To us, this is the number of kids that have been taken and replaced by a life-size doll. 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 on June 16th, a child between the ages of 5 - 12 goes missing in the middle of the night; taken from the very place where the child 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 you happen to be reading this, there’s no point in going out of your way to find us and stop the cycle. As it turns out, the parents here no longer fear the person?…..being?….that they have named “The Dollmaker.” In fact, all year many of the parents in this town pray for The Dollmaker to leave its promise at their house.
After the second victim went missing, little Audrey Meyer, a pattern began to emerge in who The Dollmaker takes. Being in rural Arkansas, it is probably no surprise that many of the folks living here don’t exactly rank in the top 1% when it comes to wealth. So far, each of the victims has come from particularly underprivileged families. Take Aubrey Meyer’s family, for example. Though loving, the Meyers could not afford to feed their four kids who were all under the age of 13. Oftentimes, the family would find themselves needing to resort to hunting for their meals. Rabbits, deer, and even squirrels were all fair game for this family of six. 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 tree root while chasing an animal in the nearby woods, completely breaking his ankle. 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.
You see, 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 noticed that his ankle no longer hurt and that it appeared the bones had been properly set. In fact, this good fortune seemed to extend throughout the entire family. Mrs. Meyers no longer needed her hearing aid, Eben(10) was completely cured of the asthma attacks that have plagued him since he was 4, and the 8-year-old twins(Sophia and Maxwell) were freed from the agony of what was likely Crohn’s disease. In addition to the restoration of their health, the Meyer family had 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, though, that The Dollmaker had fulfilled its promise once again. With June 16th right around the corner, it is only a matter of time before the next family receives their promise….and all the parents are desperately pleading for it to be them, no matter how high the cost of The Dollmaker’s promise.