He closed the door of the attic office then sat down at his desk and pulled out the lower drawer as far as he could. The twisted corner of a plastic shopping bag was peeking out from underneath a stack of paper. It had been tucked in the back of the file drawer for over a week now. Out of sight but never out of his mind. Now that the dark moon had come back around, he was ready for it.
He pulled the bag from its hiding place and shut the drawer, then he pushed his keyboard and mouse aside, clearing an area on the surface of his desk. He emptied the contents out onto the space and set about opening an oblong box. After a few moments of struggling with twist ties and string, he managed to extricate the toy from the package.
He sat the 12-inch fashion doll on his desk and propped her against the face of the computer monitor. Her plastic skin was pale ivory and her nylon hair a cascade of long, spiraling, red curls. He looked past the doll at a framed picture of a woman and was amazed yet again by the resemblance, just as he had been when he saw the doll in the store.
He shook his head and began to fiddle with the other items that had poured from the shopping bag. A packet of salt, a black candle, some clear cellophane wrap, and a spool of purple ribbon. He didn’t have long to do this. She would be coming home soon.
After quickly preparing his space, he lit the candle and began to meditate, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. He wanted his mind clear and focused, because for this to work, there was no room for even the slightest doubt. He dropped into a relaxed rhythm and eventually opened his eyes.
Reaching out, he lifted the doll and began carefully wrapping it in the clear cellophane. Once he was satisfied, he began to weave the purple ribbon around the plastic-encased poppet, criss-crossing it as he went. With each lace, he murmured to himself, “Never again. With this shield, I bind you from harm, Felicity Caitlin O’Brien.”
When he finished trussing the doll, he gathered the trash and stuffed it into the shopping bag. Then, he picked up the doll and set out for a place to bury it.
With luck, he would put it in a place where she would never find it.