Rosetta was in the backseat of a cold, grey Jeep. 

It had been a wintery night on the way to her Mimi and Papaw’s house. Since they took their last stop a while ago, Rosetta’s father asked, ” Does anyone need to use the restroom?”

“I do!” Rosetta shouted.

They stopped at an abandoned gas station with flickering lights to use the bathroom. Rosetta hopped out of the Jeep, the wind whistling in her ears.

Rosetta walked into the gas station, and it was disgusting. Bugs scattered across the floor. On the way to the bathroom, she stopped and noticed a strange-looking doll on a shelf. It looked out of place. 

The doll was small, with porcelain skin. Not to mention, it had the creepiest maroon eyes. She felt like it was staring into her soul. It looked like it was real, but it was just a doll, right? 

She moved past the doll and to the restroom. To no surprise, the bathroom was filthy, so she decided to wait until they got to Mimi’s house. When she exited, the doll was in a different place than before. She tried to brush it off as if nothing had happened. She walked out of the gas station back to her parent’s Jeep and returned to her spot in the backseat. She couldn’t get the image of the doll out of her head. 

After a few hours of driving, they finally made it to Mimi and Papaw’s house. 

“I have to put my stuff down and use the bathroom!” Rosetta exclaimed.

“Okay, Please be fast. Dinner is almost ready,” Mimi said. 

Rosetta rushed to her room, slipping on a sock. She picked herself up off of the floor and entered her room. Rosetta turned on the light and put her stuff down on the bed.

She was about to exit the room to use the restroom but stopped. A familiar-looking doll caught her eye. She thought, “It looks like the one from the gas station, but that’s impossible!” She got closer, and it was the one from the gas station! She rushed out of her room and nervously asked Mimi, “Can I switch rooms to the attic?”

“Of course you can. Just be quick. Dinner is ready,” Mimi repeated. 

She went to her room and grabbed her bags, rushing upstairs. 

”Don’t run up those stairs, be careful!” Papaw yelled at her.

“Okay!” She answered. 

When moving her luggage from her old room to the attic bedroom, she felt something rub against her ankle. She looked under the bed, and it was the sinister-looking doll! Startled, almost screaming, Rosetta placed her hand over her mouth.

Rosetta grabbed the doll from under the bed and shoved it into the closet, locking the door. She started walking downstairs quickly but stopped, almost slipping on another sock that wasn’t there before. She begins to panic. Rosetta thought to herself, “Maybe if I eat, I’ll feel better.” 

During dinner, she didn’t talk very much. She couldn’t stop thinking about the doll in the attic. After they ate, she decided to go to bed and barricade the closet doors.

Rosetta’s eyes squinted in the darkness as she rolled over to check the time. Her clock read 12:02 a.m. Groaning, she knew she’d never return to sleep. Rosetta climbed from the bed and trudged down the hallway. She felt hungry, so she traveled to the kitchen. 

Silently tiptoeing through the house, she suddenly jerked to a halt–what was that in the corner? She could make out a pair of glowing maroon eyes–it was the doll! Panicking once more, she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how it escaped the closet. She turned on the lights, and it wasn’t the eyes that scared her anymore, it was the knife it held. 

She looked over to make sure nobody had woken up, but when she turned back around to face the doll, it was gone. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or if it had been real. She grabbed her snack and rushed back up the stairs to her room.

Rosetta woke up and walked downstairs. She saw that Mimi and Papaw had already gone to work, and it was just her, her mom and her dad. Her father asks, “Do you want to come to the store with us?”

“No, I don’t feel like going. I’ll just stay here,” Rosetta mumbled.

“Alright, we will be quick. Don’t open the door for anyone,” Dad replied, annoyed, not wanting Rosetta to be home alone.

She decided to make breakfast, so she grabbed ingredients for a smoothie. She put the ingredients in the blender and realized she had forgotten the ice. She opened the freezer, and the doll was there staring at her! She stumbled backward because she didn’t want it to be close to it, slipping on a misplaced sock in the process. 

She thought to herself, “Since when are there so many socks around here?!” Rosetta landed on the glass dining room table. A screech came from the table, and it was the sound of shattering glass. Rosetta wanted to grab the doll, but she didn’t want to get hurt by it again. So she just laid there with her eyes closed, in pain, hoping it would leave her alone. Then she waited for her parents to get home. 

Finally, after laying there for a while, all bruised and bloodied, she heard her parents pull in the driveway. They opened the front door and saw what looked like a crime scene. 

Immediately, they dropped their bags and ran over to her. They were frantically yelling, ”WHAT HAPPENED?! WHY ARE YOU ON THE FLOOR INJURED?! WHY IS THE TABLE SHATTERED TO PIECES?!” 

Rosetta explained that she tripped on a sock and collided with the table. Her parents declared, “We are going to the hospital! Next time, with whatever you are doing, be careful!” 

They gently placed her in the car and rushed her to the hospital. When they got there, she climbed out of the Jeep with the help of her mom. When she got out, it was cold and windy. She felt the wind blowing against her cuts. 

The hospital placed her into a room, and when the nurses were cleaning her wounds, Rosetta could see someone calling her father. She could make out that it was her Mimi. Her dad answers as quickly as he can and walks out of the room. Her mother asked, “Baby, what really happened? No socks were laying around the house when we left.” 

“Mom, I’m sorry. I lied. Please believe me! There was a doll. It had pale skin with maroon eyes. It looked real, and it was in the freezer. It was holding a kn-” but before Rosetta could finish her sentence, her mother interrupted her. “Oh, Rosetta! I should have told you. Those dolls are the Devil’s Twin Dolls.”

“How do you know about them and why are they after me?! Wait, twins? There was only one doll-” Then it hit her: The doll in Mimi and Papaw’s house is connected to the one she saw at the gas station.

“Mimi told us that she bought a doll at a gas station recently. It must be upset that Mimi separated it from its sister.” Her mother continued, “Dad and I will take her back-” She paused, staring at something in the corner. Suddenly, her mom yelped. Rosetta looked over, and it was the dolls!

Her dad ran into the room to see what was going on, and he saw the dolls too. He sprinted over and grabbed them. He held them as tight as he could and stuffed them in a bag he found lying on the floor. He chanted, “Devil’s Twin Dolls, do this child no further harm!” 

After that, the dolls went still. 

Rosetta and her parents were at the hospital for about an hour. When they left and made it back to the house, Mimi and Pawpaw were still at work. They got a chest from the upstairs bedroom and locked the dolls in it. They went outside to dig a hole and tossed the chest inside. 

Rosetta’s father buried the dolls, covering them with salt and dirt. The box shook violently until the hole in the ground was filled. Her father explained that the salt contains them, so they are unable to move on their own. It also purifies them, ridding them of any evil they possess.

 “Baby, we are sorry you had to go through this. Next time, let us know if something is going on, or you could get hurt even worse. We will believe you,“ her parents concluded as they walked back into the house.

“I will make sure to let you guys know if there is a next time,” Rosetta assured them, starting to sob, remembering everything she has had to go through the past two days. She never wants to experience anything like this again.

Before Mimi and Papaw returned from work, her dad cleaned up the dining room table and went out to buy a new one, replacing it before they got home. 

Mimi and Papaw comforted Rosetta once they got home. Afterward, they all ate dinner and went to bed. Laying down, Rosetta was glad she could go to sleep peacefully, knowing that the dolls were gone forever.