Chapter 7

And I woke up, with sweat pouring down my body. By bed and clothes were completely soaked wet.

"That was a nightmare? It was all a nightmare!?"

Some light was passing through the curtains, illuminating the interior of my room. I looked at the clock, and realized that I had woken up before my alarm went off. I would be happy if this happened some other day, but in my situation, I couldn't care less.

"I need to put a stop to this." I said to myself. "Otherwise, I will keep feeling this irrational fear. Screw this whole doll business! Like everything else I tried in life, I somehow failed that too..."

I got out of my bed, disabled my yet-to-ring alarm and collected all the doll-making supplies on the floor and my desk.

"I'm throwing these away."

I put everything into a plastic trash bag and unlocked my apartment's door to put them out. But just when I pulled the door open, I noticed a small wooden box sitting in front of it, outside the entrance.

I peeked outside and looked both ways into the apartment corridor. There was no one there, and I couldn't hear anyone around.

"Hello?"

Only the echoes of my own voice answered me. I looked at the wooden box again.

"I'm sure as hell I didn't order anything, so this might be left by my uncle... But why didn't he say anything or come inside?"

I put the plastic bag down and took the wooden box with both hands. As I moved it around, I could hear something striking the box's walls. It wasn't heavy, and I couldn't guess what it could be. Unable to wait any further, I opened the box.

And in horror, I dropped the it. The sound probably woke up everyone in the building as the wooden box broke apart.

Inside that wooden box was the body of a doll, sculpted and carved on some kind of wood stronger than that of the box. As the fragments flew around, a piece of paper also revealed itself.

Before anyone opened their door to see what made the noise, I took everything inside and closed the door.

"What in the world is going on? Am I still dreaming?"

I placed the doll figure far away from me and unwrapped the piece of paper to read the message inside.

"I'm sorry to have scared you earlier. Here is something I think you might like to see - I created her in perfect proportions, just the way you like. Please don't give up because of a misunderstanding. I'm here to help you.

With lots of love,

admin"

This short letter made the sender obvious, it was the old lady who wanted to chat with me yesterday night. Or... at least whatever person I thought to be an old lady.

"She knows where I am."

I was in total shock.

"She knows where I live!.. How does she know where I live!?"

I instinctively went to look out of the window. There were a few passer-bys, but no one I could see was really looking at the apartment block.

"What do I do? I can't change my address! I can't erase someone's memories! What am I supposed to do now!?"

I read the message on the little piece of paper over and over again. I flipped the paper and inspected it for any possible secrets as well, of which there was none.

"Should I tell my uncle?" I thought for a minute. "But no, if I tell them about this, they will never trust me and I will never get to be left alone again... I wish I had someone to talk about this!"

And the clock struck seven o'clock.

"I need to prepare for school. I will find a way out when I come back."

Forgetting completely about breakfast, I took my bag and got out. I quickly went downstairs and rushed outside the building, trying not to look around too much. I was stressed, and anything I could see on the way could form irregular fears.

I was basically afraid of the way my own brain worked.

"Roman! Hey, Roman!"

I recognized this voice, but I couldn't relate it with any person I knew. Who could be calling me just outside my apartment if she wasn't my aunt?

Even though I didn't want to, I stopped and turned towards the voice.

"Roman!"

A girl was waving her hands and running towards me. As she came near, I could see her smile in greater detail.

"Good morning!" she said, full of life.

"Good morning."

"Going to school, huh? Say, you are early this time." she said as she hit me with her elbow.

"Sometimes I'm not late to school, if that's what you want to know."

"Haha!"

"How did you know I live here?" I asked her.

"What? Of course I didn't know you lived here, I was just on my way to school. I happened to recognize you on the way."

"Oh, of course..." I said. My fears were leaking out on innocent, clueless people.

"Hey, could it be..." she said, changing her tone to a softer one. "You wished that I was stalking you, didn't you?"

"Wha- No, that's not what I was thinking at all! It is just that there aren't many people-"

"Ha, you did!" she said. "You wished that I was secretly stalking you!"

"I said NO!"

"Hey, don't play innocent now! It's okay! People want things!"

"How come I didn't see you around here before?" I asked her. She paused for a moment, and looked away before answering me.

"Do you even go outside much?"

That was a reasonable argument - I actually didn't go out much, so it was totally possible that we had just never met each other even though we lived close.

"How do you know my name?" I asked. "I don't ever remember telling you my name. I don't think you ever asked for it when we met that day."

"Huh? Y-you did tell me."

"I did?"

"Y-yes, obviously. How else could I know?"

The conversation just kept going, and before we knew it, we were at school already.