Dreams After Dark

Years ago in this little bitty town in Ohio, a young girl's parents bought a doll. The doll was meant as a present for Aryan, their beautiful princess. The little girl was so happy about the doll that she never let it out of her sight, and if she did she would scream and cry for hours on end.

Days after getting the doll, Aryan stopped playing with her friends. When her parents asked her about it, she simply said she had all the friends she needed and continued playing tea with her doll. Soon after that, her parents realized she was becoming reclusive, so they took her to see a doctor. The doctor said it was a normal thing. That she should go back to how she had been in a matter of weeks.

A few weeks after the visit to the doctor, little Aryan went up to her brother with a knife while he was asleep, and slit his throat. Her parents were mortified. When the asked her why she did it, Aryan told them that Susan, her doll, had made her do it. She said that Susan had told her if she didn't do it she would kill Aryan and then her parents.

Her parents didn't believe her and after the funeral, had sent her to a psych ward at the request of her doctor.

One day after Aryan had come back to her room from dinner, Susan was sitting on her bed. Aryan had screamed for hours, but no one came to her aid.

Susan turned her head ever so slightly, and gazed at Aryan with her cool, dark black eyes and a twisted smile on her face. She had come for Aryan tonight. She had already gotten her parents. Ooh, she got them good. They put Aryan in here even though she had been telling the truth.

"Aryan, why do you scream? I only want to play with you again." Her mouth made no movement, but her words echoed across the room. Aryan became quiet and smiled.

"I'm sorry Susan. What do you want to play tonight?" She sat down on the foot of the bed and crossed her legs up underneath her.

Susan's twisted smile etched up farther on her porcelain face and her dark eyes moved with Aryan.

"I want to be you. And you can be me." Again her voice rang out through the room.

Aryan's brow twitched up a bit. "But how do we do that?"

Susan smiled a genuine smile and a piece of paper floated into Aryan's lap. She picked it up and on it was an incantation.

"Little one, I made you and now I give you life
I name you Aryan
Her body is your body
Her breath is your breath
Her passion is your passion
Her blood is your blood
Though separate you were
Now you are one."

Aryan read the incantation out loud and when she finished it she looked up. Susan no longer looked like a doll. She looked like Aryan. Aryan looked down at herself; she hadn't changed any she had just moved to where Susan had been.

"And now we are one!" Susan laughed out maniacally using Aryan's mouth.

Aryan cried out as Susan made her get up and walk to the door. The nurse had forgotten to close it on her way out and now Susan had free reign to go anywhere she liked.

She walked out of the room and toward the elevator. Tonight she would have her way for the first time in a long time.