THE PROMISE
My name, well, I suppose that’s not important. My only concern right now is sharing our story in the hopes that somebody, anybody, can stop what is happening in this Godforsaken town. Please, I am begging you, my little sister is only 6 and I’m afraid that next year, the demon will choose her.
To start, you should know that there have been 3 victims:
Victim #1: Audrey Meyers, 7 years old
Victim #2: Analee Jones, 5 years old
Victim #3: Dixon Crawford, 8 years old
From the single freckle on the tip of the nose to the golden blonde of the hair, each doll captures the child’s unique characteristics perfectly. For the past 3 years in June, a child between the ages of 5 - 12 goes missing in the middle of the night; taken from the very place where they should feel the safest. All that is left behind in the now-empty covers of the child’s bed is a doll and the same promise that is left every year on this fateful night:
A promise I make to you
Money, health, and good fortune
All of this will be yours too
Now now, don’t get all riled
Though the time has come for us to depart
A child replaced with a child,
That’s all I’ll take in return for your new start
If it weren’t for my little sister, I would say that there’s no point in going out of your way to find the town and stop the cycle. As it turns out, the parents here no longer fear the demon that they have named “The Dollmaker.” In fact, many of the parents in this town spend their days praying for The Dollmaker to leave its promise at their house. My parents are no exception.
THE FIRST CRITERION
After the first victim went missing, 7-year-old Audrey Meyer, a pattern had not yet emerged in who The Dollmaker takes. By the second victim, however, the folks in town knew the families most likely to receive a visit from their mysterious “friend.”
Being in rural Arkansas, it is probably no surprise that many of the people living here don’t exactly rank in the top 1% when it comes to wealth. Hell, most of us can’t even afford to get ourselves a new pair of tennis shoes. Instead of buying something new whenever it goes to pot, you’ll see many folks utilizing duct tape like it’s the holy grail of fixing what’s broken. I mean, come on people, do you really think duct tape can turn your deathtrap of a rusted-out 1997 Dodge pickup truck into a sportscar? Now, maybe using duct tape is a bad idea. Just maybe, however, it would have worked better if these families had just used duct tape instead of praying to a mysterious demon of the night.
So far, each of the victims has come from a particularly underprivileged family. Take the first victim’s family, the Meyer’s, for example. Though they appeared to be a loving family, they couldn’t afford to feed their two kids, who were under the age of 7. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there are numerous perfectly understandable reasons why a family might be in this situation. Growing up, I’d oftentimes see that the family would resort to hunting for their meals. Rabbits, deer, and even squirrels were all fair game for this family of four. As much as it disturbed me to see this, I understood. Hell, my family isn’t much better off. It was during one of these hunting sessions that the father, Eddie Meyer, got injured. The gossip around town surrounding the injury tells a story of Mr. Meyer’s tripping over a gangly tree root while chasing a 6-point buck in the nearby woods, snapping his ankle like a small twig. Unable to afford the hospital bill, Mr. Meyers’ ankle never healed properly, leaving him with a significant limp and chronic pain. That is, until June 16th, 2020.
THE SECOND CRITERION
Ever since The Dollmaker visited the Meyers’ residence, miracles seemed to be happening for the once poverty-stricken family. Only a few weeks after Audrey went missing, Mr. Meyer’s woke up one morning to find that he longer had a limp. Miraculously, it seemed as if the bones had been set back in place and completely healed, all in a single night and without him even noticing. In fact, this good fortune seemed to extend throughout the entire family. Loretta, Mrs. Meyers, was no longer suffering from Crohn’s disease and Eben(6) was completely cured of the asthma attacks that have plagued him since he was 3. In addition to the restoration of their health, the Meyer family had begun to see a significant influx of money coming in. So much so that, instead of hunting for their dinner, the family was now feasting on lavish meals consisting of steak and whatever side dish and dessert that they desired. Even more odd was that, at first, nobody knew where the money was coming from, not even the Meyer family themselves. It appeared that, for the very first time, The Dollmaker had fulfilled its promise. What the residents of this town didn’t realize was that the Myers family’s supposedly kind demeanor and The Dollmaker’s oh-so-generous promise were only that: an appearance. And, as we all know, appearances can be deceiving.
You see, The Dollmaker, in addition to choosing an impoverished family to visit, has a second condition that had yet to be discovered: they must be hiding a dark secret. How exactly The Dollmaker uncovers the family’s secret has yet to be discovered but it can only come from months of watching and waiting. As it does, The Dollmaker begins to see things only it is privy to. Some of these things are ordinary for just about any family; little Eben of the Myers family curling up in bed with his favorite stuffed elephant named Heffalump(or Hellaphump as Eben says) or Analee Jones hopping in mud puddles while singing “Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day!” Some things that The Dollmaker sees, however, are much less wholesome.