Strangers at the Door: Twelve unsettling tales of horror by Christopher Henderson

Author:Christopher Henderson [Henderson, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadowtime Publishing
Published: 2017-08-25T22:00:00+00:00

Dollface

‘Just dump your suitcase on the floor for now, Dad! You still take sugar?’

‘One please, love!’

Cups and spoons clinked in the kitchen downstairs as Tom eased his suitcase down, taking care that the plastic wheels didn’t damage the hardwood flooring. Personally, he would have liked to see a nice fitted carpet in here. Something to muffle sounds, hold in warmth and generally cosy the place up a touch. Still, he had to say that Lara had done well for herself.

He walked over to the windows, self-conscious of the loud clicking his heels made, and gazed out at the little garden below with its tidy patch of lawn and neat weatherboard shed. Yes, it was a decent little house, this. Not big enough for a family but for a young, single woman it was a fine starter home. He was proud of his girl and glad now he had taken up her offer of staying with her over the bank holiday weekend.

Tom smoothed his hair in the full-length wall mirror, brushed a wrinkle out of his trousers, and ambled out onto the narrow landing. The lavatory was the end door, he noted, right next to ‘his’ room, which was good to know. The other room up here must be Lara’s. He didn’t mean to be nosey but as the door was already ajar and as he had to walk past that room anyway on his way back to the stairs he thought he might as well poke his head in.

It was surprisingly spacious inside, a bit larger than his room (which was fair enough) but far more cluttered with bits and pieces. A vase of fresh flowers, possibly from the garden – where he had noticed the same variety of rose growing – stood on the windowsill, and books and knick-knacks crowded the bedside cabinet. It all combined to create a cheery and feminine atmosphere, and that was before one even got to the dolls.

They were everywhere. They sat on shelves all around the bedroom walls, they huddled together on top of the wardrobe, and they rested in the corners by the skirting boards. A rocking chair beside the window seated a trio of porcelain-faced Victorian girls, while half a dozen others dozed on the pillows on the bed. The handful of expensive ones were of course in the display case mounted on the far wall, which was just as he would have expected of his Lara. He knew she would take good care of her mother’s babies. Jill would have been every bit as proud of their daughter as he was, and she would have been delighted to see that Lara was not only taking care of but also adding to her late mother’s collection.

He sighed and turned to go – and as he did so he spotted something that shattered his pleasant reverie. Crouched on the floor in the shadows behind the bedroom door was a type of doll he knew to be called a ‘Raggedy Ann’. It was

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