Hello! Paulfrank Here! I wrote this because we're doing a scary story unit in school, Halloween, October, and in my English class I'm writing this for a grade. I will warn you, this story is creepy and disturbing. Not cliche, its a new idea, and its a psychological horror. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU GET SCARED, THIS WILL BE YOUR OWN DOING. Enjoy!

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"The Pilgrims had many ways of living, one example of that is…”

Danny sighed, and leaned back in his chair. Another Friday, another few hours to wait until he got released from school... It was extremely agonizing, watching the clock tick by, counting the big numbers by fives to get an estimation of how many minutes he had left. He continued this for a while. With a few minutes left to spare, he stared out the window. The bright sunshine seemed to be teasing him, the blue sky looking clear and inviting. Danny couldn't wait to go outside when he returned home. He again glanced up at the clock, and he found that he only had a few seconds left.

5...                      

4…

3…

2…

1…

The bell rang. The other students looked as if they had woken up from a nice long nap. Snapping out of their dazes, Danny's fellow classmates and he leaped out of their chairs and bolted out of the classroom. He strolled over to his friend, Mitch, where he was forced to wait to walk to their next class, science. Mitch was clumsily unloading his science binder and many other textbooks from his locker to carry to class with him.

"Hurry up," Danny urged. "You're going to make me late to my next class."

"Our next class," Mitch corrected him, shutting his locker. He picked up his pile of books. "Plus, I did hurry. This was ten times faster than yesterday."

"Whateveryou say," Danny muttered under his breath. They started walking to the science room.

"Joe told me we're having a science project, with partners," Mitch sighed.

"It won't be that bad," Danny said, trying to brighten the mood. "We can partner up, go to my house..."

He stopped him. "Mr. Georges is assigning partners."

"Well," Danny said, already defeated. "This sucks."

"Yep," he agreed.

They continued to walk to class, and barely made it on time.

"Photo finish," Mitch smirked and high-fived Danny.

The teacher gave them a warning look and they sheepishly walked to their seats.

"Now class," Mr. Georges began. "As you may have heard from the other students from the previous hours, we're doing a science project in partners."

Danny's classmates frantically waved at each other, already deciding who was pairing up with who. He sank down in his chair, already knowing what his teacher was going to say next.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," the science teacher said. "I'm assigning partners."

The class groaned. Mr. Georges smiled and pulled out a list. He started reading it off. Mitch was assigned a guy named Tom. Danny's stomach twisted in dread, hoping for a decent partner.

"...and finally, Danny will be partnered with Eleanor."

He glanced over at the dirty blonde, and she looked over at him and smiled. He then did the same with Mitch, and he was staring him in the eye mouthing, "I'm sorry". Danny glared at Mitch because he knew nothing about her. Eleanor seemed decent overall, even if she didn't say much in class. Who was he to judge?

She ran over to him. Eleanor seemed so excited, and Danny wondered why. Maybe she was happy about the partner situation?

"Uh, hey," Danny said slowly. Her bulgy, overjoyed eyes starting to freak him out. Science projects weren't that great, were they?

"Hi Danny," she seemed to squeal.

He took a step back. "So, uh, you wanna get the rubric and the criteria?"

She nodded quickly, and closely followed him when he walked up to the table where two neat stacks of colorful papers were sitting. He grabbed two from each stack, and while doing so, he could feel a breath on his shoulder. Danny shivered, turned around and flinched when he saw how close Eleanor was standing to him. He scooted back and she stepped forward.

"So listen," Danny said, trying to ignore the fact that Eleanor was inches away from his face. "You wanna come to my house to work on the project this weekend? It's gonna take a while to complete and it would be smart to do it a bit outside of school."

"Sure!" she replied happily. "But it has to be at my house."

"Oh," Danny said. "Is there any reason why-"

"My house," she growled, eyebrows knit together intensely.

Danny backed away, once again. "Okay, okay. Your house on Saturday."

Eleanor immediately brightened. "It's a date!" she exclaimed, emphasizing the word date.

Danny, having a sick feeling in his stomach, weakly nodded. He was pretty freaked out by this girl to whom he never spoke to in his life. And she seemed really attached to him too, more than a normal person should be. They just met!

"We should get started," Danny said quickly, unable to bear the awkward moment. "Less work for tomorrow..."

                        •••••••••••••

Danny biked over to Eleanor's house on that cold Saturday morning. The crisp air slammed up against his face as he rode, giving him chills. Or were the chills for the anxiety of going to the creepy girl's house?

He started scanning the houses for the right address, and finally found a match to a completely normal looking one-story house. He parked his bike and knocked on the door. In a split second the door burst open and there were Eleanor's wide, mad eyes and her overly-wide smile.

"Danny!" she cried out happily. "You were one minute late!"

Danny imagined Eleanor staring at her clock, watching the seconds tick by as she waited for the time of his arrival. He shook that image off, knowing that even she wouldn't waste her time doing that.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't realize that I had to be here at exactly 11..."

She laughed, but Danny didn't know what was so funny. "It's okay, I'll let it go this time."

She grabbed his hand and jerked him up the stairs. "Come on, let's work in my room!"

He reluctantly let her pull him up the stairs, not wanting her to rip his arm off trying. The wooden stairs loudly creaked when his weight shifted on each one.

When they finally made it to her room, it was a mess. Clothes were strewn about, the wallpaper chipped, and the only thing that was tidy was her bed, which was neatly tucked in and smoothed out. Danny found this odd. Eleanor rushed over to a black painted closet, which was slightly hanging open, and closed it.

"Do you like it?" Eleanor asked hopefully and widely smiled.

"It's... interesting," Danny answered somewhat honestly.

"Check the walls," she whispered. "You'll really like what's on it."

Danny completely forgot about all of the posters and pictures that were messily hung about the chipping wallpaper, as the cluttered room was distracting. He examined the walls from afar, given that he didn't move an inch from the doorway. There were pictures of a boy on her wall.

Well that doesn't surprise me... Danny thought. I already kind of knew that she was boy crazy.

But what he didn't know was which boy that was. Curious, because that boy appeared on every picture on her wall, he moved out of the doorway and closer to the images to study them.

When he saw the face, he automatically registered the person. The person was himself. Danny's eyes widened and he again felt the sick feeling in his stomach and chills going down his spine. With a white face, he whirled around to face Eleanor.

"You've been stalking me?" Danny gasped. "For how long?"

"I've been admiring you for years, Danny," she said with a mad smile. "I've always wanted you to notice me. But then I got lonely, so then I took pictures of you and held them close at night. And now you notice me. So we can be together forever, Danny and me, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"You're crazy," Danny whispered. Then his voice grew. "You're crazy! We'll never be together! I barely even know you! Even if I did... you're a crazy stalker!"

Danny threw down the science project and ran out of the room. Eleanor soon heard the front door downstairs slam and silence. She ran over to the window and saw him quickly hopping on his bike to ride home.

I can't let him get away! Eleanor panicked.

She punched a hole through her already cracked window and started crying out to him, waving her bloody fist in the air. "DANNY! COME BACK TO ME!"

But it was too late. She scared her love away. She screamed out in frustration and slashed at the air, making the scarlet liquid splatter onto her bedspread.

"What am I going to do without Danny?" Eleanor murmured to herself. "He's my everything... I've never loved anybody more than him. Have I? No, maybe I just can't recall it."

She wiped her forming tears thoughtfully. "Maybe I can make a replacement." She giggled harshly, and swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah, a Danny Number Two! That's a great idea. I can sew him tonight, and I'll never be lonely. Danny Number Two will understand my feelings and tell me his. Oh, it's going to great!"

She sighed gleefully. "I bet the real Danny will want me back then."

She took her sharp needle and her brown ball of yarn and started to create her perfect companion, someone who will never leave her.

                 •••••••••••••••••••••••••

Danny had a fitful sleep the night before Monday. He had dreams so vivid that he could feel the pain that was being inflicted on him. He remembered the dream where he had sticks that were etching into his back, he screamed as it engulfed him in pain, sending scratches that slowly cut down his backbone, tearing away the flesh and giving way to blood and a yell of mercy.

Danny didn't realize that he was screaming in real life until his parents were shaking him awake. When his parents did so, he was trembling uncontrollably and choking on his own tears. He kept repeating the phrase, "Sticks and stones, they're piercing my bones..."

Danny's parents looked extremely concerned, but didn't know what to say or do to help his insanity. "Honey, just go back to sleep... you'll be better in the morning."

That's all he remembered from that night. Reflecting from that as he laid in bed that next morning, Danny thought he was just caught up in the horror of his dream. He was fine... He just had to go to school and stay away from Eleanor.

She's bad news, he thought. I can't be near her.

Getting ready for school, Danny started to undress. As his t-shirt slid across his back, it touched a tender part of his skin and it started stinging like crazy. He moaned and threw off the shirt, letting it fall to the ground as he noticed blood stains on his pajamas. What the...

Danny turned around to face his mirror, wincing at the searing pain in his back. He awkwardly craned his neck around to look at his reflection. There was indeed a giant scratch on his back. But when he positioned himself to see the full view, he almost shrieked. The reflection in the mirror displayed Danny carved backwards. His breathing quickened as he started rapidly blinking, trying to get the image he was seeing out of his vision. He was hallucinating, right? He had to be... people don't just wake up and have their names carved in their skin at random...

Was he going crazy? Nothing's really happened to drive him to madness except the dream, but that was minor. Just a disturbing dream that his mind decided to generate, is all...

"Danny! Hurry up or you'll be late to school!" he heard his mom call.

Danny jumped. He wasn't even ready. He ran to the bathroom, rummaged through a drawer and grabbed a wad of giant band-aids to cover his deep cuts. They burned, and he knew he should be applying medicine, but now wasn't the time. He threw on a shirt and jeans and sprinted downstairs.

"I'm ready," he breathed to his mom, who was sitting in an armchair reading a book.

"Glad to see that you're better," she said with compassion in her voice, looking up from her novel. "You caused quite a commotion last night."

Danny didn't wish to hear more reminding him of that torturous night. He pretended that he had no clue what she was talking about and grabbed his backpack to leave. He hopped on his bike once he walked outside and started riding it up to the school. Pedaling and exerting pressure on his back made him want to cry out in pain. All of the movements seemed to threaten to rip open his wound, then leaving him in a bloody heap on the sidewalk. He shuddered at that image. When he arrived at school, he parked his bike and limped into school, his back feeling like tight stitches on a scarf, the stiffness hurting him every movement he made. Danny suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and he slapped it away, whipping around with an intense expression on his face. What he saw behind him was a surprised looking Mitch.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Startled me."

"Well you're jumpy today," Mitch observed.

"Yeah, well, I had a rough night," Danny replied with fatigue in his voice. "And a rough morning."

Mitch patted his friend's shoulder in mock comfort. "It'll be okay, nobody likes Monday."

Danny pushed his hand away. "I don't need your sarcasm right now, Mitch. You don't get it. Nobody does." Then he trudged away from him, seeking to be alone. He silently stalked over to his locker and started unloading his books and from his bag. Suddenly, he felt spiky legs brush over his wounded back, sending chills down his spine and causing him to feel painfully ticklish. He froze, numb with fear. He shivered. Were there spiders on his back? He bit his lip, and then slapped his back. But they wouldn't stop. There were spiders on his back, Danny was sure of that. He ran over to a teacher, with a panicked expression. The teacher saw the worry on his face and then looked concerned.

"Are you okay Danny?" she asked him.

Danny wanted to scream that he wasn't okay, but with the last bit of calmness he had, he whimpered, "There are spiders on my back. They won't get off! Please... please kill them…”

The teacher, looking frightened, glanced at his back and laughed. "You got me, Danny. But really, don't joke about those kinds of things. I believed you for a while."

Wait… so they aren’t actually there? he thought. But they are! I can still feel them!

He turned and walked away, trying not to scream in anguish. The crawling sensation didn't fade, and it made him want to fall on the ground, then squishing them. There was some kind of pain in his mind that wasn't going away, but it wasn't happening to him physically. It was happening in his head. Maybe it was just signs of him going insane.

He walked to his English class, and he was feeling the sensation of the imaginary spiders hopping off his back and ceasing to exist. He sighed in relief and sat down, his weary eyes twitching. During silent reading, Danny felt too unfocused to read and instead it was spent absent-mindedly fidgeting with his book and thinking about his mental torture. How was it happening to him? When will it end? He was starting to relax, thinking that it was just some kind of phase that was causing him to weird himself out, when he was sitting in class and a felt white hot sensation. He yelped, and felt his body heating up fast as the pain spread to his scalp. Danny was on fire. He dived out of his seat and started rolling on the ground, but the flames wouldn't stop consuming him.

"Danny!" he heard people scream.

The pain seared through him as he started crawling towards the fire extinguisher, since stopping, dropping and rolling weren't working. He tried to reach for the knob to pull on it, but failed and crumpled to the ground, rolling and writhing in pain. He saw a pair of legs stand over him, and then glanced at his arm, which was shaking. It wasn't on fire. But it was... It was...

Have I lost it? Danny thought.

That was the last thing he thought before he passed out.

When Danny woke up, he found himself to be in a confined room, with just a bed in which he was lying. There were windows the size of slits to the right of him, and he could see his mother and father peering inside with worried expressions on their faces. There was a doctor that was standing in Danny's room, and he looked up from his papers when he noticed that Danny had awakened.

"Hello, Danny," he greeted him. "You're probably very confused about why you are here."

Danny slowly nodded, and the doctor continued. "You were showing a strange state of mental illness, which is unlike you, and your parents thought it would be best for you to spend a few days here. In a mental hospital."

"But I'm not crazy!" Danny blurted out, bloodshot eyes twitching.

He shrugged. "It's what your parents wanted. Anyway, you have someone waiting outside that really wants to see you. She's been waiting out there for hours."

"Bring her in," he commanded, and the doctor nodded and opened up the door for the person that couldn't wait to see him. She ran in, her bulgy eyes gleaming in the bright light. Eleanor. He gasped and turned away from her.

"What do you want from me?" Danny asked with his back to her.

"I brought you a gift," she said with a small smile. "Something that's very dear to my heart."

Danny softened and turned towards her. From behind her back she revealed a charred doll. The arm holding it was mangled with dried blood sticking to it.

"I made a doll," Eleanor said excitedly. "Of you!"

She turned it around. "See, it even has your name on its back."

And carved on the back was in all caps, DANNY.

Like my back, Danny noticed. Wait a second...

Charred doll? Name carved on the back? That doll... is a torture doll! Eleanor has been using that doll to drive me insane! he realized.

"YOU!" Danny screamed. "YOU DID THIS TO ME... YOU TORTURED ME! YOU TORTURED ME! NOW LOOK AT ME! I'M CRAZY! YOU DID THIS TO ME! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?"

With eyes filled with tears, Eleanor took out a pencil that she had in her pocket and stabbed the doll. Danny wailed out in pain and Eleanor was grabbed by one of the doctors and escorted out of the building.

"Danny doesn't love me anymore," Eleanor cried. "Why can't he love me?"

She looked at Danny Number Two. "Even you can't love me! Now I must make sure he loves me... we must be together forever... it's the way it should be!"

Eleanor knew what should be done. She had to kill the hateful Danny and make him love her again. Very early the next morning, she broke into the mental hospital to and snuck Danny out while he was sleeping. She took him to the graveyard near the hospital.

Danny felt hard ground, and his scabs being ripped. He felt the warm blood seep all over his light blue hospital gown, making his back wet and sticky. Then, he felt himself be thrown onto something cold and wooden. He jerked open his eyes. Eleanor was standing over him, and he was laying in a coffin. In an instant, he tried to lunge to attack her, but Eleanor shoved him back into the case.

"If I can't love you," she whispered. "No one can. Goodbye, Danny."

She shut the case to the coffin and darkness consumed him. Danny started screaming, shaking the case, panic spreading through him, trying to push his way out of the dark, claustrophobic place. He resorted to heavy breathing, panic attack over panic attack. He was trying to escape the darkness and regain the oxygen and life he needed to live. He started punching the box. He shouted. He did any action, yelled any phrase that would make Eleanor change her mind. But it was too late. Danny felt his stomach drop, then his entire body slam against cold ground, with the coffin slightly splitting. The lighting in the space grew darker. He then heard weight collapse on the coffin, lessening the oxygen supply inside. Danny, knowing that he wasn't going to escape, screamed and screamed for someone, anyone, to come, but there was no hope. He just had to wait to run out of air and die. He heard the last of the dirt collapsing on the wooden box he was in, and then muffled silence. Danny then knew that death was going to be his fate; no one was going to rescue him because nobody knew where he was. His bloody knuckles stung him as he laid down in the cold, dark, closed-in area, waiting to suffocate.

A few days later, Eleanor traveled to the graveyard site to dig him up. When she did, she found the coffin damaged. She lugged it out and opened it to find a lifeless Danny, with two knarly hands. She gingerly picked him up, and his body hung limp in her grasp. While slinging him on her right shoulder, she noticed that the wound on his back bled through his blue hospital gown.

"We reunite, my love," Eleanor whispered in his ear.

She dragged his body back to her house and to her room, so that they could live together forever.

"Welcome to your new home, Danny," Eleanor said happily. An insane smile crossed over her face. She picked up Danny Number Two. "We've had our moments, but now I have Danny forever. I won't be needing you anymore."

She opened up the black closet and threw the doll in it, leaving the door slightly open. And inside that door sat five other voodoo dolls, each with their own inflictions.