into my worn out body yet I wasn’t affected much by them as

it was still better than the haunting eyes I’ve been seeing all
night. Whether it be a decomposing one, a buttoned one or...
burning embers.

My first encounter of the night with that hideous creature had

filled me with doubt, drilling it inside my head that I wouldn’t
be able to survive alone for the whole night but the surprise
victory I had stumbled upon in case of the scarecrow had
eventually given me some hope, hope that I wouldn’t be
needing someone else’s help to ensure my salvation, hope that
I had miraculously become my own dawn.

Suddenly a chortling group of teenage girls dressed as witches

passed by me, the loud noises urging me to turn my head
towards them, immediately making me regret my decision as
my wandering eyes landed on the jolly group, more
specifically the girl-witch walking two or three feet behind
them. She clearly was neither interested nor involved in the
group’s conversation. In fact, her eyes were trained right on
me unnerving me with her odd stare. Passing a quick glance
at her group talking nonchalantly amongst themselves, I
moved my gaze back towards the lone girl only to find her
giving me a weird smile. That’s when I realized.

She wasn’t human. She was a real witch.

‘It’s okay. It’s fine.’

Repeating the words for the umpteenth time in my head, I
averted my eyes from her, keeping them trained on my brown
sneakers which once used to be white, trying to focus more on
my next step rather than the queer witch staring at me.

‘Right, Left, Right…’

Too focused on my drill, I was crossing the showcase window

of a shop when the mannequin displayed in there jumped
towards the glass and started banging against it as if trying to
break it with her mere hands to reach me.

“Shit!”

Through sheer luck, I had managed to remain quiet at the

unforeseen occurrence, saving myself from the addition of
another embarrassing situation I had faced in public but my
feet hadn’t been all that lucky. In the end, I had twisted my
ankle in my attempt to turn away from the glass and had as a
result, bumped against the witch staring at me, making my
eyes almost pop out of my sockets.

I had no idea what to say or how to behave. I was opening

and closing my half parted lips in an alternate manner
resembling a fish as I gawked at the uncanny existence in
front of me with only one thing in my mind,
‘Shouldn’t have dropped that sickle.’

“Here, for you.”

The witch tilted her black hat back, giving me a devious smile
with her black painted lips as she all but thrusted an object in
my hands before disappearing right before my eyes.

My eyes widened as I rapidly turned my head in all directions,

trying to see whether someone had seen it happen but
disappointment came all too familiarly when I noticed that no
one had been able to see her, except for me.

“Mama!”

“The hell?!”

I had no idea that I had been pressing something soft with my

fingers until a creepy voice emerged from beneath my
breasts, making me let go of the object immediately.

“Boo-hoo!”

I could definitely sense my soul leaving my body the moment

I stepped back to peer down at the object that had fallen out
of my arms and was now lying face front on the gravel near
the sidewalk while producing mechanical prerecorded sounds
of a crying child.
“Boo-hoo!”

“Oh, God!”

It was one of the things that I hated the most after Hysteria—a
vintage mama doll.

“No. Please, no.”

The rendezvous with my little doll from childhood was still

fresh in my mind—the night my doll had suddenly come to
life and scared me to death, inciting me to seek refuge in a
dark damp sink cabinet for hours. It was the same night I had
developed claustrophobia along with a deep dark hatred for
dolls.

“Mama!”

Following the squeaky voice, the doll rotated its head back at
an angle impossible for a human, its body was still laying face
first on the ground but its head had now turned towards me,
staring me square in the eye as a creepy smile pulled at both
corners of its plastic lips making my blood freeze with horror
inside my vessels.

The newfound confidence which I had acquired after slashing

the scarecrow had completely abandoned me, transforming
me back into the child hidden underneath the sink, afraid
of her most favorite doll crawling around her house in
quest of her.

I could hear the wild thumping of my heart along with loud

swooshing of blood travelling away from my face, draining
all color from it. My mouth was getting drier by the second,
my chapped lips were meshed against each other getting
heavily assaulted by me teeth as I looked around hoping for
someone, anyone to see the agony painted all across my face
yet like my every desperate attempt to find refuge in other
people, my sight came back empty handed, bereft of any
comfort.

“Ma-ma.”

The doll’s tone had turned into a slower, more unnerving

version of its previous childish voice, making me slowly take
another step back from it.

‘If I start running blindly and it attacks me from behind like the
corpse, It’s game over for me.’

My wide-eyed gaze, fiercely searching for a suitable escape

route suddenly turned horrified as I noticed the doll missing
from its original position.

“Ma…ma.”
The sound had come from just under my legs. Before I even
had the chance to look down, a sharp pain shot up my foot
making me hastily jerk it back and forth in order to get rid
of the source of my discomfort. If it had been possible for
my eyes to get bigger, they’d definitely have, by the time I
saw a little head full of blond curls stuck to my ankle, its
sharp teeth digging inside the skin above my ankle. Blood
was furiously oozing out of the fresh wound, rapidly
soaking my already dirtied sneaker in a messier crimson
tinge.

“Ah!”

Numerous shrieks were tearing their way out of my mouth as

I felt the dolls teeth digging deeper inside my flesh, almost
grazing the bone.

‘The bitch is about to crunch my bone.’

The thought immediately set my body in motion, my

crumbling defenses kicking in as I raised my leg high up in air
before banging the side of my leg against the corner of the
wall. I was trying to aim for doll’s head because I had a notion
that I wouldn’t be able to separate her from my flesh by
merely pulling her fake hair out.

“Get off already, you bitch!”

More and more people had started looking my way probably

questioning the death of my last two brain cells as I, uncaring
of their stares, continued smashing my bleeding ankle against
the brick wall.

After several wild kicks to its head, the doll finally landed
hard on the ground with a small thud. The relentless banging
had cracked its skull yet the creepy smile was still lingering on
its sickening pink lips as its dazed eyes stayed locked on me
through all the ruckus,

“Ma…ma.”

Its voice had turned much lower and thicker in comparison

than before. It almost sounded like a male was talking to me.

“I didn’t give birth to an ugly creature like you. You hear

me?!”

Several gazes were burning a hole through my back, but I

didn’t give a damn in that moment. My focus was set on
the battered doll on the ground. I had let her win once. I
wasn’t letting her win again.

“I want your head bitch!”

That did cajole a couple of gasps from the crowd gathering

around me. They couldn’t see the doll, the probably couldn’t
see my bleeding ankle as well. I was going to do the same—
pretend that they didn’t exist.
I was searching for something sharp to cut its neck but when I
couldn’t find anything, I decided on detaching it from the
trunk with my bare hands. Being careful of not going near her
lips, I tried gripping her blond locks yet she still managed to
get a chunkful of the soft flesh on my hand making me let out
another wail of pain. All the pent up anger from my
childhood seemed to have been unleashed as I punched the
little devil with my uninjured hand as hard as I could
deflating one side of its face, making it instantly let go of my
hand that it had been munching on previously.

“This is for ruining my childhood!”

Not paying any attention to the their horrified stares, as I had

completely lost it, I landed another punch on the fake barbie’s
face,

“And this is for making me claustrophobic!”

Another punch.

“And this is for ruining my sneakers!”

I must’ve looked utterly crazy, straddling air, delivering

punches to earth, but in that moment, I couldn’t care giving a
damn. I was too contended with the visible results. The doll’s
face was totally ruined.
After I was done letting my stream out, I grabbed the doll’s
body with my bleeding hand and its crushed head with
another and separated them with a forceful jerk before
throwing them both far away.

“See you in hell!”

I didn’t know I had been crying until cold air kissed my

freezing cheeks making me feel the tightness of my cheeks
due to dried patches of tears lacing them. I was slowly
returning back to my senses. The pain in my heart was
intensifying more and more with every pump it applied to
keep me alive.

Lifting my hooded eyes, I stared at the small crowd gathered

around me. One or two of them seemed to be holding their
phones to their ears.

“Yes, near town’ square. Yes, she’s standing right in front of

me.”

My eyebrows furrowed as I realized what they were doing.

They had probably called the police or some kind of crisis
center for help. Gritting my teeth, I started walking away from
the herd. Some of them tried stopping me, coursing me into
thinking that they could help me, but I kept shoving their
extended hands away, walking briskly to avoid an unwanted
encounter with the authorities, slowing down only when I
was sure that I had come far away from them.

‘Pathetic.’

Trudging aimlessly for some time, I eventually found a

desolate alley to rest my back. I couldn’t walk anymore. The
wound on my feet was making it more and more impossible
to continue sauntering.

‘Why am I so pathetic?’

Covering my eyes with the back of my forearm, I let out a gut

wrenching wail, followed by a series of sobs as I continued
banging the back of my head against the wall I had been
leaning on for support.

“Please, stop. Please.”

“Ma…ma.”

‘Huh?’

My eyes widened as my loud wails abruptly came to a

halt. My reddened face was turning pale with fear as I let
my forearm fall down into my lap gingerly, lifting my
gaze, looking around me to detect a familiar head full of
blond curls, but as far as I could see there was nothing
remotely
close to that in my surroundings.

“Ma…ma.”

This time, the voice had come from above me.

With my heart pounding in my ears, I slowly raised my head

up. The first thing I was able to see were blond locks dangling
in front of my face before a battered, broken face of a doll
smiling down creepily at me filled my vision.

I wasn’t even able to let out a scream from the shock when
something heavy suddenly pounced on my huddled frame
from above, tearing the skin of my neck with its mouth
along with one of the major vessel resting underneath the
tissue, releasing a spurting jet of blood that painted the wall
behind me in a scarlet graffiti.

‘She hadn’t died. I hadn’t seen her evaporating in smoke.’

I was finally able to see my mistake clearly but it was far too
late now. I had nowhere left to go. Even after miraculously
avoiding this situation, I had nowhere else to go. There were
people running after me, trying to lock me inside some house.

‘It’s the same everywhere I go.’

Barely able to see the wrecked doll hovering over my face,

smiling triumphantly down at me, I turned my gaze to the
side refusing to look at her disgusting face planning to suck
Hysteria’s soul out of my gasping lips,

‘Maybe, it’s for the better.’

A small trail of blood had escaped out of my mouth, slowly

trickling down the corner of my lips, joining the bigger puddle
of blood that was furiously pooling on the asphalt present
under my torn neck. Surprisingly, there were no tears leaking
out of my swollen eyes, I had ran out of them. I had let it go.

Black dots started appearing in my vision, coalescing as more

and more time passed to create bigger blobs of blackness that
were slowly devouring every inch of my vision. I was rapidly
loosening consciousness and I knew it wasn’t long before I’d
end up breathing my last.

In my haze, my clouded vision was suddenly lit up with

another presence filling it—a dark clad figure leaning against
the opposite wall with his arms folded in front of his broad
chest. I couldn’t see clearly but it looked it his skull painted
face was twisted in a frown as he continued staring
wordlessly at me until I heard a husky voice ringing inside my
head,

“Call for me.”

The voice cocooned me into a warm embrace much like the
feeling you get when you return home after a tiring day. It
painted a picture of a place that gave me a feeling of
belonging. I didn’t want to let it go. I didn’t want to die like
this.

Raising my bloodied hand towards the figure, my fingers

twitching, itching for him to come closer, I tried motioning for
him to reach for me, grab my hand, before everything went
black before my sight.

“Hysteria…”

I could hear a slashing sound—sword cutting through air

accompanied by a loud shriek before everything went deathly
silent.

‘Is it over? Am I dead?’

I could see the light disappearing from my vision, the doors

were getting closed. Everything had turned pitch black. My
body felt light, its reigns left in the hands of these merciless
tides, drowning me deeper and deeper inside this unnamed
sea of darkness. It seemed like there was no way out until a
familiar pair of hot lips met my cold ones in a passionate kiss,
bringing me back to my senses.

Unlike before, they weren’t trying to suck something out of

me. Rather they seemed to be breathing something into me, as
if they were pouring their own life into me, sharing their
energy with me, merging our completely different existences
into one dynamic soul.

‘More…’

The more these hot lips caressed mine, the more warmth
returned to my freezing ones. The pain arising from the
multiple parts of my body seemed to have completely
disappeared. I couldn’t feel any more of a warm sticky
liquid furiously pouring out of my wounds. The only thing I
could sense in that moment was the feeling of a soft pair of
plump lips lightly massaging my own, claiming me as
theirs.

“Why, because I love you, Gia.”

I was well aware of my benefactor; he had been my

tormentor for over a decade, but the sweet taste of this
comfort that I had tasted after a long time was too hard to let
go so easily. He was the drug critical for my survival. I felt
safe and that was all that mattered to my tangled senses in
that moment, as for the first time since forever I slept
peacefully after losing myself in the arms of Hysteria.

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