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Lucas
Staring down at the glass box, I studied the doll that had been discovered at the dig site. It was an exact duplicate of the doll that was currently under Hollie’s protection at our home. The day after Hollie and I had gotten the doll, I’d brought it into the lab and had Tripp run several tests on it, including x-raying it—all of the same tests we’d done previously to the doll I was currently looking at.
“What do you make of it?” Matt asked.
Hollie and I had told Matt, Sarah, and Tripp about what had happened to us. Hollie hadn’t wanted to tell Tripp for fear he’d think she’d taken the doll from the site. But Tripp had completely believed our story and was eager to find out if the two dolls were identical or not.
“I don’t know. How are there two dolls?” I replied.
“That’s your question?” Matt asked with a laugh. “You don’t think the fact that you and your wife traveled back in time and got a doll that’s a few hundred years old from a little girl who was already dead isn’t the bigger question here?”
Sighing, I nodded. “Yeah, that part is crazy as well. I’m honestly wondering if I’m in a dream.”
“How do you think I feel? I found out my great, great, four times or whatever grandmother put a goddamn hex on our family. She also killed a man and his daughter because she was angry he wouldn’t marry her. And I’m in love with a witch. A real witch.”
Turning to look at him, I found myself chuckling. “You’ve had a busy few days, there’s no doubt about it.”
He smiled. “Did you run tests on the doll?”
Turning away from the case, I leaned against the table. “We did. It’s authentic, as far as we can tell, and exactly the same as the one in this case.”
Matt looked around to make sure no one was listening. “Do you really think the doll Hollie has is from the 1700s? That you traveled back in time? What if Hollie conjured it up somehow? Put a spell on the both of you or something?”
I shook my head. “I think something led us there. Hollie needed to be with me at that site for us to go back together. Charlotte was meant to give Hollie the doll. The first time I saw her, she was holding the same doll. The house wasn’t on fire, but she didn’t try to give it to me then.”
“I have to tell you, Lucas, this all sounds crazy to me. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all, and now you’re throwing all of this at me this morning?”
Pushing off the table, I walked out of the room and Matt followed. I entered the code to lock the door and then we proceeded to walk in silence to my office. When I stepped inside, I found Tripp waiting for me.
“Well?” I asked as I walked around my desk.
“The doll dates back to the same time period as the one we found at the site.”
Matt looked between me and Tripp. “You told Tripp! You’re going to lose your job, Lucas.”
Tripp laughed. “Not because of me.” Turning back to me, he added, “There was something that we found under the x-ray, though. It’s so worn that we couldn’t see it with the naked eye.”
“What was it?” Matt and I asked at the same time.
“Someone carved something onto the doll.” He handed me a photo and I stared down at it.
Elizbeth.
“That was her mother’s name,” I whispered as I looked up at Tripp. “According to the journal we have from Charlotte’s brother, she got this doll from her mother.”
“The doll from the dig site doesn’t have this carving in it. I went back and had them do more x-rays just to make sure.”
“So the doll that Hollie has is the one that belonged to Charlotte and her mother,” I said. “Then what doll do we have?”
A knock on my door had the three of us turning to see Mary Flanagan, the manager of the storage area where all the artifacts are kept, standing there with a stern expression on her face.
“Mary, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“You didn’t log it out, Lucas. You know better than to take an artifact and not log it out.”
Confused, I asked, “What are you talking about?”
“The doll from the Plymouth Street dig site.”
