In Nightmares We're Alone Read Online Free Page A

side the way he does whenever there’s excitement he’s not involved in.
    Mommy grabs my face and turns it away from the dolls so my eyes meet hers. “Honey,” she says. “Calm down and tell me.”
    I take a moment to breathe, to find what I want to say.
    “All the dolls have her eyes,” I tell her.
    Mommy turns to look at them.
    I can’t see the dolls now, but before Mommy even turns, I already know. Their eyes are normal now. Browns and blues and greens and blacks. No heterochromia. No depth. No life. Mommy and Sissy and maybe even Buster, they’re all looking at a shelf full of dolls and thinking I’m a stupid little girl who read a scary book.
    I don’t have to look at the dolls to know it. You win, Beth. You’re Mommy’s favorite. You stay.
    Mommy pushes me out of the room and shuts the door behind us and I’m still shaking and there are tears in my eyes and Buster wants to lick them off but I won’t let him. Sissy’s standing next to me and giving me a look like I’m being stupid and she’s disappointed in me. Mommy’s shaking her head and making that frustrated sound she’s always making.
    But until the door is closed, I keep looking at Beth, sitting up there on her perch with the same expression as always, but it feels like it’s more pronounced the more I look at her. Handy craftsmanship, maybe. Or lots of lizards in her witch brew.
    Mommy shuts the door. And just before it closes, probably I’m just imagining it, but that creepy doll up there in its little throne looking at me with its human eyes, I could almost swear I see it wink.

    * * * * *

    After Mommy tucks me into bed that night, I’m afraid to close my eyes. Kaylie sits there on top of the dresser staring at me, and every time I blink I expect her eyes to change. Sissy says if you’re scared your mind plays crazy tricks on you, but I know what I saw yesterday when I looked into Kaylie’s eyes. I know I saw Beth inside.
    I wish she wasn’t there. I wish Mommy could have just left the dolls in the garbage and let me make my own decisions for once. Kaylie was supposed to be my doll. If Mommy gets to decide whether we keep Beth, I’m supposed to get to decide whether we keep Kaylie.
    Her eyes. Still blue. I can’t look away from them. I don’t know what will happen if I look away but I don’t want to know. What if I glance away and when I glance back the eyes are Beth’s? Or if she’s not there at all? Or if she’s moved closer?
    She stares at me and I stare back. Just a toy. Only a toy sitting on a dresser. But that’s all Beth is too, and there’s something I feel. Something she wants from me, maybe. Or something she feels about me.
    I realize I’m biting my nails and I make myself stop. I always do it when I’m nervous, but anytime Mommy sees she scolds me. She says I can paint them when I turn sixteen if I stop biting them before I’m ten, and I want them to look pretty like Sissy’s when I’m older, so I’m trying.
    The door to the doll room opens and then closes out in the hallway. I gasp and my head turns to my door. When I look back at Kaylie, she’s not Kaylie anymore.
    Beth’s eyes. Blue and green. Even that crooked half a smile like she knows she’s been bad and she wants me to know she’s proud of it.
    I start sobbing in fear. I don’t know whether to cry out for Mommy or if she’ll only scold me again for being scared. Whup me. Make me spend the night with Beth in my room so I’ll stop being afraid of her.
    For a long time I just sit in my bed shaking with my blanket pulled up to my chin. I watch Kaylie to see if she moves. If she stands up, or winks, or talks to me, that’s when I’ll scream for Mommy or Sissy.
    But she doesn’t move. She just sits and watches me. Stares with those deep, evil witch eyes. I wonder if she’s casting a spell.
    That thought forces me to action. I pull the pillowcase off my pillow and stand up. As fast as I can I throw it over Kaylie and pull her off the dresser. With