Onus

Helga's lips thinned, raking the couple over with narrowed eyes. Mipsy, tastefully dressed and affable in a way that she could only hope read as sincere rather than professional, and Earnest, true to his name, with hands clasped in front of him to stop the reflex to fiddle.

They had both gone with hidden weapons only, on her suggestion. It made it easier to gain a target's trust.

She watched the subtle interplay of wants and choices dance across the woman's face: Loneliness, joy, suspicion, and desire passed over her expression as she made her choice.

"Fine." The woman snapped. "But don't hurt her. Promise me that."

"I promise." Mipsy lied.

Helga nodded, and swung the door open to let them in.

The house appeared largely unchanged, if a little more dusty, since the last time Mipsy had seen it. Pictures of Mister and Mrs. Springer lined the walls in happy poses, drapery and curtains hung sun faded and only slightly dry rotted over dark wood paneling.

The dolls, however, were new.

"It is nice to have some adult company." Helga said, quite oblivious to the strange decor. "Little Bethany has been thriving - so much more than she was before, but she's quite the handful. I've been afraid to ask for help, with those dirty council members poisoning the minds of every Jane, Dick and Sally against her, but with you -" She took a deep breath, a satisfied sigh from lungs too long constricted, "I could convince all the rest, and we could be happy again."

Pulled from Screencraft.org:

1.  A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. They soon learn that the doll is actually their daughter. And she's alive.

(Sorta reminds me of one of the short stories I read in a manhua once.)

1. woods known to be evil, start--parents trying to stop her from going in.
2. mid: other, non-girl dolls fear and despise her, tortures them
3. end: all but one of the dolls replaced with dolls from the woods, parents find it holding matches, girl-doll burns to reveal bones inside her doll skin. She does not understand why.

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When Mrs. Springer announced the return of her daughter, the whole town was appalled.

Certainly, the initial loss had been tragic, loosing children to the woods always was. But such children, once lost, were meant to stay gone. Any kind and loving parent would make sure of it.
But it was well known that Mrs. Springer was no such thing.

She had never been quite right since she lost her husband, unfortunate as she was to have witnessed him impaled during his off-duty hours by a shadow he had failed to notice looked nothing like his own. Once exposed, a shadow was easy enough to kill, but not so easy that Mister Springer was gotten to in time. He was gone before the last of its mouths had finished screaming.

"Damn you! God damn you!" The tears that had streamed down her cheeks had been heartbreaking. "You let him die!"

Her parents went not long after. Genevieve and Theodore Springer, both honorable members of the town, turned themselves in.

"It's okay, dear, it's okay." Genevieve had tried to comfort her daughter before she was lead away.

"No." Mrs. Springer had wept, reaching for their infected fingers between cold iron bars. "It's not."

So when the woods took her daughter, perhaps it should have been expected that Mrs. Springer would pretend she wasn't truly gone.

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That's all I could do before I finished breakfast. Man, didn't even get to the doll part--maybe next installment.