• It waited. It didn’t know how long it would have to wait, but it knew that it’s time would come soon… It needed a new home, and new blood… New victims… It watched the Potential Hosts quietly… Waiting… Planning… It’s name was Evil.
    He found it while at a market in India. The doll. It was the perfect gift for his ten year old daughter. It looked almost identical to one she had wanted back home… But he was poor- could he afford it? He turned to the lady who owned the stand. “How much, Ma’am?” She shook her head and thrust the doll into his hands. The gesture was clear. Take it. So he did. The doll was in surprisingly good condition for something someone would just give away. There was only one problem with it- a huge red-brown spot on the skirt of her dress… Maybe it had been on a kitchen table and accidentally gotten something spilled on it? Yes, that was it. For sure, that was it.
    He paid a local woman to make it a new dress, so that his little girl could have one nice dress for her one and only doll, and then when the time came, he left India, taking the little doll with him. It was porcelain, easy to break, but he had nothing to worry about. His daughter would take care of it. He dreamed of her all the way across the ocean, of her face, how happy she would be… Lissy. That was her name- Lissy. Not short for anything. He thought it was a wonderful name. He finally fell asleep, to dream of her even more.
    He arrived home at last three weeks later. Lissy was waiting for him on the front porch when he rode up. She jumped up and ran to him, throwing her tiny arms around his neck, her soft, golden-blond braids swinging around crazily. She never once asked “what did you bring me, papa?” She cared more for his simple being home. He smiled, and kissed her on the soft cheek. “Lissy, dear… I need to go set this suitcase down…” She stopped hugging immediately and smiled. “Okay Papa. Can I come please?” He looked at her, feigning indecision. “I don’t know, Lissy…” Her glowing face dropped. “Oh. Okay. I understand.” He broke into a huge grin, and scooped her up in his arms. “Come on, you little goose…” He laughed.
    She sat patiently next to him on the bed, waiting for him to unpack so he could play with her. He took his time, pulling out shirts and pants, a hat, socks… Then he finally uncovered the doll. Lissy’s face lit up. “Papa! Is it for me?” She didn’t dare believe… did she? He smiled “It’s yours, Liss.” She smiled so big, it seemed about to split her face in half. “Oh, daddy!” She wrapped her arms around him again, enveloping him in another tight hug. “Well? Go play with it, Sweetheart!” He said. She picked up the doll carefully, and still hardly believing she had it, she took off to play with her friends, exited to finally have a nice doll.
    She played with it all day, but at last, night came, and she set the doll carefully on the kitchen table. She woke up in the night to footsteps on the stairs… “Who is there? Papa? Is that you?” A scratchy voice answered- certainly not her father- “I’m on the fifth stair and I am coming to get you…” She became terrified and called to her father “Papa! Papa!” He came running. The voice and footsteps stopped, and out her window, she saw the light of early dawn. “Never mind.” She said “I’m sure it was nothing…” But she wasn’t.
    She found the doll on the floor at the bottom of the steps, a few feet from the table. She thought nothing of it. She played with it all day again, and this time she accidentally left it on the stairs. Then she fell asleep, hoping that she wouldn’t have the same “dream” as the night before.
    But sure enough, that night, she woke up to the voice saying “I’m on the sixteenth step and I am coming to get you…” And the footsteps… She considered pulling the covers over her head, but she was a smart little girl, and so instead, she grabbed a heavy book off of her shelf. If that thing, whatever it was, did come in, she could hit it.
    Her door creaked open slowly… A shadowy figure appeared in the door-way. She hurled the book at it, smashing it into bits… A black shadow seeped out of the figure, almost liquid… It flew through the window, blocking the pale, cold, moon light.
    She crept over to the door, silently, not knowing if it was still alive, or exactly what it was. Her doll lay on the floor, dismembered and shattered. She hated that she couldn’t play with it, It was such a nice toy… But It held evil, and she wasn’t sure how much it still held. It could still be alive for all she knew.
    She lifted the book above her head, and brought it down on the doll. Over and over, until it was almost just a fine powder. She didn’t want it to come back. She was so scared of it.
    She walked over to her window, and carefully pushed it open. Then she gathered the doll-powder in a blanket from her closet and carried it over to the window. She had to get rid of that Thing. She leaned out of the window, only her top half, and looked down at her mother’s garden below. She felt guilty soiling it with this evil thing, but she had to get rid of it. And she had to get rid of it for good. She held the blanket carefully out the window, resting her arms on the window sill, and shook it. She watched the powder shower to the ground, creating a cloud like fog. She smiled, and dropped the blanket too, not wanting anything that had been near the Thing in her room.
    She fell asleep after what seemed like a forever of worrying and praying. One thing gave her comfort though- She was sure it would never be back.

    In the garden, in the light of the moon, a black rose began to grow. It looked around at it’s new surroundings… It smiled. There was always a tomorrow, and It could wait forever… An owl screamed somewhere in the distance… Oh, what those Stupid Hosts didn’t know about their world… The sun would rise in a few hours, and a new day would begin… Only another chance…
    It waited…
    Evil…