LJ Idol Season 8; Week 25: Cesspool Intersection with Michikatinski
"Mikayla Archer! What do you think you’re doing?" Miss Pratt towered over the girl.
"The doll scares me...” Little Mikayla had tried to hide it in the trash can. "His eyes won’t stop staring at me.”
"Don’t be silly, dear. It’s only a doll.” Miss Pratt tried to be encouraging to the little brat. "And it’s a gift. Hasn't your mommy taught you anything about being gracious when it comes to accepting gifts?”
Mikayla looked down to the floor and held the doll in one hand as far from her body as possible, "I’m sorry...”
Her teacher smiled and patted her softly on the head, "That’s better. Remember to keep him close to you and he will give you anything your little heart desires.”
She pulled out a book with yellowed pages and made from a material not seen often these days. It took her ages to find what she needed, but now that she had, it would all be worth it. Who would have thought teaching in such an affluent area would take the toll on her it had? The kids were spoiled rotten, the parents even more so. It was a cesspool of bad manners and horrible behavior.
"Now girls, one last parting gift to celebrate the end of the school year. A nursery rhyme to go with your dolls. Written especially with him in mind.”
who twitters and merries, who's gusty and gay.
Breezy his whisper, then rising to thunder,
he beckons you cleverly, "Come closer, let's play!
'No Great joy can there be,' chirps he......”
First it was Eden Leary. In her bed, no sign of a break-in. Her little neck in an angle unnatural to the human body and her trachea completely smashed, pieces of flesh missing from her arms and legs. Scars dotted her body in places not seen by the average eye. Her father behind bars; her mother in the mental hospital on suicide watch.
"Who could do that to their own child?" Mrs. Jones said. "They always seemed like such a nice couple."
"She tried to say she didn't know where the scars came from, that she assumed she had been rough housing.” Mrs. O’Shea shook her head, “She damn well knows where those scars came from...”
The next was Riley Jones. Her mother had stepped out of the playroom for just a second.She heard a scream only to return to find her little girl laying in a pool of blood, her face torn completely off.
Mrs. Jones ended up in the same institution as Mrs. Leary, knowing she should have taken more pills.
Then it was Abbi O'Shea who was found in the bath tub with a wash cloth stuffed down her throat and a thousand cuts from a razor blade that had bled her death slowly. That's when people got nervous. That’s when the gossip started. Everyone held their daughters a little closer to them, not exactly sure of what was going on.
"Mikayla, honey..."
"I told you I'm not hungry."
"But you love mac and cheese. Just eat a little bit?"
Sarah watched her daughter pushing the noodles around the plate. They've had this argument every day since the news broke about her classmates.
"I promise I won't let anything happen to you."
"You can't promise that.” Mikayla glared at her mother, “You couldn't even protect daddy."
"Yes I can. I'm your mother and I'll protect you from anything."
Mikayla muttered something that Sarah couldn’t make out, but it was something about a “him”.
Just then Lukas started fussing in his high chair and Sarah’s attention turned to the baby as she spooned sweet potatoes into his mouth.
"May I be excused, please?” Mikayla’s voice thick with irritation.
Her mother nodded. The counselors all said she would eat eventually, that she was still in shock over the loss of her friends. Sweet potatoes spewed from the boy’s mouth as he launched his spoon across the room.
"Okay sweetheart, whatever you want to do.” She reached down for the spoon as the baby food cascaded down on her head. Sarah knew she needed to talk to her daughter, now just wasn’t the time.
Mikayla slipped into the living room where Sarah could still see her while feeding Lukas his dinner since at least one of her children still had an appetite.
Over the sound of Lukas banging his spoon on the highchair, Sarah heard voices coming from the other room. She clearly heard her daughter’s squeak of a voice followed by a rough grumbling voice. Startled, she looked up to see Mikayla alone with her doll.
"But I don’t want anything from you! Just leave me alone!”
The doll went flying across the room, knocking down a picture frame from the wall.
"Mikayla! Don’t throw your toys like that!”
"But mom... He scares me.”
"Honey, we've been through this already. It’s a doll.”
Sarah sighed, wishing she could get through to her daughter. The counselors all told her that it was just her daughter rationalizing the murders in a way that she could understand.
The room was a cluttered mess, toys littered the floor and crumbs from their nighttime snack were all over the coffee table. Sarah made her rounds, picking up blocks from Lukas’s playtime on the floor, Mikayla fell asleep on the couch watching My Little Pony .
Sarah’s eyes moved to the foot of the couch where the doll sat. It’s thread lips appeared to be curled up in a scowl and his plastic eyes seemed eerily lifelike. She could understand why he creeped her daughter out as much as he did. Why would a teacher give such a scary looking toy to the children, she wondered?
She crossed the room to the toy box and as she turned around, his eyes were fixed on her, the threading of the lips pulled back just a touch as if he was now smiling. A chill ran down her spine.
"Get ahold of yourself, Sarah... It’s just a stupid doll”.
But as she crossed into the dining room for a drink of water, she noticed the doll was now further up on the couch and Mikayla hadn’t moved at all. The curve of the lips even more obvious than before. She snatched the doll off the couch. She’d had enough of this stupid thing.
She was tired of hearing her daughter blame the doll for the death of those girls, and it wasn't worth the stress it was bringing to her family. It was just a stupid doll and she could at least fix one thing and hopefully help everyone sleep a little better at night.
She opened up the garbage can and tossed him inside without another glance.
"How about I give you two for the price of one?” Mikayla whispered just loud enough for her mother to hear her from across the room.
"What did you say honey?”
"Oh nothing. I was talking to Rollo.”
"Rollo?” Sarah looked up from Lukas’s messy diaper to see Mikayla on the floor holding the doll she tossed away last night, “Honey? Where did you get him?”
"From my teacher, remember?” She said in a sing-song voice as she bounced Rollo on her knee playfully.
"No, I mean... I threw him away last night... Did you go outside and get into the trash?”
"No mom. I promise. He was next to me when I woke up.” She hugged the doll possessively close to her body.
Lukas’ cries pulled her attention back to him as he vomited a white frothy mess all over the floor.
"I’ll be right back...” She ran into the kitchen to get a towel. A gruff-sounding voice from the other room drew her attention.
"Deal. Two for the price of one.”
She heard giggling followed by Lukas’ screams. But by the time she made it into the other room, a silence had fallen over everything.
"Honey, what are you doing to your brother now?”
Sarah stepped into the room, towel in hand. The towel fell to the ground, and her heart nearly came out of her throat. Lukas was on the floor, where she had left him, but his blanket was tightly wound around his neck. His lips were the color of the blue pacifier shoved down into his mouth.
Sarah rushed over to Lukas, felt his chest and found no sign of life, “Mikayla! What have you done?”
"Sorry mom, but he was demanding a.... Sackofrice?... Or maybe he said sacrifice?” Mikayla started singing and her blue eyes held no emotion whatsoever.
When tall ones fill you with anger and rue.”
Sarah stared at her daughter not comprehending what she was saying. Mikayla’s singing voice filled the room as a malevolent smile crossed her face.
We shall see who at last is branded the dunce!”
The doll’s smile went from benign to predatory, and Sarah noticed the smear of blood on its face. Its eyes focused in on her.
(This is once again intersection week in
therealljidol. My partner is the lovely 
michikatinski who provided inspiration in the way of poetry and you can read her entry here.)