Page 47 of Little Doll

And then he led me home.

Chapter 22

Nova

Ren came tome in the middle of the night. I was in my room, my old room. While missing Cleo and reliving memories of her in my mind, I wanted to be in the room where I’d spent my girlhood. Listening to her stories and sitting while she plated my hair into long braids. I sat at my desk near the door, sifting through a book of poems scrawled in Cleo’s elaborate script. Tears streamed my cheeks as I read one beautiful poem after another. She’d commemorated so many of her life’s events, both happy and sad with her beautiful rhyming thoughts. Her words sent me on a roller coaster of emotion until I came to one that chilled me.

When the clock strikes twelve, the veil is thin,

A world of shadows creeping in.

Whispers weave through night’s embrace.

Phantom fingers brush my face.

Candles flicker, shadows dance,

In the moonlight’s silver glance.

Silent steps upon the floor,

Echoes of those here no more.

In the garden, whispers grow,

From the graves of those below.

Roses blackened by the night.

Tell of sorrow, hidden plight.

Midnight’s veil reveals the past,

Ghostly visions, fleeting, fast.

In the silence, hear the call,

Of the unseen, through the hall.

Eyes unseen, yet ever near,

Fill the heart with chilling fear.

Secrets held in ancient stone,

Stories whispered, softly moan.

Through the night, till break of day,

Haunted echoes fade away.

Yet their presence lingers still,

In the shadows, cold and chill.

The eerie poem had just settled over my psyche when Ren drifted into my room and scared the life out of me.

I gasped and clutched my chest, then peered up at her, panting and chest heaving.

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