Marsha Marell didn’t know what to do as she stared at the fragile piece of china that was in front of her. The doll’s eyes stared at her and she suddenly felt strange. She noticed that the blue eyes of the doll’s that were supposed to be vacant, seemed alive.

A chill traveled up her spine and she slowly backed away from the doll.

“Momma?” a high pitched child’s voice called. Marsha continued to back away from the doll, cringing.

“How can this be?” she mumbled to herself, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. “Is that you, Caroline?” she asked, looking right at the doll.

A young girl’s giggle hit Marsha’s ears.

Marsha knew she was right all along. Ever since Caroline, her daughter, died, Marsha had heard Caroline’s voice everywhere. She would be downstairs in the kitchen and she’d hear giggles from upstairs in her daughter’s old room. At first, she’d been scared. She was frightened by how the giggles and the words she’d heard, sounded exactly like her five year old daughter’s own voice and giggles.

She soon began to investigate, and she realized that wherever the doll was, there the sounds would occur.

“Momma?” the girl’s voice asked once again.

Marsha fell to her knees, letting the tears fall down her face. Could this be her daughter, Caroline? A normal person would say, no. They would say Marsha needed to go to a shrink to get help or get put on medicine to help control the “voices.” Marsha knew she was not mentally unstable. She was perfectly fine.

But, then again, how could her daughter, who died in a car crash along with her father, still be alive?

Marsha shook her head, knowing the answer to that question. Caroline wasn’t still alive. In fact, she was quite the opposite. She was dead. How Caroline was hearing her was another thing in itself.

“I’m right here, baby,” Marsha cried out. She crawled to where the doll was and picked it up, being extremely gentle with its porcelain head. After all, if this was her child, she didn’t want to hurt her.

Marsha held her baby girl in her arms after what seemed like ages of not being able to. She cried tears of joy when she felt her daughter’s presence around her.

“Come home,” Caroline said, her voice like honey.

Marsha closed her eyes. How could she leave this world behind, and go on to the next? It seemed so difficult, yet not at the same time. She didn’t have anyone in this life. Her parents passed on a year ago and her husband and only child we gone too.

She could be with them at last.

In that split second, Marsha made her decision. She kissed the doll’s forehead and said, “I’m coming.”