. I have seen this figure multiple times in my life, and at one time even believed she must be the ghost of a Venetian Courtesan given the similar apperances haunting a doll I recieved as a child from an old antique shop. However I was wrong, and the life of me can't find how those traditions started in Venice; so I have some suspicions there. All that said however, perhaps it would be for the best to begin my story at the beginning.

    I suppose the oldest point of this I know about would involve by grandmother. I can't verify how truthful the story she told me as a little girl is as I wasn't there of course. But it all revolves around a little wooden doll. The doll its self no one not even my grandmother knows how old it is; but it matches the description I stated already, for the most part. The base of the doll below the waist is a wooden cone painted white covered in a white silk dress; I had supposed so it could stand up easier; I had seen dress dolls like it before, but its torso looked it like had been taken off another doll, a small multi-jointed marionette at some point and glued to the wooden cone; I did find out later why. It had an oversized barbie doll like chest, not unusual in older porceline dolls made to look like fine ladies of nobility. The arms were a tad long and had interlocked wooden joints at the elbows, shoulders, and wrists; you could see the holes were strings used to attatch to it. The hands were a tad big and the fingers long, but I've seen other marionettes like that; even if it does fit the real deal. The Torso and arms were painted white and wearing silk cloth over them, like it had been sewn right onto the doll; you could even see cuts at the waist where the torso had been put on the clearly much younger cone base with torn material glued down. The head and neck were painted black except for the face being painted white with blacked out eyes with a tiny dot of blue paint in each one, blue lips, and blue around the eyes like fancy eyeshadow. It had some curls of real black wool for hair.

   When I was little my grandmother had shown me the doll, it was part of her collection, mostly clown dolls, a Raggedy Ann, a Raggedy Andy, a few baby dolls from when she was little, a few dressed up Victorian Dolls, and this one. She told it to me like it was a ghost story as she had taken it out a drawer. I don't remember exactly what the occassion was, I am thinking it was a holiday either Thanksgiving or Christmas. She said she had given the doll to my mother but before I was born had given it back to my grandmother; but I'll get to that in a moment. The story my grandmother told me was that when she was very little herself, she had been to Italy with her parents; my great grandparents whom I'd never met as they passed away back even before my mother was born due to illness for my great grandmother and dying in WWII for my great grandfather. It had been before the war apparently, that my grandmother had been in Italy, but she would have only been like 2 years old at the most. Her parents had bought this doll from an antique shop; claiming it was already old even then. A doll made to look like a Venetian Masquerade doll noblewoman as she put it.

   This doll as my grandmother mentioned at the time had been nothing more than a keep sake, not long after her father had been drafted to fight in the war, the Pacific Theater, leaving my grandmother and great grandmother behind. My grandmother says her mother had to work near constant hours, leaving her under the care of a family friend (she went into some long bit here describing this friend and their relation that I didn't really retain so I won't try to recal it here); but the real deal was this family friend hated this doll and would insist my grandmother hide it away in her room when she was around. She told me her mother though would take the doll into another room at times and talk to it, apologizing for her friend's rudeness. The way my grandmother put it, it was sincere fearful apologies. About two years later a man had come by and told them my great grandfather had been killed in action. Now to be clear here, the doll wasn't really a toy, nor belonged to my grandmother when she was little, it was an antique keepsake belonging to my great grandmother. My grandmother claims she never took it out of her mother's room, but it always when her mother was out found its away to the living room.

   My grandmother said she didn't know the whole story, but sometime later she remarried for financial security, and her mother's new husband hated the doll as well. They even had fights about threatening to throw it in the fireplace and to keep it locked up. My grandmother while telling me this story said he had been having nightmares, hearing tapping sounds at the window, and getting scratch marks on his back the size of the doll's fingers. He had told her all this when she was grown up; and said one day when my grandmother, now a teenager, was out, and my great grandmother in the hospital, he had tried to throw it in the fire place only for a massive shadow of the doll to emerge from the fire place taking up the whole wall, with blue lights in its eyes, threatening to kill him if he did. He had fled the house, only coming back inside when my grandmother got home from highschool, pretending nothing was wrong. She recalled seeing him acting odd, looking around the house; but it wasn't for another ten years that he would confess all this had happened.

   My grandmother told me this story more than once to be clear, usually adding or omitting this or that detail, as retellings usually go; but one version stuck out to me, as it was the only time she mentioned what happend after this between the time of the shadow incident and my mother being born. My great grandmother shortly after my mother had married had fallen very ill, and wanted to say goodbye to the doll. Which it had turned out after the shadow incident had been locked in a glass case with rosaries tied around the handle, and kept inside the closet practically buried in crosses. But apparently my great grandmother had been as she was getting sicker speaking to a corner of the room, where a shadow in the shape of the doll would appear. Her new husband, whom I also never met to be clear, had told my grandmother ten years after this that he had seen and heard these conversations but was always paralyzed to the bed and my great grandmother would deny having them to him. But he did what she said and took the doll to the hospital and my great grandmother died in the hospital bed while holding the doll with a smile on her face.

  My grandmother like I said usually left out that part, which the man had told her about ten years later. The thing is he also died in a traffic accident, my mother according to my grandmother was around 2 or 3 at the time. He was pretty old by that time, and had an argument with my grandmother over my great grandmothers' belongings, including the doll which after my great grandmother's passing he had locked back up in a trunk and then buried in the basement under other boxes. But by this time my grandmother was 22 when her mother died; yeah its still really young, especially by today's standards, so my grandmother would have been about 24 or 25 when the accident happened. My grandmother said the weird thing is according to the doctors he had had a heart attack while driving so had likely died even before the car crashed off the road, as the crash its self shouldn't have been enough to kill even a man his age.

   Now my grandmother would get a bit fuzzy on details here, but said the doll ended up in her custody and my mother as a little girl loved to play with it. By this time Barbie Dolls were a thing, so this doll became like Barbie's friend. My mother had her own stories to tell, but my grandmother was always vague at this point, saying her husband didn't like the doll either and swore the head would turn his way sometimes and swore he saw the head turn towards my mother when she wasn't looking and playing with other dolls. Now to be clear my grandmother is still alive today, as is my grandfather; and I havn't told them anything about my encounters which to be honest make theirs sound normal ghost stories; not sure why they were just fucked with like that but...I digress. At this point its better to repeat what my mother told me more so than my grandmother; as my grandmother oddly felt more comfortable talking about things when she was little, but not things that happened around my mother, and their stories were usually the same only my mother's had more details as these were happening to her.

   But that said my grandmother once when I was with her, at about age 10 or so, visiting her mother's grave had whispered to me that there was no body in that grave; but walked away before I could ask any questions and my mother hushed me. But going back to when my mother was little. This goes back to the cone body thing. After my grandmother had told me the stories of her youth, but refused to talk about when my mother was young other than give her the doll to play with and her husband saying it moved its head sometimes. Now I didn't ask my mother about this the same first time my grandmother talked about it. Like I said this is mainly a pieced together account from various retellings of the story; that like I said felt like they ended short, and one about her mother dying (which makes sense she wouldn't want to talk about anything spooky around that), and her step father's car crash.

   So this would be when I was 10 years old that, after hearing about the mother dying part and my grandfather seeing the head move. It was thanksgiving, I remember this was distinctly, and my grandfather had actually interjected that he tore "that damned thing in half" one day finding it standing up on its own right outside my mother's bedroom door when she was 5 years old like it had opened the door its self and was just standing there; so in a fit of adrenaline scooped it up and tore it in half so it didn't have legs to walk around with anymore. He even pointed at it, at the dinner table as I was actually holding the doll at the time at the dinner table, and bragged he killed it, but out of guilt over ruining his daughter's favorite toy glued it to a wooden cone he got from the lumber store; but he has no idea where the dress came from, figured it was one of the Barbie dresses and my mother put it there; as he had the legs in a locked dresser in their house; even showed them to me, still had the dress on. They were typical marionette wooden jointed legs, but wearing heels, and all painted black with blue spirals around them. He at that Thanksgiving gave the legs to my mother, who did take them home with us and lock them up in a drawer in her craft room; saying the doll has been a cone since she was 5 and all my life by that point, she wasn't about to mess with it. But told me, she thought her dad, my granddad had put the dress on it, the dress matched perfectly and she never saw it without the dress, she had gotten home from school kindergarten as she remembered and it was just like that and was told he replaced the old broken legs after accidentally stepping on it. But he never said anything about the dress till that thanksgiving as an adult.

   Now as far as my mother goes, beyond that the spooky stuff with the doll was mostly second hand as well, not enough to make her think it was evil, but she said she felt like she should always have it nearby. So she took it with her, even  in her backpack to school, to family gatherings. Not stopping that till she was 16 and got a boyfriend. But after that it would show up in random spots of her room, sometimes coming home to find other dolls out of place, including barbies as if the doll was the one playing with them. My mother was vague too, but told me one night she heard voices like several women whispering to each other and peeked from the corner of her eye to see the doll at her window like it was looking out and outside in the darkness there was a much bigger white mask, same type and everything, when my mother saw it, it turned and looked at her from outside the window and she fell back asleep. She said she figured it was either a dream or a really distorted reflection; but no clue how she just fell back to sleep after that.

   By this time tv shows about ghost hauntings and such were pretty common and my mother tells me she figured it was an old haunted doll so had some white witches blow sage over and such while she was pregnant with me, and nothing else happened after that. However she had given the doll back to my grandmother to lock away; which means my grandmother had it in one drawer by her bed while its legs were locked away in another room. My grandmother says she never even told my grandfather about that, so that holiday when she first told me the story when I was little. Not sure about how old, maybe 6 or 7, but she gave me the doll. I don't recall any weirdness or anything right there. From what I was told later in different stories by my grandmother, grandfather, and my mother, you'd think they'd have freaked out about her giving it too me. Which is why even when I was 10 and my grandfather told me about him ripping it in half I figured they were just nuts. Also again the fact they did have both halves in the same house for years without any further incident apparently.

   To be clear here, my mother had me when she was 17 years old, yes had me young, and my father was no where to be seen in the picture during my entire childhood. Found out when I was almost 20 the guy had been 21 when he knocked up my mother and fled to a nearby state when he found out to avoid statutary rape laws and child support. So to clear up any timeline confusion. My mother gave them back to doll with the cone body while pregnant with me. Both the legs and the fixed up doll are in my grandmother and grandfather's house till I was 6 or 7 years old, no incidents they have told me about, even asked not long ago and they said nothing, they were kind of surprised and looked suspiciously at each other at the time, but yeah, apparently nothing; out of sight, out of mind, like it was just an ordinary doll. So when I was 6 or 7 my grandmother gave me the doll. No protests by my mother or anything; although I do recal it smelling like some weird smoke once when coming home from school, likely another dose of sage. My mother did do that around the house every so often, usually around Halloween. But that's this whole other thing. And to be clear, yes we did decorate and go trick or treating, she just did like the next day after making sure to take down ALL the decorations.

    So that Thanksgiving when I was 10, my mother got the legs. Now thing is the legs were put in a plastic bag, along side leftovers my grandparents insisted we take with us. Taken home and locked in her craft room dresser. She told me she didn't want to take any chances, after all I'd heard a bunch of the ghost stories; but the doll was now just a regular old antique doll. Thing is despite their ghost stories I always felt protected when the doll was around, and from what my mother would tell me she felt the same way. It just never seemed to like men being around, and I can only guess going by what I've read that my grandfather snapping it in half out of fear for my mother but then immediatly repairing it is all that spared him from some curse.

   Now just before Christmas when I was 10 years old I got curious and snuck into my mother's craft room and found the legs. To be fair I saw her put them in the drawer, and the key for the drawer was right there on the wall on a wooden keyring. I held the legs up to the torso to see how they'd look and the legs started kicking around my hands causing me to drop them and scream in surprise. The doll landed right side up and after a few quick jerks the legs stopped moving. On reflex, and I know this is going to sound really weird in contex especially after writing all the above, but I picked up the doll and held it close like a shield as if to protect me from the scary moving legs...yes...of the same doll. But in my defense in my 10 years of life the protective doll had the dress over a cone lower body, not the freaky marionette legs.

    Not long after, I asked my mother if grandma's stories were true. My mother gave me a curious look, my mother told me some of her own experiences, but as much as talking about them made them sound regular, they really were few and far between, spread over months or years to find the doll moved or the room, and the thing in the window was just one time and could have been a dream she confessed. I confessed I looked at the legs; left out the jerking around part; and said if her mother's mother, my grandmother had been given the doll before WWII by her mother from an Antiqu shop, meaning it was already old by the 1940's...and was being carried around as a toy since then; how was it still in such good shape. It doesn't look to be all that weathered. Indeed my mother exained it, she had played with it, told her mother had played with it, and aside from the top and lower half snapped apart the paint was good, the joints didn't have any rust or squeek, the wood wasn't worn, the material aside from the torn spot was in good condition and even looked clean. This genuinly spooked her; but said she never did think to get it looked at by an expert.

   It wouldn't be till sometime after Christmas but she did find an expert on antique dolls, including marionettes; told them what it was, the (non-ghost filled) version of its history as far as she knew. I was with her when she took it in to the antiqu shop, now this was before internet was a big thing; early 90's, but I remember the guy taking pictures of it, pictures of the legs which I wenced when he held them up to the body, but thankfully they didn't move. My mother noticed and asked me about that later, upset i didn't tell her they had sprung to life. But the man said he'd fax the photographs to some professors he knows, who know people in Italy, but that it does look really old, but was very well made, made to last.

    My mother that night had asked me about my reaction and told me to keep the doll away from the legs unless the antique shop is looking at them. So a few weeks of nothing later and we hear back, apparently someone from Italy had actually flown in to see the doll in person. This felt big, and mother thought we were looking at a payday, talking about selling it right in front of me. Which she was upset, I wasn't, when the man told her no one who knew what it was would buy it; and anyone else wouldn't give them a good price because it had been torn and snapped apart, although he did remark that my grandad did a good job restoring it with a new dress; but he paused right there and gave us a curious look and asked if anything strange had happened around this doll. My mother laughed it off and said her mother, my grandmother had a few ghost stories from shortly after she got it, mostly involving my great grandmother; just the typical found in a weird place, think they saw it move slightly; she didn't go into detail or any of the slightly bigger stuff that honestly was just conjecture and so few and far between that it might have been imagined.

  The man asked if we knew the Legend of the Doll Collector, he said the doll wasn't just a masquerade doll, but one made into the likeness of a ghost that once haunted a mansion in Venice that was known to spirit away young women during the Carnival never to be seen again, only for dolls of those women to be found in the mansion. The legend said if the ghost came for you, your only escape was to proclaim you could make it a better doll, never look directly at the ghost, and keep repeating that till it went away. The story went back as far as the late 1800's, the doll was likely made in the 1910's though, given it was a marionette probably to retell the now esoteric story for plays during carnival. They would only have been produced in one area, but that antique shop being pre WWII might have had several. But collectors generally want well known characters that are rare, undamaged of course, and those today that still know about the Doll Collector might consider it an ill-omen, as...and he outright implied my mother wasn't telling him everything....every owner of one has had spooky encounters related to the doll; they are regarded as cursed, but breaking it might have removed the curse...he laughed that off. But end of it was, no buyer, no sell; only way to sell it would be to someone who both doesn't know what it represents, and for cheap; which my mother confessed is probably how my great grandmother bought the thing in the first place.

    Now while my mother and grandmother didn't have access to the internet, I do, and I can not today confirm the story the antique dealer stated. Never saw this legend, hauntings on Venice turn up mostly an island and few houses, but I can't find squat about any Doll Collector. Either it really was that esoteric a story, or something really shady was going on there. But as far as anything in my mother's house goes; there was just one more spooky encounter. I had come home from school and my mother was lying in bed taking a nap, and the fire place was full of fresh ash. I saw something white sticking out and plucked it out, it was the legs, neither they nor the dress were burnt though, just like they had been buried. I brushed the dress off, tucked them in my pocket and snuck them to my room; never told my mother because later that same day while making a fire she was poking around the ashes mumbling and let out a real loud relieved sigh. I am certain she had tried to burn them...but they didn't burn.

   Now to be fair I did say before I was confused why it seemed like it had only been fucking with my mother, grandmother/grandad, and great grandmother / her husband, when my own encounters had become a tad more complex. To put this in perspective I think it is possible I might have done that one thing some sites on the internet do warn not to do when dealing with the paranormal, draw its attention to you. I almost suspect this doll is just a conduit, with some slightly spooky curse stuff (yes I've been reading up on the occult), and most of that was just because its something this other entity could see and act through. I think that because of the following.

   At the age of 15 I had some friends over for a Halloween sleepover. We decided we were too old for trick or treating so were up late watching scary movies; and telling ghost stories. I told them some of the stuff my grandmother had told me and my mother, so they wanted to see the doll so I showed them it. One of my friends, I won't say her name just as I havn't said any of our names, although I imagine a diligent indiviual could find out with some stuff I'll bring up; but anyway; this one friend had a Ouija board hidden away. She hadn't told us she brought the thing in her back pack and was going to gage our reactions to the suggestion before revealing it. But she thought it would be fun to use it and contact the spirit in the doll. So we lit some candles and sat the doll in front of the Ouija board. There were six of us, but only four including myself had our hands on the plachete while the other two just watched; its not exactly a big board to be honest. So we followed the rules in the instructions, moved it around, and asked to contact the spirit in the doll. It was funny at first, but after a few unanswered questions just before we were about to give up the plachete jerked under our hands surprising us. So I asked is the spirit of the doll here with us? It paused them we felt it slowly but forcefully move to (Yes).

    We looked at each other and I took over asking, "Are you a ghost?"
    (No)
   Are you a demon?
   (No)
   Are you good
   (No)
   Are you evil
   (No)
   One of my friends gave me a confused look and said, "it keeps dragging over to no"
  I asked, "What are you"
  F.A.I.R.Y.
  We all had to have that same confused look.
  So I asked, "Where are you?"
  H.O.M.E.
  Is this your home here?
  (No)
  We were all very confused.
  I asked, "What do you want?"
  D.O.L.L.
 I asked, "You want this doll right here in front of the Ouija Board?"
 (No)
  "What doll"
  Y.O.U.
  I said, "I'm not a doll"
  Our fingers felt like they were being pressed down as the plachete dragged to (YES)

 and my friend sitting on the couch screamed and actually kicked the Ouija board, surprised she didn't burn anything knocking over a few candles. We asked her what she was doing and she told us that for the last couple of minutes all four of us had been staring at the turned off television with a zombie look in our eyes with our hands just pressed down on the plachete; neither she nor our other friend saw it move at all; the four us playing remembered distinctly it moving, talking, and the board responding. But our other two friends said that just then the four of us had pressed our hands down so hard she heard the plachete start to crack, our fingers white, and a face like the white mask face on the doll appeared on the television set's black screen. So she freaked out and kicked the board while we were leaning forward towards the screen. The other friend confirmed this. Needless to say the four of us were freaked out. I am pretty sure my friend with the ouija board burned it after that.

   This didn't hurt our friendships, but I did lie to them saying I burned the doll. We didn't have any sleepovers at my house again, we had one more a year later at another of our houses, but that was strickly scary movies, and we refused to talk about the ouija board thing ever again with each other. In truth the doll just stayed in my room.

   So again, nothing happened really till I was 18, final year of school, and last Christmas before I'd go off to college for my Arts Major; I planned to become a painter. So I was driving out to my grandmother's place, which she had moved since I was 10, my granddad retiring, and had a nice little place in what passed for the country around here. Which mostly meant forests spaced out between cemetaries and farmer fields. It was a nice normal Christmas, my grandmother had only recently gotten a computer and didn't understand it so we went back to the guest room where she decided to hook it up for some reason; guess they didn't have many guests and maybe they thought it would be bigger. But keep in mind this was still long enough ago that monitors were still pretty big and heavy and we all used floppy discs. I was showing her how to use e-mail when she left the room because my mother was asking about something, I think cookie related perhaps. I said I'd join them in a second, I didn't tell them why, but I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye from the small space between the window curtains and the blinds. My first though was an intruder but it was too white. I peeked through the blinds and that is when I really saw her for the first time. Standing in the middle of the drive way, a very tall woman, in a white dress, long arms, long black hair, wearing that white mask with blue paint around the eyes and blue lips. It was snowing but it didn't look like it was really landing on her. She lifted her right hand, putting one of her long claw like fingers to her lips in a "shush" gesture and then faded away into thin air. To top this off when I got home the doll was on my dressor with a small red christmas box sitting in front of it, inside was a pair of silver earrings with rubies in them. I thought it was a surprise present from my mother, but she'd never done anything like that and I remembered the apparition.

   Right here I want to say what gets me here is the time between these encounters, like maybe she really is a fairy, I've read time moves differently in their world, because one spooky encounter at 15 after 5 years of nothing, then waits another 3 and some months before showing up again. My next encounter would be two years later in college when I was 20. I had met a guy in college and we had been dating a few weeks, there was this other guy however in my chem class (yes despite my major I had to take all these extra classes, but that is a whole rant I won't get into here), couldn't take no for an answer and kept getting upset, like a little kid puffing his cheeks and crossing his arms when I told him no; he even brought up that his dad was really rich like he thought I was a prostitute he could pay to go out with him. Now to be clear I didn't take the doll to college with me, in fact by this point it was sitting at home in my room beside a music box and a jewelry case. I had a late class and was walking back to my dorm and had the dumb idea to cut through a little wooded area, just a spot where the college planted some trees and bushes with a brick path cutting through it, not even fifty feet long. As I was walking I heard a loud (thud) sound come from the far end of the patch of trees to my right like something heavy being smacked into a wall. I kept on walking, then coming out the other side I saw this guy I'd never seen before come running out of the trees like fifteen feet from me, but as startled as I was, he wasn't running towards me, instead scrambling over a wall while screaming, "she's going to kill me!" I found out the next day that the guy from my chem class was found in the same area I heard the thud, with several broken ribs, broken arm, and a concusion, as well as a nasty looking imprint in a brick wall right there.Lucky for him that had been a summer semester so he didn't freeze to death or anything; but I didn't see him in the chem class ever again. Word was he had gone to the hospital for castes, MRI scans, and then dropped out. There were also rumors he had been sexually harassing a number of female students and someone said they overheard him planning to hide in those trees for an unexpecting "bitch" who refused him. I don't know who the other guy was, but considering some of the rumors were saying a tall woman wearing an "Eyes Wide Shut" mask had ambushed him and thrown him into the wall like she was Wonder Woman, I get the feeling the other guy talked to someone, and she was around.

   I decided after hearing those rumors to find out if I was being followed and decided that since she had when I was 15 responded to a Ouija board, to try another contact ghosts came...Bloody mary. I decided to make sure it was somewhere I could control who came and went, and not at home. So bathroom in a Dollar Tree it was, I'd had to go there before and found out it was a small one person restroom with a door that locks on the inside and the light switch inside, tucked away in a back corner of the store. I turned off the light, sneaking a little candle and lighter with me inside. I looked in the mirror at my own face in the flickering light and making up my own rules said, "Doll Collector" three times and asked, "Are you watching over me". the candle went out and that white mask, glowing white appeared in the mirror, glowing blue circles of light in the eyes that lit up the entire bathroom in a blue light almost like a black light and said, "Yes...Dolly.", I hit the light switch and just like a switch the mask image was gone as was the blue light. Although I swear as I left the restroom my reflection was still in that mirror watching me leave with a smile on its face.

     The rest of college was uneventful (as far as supernatural stuff goes), I thought to myself so long as I don't try to contact her, she'd still be there, being protective but nothing really freaky like that could happen again. Forgetting about christmas only a few years prior. But despite the stories I met a guy, time went by, nothing happened to him, even showed him the doll, told him the stories, it never moved, he never saw anything. We got married, moved out to the (pseudo-country), to a nice house; we both got jobs with my paintings a side business; he was; that is to say still is an electrician. He believes in ghosts but says its best not to try and contact them, fairies he is a bit more iffy on.

   But one morning in early spring I am looking out our window at a field across the road, mists rolling over the fieled  when the mists suddenly rise up and when they fall there she is. Walking ever so elequently across the field, only now she was insanely tall, like she could pick a frisbee off our roof tall and walking towards the woods. She vanished into the woods. I had the doll sitting in my painting room and went in there and looked at the doll and actually asked, "Why are you walking across the field?" There was no response. A few days later while driving home from my job, which by the way I worked retail at Wal-mart, extra income is extra income and electrician pays well but bills are bills after all and we were planning on having a child. Anyway, as I was driving home from work I heard a whisper in my ear, that voice, the same voice I could pick out of a crowd, easily over the music, she said, "Don't drive that way, danger." I stopped and looked at the road, some distance beyond the headlights there was a whole crowd of deer up the way on the hill, just standing in the road, despite the headlights not reaching them, two of them looked to be looking my way with red glowing eyes. I turned and went the long way down another road home.

  Now a few years into our marriage my husband got this crazy idea in his head to go camping. Its something he always wanted to do, and we figured we should do some of this bucket list stuff before we had a child, because after that the same adventures like camping, visiting the lake, and so forth would become family adventures not couple adventures. I knew what he meant, screwing each other in a cold tent while nature listens and he proves he is a rugged out doors man. I humored him and went along with it.

   To be clear once more, the doll stays in my painting studio, so it wasn't among the provisions for our camping trip. Which to be fair the rangers booked us some site with a fire pit, picnic table and nice clear spot out at a spot overlooking the lake. We didn't want to anything too risky, like back packing off the trail to some insane hideaway; just a nice fun get away. But it was far enough away from the other campsites that we probably should have rented trailer, even in summer the night still felt cold. But being essentially city folk, a nice house in a country that is really just semi-spread out houses isn't really country folk, we really weren't equipped for anything beyond pretending to be outdoorsy. Our plan was for him to catch some fish, and failing that we'd drive out of the dark and get some Red Lobster and come back and pretend we fished. Our tent practically unfolded its self, we had an air mattress, space heater, generator, high powered flash lights, little fold out lawn chairs  In truth I am thinking when going camping there should be more than two people, because being by myself even in the daytime while he went down to the lake to fish was awful. We had planned to go out together and see the park but for right now we were doing some dumb roleplaying thing of the hunter and the wife, but he'd said he'd only do it for an hour before giving up. Now it was only mid-morning, and 40 minutes after he left i heard his voice come from the woods, saying my name and "come here". I yelled out asking what he was doing in the woods like that, and if he'd caught any fish. There was a pause followed by another repeating of my name and "come here". Those woods were really dark and I was getting annoyed and said, "no you come here.". There was nothing else but then I heard my husband calling my name from the trail walking back with some little bass in his hands. I looked back at the woods and back at him, but before I could ask him what he was doing in the woods there alot of commotion far enough in the tree line where we could see anything and something big was running down around a corner, lots of movement and crashing of something again BIG running down hill and we heard a splash as whatever it was hit the water. I took a step towards the woods and felt a gentle warm pressure against me pushing away from the woods.

   I took the hint, but my husband thought it was a hog or a deer, that maybe we shouldn't have brought a cooler of back up food it might be attracting wild animals. He had heard outdoorsman keep food in air tight crates to avoid that. So we did the next best thing, we hiked back down the trail and put our food in the pick up. Told the ranger at the station there something big had been near our campsite and crashed down to the lake. He said there were no bears or anything around here, and was probably a raccoon or possum, that they sound bigger than they are going through the brush, but that it was still a good idea to pack our food up and not keep it around the campsite; very oddly though he looked around and handed us a walkie and said to call him immediatly if we heard or saw anything else "odd". We should have just left right then to be honest. But my husband figured there were hogs or maybe even bears or people in the woods but didn't want to scare off campers, as we did pay to be there (suggested donation). But that said that night..one too damn cold for anything other than stuffing ourselves under the blanket with the heater on, making sure the generator was gassed up...and second there was a sweet flowery smell in the air, so after we put the fire out and stashed our utensils from eating into little plastic baggies and stashed away from the tent, we went to bed. That flowery smell was really strong, but also pleasent.

    I woke up, in a dream like state, to hearing my husbands voice calling me from outside the tent, despite him sleeping right beside me; he didn't stir beyond his snoring as I got up and went out of the tent. There was this chittering sound, best I can describe it, and my husbands voice coming from the woods saying my name and "come here", unlike during the daytime I was too dazed for some reason, yes I am sure the flowery smell had something to do with that, and walked towards the woods whispering, "what". I shot awake however when I heard a loud ear piecing scream come from that same spot and a very hot breeze blast me in the face, that flowery smell completly gone. My husband didn't wake up and I couldn't believe it in that moment, but as I stood there in a moment of confusion as to why I left the tent, why I got up, why I'd follow the voice outside of a man lying right beside, I saw the source of the voice...and it wasn't the only thing, okay first off this thing looked like an anarexic sasquatch, like a Wookie goblin or something with long gangly arms and legs, an almost bear like face and skinny lynx ears, but as terrifying as that sight would be, this thing was being held by the neck, lifted off its feet, and it had to be easily over six feet tall its self, by her, now standing what had to be over ten feet tall if not upwards of twelve feet, about as big as I saw her crossing the field. The skinny creature was struggling to get free but her grip was absolute, like it didn't even notice and one quick twist of her wrist and I heard the most sickening snapping sound like a wet tree branch being broken. She tossed its lifeless body backwards into the woods some distance and turned to me, her unmoving lips saying the words, "Dolly" as she held out her arms.

  Right there I remembered the legend the guy in the antique shop had mentioned when I was only ten years old and without thinking I uttered the words, "I can make you a Doll," I forgot the part about looking away...way too late for that...or the "better doll". She paused a moment, her mask without any clear sign of her head or neck shrouded in darkness against the lightless woods seemed to look me up and down, and the blue lights in her eyes..or are her eyes...lit brighter and she said, "Yes", leaned down and reached towards me. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the tent, my husband and I both that is being woken up by commotion outside and the ranger calling to us asking if we were "okay in there". A "Are you okay in there" which honestly sounded half hearted and he looked surprised to see us both emerge, more confused than anything as he along with a black van with no markings and three guys in black ranger suits with assault rifles strapped to their backs were marching around it, along with two others coming out of the woods, the same spot I had been standing at that night, which was now marked off with yellow tape which was just labeled "Caution", like it was Halloween prop tape and not real official tape. They asked us some questions, odd ones like odd smells, sounds, and so on. Aside from the flowery smell that we figured, at the time, and my husband kept that going answering them as he didn't know better, was just the smell of the forest flowers at night; there wasn't anything. I wasn't about to tell these strange men, dressed like rangers but acting strangely what I saw...for one clearly its a long story, and second I didn't think they were there for her. They helped us pack up and told us, that despite what the ranger had said, there was indeed a few bears in the area, the way he said bears and the look over from one of the men in black gear like he was judging the story the ranger was telling us, told me they were full of it; and they had darted one not twenty feet from our camp but it could still be dangerous and other campers and rangers the night before had spotted several bears in the area; and that was might really have been what we heard the day before and apologized for not taking us seriously but whispers to drop off the walkie at the station on the way out, he claimed he had an inkling but couldn't say anything at the station. Which was odd as he was alone there when we were there. But all that said as we were packed up and leaving and just thirty feet or so down the trail another man came marching out of the woods uttering the phrase, "What the fuck could have done that?" loud enough for us to easily hear, and hear him being shushed with a quick, "shut the fuck up there are civilians nearby".

  Now unlike the Doll Collector I actually did find things like this online, not just Sasquatch, but Skin Walkers, Dog Men, Deer Men, Wendigo, crocotta, and the closest physically The Hide Behind. After this incident I did see those black vans around, and even odd white vans; but I can't be certain if they actually followed us, or I was just noticing more. I mean if they could hear us in our truck my husband had joked about their odd behavior and the comment that man said; as well as seeing three black vans not far behind us on the interstate; joking they were following us; I said something like, "Yeah maybe they think we snapped the bear's neck", which if this really was some...X-files stuff and bugged our truck that might have been suspicious. But again, after a few months I stopped seeing so many of these vans, but it was a tad suspicious and I have them a wide berth seeing them in the Wal-Mart parkinglot, driving around near our house. But again, one day, just poof, didn't see them anymore.

   We did end up going fishing, and boating, and few other activites without incident; in fact I really can't think of anything to bog down what I am just now realizing has gotten really long now, without nitpicking what could or could not be something supernatural. That is until my daughter was born.

   When my daughter was born family and friends bought her a ton of stuffed toys and other toys to play with, and the doll of the Doll Collector stayed in my studio by the window overlooking the field. As babies do my daughter would often look at corners, giggles, look like she saw something on the cieling. One night however over the baby monitor while my husband was out on a job helping with some new houses being built into a new neighborhood in a cleared lot a few miles away I overheard my daughter crying then quickly giggling as someone was singing to her; a voice I know all too well. While this entity had protected me, I feared what it might do; it had claimed after all to be a fairy at one point; so I rushed to the room and found her; the Doll Collector, much shorter than usual, but still easily six feet tall cradling my daughter in her arm and humming a strange tune. I was paralyzed with fear as she walked over to me and passed my daughter to my arms, and put her arms around us both. She was warm, soft, but in a way like a giant heated pillow; she didn't feel even remotely human. She whispered the words "My dollies" and then in the blink of an eye vanished.

   I would on occassion catch glimpes of her after that, as if she had suddenly become shy; from the corner of a mirror, reflection in the tv, glass case to the lamp stand by the front door. My daughter also by the age of two had found the doll in my studio and always wanted to play with it. By four she got to calling it the Doll of the Doll Lady. By five she lengenthed this to the Lady with the Dolls. She drew a picture in kindergarten once that unnerved the teacher a little, but figured they were Pokemon or some other now popular tv show about monsters; it was her, me, the Doll Collector, and three others, a bunny lady, a sack woman with button eyes, and a pink clown girl. My daughter said these were the Lady's dolls who looked after nice kids. Which was not something I'd ever heard of. But I never saw anything like them so figured this much was my daughter's imagination.

   When my daughter was seven years old something happened, something that ended up in the Newspapers. It was Christmas eve and the whole family was at our house, some of the older kids had been teasing the younger ones about Santa Clause, there were so many people, running around, kids of my husband's cousins, my second cousin's or third cousin's grand kids and so one. My grandmother had uncles and aunts and thus cousins and they had kids and so on; and the family stayed in touch around here; I just never mentioned them as they really weren't part of any of the spooky happenings in the family that I was ever told. But that's how family is, there is always more than you think. It was kind a big Christmas eve gathering, family making the rounds. We don't know who left the door open, not that a seven year old couln't open the door themselves, but my daughter had run off. I don't know how much time passed before we realized she had gone outside, and followed her trackes to the woods across the road yelling for her. The police were called and a search party was underway within the hour right there. I went to my studio and held that doll praying for my daughter's safety, and if she took her to bring her back or at least take me with her...I heard a voice, it wasn't her's, it was another woman's voice coming from the doll saying, "She didn't take her, safe now."

   Very shortly after we got the call, they found my daughter, in some old shack in the woods not even half a mile down the road. I drove down there, taking the doll with me; my daughter was barely concious when I saw her, with a heated blanket. Thankfully she had put her pink winter coat on and said she saw reindeer, thought they were Santa's and wanted to meet Santa. Apparently she got the idea in her head from one of her cousins or a cartoon show (as they claimed in their defense) that the deer could take her to meet Santa. I was so relieved to find her but what the police said to me was horrifying. My daughter said the deer were mean and two white deer were evil with red eyes; which reminded me of the ones I saw so many years prior, and one of them was really a man with a deer skull for a head who chased her and wanted to eat her but "The Lady with the Dolls" saved her. The police pointed out a car in a ditch not far off and said that man over there had nearly hit a man wearing a deer skull mask and ended up being chased by the same guy; and assured me there was no way they wouldn't catch some freak like that with so many people still out there.

    As far as "The Lady with the Dolls" goes I told the police that is what she calls this old wooden doll she loves so much that I had brought with me, but I caught the look the man in the car gave looking back at us as a tow truck was pulling his car free; he saw something but clearly didn't want to get involved. Strangely enough the Newspaper made no mention of any guy in a deer skull mask, and didn't reveal our names. After all its not a "BIG STORY" when they find the missing kid within hours of sending out the search party. My daughter got a stern talking to about going out alone, especially without telling anyone. Actually while typing this it has come back to me that some days before my daughter had been talking about Santa and his reindeer and saying she saw them while we were in town, but was just pointing at a group of people across the street from the bank. Oddest thing is, right after this until late January I was seeing those black vans again, only they were driving down the back roads, especially the road we met the police on.

   When my daughter was a little bit older she told me what she remembered about that, she told me she remembered leaving the house following a voice saying "Want to meet Santa?", saying she swore the deer were talking to her and lead her a good long ways till her feet were tired then they circled her, two white ones laughing as one turned into a skinny "Halloween decoration" looking man with skin tight to his bones, white tattered robes, and a deer skull for a head and icy blue lights in his eyes...and she said that it wasn't like the Lady with the Doll's eyes which were warm, but he had the same shadowy neck and head thing going on but the skull head moved its mouth. She had run away and they chased her till she fell down. She told me she barely remembered anything right there until the "Lady with the Dolls" lifted her out of the snow and held her close to warm her up, she was bigger than usual my daughter said, and the deer man was also a giant, but the lady struck him in the face and then lifted him and threw him like she was a superhero with one hand through the trees before carrying her to a house. She described a warmly lit cabin with cocoa, but before she could taste it she heard men calling her name and the cabin suddenly went dark and cold and everything in it including the lady vanished; shortly after she was found and carried back to the street. And that's what my daughter told me when she was 12 remembering back to when she was 7. My daughter showed me pictures on the internet of a creature that looked like the thing that chased her, all the pictures called it a "Wendigo" but the descriptions didn't say anything about turning into deer or even having the apperance of the pictures.

    Between this thing going after my daughter, and the thing that went after my husband and I before my daughter was born; I can't help but wander if there is some scent on us attracting them; or much scarier thought; things like that are just much more common than we think. I read somewhere once that most people will have some unexplainable event happen at some point in their lives. If this is true than the number of people who just don't escape...the thought is terrifying. My daughter is 17 now, her birthday is in one month and she'll be 18; she plans to go to the local community college and is looking forward to getting her own place; been helping her look but it still feels too soon; I guess I figured she'd want to stay home as long as possible. I wanted to write all this down before she left, but please keep in mind as a narrative it feels all back to back but for us this was spread out so much that putting it all together like this feels...surprising how much there was in that time. I plan to let her read this, but I will also post it in a few places online as well. I don't know what all is out there, but there is more than we think I am certain, and the Doll Collector has been friendly to my daughter and I; maybe what I said, thinking about it, was wrong, maybe just this once, messing with a Ouija board saved my life and later my daughter's life.