In Nightmares We're Alone Read Online Free

healthy. You can’t be traumatized by an inanimate object. Put your arms out and hold her.”
    “No.”
    “Macie, I’m about at my limit here.”
    I take a deep breath and tug Beth violently out of Mommy’s hands.
    “Careful!” says Mommy.
    I hold the doll back out to Mommy. “There. I held her. Can I go now?”
    “Not yet. You stand there and look at that doll until you realize it can’t hurt you.”
    “I don’t want—”
    “I don’t care if it takes all day!”
    I exhale deeply. I concentrate on my breath. My hands are shaking, I’m sure Mommy can tell. I have to stop them. I have to look calm.
    “Do not drop her,” says Mommy, but I’m so focused on breathing I can barely hear her.
    Whoever made this one did a crummy job. She doesn’t look real, not like Mommy’s other dolls. The other ones are painted well, with that soft, dry paint that feels like a frosted Christmas tree ornament. Beth’s too polished. Her skin is shiny, like the kitchen floor after Mommy mops. Not like a baby. Her skin is too tan, her cheeks are blushed too red to look real. She’s ugly. A stupid, fake-looking doll.
    Except for the eyes. What is it about the eyes? One blue, one green. The way they sparkle, that glassy coat of glaze over it like she’ll blink if you stare long enough.
    My hands shake harder. My tummy hurts. I want to go to the bathroom.
    I look up at Mommy and she raises her eyebrows, tells me silently to keep looking, keep conquering my fear.
    I look Beth in the eyes. I try to remember what Sissy said about witches and fires. All that stuff about who the real scary people are. It doesn’t help. Reflected in Beth’s eyes I just imagine toothless old women riding on brooms, laughing hyee-hah-hah, that creepy witch laugh, stirring a big pot over a fire and dropping in puppies and babies and lizards.
    And I want to throw Beth right in with the puppies and the babies and the lizards. I don’t care if she’s just a girl who looks different and I’m one of the crazy villagers who wants to burn somebody just because I don’t like her, I still want to burn the ugly bitch. I want to see what those eyes look like when the rest of her is charred and broken.
    The harder I stare, the harder I hate, the more alive the eyes look to me, until they’re more alive than even a human’s eyes, almost like they’re shining or glowing. And then I can’t stand it anymore and I jerk my eyes away from hers.
    That’s when I see it.
    Oh God.
    Oh my God.
    The whole shelf behind Mommy, twenty dolls at least, every single one of them has Beth’s eyes. Blue on the right, green on the left. Every last one of them, staring at me with those impossibly deep eyes. Every one of them smirking that giggling baby half-smirk. Every last one.
    I can’t help it. I drop Beth on the floor and scream.

    * * * * *

    “For Heaven’s sake, Macie.”
    Beth’s barely hit the ground before Mommy has swept her up and inspected the head for cracks and scuffs and scratches. Even when I was as young as Beth looks, I’m pretty sure Mommy was never that concerned about me.
    “What? What? What is it?” asks Mommy angrily.
    “It’s all of… They’re all…” I try to put the thought into words but the fear clouds my brain.
    Mommy waves one hand through the air in her what am I going to do with you gesture and gets back up on the footstool to put Beth away on her perch up there, way up high where I can’t reach.
    As Mommy reaches up, she exposes her whole body to twenty blue-and-green-eyed dolls all grinning at me like something’s about to happen.
    “Mommy, no! Stop!” I scream. “Be careful!”
    She puts the doll away and turns to me, never looking at the horde of evil dolls. “What? What is the matter with you? This is ridiculous.”
    Sissy comes running into the room asking, “What happened? What is it?”
    Even Buster, who’d been sleeping on the couch, he’s standing in the hallway just outside the doll room with his head cocked to one