Chapter 24: .Voodoo Doll. ************************* "MACKIE!!!!!!!" Drusilla yelled, walking through the house at a brisk speed.
No answer.
"MACKIE, WHERE ARE YOU???????" she yelled again.
Still no answer.
"DAMNIT, I hate kids!" she cursed to herself. "Come here, Mackerz......I've got a surprise for you..." Mackie peered through the blue table cloth. He was safe in his hiding place for now. "Mackie, dear, please come give Taylor the dolly. That is not your toy!" The little boy pouted from his secret cave. He didn't want to give the doll up. It was too cool looking! Jessica would LOVE this thing.
Anger ripped through Drusilla's voice. She was losing patience. "GET OVER HERE YOU LITTLE SNOT!!!!!!!!!! THAT THING IS MINE AND YOU HAVE NO PERMISSION TO TOUCH IT!!!"
Mackie backed to the far corner of the table. Taylor was never this mean. Sure, he yelled occasionally, but he was never this harsh. He began to whimper soft childish tears.
Drusilla's eyebrows perked up as she heard the muffled sound of small gasps and sniffles. "Bingo." she whispered as she followed the sound of the sobs. Her menacing footsteps found their way to the table, and she grasped the edge of the table cloth until her knuckes turned white. In one quick motion, she tore the fabric from the wooden table, revealing the boy sitting by the far right leg of the table. He had his knees tucked tight to his chest and in his right hand he held an ugly black, almost naked, doll. Drusilla got down on her knees and crawled under the table. The little guy had his head down partially, and his eyes clamped tight. His cries echoed in the small space as he silently prayed his older brother wouldn't hurt him.
"Mackenzie." Drusilla's voice was crisp. "Give me the doll."
"L-leave me alone, please," he softly stuttered.
"If you give me the doll..."
"It's only a toy, Tay-tay!! Why do you want it so bad?"
"Because its MINE." Drusilla's eyes flashed. Mackie gasped in fear and backed up even further. "Look, kid. I'll give you whatever you want. Want some ice cream? I'll get some, and I won't tell mom and dad. Do you want some candy? A cookie? How about we go to the toy store and we get some games or action figures?" Bribery. It was precious.
"I-I don't want any of that, Tay....."
"Then what DO you want?" Drusilla clenched her teeth. She needed that doll.
Mackie began to wail. "I-I j-j-just w-want y-y-you to be n-n-n-ni-nice to m-m-meeee!!!!!!"
Drusilla let out a sigh of relief. So that's all he wants? Wow that was easy... "Aww, I'm sorry big guy! I wasn't being mean on purpose...it's just really important that I get that doll. You scared me!"
"W-why is th-that doll so im-im-important?" Mackie sobbed.
Questions. She hated those. "Because. It's a birthday present. For a friend of mine...it's really rare. One of a kind, to be exact."
Mackie's eyes went wide. "Whoaaa...cool!!" He stopped crying and handed the doll to her.
"Thank you Mack..." she smiled.
"Taylor?" Mackie called as Drusilla started to back out from the table.
"Yeah?" Drusilla answered.
"Do you think you could get me a one of a kind doll someday? Maybe for my birthday?" he asked, shyly.
Drusilla chewed her lip. "I think I could find something for you." She smiled. This would be so much easier than she thought! "Hey, just out of curiousity, how did you get your hands on this thing?"
"Well, me, jessie, and avie were playing hide and seek...and I went to hide in your room. I went to crawl into your trunk...and I saw that there...so I took it." he said blushing.
I have to remember to keep my stuff more secure she thought. "Oh, okay. Can you try to stay out of my stuff from now on? It's VERY personal, and you will make me VERY ANGRY if I find you've been in there again. And believe me...I WILL find out..." she said and stormed off to the bathroom.
Mackie began to whimper again and when he was sure Tay was gone, he made a mad dash for Zac. He ran up the stairs like a bullet and pounded his fists against the room shared by Ike, Tay, and Zac. "ZACCYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! ZAC ZAC ZAC LET ME IN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET ME INNNNN!!!!!" he shouted.
Zac, who was playing video games on his Nintendo 64, heard Mackie right away. "What is it, Mackster? Can you come back? I'm kind of busy...."
"NOOOOOoooooo! I can't! Let me in I'm scared!!!!!!!!"
Zac's head shot up. Mackie was NEVER scared. "What is it?" he sighed. He figured he'd have to go through another lecture about how ghosts don't exist, although he believed differently.
"It's Taylor!!" he shouted in a whisper with urgency.
This caused Zac to become very alarmed. He quickly pressed the pause button on his controller and got up to let his younger brother in the door. When he saw him, he was shivering and had tear stained cheeks. "Mack!! What happened????"
The little bundle of energy slammed the door shut and flung himself into Zac's arms. The poor thing was shaking. Something serious must have happened. "He's so scary!!!!!!!"
Zac was instantly alert. Something was definitely wrong and he needed to hear about it. He was about to sit on his bed, but noticed junk EVERYWHERE. Since Ike wasn't there, he wouldn't mind if they sat there instead. "Come here, sit down, and tell me what's wrong. Here, have some water..." he said and handed Mackie a half-empty glass.
"Tay's mean!!! I found a cool doll in here and I took it...I only wanted to play with it!! Then he saw that I had it........and he chased me and screamed at me. I hid under the kitchen table...for like 15 minutes!!! He called me bad names and sad bad things would happen to me if I ever went in his stuff again..."
Zac sighed. This wasn't like Tay. "Are you sure?"
"POSITIVE!" he said affirmatively. "His eyes were so mean...." he said, crying.
WHAT is wrong with him?? He should know better not to scare Mackie. Besides, he LOVES Mackie. "Hmm...that's very strange. Can you tell me what the doll looked like? Try as hard as you can...give as much detail as you can..." he said slowly.
"Oh, I remember it! I've never seen anything like it, that's why i wanted it! It was a dark, dark brown doll...and it didn't have any clothes on!! Well, it had a little weird skirt thing, but that's it. It's hair was made of yarn or something. It was really weird looking...it had some red stuff over it...but there were all these little...pins sticking out of its belly...I think. They weren't very big, but they were silver...they were only on it's tummy..." he said, recalling the facts vividly. "One of its eyes was half-way shut. The other was wide open though....."
Zac's heart lodged his throat. If he didn't know better, Mackie had just described a Voodoo doll. "Mackie, this is important........did he say anything about the doll?"
He thought for a minute. "Well, he said that it was very rare...one of a kind. And that it was for a friend. I asked him if someday he could get me one too...for my birthday, and he said he could find something..."
"A friend? Listen to me very carefully." Zac said slowly. "Don't take anything like that from Taylor until you talk to me first, okay?"
The little boy nodded, although he didn't understand the severity. Zac knew the severity, but he didn't know what Tay was doing with that thing. Who was it for?? Out of instinct, he wrapped his arm around his brother and held him tight. They sat there for a few minutes, as Zac calmed Mackie down. Not very long after, the silence was broken by a loud scream of agony.
It was coming from the bathroom right outside their room.
Actually, it sounded a lot like Ike....