Creepy Dolls

I don't remember exactly how old I was when I had this one, but by the way my room was set up, I do know I was younger than ten. At ten, I was moved into a different bedroom. I was older than eight, though, because my brother was in school, and he didn't start until I was in the second grade. So, I must have had this dream at least thirty years ago, yet the memory of it still gives me chills.

I used to have two favorite dolls. Both had plastic molded heads, but soft bodies and clothes that could be changed. They were made to look like babies, with pouty lips, "button" noses, realistic ears, and wide, round painted eyes and "real" (nylon) hair and eyelashes. They were washable, a must at my house. I named them Audrey and Elizabeth, and I slept with both of them in my bed every night... until I had this dream.

I awaken to the sound of my bedroom door rattling. My little brother knocks that way. I guess he's afraid I'll get mad, so he's very gentle when he knocks. I sit up as he opens the door and tells me I'm late getting up for school.

I ask him what time it is, but he pulls the door closed again.

Crap! I grab my dolls, and rush to the door. I open it to go out into the hallway, where I see that one of my flexible fashion dolls is on the floor.

I wonder, how did that get out here? I pick it up to put it in my room, turn back, and then feel a sharp stinging sensation in the flesh between my thumb and my forefinger.

What? The doll has bitten me! I throw it into my room. It goes bouncing across the floor, landing next to my bed. Oddly, though I just got up, the bed is neatly made.

A jolt of shock and fear go through my chest as I notice one more detail. Audrey and Elizabeth are sitting on top of the covers!

If they  are over there, what am I holding under my arm?

I look down to see to almost exact replicas of my beloved dolls. Almost, that is, except for their faces.

Instead of the cute, baby-faced dolls I know and love, I am holding a couple of evil looking little demon babies. Their eyebrows are as real as their eyelashes. Their faces are drawn down into horrible, teeth-baring grimaces. Their eyes, though, are the worst. Bulging and bloodshot, they glare at me from eye sockets that are stretched out of shape to reveal the flesh beneath the eyelids. It almost looks like someone took a finger and pulled each doll's bottom eyelids down to look, and they just stuck that way. In my shock and horror, I drop them on the floor, where they begin to move on their own. I back away quickly, screaming for my parents.

I remember that I woke up screaming, and threw my dolls across the room, where the hit the door with a loud bang. That brought in my Mom, who sat with me until I calmed down. After that, I never took those dolls to bed with me again, and I have been creeped out by dolls ever since.

I do remember sneaking out of my room when I was really young, and watching what my parents were watching on TV. I have a distinct memory of seeing the scene in the move Barbarella when she is tied to a pole, and little mechanical dolls are biting at her. It may be a campy and ridiculous scene now, but when I saw it I was young enough that I was climbing out of a crib. I know that all of my life, I've found dolls with moving eyes (like the kind that blink when you lay them down) to be scary. I have always suspected that seeing that was the cause of that aversion, and I think it was probably also the inspiration of this dream, even though about six years passed between the two incidents.