25. The Porcelain Doll

“She’s perfect!” Tatum squealed and twirled with her new birthday gift. Since as long as she could remember, she’d received a new porcelain doll every year from a different part of the world; this year it was Honduras. Popular, rich and spoiled she always got what she wanted. “Where should we put you Gabriela?” she looked around the room, finding a spot beside the bed on her nightstand.

The unpacked doll was a great addition to her collection and it made her smile every time she looked back at it sitting near her bed. Her mother called her down for dinner and afterwards she finished up her homework. When she got back to her room she was tired and tucked herself into bed.

When she woke up the next morning, she found the booklet that came with the doll sitting beside her lamp with a note from her Mom telling her to get ready for school and she would pick her up for ballet. Tatum yawned and stretched and felt an ache in her jaw as she did. “Great,” she mumbled noticing the large, red lump. “Just what I need, a pimple.” 

Tatum squeezed it, making her cheek extremely sore as she did. The moment she squeezed it again, she felt something moving inside. All of a sudden a spider popped out of the tiny hole on the top.

Before long more and more spiders began pulling themselves out of the lump, spreading everywhere and biting. Tatum screamed but nobody heard her. She tore at the spiders but there were too many and soon she succumbed to the poison in their bites. Turns out, there was a nest of spiders in the doll that hatched overnight.

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