Regina sat at her kitchen table, staring at the soft glow of her phone. The message flickered on the screen:
"Big E misses you."
Her stomach churned as she reread the words. It had been nearly twenty years since they'd gotten rid of that cursed doll, and her life had been relatively peaceful—until now. She put the phone down, her hand trembling. Her reflection in the screen caught her attention. There were more lines on her face now, more gray in her once-brown hair. Time had aged her, and she was no longer the carefree girl who had played cruel games with her brother's doll. Life had done its best to harden her, but nothing compared to the icy terror creeping back into her chest at the mention of Big E.
She glanced at the old family photo on the wall—the one with her parents, her brother Darron, and herself. Darron had been so innocent back then, with his gap-toothed smile and his wild, curly hair. Regina, the older sister by two years, had always been fiercely protective of him, even when she pretended not to care. But Big E had changed that. The doll had driven a wedge of fear between them—a fear that had never truly gone away.
The next morning, as the pale sunlight trickled through her dusty kitchen window, Regina received another message:
"I see you."
This time, there was an image. Her blood ran cold. It was a blurry photograph, but the unmistakable figure of Big E sat on a bed. Not just any bed—Darron's childhood bed. Regina felt nauseous, dread flooding her veins. She hadn't seen Darron in months. He lived on the other side of town now, in a cramped apartment where he spent most of his time avoiding the world. Since the incident with Big E, Darron had never been the same. His body had healed, but his mind? His mind had never fully returned from that dark place.
Regina rushed out the door, her shoes clattering against the cracked pavement. The streets seemed quieter than usual, or maybe it was just her racing thoughts drowning out everything else. When she arrived at Darron's apartment, her knuckles rapped sharply on the door. No answer.
"Darron?" she called, pressing her ear to the wood.
A long pause, then the door creaked open. There he stood—her little brother, though not so little anymore. He was thirty-two now, but his once-vibrant eyes were dull, his movements sluggish. His curly hair, once full of life, now hung limp and gray around his pale face.
"Regina," he said, his voice low and hollow. "You came."
Regina felt her throat tighten. "I got a message, Darron. About Big E."
At the mention of the doll, Darron stiffened, his gaze flickering briefly with what looked like fear—or recognition. He nodded slowly, stepping aside to let her in. The apartment smelled faintly of dampness and old takeout containers, but it wasn't the mess that unnerved her. It was the way Darron moved—mechanical, deliberate, almost as though his limbs were being pulled by invisible strings.
"I feel it again," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "It's coming for me."
Regina's heart sank. She looked around the small, cluttered room, and her eyes landed on a small object on the floor—a piece of fabric. Her breath caught. It was part of Big E's overalls. She hadn't seen that shade of faded blue in years, but there it was, sitting ominously on the dirty floor like an unwelcome guest.
"We have to stop it," Regina said firmly, though her voice shook with uncertainty. She didn't know how to stop something that should have been gone long ago.
That night, Regina stayed up researching. She dug through old articles, trying to find anything that could explain the doll's return. She discovered a thread on an obscure forum about cursed objects, and the more she read, the more she realized Big E was not just a toy—it was something far worse.
She followed a lead that took her to a nearby flea market, where she had once seen strange old toys. As she wandered through the aisles of chipped tea sets and moth-eaten clothing, she froze. There, sitting among a pile of forgotten toys, was Big E. Its button eyes, black and unblinking, stared at her from the dusty shelf. The faded blue overalls were just as she remembered, and the fabric still looked soft, almost too soft for something that had been thrown away so many years ago.
Regina reached out with a trembling hand, her heart pounding in her ears. The doll seemed to pulse with an energy that made the air feel thick around her. She snatched it up, holding it tightly in her hands. There was no way this was over. Big E had come back, and it wasn't leaving without taking something—or someone—with it.