Doll Soul ( Draft )

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a girl who was claimed to be beautiful  among the young women at the ball parties. One night she was murdered  after rumors spread about her, accused of being a witch that entranced  men. Since then her spirit had been roaming the Blackwood manor,  haunting the halls and wailing over the loss of her life that ended too  soon.

In the house you can hear someone sing in a hushed voice, light as a whisper:Oh, woe to you, my beauty.Death must come to youSo that you may be mine for eternity.Eternity, eternally mine.-----------------------------In  the library Logan was scrolling through websites for Halloween. He  wasn't a big fan of Halloween, he just wanted a topic perfect for the  autumn season and the holiday seemed to be the perfect one. He looked up  haunted houses and wondered if there were any here in Lindbrum. He had  found one. It was called the Blackwood Manor. He read the story behind  it and thought it to be a perfect place nearby to investigate just for  evidence and facts. Besides almost everyone in this town knew about the  Blackwood Manor and it seemed to be the easiest one to find everything  he needed. He just hoped no one else decided to do it but in case he had  something else in mind. Unknowingly behind  him his friends sneaked up behind him and gave him a jump scare. "Boo!"  they said when they touched his shoulders. He turned around to see Mark  and Ric as they laughed at their little scare. "Hey, what're you doing  looking that stuff up? I though you didn't believe in ghosts and that  'mumbo jumbo'?" Ric said, quoting Logan from a conversation before about  a Halloween party and haunted house that they went to one year."It's  just for a paper in English. Didn't you listen to the teacher? He said  find something fall or autumn related and write a paper about it." He  told his friends, whom were part of the last minute people to do their  homework."On fall break? No way! We're gonna  party!" Mark replied. He's the one who loved the parties around the  university. He gave Ric a high five and continued their own little  secret handshake.Logan rolled his eyes and  said, in a kind of joking voice,"You know you guys are close to failing  this semester. It wouldn't hurt to try to stay ahead of having so much  work and studying to do in one night, you know.""Aw,  why do you have to spoil the fun?" One of them fake pouted. They all  laughed regardless of how different they were from each other.Logan  Ridge is just an average 20 year old. He is in college to get a degree  in something, at least to make him a better person career wise. He  wasn't so sure what to do with his life so he's just on a stray path at  Arber University, in the middle of the town of Lindbrum, until he finds a  career that interests him. In his little group of friends he's the  oldest by a year and more mature.Mark had an idea and said,"Hey! Why don't we go check out that spooky old house tonight?"Logan  and Ric looked at him. However it was Ric who agreed with him. "Yeah.  We could make it like a dare or something. Let's make it... uh...  whoever can spend the night at the mansion, without being scared of the  ghosts, wins." The two guys gave high fives.Logan  rolled his eyes again. "There's no such thing as ghosts." He said to  them. When his two friends looked at him with grind on their faces he  asked them,"What? What're you looking at?""You. We dare you to do it. It'll be fun.""No. I don't want to do it because I know I'd win anyway. There's. No. Such. Thing. As. Ghosts." He said once again."Come on, man. We've elected you, and you've gotta do it."Ric added,"If you don't do it, we'll keep calling you a chicken for the rest of your life."He  noticed that his friends were threatening him to take their dare. He  thought about it. If he went tonight he'd have something to help get a  head start on his paper. It was a few minutes later before he exhaled a  sigh and agreed to take the dare. "Alright. Fine. I'll do it, only to  prove that it's not haunted."They shrugged  their shoulders. "Whatever. We'll see you at the front entrance of the  woods that lead to the house. And don't you think about chickening out."**Dressed  in pants and jackets they all waited for Logan. The sun had just  started to set. Mark pulled out his cell phone and checked the time. It  was already 6 in the evening."Where is he?"Just  when they were about to call it off they saw Logan coming. "What took  you?" Mark asked as he put his cell phone back in his pocket."I was outlining my paper. So this is where the manor's at?" He asked as he looked up at the skinny and bare trees."Yep."They  all looked at the trees and even though there was sunlight to spare it  was as if they were standing there just in total darkness. A shiver went  down their spines. An eerie feeling gave off from the forest of dead  trees, like the ghosts from the manor roamed the land that surrounded  it."Well, what're you waiting for? Go on."Logan  stepped forward and was about to enter when he turned around to ask Ric  and Mark a question. "Are you going with me to make sure I do the dare,  or staying here all night?""No way, man! Are you crazy?!"His  friends were a superstitious bunch. He should have known that they  weren't gonna to wait on him all night till the morning. He sighed,  shrugged it off and walked into the 'Blackwood Forest', a nick name he  decided to call it."Good luck!" They said to  him and waved before Logan was gone from light's sight. He waved back  and continued onward. His feet crunched the dry leaves and twigs  underneath as he walked the first floor, the remaining orange light  streaming through the tree branches and casting shadows on the ground.  He hoped to make it out of here by nightfall. The trick was not to get  lost so he walked a straight line. He didn't know how long the forest  was going to be but didn't think as he trudged on.It  was now late evening. The moon and stars tried to come up into the sky  above. "Man, why does it have to be so dark in here? Wasn't it daylight  just now?" Logan didn't know what to think anymore. He's been stuck  forever, or it seems like forever, in this forest now. And he wouldn't  have been in this situation if he didn't take a dare to go into this  forest in he late evening. Why did he go anyway? He wanted to prove he  wasn't no chicken and that the mansion on the other side of these creepy  woods, up on the high grassless hills, wasn't haunted. He didn't really  believe in all that junk. It was just a bunch of superstition, anyway.His  friends were the ones who told him about the Blackwood manor being  haunted, recently confirmed they said at the entrance, and dared him to  stay a whole night there. He would've rejected if they weren't on fall  break.It was dark in these woods. The trees  and their limbs were gnarly like an old hags fingers ready to snatch him  up. He pulls up the hood of his jacket over his forehead and looks down  at the dirt and beaten path to avoid the visions of the trees. He hated  to admit it but he was getting a spine tingling vibe from this place.  He doesn't like it one bit at all.His  imagination kicks in with visions of murderers and stalkers lurking  behind every tree trunk, watching his every move. His heart started to  pound a bit, and in an attempt to calm himself down he breathed in deep  breathes and let it out."Come on. There's  nothing in here... Maybe woodland creatures, but nothing to worry  about." he chided. 'I got to stop reading those thriller and suspense  books.'It looked like it was getting darker  and darker with every step he took. Logan decided to walk faster to try  to get the end of this mess of trees. He figured that he must be a  little bit beyond the middle of the forest because the trees were  getting less and less.'Come on. Come on.' he thinks to himself.Just  when he thought that this walk would last forever he sees an opening.  He watched his step he ran to the open door way made of two trees'  trunks and tangled branches. He breathed heavily and let out a sigh of  relief and looks to the sky. The white moon was rising in the dark  velvet sky.Logan started walking once he was  calmed down. In the distance he could see the hills, like miniature  mountains, the moon light his only guide in this dark evening. The  further he walked the less he saw flowers and grass, or any other sign  of plant life. Anything that was green was now dry, crinkly, and grayish  black that if you touched it it would crumble and turn to dust.His  mind wandered as his eyes looked around him. Death has surrounded him,  no life whatsoever. His feet automatically walked him further on ahead  anyway. As he neared the hills his mind raced. What was he going to do  to make this night go any faster?He bought  himself out of his thoughts and then climbed the dirt road to the  Blackwood Mansion. The autumn breeze was nippy and Logan was glad to  have bought a jacket with him. He kept his eyes straight ahead, looking  for the house. He didn't know how long he stared but he heard a noise  and it made him jump. He realized that it was his cell phone alerting  him that he was got a call from Ric.He pulled the little phone out and answered,"Hello?""Hey, man. Did you make it yet? You've been a long while and we thought you was trying to find a way out of the dare."Logan  sighed in annoyance. "No. The forest was darker than I thought it was.  You'd think that with all the leaves gone there'd be some light in  there. But there was barely any that I had to wait for my eyes to  adjust.""Oh. Oh, man. That sucks."Logan  thought he heard a snicker from either Ric or Mark but decided to  ignore it. "Yeah. Hey, let me get off and I'll text you when I make it."Ric  on the other end agreed and said bye to him. He pressed the end button  and he was disconnected from human contact again. A feeling of  loneliness settled in and Logan started thinking about his parents,  wondering if they knew what he's doing or are aware of his whereabouts.Before  long the manor came into view. The size of it was astounding. It looked  so different than the pictures on the internet where it is daylight. No  wonder they wait till the day to even dare to come here. The place had  an unsettling air around it, kind of like a creepy aura that surrounded  it. He pulls out his cell phone and texted: I'm here. Going to go in.  See ya tomorrow morning.He walked up the  creaking wooden stairs. He walked almost on tiptoe as if he might wake  the dead if he wasn't quiet. His eyes darted from one side to another,  checked to make sure that he was the only one there. He cane upon the  door and opened it. A loud and long squeaking noise escaped from the   doors hinges.Logan poked his head inside the  dark and dank hallway. The house was definitely old. The wallpaper was  almost all the way peeled off. Some shreds and pieces of the decorative  paper lay on the dust encrusted floor. A water stained red carpet led  the way into a larger hallway with wide stairs that leads upstairs to  the rooms. A few of the windows had cracks and some were busted. They  let the moonlight in, shining a white like light on the floor and some  of the furniture.Logan yawned and stretched. "I'm tired. I'm never doing anything like this again."Now  that he made it he was ready to go to bed. Logan held the off white and  dusty rail of the grand staircase and makes his way to the rooms  upstairs. As he does he remembered what he read about this mansion.  There was some sort of murder that happened here and it involved a young  lady, not much older than Logan, and since her parents couldn't live  without their only child they died out of great sorrow and a heavy  heart. Deeply inside him he could feel the sadness that seemed to dwell  within this home.All the wooden doors looked  the same all the way down the hall. How would anyone know what room was  what? He tried opening the doors to see where they lead. Some were  locked, and probably for a good reason. He wasn't going to meddle into a  dead family's house for no actual good reason.At  the end of the hallway there was a lamp stand outside. And there sat on  top of it was a porcelain doll. These dolls kinda freaked him out but  this one in particular looked so much like a human girl. Her white skin  and pale colored hair was too beautiful to even be considered real. Her  rosy lips looked like they were air brushed but that had a sense of  beauty. Her half closed eyes shows how long her eye lashes were, eyes  were the color of rose quartz, and they shined like jewels. In fact,  they were almost liquid looking, just like a human's eyes. She looked  like she was... sad and were looking for help. He had to shake himself  out of this trance, for a second he forgot she was a doll."Weird."Logan  twisted the knob of the door and looked inside. This room belonged to a  girl, because of the flower design on the walls and the covers on the  four poster bed. The Blackwoods must've been pretty wealthy to buy what  they wanted. It was also a shame that there are no more Blackwoods to  claim this house. The mansion must've been a grand one during its time.Logan  put all thoughts of everything in the back of his mind as he made  toward the bed and slowly laid on it. He dusted the pillows first before  laying his head back. He stared up at the ceiling of the bed and tried  his best to sleep but it was hard to do that in a place like this. He  didn't know what time it was already. His eyes were hurting because of  it being well past the usual time he goes to sleep.He tossed and turned until his eyes automatically closed and he drifted to sleep.***She  saw him. She saw a boy around her age, with dark spiky hair and gray  eyes, had came into the house. No one's been here since her parents died  and she was so happy that she wanted to welcome him. But sadly she  couldn't move anymore. She felt like crying.'No!  No more crying!' she thought to herself. Then she used her spiritual  energy to get a message to the boy named Logan, whom sleeps in her old  bedroom.