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I live in a prefecture where there's
a house with blue roof tiles and decrepit

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windows. It once belonged to a
family of Bunraccu artisans who were known puppeteers

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and famous for their lifelike dolls.
But as the advent of film came along,

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their popularity diminished and their children,
in order to make ends meet,

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slowly began leaving the family business in
search of other ventures. Eventually the home

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was abandoned. Over the years,
the local officials have made promises to tear

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the place down, but each time
the cranes and workers would quietly disperse before

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anything was ever accomplished. As the
residents of the area, most of us

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knew better than to ask what became
of the demolitions. We hoped that one

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day someone would make good on their
word, Although many have tried. I

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never expected to be involved, but
there I was a member of the zoning

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committee for the Chambers of Commerce,
working alongside my co worker, did determine

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how to expand the nearby shopping district. My co worker, Yamamoto Date,

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was a man with two last names, which was problematic as custom dictates that

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a man with two last names was
difficult to address properly, as we often

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referred to acquaintances by their surnames and
close family and friends by their given name,

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so it became rather confusing addressing my
colleague and friend as either Yamamoto or

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data due to the impressions that our
department wasn't close knit, which is important

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in our prefecture, as we believed
that well are custom workers signified an efficient

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system, which was likely why we
drew the ire of the local seniors who

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were gathered around the zone tape we
had masked around the property that I discovered

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damage around the perimeter. It looks
like chah. He rubbed the woodpost smells

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like it too. Ah. The
old man complained, they don't even know

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about the fire. In eighty three, did the officials send us newcomers?

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A woman from the gatherers asked,
no, it seems that man's name.

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Is that A Another voice answered,
M came to consensus, I whispered to

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my friend, and that's why you'll
never attain great office here, he chuckled.

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My mother thought it was clever giving
me two last names so that I

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would always be addressed for me.
I bet she never expected that to become

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a problem, as we didn't live
around here. He stood up and approached

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the older man. Sir, it
seems as if you are well informed of

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the events which happened on this property. Could you please explain to us what

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happened in eighty three? The old
man cracked his dry lips. There was

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a boy who wandered inside the house, who was missing for three days before

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the other students would admit that they
had dared the boy to go inside and

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sleep with the dolls for the night
dolls, Yes, the dolls. Have

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you been told nothing? I've been
briefly instructed by my seniors that I admitted.

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However, I wasn't aware that there
were still belongings inside. He turned

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to me, Perhaps we would have
the document and store all the items in

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case the family comes looking in the
future. Bah. The old man grunted.

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They're never coming back here, and
why not not after what happened to

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the mother. The old man spat
Genji, a woman clicked. Do not

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spread false rumors? His eyes and
rumors, how is it a rumor when

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we have all heard it still scrolling
about at night, waking me up,

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disturbing my sleep. Give you no
decency or regards to the tired The woman

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clicked her tongue again. Just let
them to their jobs. Do not put

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ideas in their heads, ma'am,
If you don't mind, I would quite

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like to hear about what happened.
It could prove invaluable. Benjie scoffed,

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Chi, I'm doing the community of
service. Then it is well gossiped that

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the daughter of the household gave birth
to a doll. At this, the

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others gasped, hush, he can
hear you? That was my line.

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Gnji grumbled, bah, he said, wobbling angrily away. I hope the

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house takes you, you old hag. Come on that, they told me,

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as the crowd began to thin,
You have to get the proper documents

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for this. Save. Two days
later we would learn of Cheese passing.

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Many suspected that an ongoing view between
her and Genji was the cause of her

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demise. However, when the newspapers
reported a death, they included a photo

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of the alleged crime scene, and
it was the way she was positioned that

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made me believe otherwise. It looked
as if someone had propped her up against

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the wall and held her hands at
a certain angle until rig and Mortis set

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in and data and I finally returned
to the doll house. The place was

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deserted, as the scandal nearly took
all of the attention, which left us

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alone with the house for the first
time. It was eerie to stand in

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the lawn, where the overgrown weeds
had pushed aside the pebbled walkways. The

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rancid wood porch looked as if we
would snap in half at our weight,

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and the rice paper screens were pocked
full of holes from lack of attention over

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the decades where it had stood undisturbed. A feeling him my gut nodded as

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that a slid open a door he
had discovered to be unlocked, and I

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was glad that we were at least
met with much of the same dust that

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had settled on the exterior. For
me, it meant that no one had

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been occupying this space. I thought
they were supposed to turn on the power

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that exclaimed not with as much electricals
in air. He mused, it was

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already old before he was abandoned.
I agreed. The deed pins the original

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foundations to around the Edo period.
Perhaps the rats have true through the wiring.

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Perhaps I snapped a few photos.
It looks like we're going to need

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a moving crew after all. I
wonder why this wasn't noted by the local

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clerks. Perhaps they were, I
commented, but the records could have been

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lost after the department digitized everything.
He nodded, shame that we have to

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cut this stuff off to a storage
somewhere. Antiques are profitable today, you

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know, I don't even think about
it. I snapped a photo of him

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holding an old paper weight from the
writing desk. Come on, he smiled,

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Let's go deeper inside the house.
We had explored several rooms that were

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filled with a musky odor, and
I had adapted quite well to the smell

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by now, when a sudden wave, thin stench came from behind the door

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we had yet to enter. While
every single panel we had come across showed

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signs of age, this one looked
untouched that AE reached for it, and

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I almost stopped him, but as
this was our duty, I watched transfixed

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as it opened. Inside were hundreds
of dolls lined up against the walls.

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Some sat on the floor, others
and shelves. No matter their positioning,

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they were stacked ordered the shoulder,
front to back, in neat sequences facing

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outward, each of them unique and
ranging in size. I led out of

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gasp as my flashlight beamed into a
corner where a stark figure stood against the

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second doorway at the end that I
laughed when it turned out to be nothing

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more than a doll about his height. Almost looks real, doesn't it?

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Emotion? For me? Well?
Come on, then, as he walked

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over and stood next to the doll, take a picture? I shook my

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head. What come on now for
a report? I sighed, and reluctantly

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snapped a photo, the bright light
consuming the darkness. And when I looked

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up, that was missing that a
I called out. He didn't answer.

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I shot my flashlight across the seemingly
endless rows of dolls that this room was

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built for. Yeah, momoto,
I shouted angrily, stop messing around.

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Still he did not answer. I
could see the doorway at the end now

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slightly ajar when it had been closed
earlier. I took a single step forward

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in order to give him an earful
about his manners, and I heard my

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feet crisp the board beneath me,
and jumped as the door behind me slammed

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shut. I nearly went myself as
I scrambled to the other side, my

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flashlight bouncing across the top of the
doll's heads. This isn't funny, I

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shouted. I heard a scratching near
by, and so I ate my flashlight

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in that direction, skipping over the
rows of sculptured faces until one of them

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blinked. It was all I needed
to see before running through the doorway on

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the other the side where I came, crashing head first into d a as

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he tried to hold me upright.
What's wrong? He asked me that a

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Alma screamed, where did you go
after you took the photo? I saw

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this behind me. Look, the
room was unlike any of the others we

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had seen. It was taller than
any cathedral I had ever been inside,

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so dark our flashlights shied away from
the top as they illuminated the entrenched floor.

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There on the ground, it was
a miniature city. It's a scaled

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version of the area in my motor, exclaimed, Look, I can see

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my house, He pointed to a
nearby corner. You don't understand, I

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saw that doll blink. He waved
in the off That's common with dolls.

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I believe my sister had one grown
up. They could pretend to leap if

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you laid it down the door,
I stuttered, it slammed shut behind me,

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spring loaded, he answered. Most
of the ones I opened were really

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expensive back in the day, difficult
to build properly too, but an easy

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task for dollmakers. He pointed.
Would you take a look at this,

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it's inside the dollhouse. He reached
forward to touch it, and that was

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when something came out of the corner
and grabbed him. I screamed as they

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struggled, the light splitting the darkness
as a labored breathing filled the room.

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Several times I tried to help,
until finally a blow struck me and I

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fell backwards hard on the floor,
enough for my head to bounce, causing

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my carter to crack. I could
hardly discern the blotted figures in front of

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me as my vision blurred, but
by the flashlight and the floor, I

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could make out a hunched figure,
white as porcelain, with long, gnarled

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arms and squatched legs. It lifted
Yammymudder's body and slammed him down several times

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on the floor before dragging him away
into the back of the room, back

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into the darkness. I screamed and
tried to run, but the door was

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sealed shut. No matter how much
I struggled, I couldn't get it to

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open. I banged on the frame
to avail, crying as I heard the

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snarling and crunching of bones behind me. And then it stopped and the room

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fell silent that I cried out,
afraid to look, but eventually forcing myself

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to face the seemingly empty room.
He took this chance to find my glasses

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on the floor and backed into a
dark corner, Half afraid that something would

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reach out from behind me and half
afraid that the creature would appear again in

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front. I pressed my shoulders against
the wall and slowly crept over to the

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door. I tried it again,
but it would not budge. Helpless,

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I did the only thing I could
think of, and that was the crawl

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forward and grabbed the flashlight, slowly
panning the light across the room. When

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I heard a noise. It was
then that I realized that something was moving

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inside the miniature city. I shied
my light down and saw tiny figures moving

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through the street. I couldn't believe
what I was seeing, causing me to

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lean forward on my hands and knees
until I could get a better look.

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Dolls, tiny animatronic dolls that were
moving throughout the city, cars, even

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the tiny plastic wheels skimming the road. As the maid stops and turns.

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It almost looked as if the city
were alive. They were moving so perfectly

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that it almost looked magical. And
as I drew closer, I noticed something

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else unusual. It was difficult to
see, so I got even closer until

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I was nearly standing inside the city. I saw the doll of a woman

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walking along the side of the road. She looked so lifelike that her hair

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even moved, as if it were
windy, but it moved oddly as pieces

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of it were stuck to a nearly
translucent string attached to the top of her

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head. I got even closer and
touched it. The doll nearly tripped,

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but I didn't care. As I
followed the string upwards with my finger and

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shining the light into the ceiling,
there were masked figures clad by the shadows,

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looking down at me. They dotted
the upper banisters like owls a barn.

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My knees buckled as I backed roughly
into a corner pulling out my phone

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and dialing the police. I was
so relieved that an operator picked up that

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I immediately began screaming for help.
I told them that I was in the

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dollhouse and that there were people inside, and that they killed my friend.

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The officer in the line kept reassuring
me that they were sending help right away.

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Yeah, that's right, I shouted
to the mass people above me.

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They're coming to get you, so
stay away from me. But they still

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watched me silently as I talked,
never stopping me. And it was from

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the corner that I saw it.
From a pile of buses and cars on

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the floor, a police vehicle righted
itself and rolled onto the board. It

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ran all of the red lights,
and the dolls in the miniature city turned

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their heads as it passed. Then, as if a curtain was slightly drawn,

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a window appeared to the left of
the room, and I realized that

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we were now looking at the same
street I was being shown on the board.

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There was even a real life police
vehicle zooming towards us. I saw

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the red and blue lights punching the
sky as the siren wailed in the distance.

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I was still smiling as They turned
around at the sight of my rescue,

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but I stopped smiling when I saw
that the creature had reappeared and was

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standing on the other side of the
room. It reached a long, skinny

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arm around the city, and with
its finger it pushed the police toy on

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the board away as it neared the
doll house, using its withered nail to

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guide the card down the street until
it rolled off the board and on to

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the floor. Behind me, I
could hear the police sirens disappearing, the

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sound growing further and further away.
The creature slowly backed into the darkness,

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and the door opened. I stumbled
out of the room and back into the

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hall with the dolls. I fell
several times as I ran away, the

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door shutting behind me after every threshold, until I found myself back on the

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lawn outside hunting. Then he tried
to burn it too. After the boy

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disappeared, I jumped at the voice
behind me. It was the old man.

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He was leaning against the wood fence. But all that did has caused

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the lights to go on for a
few years after the house swallowed. The

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fire made it worse, if you
ask me. Then he scratched the top

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of his head, as if pulling
on something. It's best if you leave

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it alone. Now what I managed, I can't do that. What about

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Data? The old man cracked a
smile. He'll be back, you'll see,

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And he was right After I'd made
numerous reports to the police and my

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superiors. They were squashed and I
was deemed overworked the moment Data came through

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the doors on Monday, completely unharmed
and unblemished, except now he only answered,

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Doe, I'm a motor