This is a story that I’ve adapted from the many
stories written concerning possessed dolls. Simply called:
Noreen.
A few years ago a woman that I’ll call Mary, bought
an old doll that she saw in a charity shop window, it was worn and a little
sorry looking but it seemed to have a certain attraction that she couldn’t
explain...at the time.
When Mary returned home she put the doll on a chair
in her bedroom and went into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. All went well for a couple of weeks but one
night Mary had difficulty sleeping, she kept waking up from a nightmare, this
was to happen night after night. Mary
said that in her dream she was starving and her clothes hung loose and ragged
from her thin body.
“I remember looking out through a small window into
the yard and seeing other people, they had the appearance of skeletons covered
with yellow looking skin. They didn’t walk it was more of a shuffle. It was
then that I would wake up with a terrible thirst”.
Mary started to leave a sandwich and a drink on her
bedside table so that she could eat if she woke up in the middle of the night
but even though she ate a big meal before bedtime and even consumed the
sandwich and drink when she woke through the night it didn’t seem to work. She
still woke up in the morning starving hungry.
A visit to her doctor didn’t help either; she was
given sleeping pills and told that she was suffering from anxiety brought about
by some as yet unknown cause. The doctor told her to try to think of any
changes that she may have made in her life recently, any new people she may
have met or new foods that she may have eaten but Mary couldn’t think of any
reason that would account for her strange dreams. She began to look very drawn, dark shadows
appeared under her red bloodshot and tired looking eyes. She became nervous and
was afraid to sleep and soon people who knew her began to comment on her appearance,
some even began to suspect that she was suffering from some illness.
Her best friend eventually decided to question Mary
to see if she could offer her any help. They sat at the kitchen table and one
of the questions she asked her was about anything new or different that Mary
may have brought into the home recently. The only thing Mary could think of was
her purchase from the charity shop, the old doll. Her friend asked Mary if she
could see the doll, of course Mary thought that her friend had lost her mind
but nevertheless she went to her bedroom and brought the doll into the kitchen.
As soon as she saw the doll her friends face
changed, she began to cry and she looked incredibly sad. She told Mary that the
doll was extremely sad and didn’t know where she was. She desperately wanted
love and missed her mammy. Over the next
couple of weeks things got worse, cold air, unexplained noises, and the sound
of a young child crying. Mary called her friend.
Her friend suggested that they call on the services
of a local woman who had a reputation for being sensitive to those who have
gone before; some suggested that she had psychic abilities. Mary didn’t really believe in that sort of
thing but to be honest at this stage she was willing to try anything so she
agreed.
When she arrived she instantly knew there was a
spirit in the house. She decided to conduct a séance and found that the spirit
was willing and eager to communicate.
The spirit was within the body of the doll, it said that her name was
Noreen and that she was only six years old when she died. Her father had left
her and her mammy to find work on the roads scheme but didn’t come home so
after a week or two her mammy had gone to look for him. She was left with what
little food they had and her mammy promised to be back shortly and told her to
be a good girl. But even though she had been very good her mammy and daddy
didn’t come home. Eventually Noreen
decided to go and look for her parents as she had no food left, no water, and
was very hungry. She walked for days but the only people she saw were also
starving, there was a very bad smell in the air and it made her feel sick.
Eventually she reached a small town and there she
saw a big stone building. She thought it was bigger than the Landlords house
and was not surprised when she saw some nuns outside. They were handing out
bowls of something hot as Noreen could see smoke rising from the bowls so she
joined the long line. She said she was afraid that it would all be gone by the
time she got to the front but eventually she was given a bowl of thin soup. The
nun asked her where her parents were, Noreen didn’t know so she said the nun
took her into the building and there she remained. She couldn’t get out, she
said that shortly afterwards she began to feel very cold and everything was
dark.
Mary couldn’t understand this until the medium
explained that Noreen was describing her death. After some research Mary and
her friends discovered the place that Noreen described, the stone building
turned out to be a workhouse long gone now. The people who died there were
buried in a mass grave, men, women, and children all thrown in together with no
proper burial service. No record was kept of the children who died and were
buried there so nothing could be done for Noreen’s spirit.
She still
sits on her little chair in Mary’s bedroom but now she appears to be a little
happier. Mary talks to her every night and Noreen feels loved at last.
Sometimes Mary can hear singing at night, it is the sound of a child’s voice and
Noreen no longer feels lonely and afraid.
Happy Halloween from The Storyteller.
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