From: bobandcarole@aol.com   
      
   Story: The Dollhouse 1-2 of 3   
      
   by bobandcarole   
      
   Chapter 1   
   The house   
      
   	"I think it's kinda creepy looking, mom."  Eighteen year old Carrie   
   observed as she and her family stood with the real estate agent on the   
   sidewalk.  Carries' thirteen year old sister Veronica nodded in   
   agreement.  Jamie, the youngest sibling at ten, just looked at the old   
   grey house in wonder.   
   		"Don't be silly, you two.  It's just an older house than you're used   
   to."  Their mother Michelle replied. It was a true statement.  The kids   
   had lived in a large city since Carrie was little.  But now that their   
   parents were divorced things had to change.  Their father had developed   
   a drinking problem over the past few years, and one night he came home   
   drunk and started arguing with their mother.  When he actually hit her,   
   enough was enough.  She moved her kids to a smaller town nearby to start   
   over.  She had been a stay at home mom previously, so she now would need   
   to work to support her girls.  The house she had found seemed too good   
   to be true.  It was big enough for all four of them, without costing an   
   arm and a leg.  It was even a nice neighborhood, and yet the house had   
   been on the market for years.  The agent showing her the house soon   
   confided in Michelle the reason for the vacancy.   
   	"Well, there's a local superstition that the place is haunted.  Nobody   
   has ever claimed to have seen anything, but people have heard things go   
   bump in the night, things like that.  So none of the local families will   
   purchase the house."  She explained.  "If you're not TOO superstitious,   
   it should be perfect for your family"  She added with a grin, showing   
   she herself put no stock in the rumors.   
   	"Well guys, what do you think?"  Michelle turned to her daughters.  The   
   house would be their home too, and she didn't want things harder for her   
   girls than they already were.  Jamie loved the house and asked if they   
   could move in today.  Veronica thought the house was creepy, but still   
   thought it'd be an alright place to live.  Carrie had the strongest   
   reservations about the house, but knew things were tight financially for   
   her mom.  This place was a steal, so she offered no objections either.   
   Elated that her daughters approved of the house, she finished the   
   paperwork with the agent, and they moved in a week later.   
   	The girls all seemed to get used to the place at their own pace.  The   
   two oldest couldn't quite seem to feel at ease for the first week.   
   Jamie on the other hand was eager to explore every nook and cranny of   
   the big old house.  One day when Veronica was watching T.V., Carrie was   
   out jogging, and her mom was at work; little Jamie ventured into the   
   attic.  She knew she wasn't supposed to, but it was too tempting.  There   
   was a staircase to the attic at the end of the hall where the girls'   
   rooms were, but there was also a small pull-down ladder in Jamies' room.   
     At some point in the past the attic was split into two rooms, and the   
   main attic stairs had led to another bedroom.  Now the large attic room   
   was bare, and the small storage area over Jamies' room was all but   
   forgotten about.  Jamie carefully pulled the string to open the hatch   
   and extended the ladder.  The attic air was musty, and dust clung to   
   everything.  Everything except what sat in the middle of the room.  On   
   the floor sat a dollhouse.  Not an ordinary dollhouse, but actually a   
   miniature version of the house itself.  Jamie sat down and examined the   
   little replica.  It seemed nearly identical to the real thing, and she   
   marvelled at the tiny details.  When she was done investigating the   
   dollhouse she saw a small wooden box laying next to it.  Opening it up   
   she found a few small items which looked like they belonged in the   
   dollhouse.  Among them was a peice of carpeting, a little set of   
   curtains, and a tiny picture to hang in a tiny room.  Jamie sat down   
   cross-legged in front of the dollhouse, and pulled the pretty piece of   
   carpet out of the box.  It was the same dark blue as the carpet in her   
   room, so she laid it down in the dollhouse where her room would be.   
   Removing the carpet from the box revealed a folded peice of paper.   
   Jamie unfolded the paper and read:   
   	"To whomever finds this dollhouse, beware.  This is not an ordinary   
   toy.  This house is haunted, and the dollhouse is the key to releasing   
   the spirits.  While the ghosts cannot harm anybody, they are very much   
   real.  If you do not want to experience the hauntings, do not place   
   anything in the dollhouse.  What you place inside determines what will   
   be haunted and where the haunting will be."  Jamie sat for a while and   
   wondered if it was a joke.  Could her house really be haunted?  She just   
   had to test it, even though the thought of a ghost was creepy.  But a   
   carpet didn't seem scary to her, so she left it in and decided it would   
   be a test.  Realizing she'd been up there for a while, Jamie decided to   
   leave and get back downstairs.  She climbed back down her ladder and   
   folded it back up into the ceiling.   
   	At first Jamie could not see any change in her floor.  When she looked   
   very closely the strands of the carpet seemed just a little longer, but   
   that was it.  She heard her sisters call her from downstairs, and she   
   decided she'd check her floor out later and left the room.  Jamies'   
   older siblings were preparing lunch and had called her down to eat.   
   They all ate and watched T.V. together for a while.  Jamie didn't get   
   back up to her room for nearly an hour.   
      
   Chapter 2   
   The Hauntings begin   
      
   	After lunch Jamie returned to her room to see if her floor really was   
   haunted now.  She didn't feel anything change as she walked around, so   
   she got down on her hands and knees to get a close look at things.  She   
   yelped as she felt the carpet wriggle under the skin of her hands and   
   bare knees.  She was wearing a light tank top and short jean shorts.   
   She realized she felt the carpet move when her bare skin touched it.   
   Jamie watched as the carpet around her hands became an inch or so longer   
   and waved like little feelers hunting out her flesh.  The soft little   
   antennae tickled wherever they brushed on her.  The same was true down   
   by her knees.  She giggled and decided that this wasn't a bad haunting   
   at all.  The whole rest of the day she went barefoot so she could feel   
   her carpet tickle her.  Later when she was bored Jamie went into her   
   attic again to play with her dollhouse.  She poked around in the box   
   until she found something else she wanted to put in the dollhouse.  She   
   took a hanger with a doll sized bra on it and put it in her sister   
   Veronicas' closet.  She thought this was funny, because her sister was   
   almost nearly as flat as she was, and barely even needed an A-cup bra.   
   	Meanwhile, Jamies' older sister Veronica was planning to walk down the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)