Boring Old Dolls

They were your picture perfect family.  The kind of family you see in the movies, with the white picket fence, and the Golden Retriever running around.  This happily married couple had the most adorable little girl you’ve ever seen.  The parents even gave her the sweetest name, Bella.  Bella would go to school every day, play outside with their dog, Daisy, and then go inside to play dolls like every other little six year old girl.  No one expected this out of them, maybe that’s why it took so long for them to get caught. 

Bella’s family seemed like the closest thing to perfect.  They would bring their neighbors desserts, go on walks with Daisy, and do all the picture perfect things a family would do.  Every time someone came to their door, they welcomed them in with open arms.  They almost seemed too perfect to be true. Well that is until they got caught.

Bella was obsessed with playing dolls.  It was her favorite thing to do during the day.  She would bring at least two with her to school everyday in their own bag. When her neighbors would watch her from their windows, she would have a doll house set up in the front yard with tons of different dolls.  You would always wonder how many she actually had inside her house, but none of her neighbors were ever let in. Only the strangers that knocked on their door were let in.  Everyone wanted to know what the perfect family looked like on the inside, but there was a reason no one was ever allowed in. 

The town they lived in was a very family-friendly town. It wasn’t too big, but not small enough to where everyone knew everyone. The only odd thing that happened in the town was multiple missing people reports.  The people that went missing once a month never seemed to be found.  They were always single and didn’t have much family around.  The police always assumed they just left town to go somewhere else, since they never told anyone where they were going.  No one found this suspicious, because there was always no reason to believe they were taken.  That is until one day, when they were all found. 

One day, the next door neighbors were outside on their deck.  As they were sitting there, they saw a pretty young woman walk up to Bella’s house.  They were unintentionally watching the women walk into their house, but she was just too pretty to not stare at.  They waited and waited for her to come back out just to see her one more time.  Oddly, the sun was starting to set and she hadn't come outside yet.  It was getting late and the family decided to go inside, but they were still bummed they didn’t see the pretty girl again.

A few days later as the neighbors were sitting inside with the news on in the background, they heard a name come on the television.  They heard the news reporter talking about another missing person report.  It was nothing new for them to hear about these things, but they looked up just to be sure.  There she was, that beautiful, tall, blonde girl on the news, and she was the one that went missing.  The neighbors had to call it in, they had to tell the police where they had seen her last.  She couldn’t be in there still, Bella’s family would never do something like that. 

Later that day, they saw the police go knocking on Bella’s front door.  They watched from their window as the police held up their search warrant. They saw the panicked look on Bella’s face, that had to mean something. Hours passed and still no sign of any movement in the house, they were starting to get worried.

After one more hour passed, Bella’s parents came out in handcuffs.  Another cop car had come to pick them up.  They didn’t know why three more came though, and that’s when they saw the young women walk out.  She had a look of relief on her face, but she was also dressed in the prettiest outfit.  That wasn’t what she had worn into the house, why did she come out with that on?  It was not just the young women that came out of the house, she was followed by five other people.  These people all looked familiar to the neighbors, but the neighbors couldn’t figure out why. 

When they turned on the news, all the missing pieces were put together.  Bella’s family had been kidnapping the people that came and knocked on their door.  They would bring them in for Bella to play real life dolls.  Bella got bored of her dolls a year earlier, so this is what her parents came up with.  They hid the poor citizens in their basement, so Bella could boss them around and dress them up in any outfit she wanted.  All of the people that had gone missing in the town were found.  Bella’s parents were sent to prison, leaving Bella to move in with her grandparents in another town.  She didn’t know what was going on at the time, her parents had just told her that they volunteered to come play with her.  Bella was so sad to see them go, she didn’t want to go back to her boring, old dolls.