On the morning of her birthday,
Lucy’s mother woke her up and told her a package had arrived in the mail and it
was addressed to her.
The girl hurriedly unwrapped the gift
and was horrified at what she found inside. It was the most disgusting old doll
she had ever seen. It was completely bald and it’s skin was cracked and caked in dirt. The worst thing of all was it’s teeth. They were long, pointy, sharp
and beastly. They looked like an animal’s fang.
With a shiver, she took the doll and
threw it in a corner. Her mother scolded her, telling her that someone had gone
to a lot of trouble to send her this antique doll. Her mother told her she had
better appreciate it.
Lucy tried to protest but her mother
would not listen. She forced the girl to keep the doll. So, to put her mind at
rest Lucy stuffed the antique doll into the little cupboard under the stairs,
behind a pile of shoes where she would not have to look at the ugly, evil
little thing.
It was not until a few nights later,
when Lucy was lying in bed that she heard a noise…. A shuffling sound, which
went on for about five minutes. Then, brief dragging noise and finally, a
scuttling like light footsteps walking very fast.
By now Lucy was shaking in her bed
with fear, unable to move. Then, she thought she heard a faint raspy voice
whispering quietly from downstairs. Lucy always slept with the door open and
the landing light on, as she was a little scared of the dark.
She heard the voice say “ Lucy, I am
on the first step”……And then loud scrabbling again as whatever was
speaking apparently turned tail and
returned to it’s place of hiding.
Lucy was so scared that she didn’t
sleep a wink that night but laid in fear until the break of dawn, when her
mother got her up for school.
Lucy tried to explain to her mother
what had happened the night before, but was so tired that, when her mother
passed it off as “just a dream” she began to believe it might be the case.
Of course it wasn’t. Lucy begged her
parents to let her throw the antique doll in the garbage, but they insisted
that it was a gift and she had to keep it.
So Lucy reluctantly went back to bed, telling herself that it had
only been a dream. She checked the cupboard under the stairs, but the doll was
exactly where Lucy had left her.
That night, Lucy fought sleep but she eventually drifted off even though
she had fought sleep. Presently, the deep disembodied voice woke Lucy again.
She wondered if she could only hear it in her head.
“Luuuuccccyyyy! I am on the fourth step……”, it
said, Then came to scuffling noise and the voice didn’t reoccur that night.
Lucy was crying by now, and again she didn’t sleep that night. At school, Lucy
told her friends about the doll, and of course they laughed at her. Lucy could
only think that if the doll was climbing four steps at a time then there was
only one more night to go.
That night Lucy decided to shut her
bedroom door. When her mother turned her light out she asked why Lucy was no
longer scared of the dark. Lucy replied that she was and could she leave her
light on instead of the hall light? But her mother pointed out that her bedroom
light was so bright it would keep her awake, and said no.
Therefore Lucy agreed to just sleep
without light. She opened the bedroom curtains instead to light the room a little anyway. Just as she began to doze,
she heard the noise.
And then the voice came, very clear
this time. “Luuuuccccyyyy! I am on the top step….”
In the darkness of her bedroom, Lucy
heard a click and trembled with fear. She was not sure, but she thought she
could see her bedroom door opening very, very slowly.
The next morning, Lucy’s parents
found her body at the bottom of the stairs. They guessed that she had been on
her way to the toilet during the night and in the darkness, had slipped and
fallen down the stairs, breaking her neck.
The antique doll was found beside her
body, and was buried with Lucy. Everyone said what a tragedy it was.
“She loved that doll”, said her
mother. “Now they can be together forever”.
