He didn't intend to check it. Who really cared what was there? He didn't. He could just tell Sam and Tj that he did if they asked. They wouldn't know.

When he got to the part of the path next to the clearing, he didn't look, just kept on walking. "Oh look, the doll is there," he said sarcastically before adding, "Duh. Dolls don't move on their own..."

Woods at the ends of cul-de-sacs weren't magical places where you get lost if you don't see some random junk sitting around, or don't follow some silly rules that didn't really even make sense... But...

Sighing, Caleb slowed to a stop and turned. "Maybe just a quick look..."

Annnnd surprise, surprise... She wasn't there.

"Of course she's not." Caleb rolled his eyes. Tj would've had plenty of time to come back and snatch the doll while he'd been at home, digging around for his card collection. A tiny part of him did get a thrill out of the idea that something mysterious really had happened, though—or was happening. Like wanting to believe in Santa Claus, or leprechauns and rainbows with pots of gold. A doll that really did appear and disappear on its own would be incredibly rare and special. Definitely supernatural. And definitely creepy...

Caleb kept going.

The creek was still on his right. He passed the same few trees, stepped over the same root that had nearly tripped him up before, and a few minutes later, he got to the meadow and could see Tj standing near the clubhouse.

"Hey!" Caleb called, waving. Tj waved back. "The doll wasn't there, you know, but I found my way!" Caleb boasted as he got closer. "Didn't get lost!"

Tj didn't reply. He just...kept waving.

"What'd you do with the doll?" Caleb wondered, but his voice kind of died off towards the end of his question. Tj...didn't look right. Caleb had gotten closer, but it was like Tj still hadn't come into focus like everything else had—his features had stayed blurred like the figures in the background of the oil painting they used to have in the dining room at their old house.

Caleb blinked. Squinted. Rubbed his eyes...but then stopped dead in his tracks. All at once, his senses suddenly screamed at him that what he was looking at didn't feel right. In fact, it felt very, very wrong. Even with the sun once again beating down on him, goosebumps bristled across his arms, his blood felt like ice, and his head finally pieced together that...that wasn't Tj.

Whatever it was, stopped waving and lowered its arm.

Caleb didn't move a muscle—found he was too scared to—until a deep, heavy splash caused him to jump nearly a foot in the air, and he took off into a full sprint.

Branches slapped him in the face, and bushes scratched at his shins. He cut through a thicket to get back onto the path and vaulted over that raised root. The creek was on his left. At least in his fight or flight state, he'd made sure of that.

Caleb was a fast runner. One of the fastest in his class, but he felt like whatever he'd heard was bearing down on him. He could feel the prickles on the back of his neck. He shot past the clearing, ignoring the stitch in his side. It looked lighter up ahead—like more sun was making it through the crowns of the trees, which meant that just up ahead, around this bend, should be the break in the trees. Only...

Caleb came to a full stop, doubling over to catch his breath. He squinted at the path ahead of him. It stretched further. It didn't look like he'd reached the edge of the woods at all. The opening up ahead was the clearing...the one on the right... The one he'd passed several minutes ago. Caleb raised to his full height and looked behind him. Nothing...

Had he mistook how far he'd been? He'd not really looked, since he'd been so focused on getting the heck out of here, maybe he'd not actually reached the clearing when he thought he had. Shaking his head, he huffed and fixed his eyes on the path, continuing forward. He'd check this time. Just to make sure he had his bearings right.

After another quick look over his shoulder, he stepped into the clearing. The couch was there, the fire pit, but no doll... He checked behind the far side of the couch. Walked completely around it. She wasn't there. But this was the clearing. It couldn't be a different one. There weren't two couches in a clearing, with a fire pit in the middle of the woods.

Frowning, Caleb gave the fire pit a closer look. That was when he noticed something wedged between two of the rocks, partially sticking up... A baseball card. That hadn't been there before, right? He'd looked for one when Tj had mentioned it. He would've seen it. Caleb was certain he would've.

Setting down his binder, he pulled the card free of the rocks and wedged it between the cushions on the couch, like a secret marker for himself. Then he got back on the path and started jogging, clutching the binder tightly under his arm.

Caleb had just gotten his timing wrong in his panic when he left the meadow. His short cut to the path hadn't been that short. Had to be. He'd be out soon. The creek was still on his left. He sniffled a little, wiping off the sweat from his brow with the neck of his shirt. It was just a little farther. Just a little farther and he'd reach the edge of the woods, leave the comfort of the shade, and be back out into the blaring, unforgiving sun—onto the cul-de-sac. But after one more bend in the path, he stopped.

"What the hell?"

Caleb gawked at the sight of something blue up ahead on his right... When he got to the clearing, he saw that it was the couch, but it wasn't the same faded burgundy it'd been before. It was a royal blue, now...and it wasn't the only piece of furniture there anymore. Across from the campfire was a standing lamp with a beige lampshade and fringe, and an oval coffee table was where the spent campfire should have been. Caleb could kind of make out the doll, sitting on the ground, obscured by the coffee table.

Did she look the same?

"...H-Hello?" Caleb didn't know why he said that. There was no one else around.

He set his binder down on the path, and stepped into the clearing. He had to get a better look at that doll...

Hesitantly, he picked her up and gave her a scrutinizing once-over. Same hair... Same dress... Same not-smile. That was a relief, though he wasn't sure why. It didn't change the fact that these things were here, and they shouldn't be.

The longer he stared, trying to make sense of it, the more an aching sense of hopelessness filled his chest. He hadn't felt that way since right after their dad had passed. Caleb touched the arm of the couch—sunk down onto one of the cushions...

His fingers dipped in between them and he felt the edge of a card. No...

"No! No way," Caleb blurted, jumping up. "Tj!?" he called. "Anyone?! Hello?" His voice echoed among the trees... "How? Who's doing this?!"

A snap towards the entrance to the clearing drew his attention and his eyes went wide. He dove behind the couch, with his legs tucked up to his chest, huddled as low as he could get. He closed his eyes tight, as if the sudden darkness was from a blanket he'd thrown over his head. He could hear footsteps...or at least, they sounded like footsteps. Right? He was too afraid to look, and his pulse was pounding too loudly in his ears. Caleb clamped his hand over his mouth, his eyes were shut so tightly that he could see red bursts behind his eyelids. Then, he heard it...

"Ca~leb?" Sam?!

"Caleb?" And mom too?!

Caleb leaped to his feet to look towards the path... His binder was gone. He couldn't see anyone, but he knew he'd heard them.

"Mom!? Mom!" he called, dropping the doll and racing out of the clearing and back onto the path.

There! There they were! He could see them! Sam in her yellow costume dress and mom with his binder in one hand... He was so overcome with relief that a few fat tears skidded down his numb cheeks as he began jogging towards them. They were quite a ways down the path, heading farther in to look for him.

"Sammy! Mom!!" Caleb shouted, waving his arms. "I'm right here!"

But just as they were turning around, something grabbed Caleb's arm and yanked him off of the path so roughly that the collar of his T-shirt choked him for a second and he fell hard onto his back between some dense bushes.

Tj was on top of him, eyes wide and wild like he'd lost his mind, and he clamped both hands down over Caleb's mouth.

"Shut up!" Tj hissed. "What are you doing!?"

Caleb struggled and bucked with every bit of force he could, but he was already winded. "That isn't them!" Tj whispered harshly. "Keep making noise and we're both dead!"

"Caleb, where are you?" Sam called.

She sounded just like Sam. Exactly like her. He knew his sister's voice. But... Tj looked terrified. Like he really believed his life depended on Caleb believing him, and had Caleb's stomach performing nauseating flips.

"Caleb?" Mom...

"I think I heard him over there," he swore he heard Sammy say.

"Look, I'm gonna let you up, okay? But just peek first." Tj said, barely audible despite him being right in Caleb's face. "Please. If you don't believe me, just get'a look at their faces. But if you get them onto us, I'm ditching you, and I'm not turning back for you. You're on your own. Got it?"

Just get a look at their faces...

But...if he did, was he going to see something like what he did near the clubhouse? The thing that looked like Tj, but not really? Chills swept across Caleb's arms and neck. Reluctantly, he nodded, immediately wiping the sweat from Tj's hands and his own tears off his face as soon as he was able to sit up.

"Maybe he's back at the clearing!" Sam sounded closer already.

Caleb looked over his shoulder at Tj, who was still crouched, and shook his head at him, inching back, away from the path, further into the cover of the brush. He didn't wanna believe Tj. Wanted him to be wrong, and to be able to just jump out and show his mom and sister where he was, and everything be okay, and they all just go home... But deep in his chest, he dreaded looking now... Tj's warning made it sound like he'd seen something like what Caleb had seen at the clubhouse too. What would happen if Tj was right, and that really wasn't mom and Sam?But if it was and he let them go further without knowing the dangers... Caleb was so scared that he could hardly think straight, and his hands were trembling.

His mom called for him again. Caleb took a deep breath. Then, he rose up just far enough to poke his head out, and get a glimpse at the figures he so desperately wanted to be who they seemed like they were...but at that very same moment, Sam turned away—to look back at their mother—just in time that he couldn't get a good look.

The sigh that left Caleb as he ducked back down was really more of a whimper... Did he dare look again?

"Come on, Mommy! I think he's over here!"

"Okay, Sweetheart." Closer now...

Caleb hung his head.

"Caleb," he barely heard from behind him. "I'm going!"

Against every want screaming in his head, and despite the lump of longing clocking his throat, Caleb carefully turned around, keeping low, and followed Tj.

The other boy led him away from the path, between bushes and through trees and over tangled mounds of roots, moving quicker the more distance they put between them and where they'd been.

"Tj! How are we gonna get out? Won't we get lost?"

"We're already lost," Tj whispered back. "Just stay close!"

"But the path?"

"That's what I'm looking for, Stupid! We have to find the path and the clearing with the doll! Because you screwed something up! Royally!"

"No, I didn't!" Caleb spat back defensively—out of breath, side still aching.

If the doll was there, he was supposed to go forward. If she wasn't, he was supposed to go back. Right? Or...Wait. No. That wasn't what Tj had told him when he was leaving to walk his sister home. He'd said if the doll wasn't there, to keep going until he found the right clearing. Didn't he? Okay, fine. Maybe Caleb's head had jumbled some things, but the doll had been there when they'd first come in, so they kept going and got to the clubhouse. Then, when him and Sam left, the doll was there, and they kept going, and got back out to the cul-du-sac just fine. So, it must've been when he hadn't checked... That was when he'd messed things up...

"But the doll was there!"

"When?" Tj shot back, finally slowing down to look at him.

"Right before I heard Mom and Sammy. Right before you pulled me down."

Tj sighed, then growled in frustration as he rubbed his face. "Then you screwed it up again. You could've left the woods, but you went farther in instead!"

"I thought I was going after my mom and sister," Caleb gritted out. "Wouldn't you have?"

"No!" Tj threw up his hands in exasperation. "No! I wouldn't have, because—That's. What. This. Place. Does, Caleb! I told you both that! It'll change. It'll try to trick you. All you have to do is look for the friggin' doll, man! It's not that hard!"

Caleb wanted to argue, but he bit his tongue. They were who knows where, completely off the path, with no end to the woods in sight... He truly had no idea which way to go. He was hungry, exhausted, and had a pounding headache.

After what felt like nearly a half an hour of walking, Tj finally stopped."Get down," he whispered, crouching as well.

"What? What is it?"

Tj angled Caleb's shoulders, then pointed. Something was up ahead, but it was hard to make sense of what it was...It looked solid...Like a wall, and about the same height too. As they both creeped up on the structure, they came across a path, and the closer they got, the more bizarre and surreal their view became. It was the clearing, but three walls and a ceiling now enclosed it, like a life-sized version of the dioramas they sometimes made in school. The wallpaper looked vaguely familiar behind the picture frames adorning the walls. The couch was still that same blue as the last time he saw it. The lamp was there in the far corner, but it was on somehow providing a yellow-y orange cast to the sun-shielded space... The coffee table was there, but most importantly, Caleb saw the doll seated on it—as if someone had just delicately placed her there moments before.

"Tj, what is this?" Caleb asked only as loud as he dared while following Tj into the room.

Tj shook his head. "I've never seen it like this before..."

"She's here though, so...we can leave, right?"

Tj was focused on something next to the doll on the table... A narrow piece of newsprint, snipped from a paper.

"What's it say?" Caleb wondered, checking over his shoulder, ears and eyes still peeled. He didn't trust that something wouldn't sneak up on them.

"It's about a lady that used to live around here and her porcelain dolls," Tj replied. "It's old, though. From eighty seven. I guess she died... It says, 'The dolls are planned to be auctioned off individually on Tuesday night, seven pm'," he quoted. "Look."

Caleb moved closer, taking the strip of newsprint in hand. He stared at the picture of the woman—beloved by her community, survived by her three daughters and two grandchildren...

"...Caleb?" Tj asked, causing the other boy to jump. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Yeah... Let's get out of here."

Together, they both stepped back onto the path. "It's this way, right?" Caleb whispered, pointing. Everything sounded so uncomfortably quiet around them, and he wasn't sure when it'd gotten that way.

Tj nodded, quickly walking ahead. "Creek on the left, 'cause we're leaving..."

Sooner than Caleb had expected, the trees began to thin, then get more sparse, until finally they crossed the edge of the woods. It was still plenty bright out. The sun was hot and miserable, and Caleb couldn't be happier to see it. As they were making their way down the sidewalk, a woman, who was talking to another on one of the houses' front porches happened to look over, and when she did, she gasped, then let out a scream that echoed across the otherwise quiet cul-de-sac as she scrambled down the porch steps and ran towards them.

"Tyler! Tyler!! Oh my god! Thank god! Thank goodness!" she sobbed, pulling him into her arms. "Where have you been?! Oh thank god! When you didn't come home-"

"I was only out a few hours," Tj said, looking as alarmed by his mother's reaction as Caleb was unsettled by it.

"Hours?! Tj, it's been days! Where have you been! The cops came, and your father-"

"Days?!" Caleb's world spun. "That's..." Impossible? Actually, after what he'd just gone through, maybe it wasn't. But that meant- "I need to get home!" Caleb cried, but when he tried to go, Tj's mom grabbed his wrist.

"Wait! Are you Caleb?" she asked, still clutching her son with her other arm like she'd never let go of him again.

"Yes?"

"Come inside, I'll call your aunt and uncle."

"What? No! I gotta get home, my mom and Sammy are probably really worried!"

All of the color left Tj's mom's face, and she gave him a frown that looked like it teetered between sympathetic and pitying. "Your sister is with your aunt and uncle," she explained.

"She is?" Caleb balked. But that didn't make any sense. "Why?"

Tj's mom bit her lip, her brows creasing together.

"Why?" he repeated.

"Your mother went out looking for you the same day you two disappeared, and she... She's still not back..."

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