voodoo doll short story

A young girl woke up alone in the woods. From the moment she regained consciousness, she felt an ache in her heart. No blood or wound could be found upon inspection, but the ache insisted there was something wrong. Some part of her was injured, even if she couldn’t see it with her eyes. She couldn’t remember what had brought about the plague of heartache, but there was some part of her in the back of her mind that told her it wasn’t important anymore. Whatever the cause, it felt as though whatever happened was meant to happen, and there would be no reversing it.

With that thought, she pulled herself upright from the fetal position she’d just been curled up in. Dirt and rocks dug into her elbow as she leaned on it to support herself. Finally, she decided to just stand up and take a look around.

She stood alone in a small clearing surrounded by tightly packed trees and foliage in every shade of green imaginable. The space allowed for a clear view of the sky overhead, unobstructed by the canopy of leaves. Dark gray stormclouds heavy with impending rain loomed ominously overhead. The humid scent of a storm coming hung in the air around her. 

A loud and sudden clap of thunder shook the earth underfoot. The girl cowered, covering her ears instinctively. Bolts of lightning followed as expected, flashing across the sky only a few seconds later with a pitiful crackle. In the brief but bright light, the girl spotted something deep within the sea of green and brown - something blue. It was hard to make out any details as the rainclouds obscured the Sun more and more. Not seeing any other straw to grasp at, the young girl began moving toward it, only finding her way illuminated by the infrequent bouts of lightning in the storm.

As she got closer, she could hear the faintest whispers passing through the trees like a breeze. It was so quiet, she couldn’t make out the words; but it was so distinctly a person’s voice talking in a whisper. The volume increased as the blue blob came more into view, but the girl still couldn’t hear any distinguishable words in the noise. 

Finally,  she came upon what she’d been looking for. There were blobs of blue scattered all throughout a massive growth of deep, emerald green bushes. In another flash of lightning, she could see more clearly that they were hydrangeas. The flowers were bright and lively, anxiously awaiting the abundance of water they were about to receive. While they were named for the way the bunches look like pouring water pitchers, hydrangeas also require a lot of water to maintain. For such a large growth to be here in the forest, it must rain pretty often, she thought to herself.

Gently, she reached out to touch one, and when she did, something fell to the ground by her feet as though it had been sitting precariously within the blooms. The girl bent down to pick it up and found it was a small, skinny dagger that looked more like a miniature sword. It was untarnished and bright silver, catching even the faintest light and reflecting so it glinted like starlight as she turned it in her hands. She held it upside down by the hilt and stared at it for a moment. The tip was pointed right at her heart that still writhed with agony. Without a second thought, she plunged the blade into the center of her chest and collapsed to the forest floor.

Blood quickly poured out of the wound and pooled up all around her. She watched as it seeped into the soil beneath the flowers. The pain was so blinding now that it was like there was no pain at all, like a fire so warm it feels cold to the touch. 

She screamed, doubled over from the pain. As she did, thunder growled, much louder than before. Only a moment later, the lightning flashed. The storm was growing louder, and the lightning getting closer as well. None of it mattered to her, though. She let out another hallowing wail with her hands planted on the ground in front of her. As if in response, the rain finally fell from where it had been gathering in the clouds. It came down all at once in heavy sheets, like the sky cried with her.

The girl felt herself going in and out of consciousness, so she lowered herself to lay on her side. She looked up at the bushes of hydrangeas looming over her and the stormy sky beyond it. What a beautiful scene to be the last thing I see, she thought. 

However, it was not the last thing she would see. When she did wake again, the sky still bore the same foreboding overcast look, but it had stopped raining. It didn’t seem to be any brighter or darker than it had been before to indicate any time had passed. It’s like she had simply blinked, and not bled out to the point of losing consciousness. 

One thing had changed, though. The pastel, baby blue hue of the hydrangeas was gone. In their place was a soft yet vibrant pink that almost glowed in the low lighting of the stormy sky. It was not just a few, either. Every single bloom was now this entirely different color with not a single blue petal remaining as proof it had been that color at all. Heavy dewdrops decorated the leaves now after the downpour, and small puddles were scattered between the trees. Although she should have felt uncomfortable in the wet clothes weighing her down, the girl somehow felt lighter than she had before. 

She brought a hand to her chest and felt nothing but smooth skin. No wounds, no blood, same as before; but now, there was no ache in her chest. In fact, she couldn’t really feel anything at all. No sadness, no elation, only a cold numbness pervading every bit of her soul. Whatever sorrow had agonized her before no longer held any power here. 

Looking down, she saw that same blade from before. It was completely clean, still sparkling silver as it had been when she’d first seen it. Picking it up once more, the young girl looked to the long, pink locks that fell around her shoulders. She pulled all her hair to one side and grasped it in one hand, the blade in the other. In one swift motion, she pushed the dagger away from her body and through her pale pink hair. It all fell to the dirt with an almost inaudible thud. 

She looked up and ahead of her now. There was now a road visible through the trees where there hadn’t been before. She distinctly remembered seeing nothing but forest before, and now she could see the smallest sliver of civilization. With a deep breath, she took the first steps towards it.