My cousin works for a rental company in our city. They probably own 1000s of apartments. They’ll often times hire my cousin to come fix up an apartment after a tenet has left and there’s wear and tear to be dealt with. He’s in these apartments all day alone so he’s always happy to have me come drop by if I have nothing better to do than to shoot the shit with him for an hour as he works.
One day last year, he called me to ask if I’d join him at work. I told him no because it was rainy and was really satisfied with my decision to just have a lazy day off at home. He told me there was something I would really want to see. It’s not uncommon for people to leave things behind, and I just figured he found something embarrassing, so at first I wasn’t too intrigued but he kept on insisting. I could tell by the sound of his voice that it was definitely something I wouldn’t expect so I decided, what the hell, maybe I’ll get a good story out of this. I got a story. Not a good one.
When I got there my cousin was excited to show me his surprise and immediately took me into the master bedroom. There was nothing in it except a dying plant that got left behind and some of his tools and equipment. But then I noticed the floors. They had massive dark stains on them. I’m colorblind so I can’t give more of a description than dark brown. They were huge and led all the way to the attached bathroom. He asked me if I knew what the stains were. Before I could answer he told me giddily. It was blood. Looking back down at the stains, who’s ever blood it was lost a massive amount.
My cousin spoke to someone at the rental company he’s friendly with who gave him the scoop. Apparently a young couple used to live there with their young daughter and a few weeks back, while the husband was home alone, he must have had a severe mental break. He somehow cut off his own penis and died of blood loss. The wife found his body in the bathroom with blood everywhere. According to his coworker, there was no sign of struggle, and the apartment door was locked from the inside. Thing is they never found a knife or anything that could’ve done it, and they never found the penis. He joked it still wanders the halls at night. The wife moved out immediately with her daughter.
He told me this as he led me into the bathroom where it happened. I was shocked to see that the blood even stained the tile floor and ceramic claw foot tub. I didn’t even know those surfaces could stain. As I write this out I’m kind of embarrassed for doing this but I really like true crime and such so I took my phone out to take a picture of the stains, when it slipped from my grip and fell underneath the bathtub. I got down on my hands and knees and went to retrieve it when I saw it. A doll with a cartoonish face and smile staring back at me laying on its side. I felt like I recognized the doll so I pulled it out and low and behold I knew exactly what this doll was.
A year prior this doll went slightly viral for having an inappropriate button placement that made the doll giggle. The doll is a cartoonish looking toddler girl that is always in the sitting position. The inappropriate button is placed right on her bum, with the idea being every time you set the doll down the button gets pressed and she lets out a little giggle. The placement on the button created a small uproar and made it go a little viral online, which is why it got recalled. I always wondered why they recalled the doll and didn’t just discontinue the line.
My cousin being the immature dumbass he is immediately grabs the doll and starts slamming on the button, making it giggle nonstop, and joking she must have had her period for the blood stains that had also gotten on it. I rolled my eyes but he kept doing it faster. But then he seemed a little curious. He told me the button goes pretty deep. He started pressing it harder and deeper and deeper into the doll with his index finger while asking why they would design it like that. His finger was entirely engulfed by the doll when we heard a click and he let out a yelp. Something in the doll clasped around his finger. He tried to pull it out but it didn’t work and he started to laugh at himself. But then the doll giggled too.
“I caught you” the doll said. We both looked at each other in shock and became even more confused when the doll, in her playful cheery voice, started counting down from ten. My cousin didn’t think this way funny anymore. He did not want his finger to be in the doll when it reached zero. But ten seconds isn’t a lot time to think. At that point he had rushed back into the master bedroom spastically trying to get his finger out when finally the doll reached zero. My cousin when quiet and still and just looked at me. Then he jerked his hand up and howled as I could hear gears turning in the doll. Before I could even process what happened my cousin threw the doll out of the window into the back alley. I asked what happened but I very quickly saw the answer. His finger was gone. Blood was pouring out everywhere.
I got my cousin to the hospital and while there the doctor asked me if we knew where the severed finger was. Not only was there a chance they could still attach it but it was also a bio hazard to just have it out rotting away. I went back to the apartment building and told the building super I needed to gain access to the back alley. At first she was pretty wary of me because obviously neither my cousin or I lived there, but she must’ve sensed the panic and sincerity in my voice and let me go into the alley.
I found pieces of the doll pretty quickly. She must’ve exploded on impact and it made her cartoonish smile even more ghoulish as it was now on a detached head. In a panic I looked all over for the finger but it didn’t turn up as easily. I got down on my hands and knees looked under a dumpster and my heart jumped when I saw its shadowy silhouette. I never thought I’d be so happy to find a severed finger. I reached in and and pulled it out. It took me a second to realize what it was but once I did there was no mistaking it. My heart sank. It was a blackened from rot, severed penis.