Horror Tales Read Free

that you do so until that late.
    But that very weekend, she heard again her daughter talking to someone in her bedroom. This time, she couldn´t get to sleep. The other voice was very peculiar, too different to Penny´s as to be an imitation. What the hell was going on?
    Not being able to restrain her curiosity, she got up of the bed, barefoot, and walking very slowly approached her daughter´s room, sticking her ear behind the door. Yes, her little girl was talking to someone , but it was impossible that that other voice was Penny´s! Could some school friend have ventured to come to the house that late and talk to Penny through the open window...? Hard to believe, but not impossible. Of course, if that was the case, both of them would take notice. Suddenly, she heard something that made her shiver:
    -  We have to stop talking: your mother is spying us from the other side of the door!
    <> , Cathy told to herself. Then, the most absolute silence came. A few very uncomfortable minutes later, she seemed to hear some footsteps wandering around the room. For just one moment, although it could seem ridiculous, Cathy felt something similar to horror. Everything was so weird. Ploughing out courage from her own guts, she quickly opened the door. She couldn´t repress a scream: it seemed to her that the doll, situated on the chest of drawers in front of her daughter´s bed, was turning its head just when she was opening the door with determination.
    -  Penny, what´s going on here? – she exclaimed, out of her mind.

    Her daughter shot at her a surprised look. She seemed sleepy, and a little bit scared.
    -  Nothing, mum...
    -  Weren´t you talking to somebody?
    -  No. I was just sleeping.

    Cathy checked that the window was well closed and then she took the doll, now that it looked like a lifeless object in her hands. But again she felt, she seemed to sense, that the expression of the doll had changed once more: she showed a determined look, even defiant.
    -  I don´t like this doll. I think we should leave her in the place you found it.
    -  No, mama! Please, please, please... she´s my friend!
    Again, she felt the heaviness of the divorce on her, and that after Penny´s parents split up, she could not deny the doll to her, because she was suffering in silence, and that object, that doll she was becoming so fond of, at least seemed to give her daughter certain happiness.
    -  Alright. But I don´t want any more conversations at night – sentenced Cathy, convinced that her daughter knew more or less what she was referring to.
    The week passed by with certain normality. However, Cathy couldn´t help but thinking about the doll. About Pat . She had become almost an obsession. She thought it was a bad influence for her daughter. And then they were those expressions . When the weekend came and Paul, her ex-husband, told her he didn´t like it either, she saw a door opened.
    -  We have to make Penny give the doll back to its owner, or at least make her leave it in the place she found it, at the crossroads of 10 Street and M.
    -  That´s a wonderful idea. As this weekend she is coming to my house, we will do the following: we will leave the doll here; so that she starts getting used to the idea- suggested Paul.
    They had a hard time convincing Penny, who almost broke into tears when she sat in her father´s car, heading to the house they owned in the city outskirts, leaving her beloved Pat in her bedroom.
    -  Pat is going to be really mad. She will get very angry with mommy, and surely with you too.
    -  Well Penny, she will get over it. After all... she´s just a doll!
    That night Penny phoned her mother to wish her a good night and to tell her all she had been doing during the day in the company of her father.
    -  Good night sweetie. I see you tomorrow – Cathy said to her.
    -  See you tomorrow!

    Cathy went to bed early. But soon she felt uncomfortable: she knew it would not be easy for her to get to sleep