That Certain Doll

This is my entry for the Tails Doll Contest.
There are many events and other factors which influence how we feel about things. Sometimes we’re aware of why we feel a certain way toward something, but other times we’re not, the reasons being a mystery even to ourselves. It was the same way with Anthony. He had a certain toy- a plush doll of Tails, the fox character from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. He’d had the toy since childhood; in fact, he’d had it as long as he could remember. He had stopped sleeping with it like a teddy bear near the end of elementary school, but he still displayed it in his bedroom. While many of his childhood possessions had been donated, sold, or otherwise discarded as he grew into adulthood, he kept this doll in his room through high school, college, and the settling down into his own apartment. He kept the doll on a shelf in his closet along with various keepsakes and other items. However, it wasn’t a mere object that blended in with the others. Every time he saw it, a number of emotions surged through him. First there was a sharp, stabbing sensation of fear, as though he had suddenly been bitten by some wild animal. This gave way to a feeling of dread, loneliness, and despair which, oddly enough, soon turned into a feeling of comfort. This comfortable feeling then blossomed into feelings of peace & security, as though he were a baby being cradled in loving arms. 
There was only one time he could remember not having that reaction upon seeing the doll. That was the time in college when he had some people over, and some jerk went into his room and got the doll. The jerk came in, held up the doll, and began making heckling comments. He wasn’t heckling long; Anthony was on him in a flash. The heckler soon found himself forcibly pinned to the wall, Anthony’s fingers wrapped tightly around his throat. Anthony yanked the Tails doll free from the startled bully and continued to glare at him in fury. It was like an animal protecting its young from a predator, except Anthony was stone silent. The now terrified jerk began to stutter an apology. Anthony flung him to the floor and then demanded to know if anyone else wanted to do anything. The others, shocked by Anthony’s uncharacteristic violence and anger, quickly agreed that no, they didn’t. The jerk was promptly expelled from the dorm and Anthony returned the doll to its rightful place. Anthony then re-entered the gathering as if nothing had happened.
Anthony’s friends would sometimes ask him about the now old and worn Tails doll, and he merely replied that he had had it since childhood, it was like an old friend in a way, and he couldn’t bear to get rid of it. He didn’t tell anyone about the stream of various feelings he felt when he saw the doll, so no one could offer any theories about why he felt the way he did. However, if some of the veterans of the local police force had learned about the doll, they would have correctly deduced the reason.
On a night many years ago, a few officers arrived at a home in response to a 911 call that had been violently, horrifyingly interrupted. They began to approach the house in the darkness, but then one of them saw something that made him gasp. In the glass lay a child, no older than two or three years old. He was curled up weakly and crying softly, and he was hugging a cartoonish-looking fox doll with two tails. By the light of his flashlight the policeman could see that the boy had some vicious stab wounds, and the plush doll was already becoming soaked with the boy’s blood. In a flash, the officer rushed to his squad car, retrieved a blanket, and wrapped the wounded child in it. Knowing there wasn’t much time, he lay the nearly unconscious boy on the back seat of the squad car and then rushed him to the nearest hospital.
The other officers entered the home only to find more victims. In total one man, one woman, and two children were found stabbed or slashed to death in what was evidently a murder-suicide. The boy they found on the lawn, who had either managed to exit the house after being attacked or was outside when he was attacked, was the only victim to have survived. There was nothing to do now but try to piece together the events of the crime and wait for news on the boy’s prognosis. 
Eventually they received news which filled them with relief and joy- the boy was going to make it. After blood transfusions and other treatment, the boy was in stable condition and sleeping in a hospital bed. The now thoroughly bloodied plush doll was taken to a police evidence room. One of the policewomen, in an act of compassion, went to one of those supermarkets that stayed open late in order to get him a replacement toy. Luckily she was able to find a copy of the plush fox doll, which turned out to be a video game character called Tails. She brought it to the hospital room and laid it on the bed beside the sleeping boy. Even though he was asleep, the young boy soon realized that there was something familiar there with him. He reached out, felt the Tails doll, and hugged it close, feeling a sense of love and comfort as he did so. 
Anthony was raised by other relatives. He had surgeries to try to diminish the scars left from the attack. When he grew older, he asked about the scars. He was told that they were the result of injuries he had received when he was very young, but they were nothing to be ashamed about as they were a sign that he was a survivor. His relatives never revealed the truth about how exactly his family died, or how he was attacked by one of his own parents for a reason that no one would ever know. Anthony didn’t ask too many questions, subconsciously too afraid to learn the whole story. As long as he didn’t know the whole story, he would not know why his Tails doll made him feel the way it did. All he could do was drink in the feelings the doll gave him without really understanding why. 
By Raidra
Category:Stories
Category:Short story
Category:Raidra