The French Doll that GREW (true story, apparently)

okay I wasn't going to post this but people keep not believing me so here.

About ten years ago I was living in a prefecture in central Honshu, Japan. we were in this apartment complex and right next door was this HUGE abandoned house. Rural area. Overgrown grass, creepy vibes, exactly the kind of place ghost stories come from. I was in elementary school. obviously I had to go in.

So me and my friend S decided to explore it one afternoon. Broad daylight and the place was somehow still dim?? grass was literally as tall as us. We tried the front gate first. Locked. Went around back.

There was a window.

Old and foggy but you could still see inside. Scattered furniture still in there. shelves, a sofa, a little desk. We're pressing our faces against the glass being nosy and then S calls me over.

There was a glass display shelf. Inside it: craft pieces, decorations, that kind of thing. and among them.

A French doll.

We both just. froze. And then without even talking about it we booked it home. no idea why it scared us so bad. it just did.

That was ten years ago.

Fast forward to last August. I'd moved away after that, lost touch with S completely. But somehow we reconnected recently and I went back to visit the old neighborhood. We're catching up, telling old stories, and obviously the Abandoned House comes up.

"we were just kids then, no wonder we got scared. but we're adults now. let's go check it out properly. let's figure out what that doll actually was."

so. 5pm. Flashlights. We walked back to the house.

Honestly the first feeling wasn't fear, it was nostalgia. like I was weirdly glad it was still there. The grass that felt endless back then only came up to our knees now. We followed the exact same path as before. Went around to the back. looked through the windows one by one.

Nothing had changed. At all.

Then we found the window. The one that looked into the room with the doll shelf. We leaned in together to see inside.

S screamed.

The flashlight hit the glass display shelf.

The French doll was still there.

except now it was AT LEAST 180cm tall. Like 6 feet. It didn't fit. Its hands were being pushed out past the edge of the shelf, pressed against the glass, because it had grown so big it couldn't fit anymore.

like it had grown up.

we ran. I don't remember running but suddenly we were back at S's house shaking and not talking. I had to go home the next day so I never got to go back and figure out what it actually was.

this is a true story. nobody believes me when I say that but it is.