This is for a word prompt challenge as part of the Apostrophe pod on Whaleshares. Of course, I will work it into my timeline for A'mara Books whenever possible.
Greta, Savai and the Possessed Doll
885 Terrenden Common Era
.
Greta Dellan slid off the large winged beast and hurried behind Savai towards the small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. She didn’t know what they were about to find, the urgent call only mentioning that the occupant was feeling haunted.
“I need the house cleansed or something! It’s following me, chasing me! Causing things to break or worse!” the panicked woman cried as she came out to meet them. The woman looked curiously at Greta.
“Julia, my apprentice, Greta.”
“Nice to meet you,” Julia greeted, then turned back to Savai, wide eyed. “Do you think I’m crazy?!”
Savai charged past the woman into the house. Greta followed a bit more hesitantly and immediately felt it. Something sinister, something evil, an unwanted presence.
“What’s changed?” Savai challenged. “I cleansed this house myself, established wards to protect it for you. Something has come in, that’s the only way that could happen.”
“Nothing!” Julia protested so quickly that Greta wondered if she was deliberately hiding something.
<Not Julia’s fault,> the thought came from Savai. <But whatever it is, it doesn’t want to be found.>
Greta nodded and stretched out her feelings, as scary as it felt right now. She had to locate the being.
“Nothing? You haven’t bought something? Been given something?”
Greta could feel Savai join her as they both looked for it.
<There it is!> Savai said, projecting an image to Greta. A dark blue bag in the basement. It hoped to be forgotten – and it nearly was.
They went cautiously downstairs, unsure what it was they were going to find as they walked towards the center of the bad feeling, looking for the bag.
Greta saw it first and reached out to pick it up.
“No! You are not protected enough!” Savai corrected. “Your mother would have my hide if anything happened to you!”
Greta stepped back as if facing a deadly snake.
“It may as well be,” Savai answered her thoughts. Then she opened the bag and pulled out a doll with staring dark eyes. Their gaze seemed to pierce through the very soul.
Greta shuddered.
“You are right to be afraid,” Savai said. “This is maybe the most dangerous object I’ve seen in my long life.”
“Why? She’s just a doll!” Greta replied, knowing in her heart that it was much, much more than that.
“She may have begun her life as ‘just a doll,’” Savai said, carrying the doll upstairs. “But at some point, someone added to her. Now, she’s bringing in bad spirits. She intends harm.”
Julia met them at the top of the stairs. “Her?” Julia asked incredulously.
“Where did she come from?” Savai asked kindly.
“My aunt, who died recently.”
“Was she very old?” Greta asked.
“No. She was quite young. She’s my aunt, because she’s my mother’s youngest sister, but she was my age. Horrific accident.”
Savai nodded, then said something that brought the shivers across Greta. “This doll killed your aunt. Not directly, mind. She just acted as a gateway for the bad ones.”
“Possessed?’ Julia asked.
“Not quite, but helping other things to become possessed. She was no innocent possession,” Savai said. “Unfortunately, there is only one solution for a possessed possession.”
They went outside and Savai placed the doll in the burning pit. Then she sang an eerie song, which brought sparks to the pit, as it tried to incinerate the evil doll which writhed this way and that to try to avoid her fate.
“Join me!” Savai said to Greta. “The doll doesn’t wish to die – but she must!”
Greta joined in with the song, hardly knowing what she was doing, yet the words seemed to just come.
All at once, the doll burst into flames with a sound that sounded like the shriek of a dying witch.
Julia collapsed to the ground.
Greta knelt at her side and held her wrist, looking for the pulse. “She’s unconscious, but fine otherwise.”
Savai nodded and helped get Julia into a nearby chair. “The doll was in the process of trying to possess Julia. That’s why she fainted when the doll was destroyed. Sit with her while I make her a sweet tea to help her recover. In fact, hold a dragonstone over her and will its energies into Julia. She will recover faster.”
Greta sat next to Julia holding the healing crystal over the unconscious woman.
Julia’s eyes flickered open warily.
“You’re okay,” Greta said encouragingly.
“The doll...”
“She’s gone now,” Savai said as she joined them, handing Julia a mug of sweet tea.
“I can’t believe a toy could harbor such evil!” Julia said. “Why did my aunt have such a thing?”
“An innocent toy is sometimes the perfect vessel for control of others,” Savai said. “I don’t know how your aunt came to have it, but that one will not harm anyone again.”
“Thank you,” Julia said, as she sipped.
“Anytime,” Savai said with a smile. “Come, Greta, plenty more to learn today!”
(image from PxHere)
Based on a true story...
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Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
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