Excerpt: The Sleeping Place

Devin curled his lanky body into a ball under his covers and breathed in the scent of the tomato soup simmering on the stove mixed with the smell of slightly burnt bread. He knew dinner would be ready in no time at all but that his mom would leave him alone until he was ready to come out of his room.

The day had gone so good. He hated that what had just happened had happened. Belle was there. He knew it without turning around. He could feel her in his room.

“I saw your mom, Belle. She scared the shit out of me.”

No answer. He turned around and there she was. In all of her innocent beauty, but looking less ethereal than she did the night before. She was sitting in the corner of his room holding a doll. A doll that was also of a time passed. Devin always wondered how that worked. How objects became haunted things as well and how they could come and go as well. She looked sad, dejected.

“She doesn’t always look like that. Something’s wrong, sir. She’s upset.” And then she was gone too.

Why was everyone playing these mind games with him, he thought to himself. He began to think that he was going to need a psychiatric hospital soon if this didn’t stop or if he didn’t get some answers. Harold jumped from the bed and sniffed the place where Belle had just been sitting. He came back to the bed and dropped something on Devin’s chest. It was heavy. He picked it up and examined it. It was a porcelain doll.

It was quite a strange thing actually. It had no hair and it’s face was made of what was once white porcelain but was now gray with age and dirt. One of it’s eyes were painted on, but the the other was broken off. There remained nothing but a hole in the porcelain where the eye should be. The doll had no nose, just two small dots where nostrils would be and instead of a smile or lips, there was a frown drawn on for it’s mouth. It’s body was a cloth sack stuffed with cotton and porcelain arms and legs were attached with four fingers and four toes on each limb. It was one of the most bizarre and disturbing dolls that Devin had ever seen. He decided he would bring it back to her tonight in the cemetery after his mother went to sleep.

For now, he figured he should get out of bed and join the living. He walked into the kitchen and smiled at his mother. She smiled back.

“Dinner’s ready.” She looked tired. Tired and worried. Devin felt bad. He wanted to be able to tell her what was going on but he knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere but the last place he wanted to be. And it wouldn’t ease her mind either. She was a single mother with enough on her plate as it was. She worked the night shift to pay the bills so that he could go to school during the day.

“I’m sorry I freaked out on you. It’s just that the last time I saw you look like that...” The last time she saw him looking like that he had wound up in a straight jacket screaming until they put a needle in his butt to knock him out. They never understood what he was screaming about though. No one ever understood.