A Doll Nightmare 

Arcturus has been dead for a year and everyone's getting a little tired of his spirit. In town and in the real world, I suspect. But, whatever. At least he feels comfortable wearing his Christmas sweater around again (Remember he died in a Christmas sweater and ghost sweaters aren't easy to come by.)

It was Emily's birthday and game design dictated that Arcturus needed to carry Emily to her cake. Betty was washing dishes when Arcturus shouted, "Hey! Betty! Turn around so we can do this!" Betty dropped a dish and it shattered. "W-w-w-who said that?" Arcturus rolled his eyes.

It's happening!

Swinging her in for the blowout.

*fart noise*

Cross-eyed.

Arcturus got bored, cracked open a book.

Still cross eyed? ... Uh oh.

Send that cross eyed loon outside to eat her cake!

(I wrote the caption for this next photo a while ago and when I came back to edit this post, I was confused as to what it meant. A joke might be there but I'm no longer seeing it.)

There are two cakes?

In the backyard, there was a stirring. It was close to the house, right outside Betty and Arcturus's bedroom window where Emily used to spend most of her free time with her doll. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found there. Emily's doll, sent by that mysterious uncle, was up and moving around. It was his birthday too, apparently, and now he was the size of a boy.

He broke into the house and took a casual stroll into the bathroom. A doll on a mission.

Emily was in the bathroom so this doll is a pervert. She took it in stride though and they talked for a while... about colors, of course. (Imagine a world where every conversation you had, somebody brought up colors as a discussion topic and that's what living in Riverview is like.) 

Emily: I can't believe you're walking arou-

Doll: ...but what about blue though!?

Emily: Ohhhhhhh jeez (rubbing forehead) I mean,... y'know... it's fine?

Maybe Emily knew all along that this doll would become a human like creature. Ok, I just thought of this: I hope she can marry him one day.

Hushed doll whispers:"Your mom's asleep though."

Emily went into her parent's bedroom to change her clothes. They keep kid clothes in there because this house has only one dresser. The doll just watched her. Watched and waited. Then, he walked out the door and out of the house. Emily didn't know where he went so she played some make-believe for a while. Her real world just wasn't fantastic enough to satisfy her imagination. Here she is pretending to be some kind of loser:

"...and the little monster asked the princess 'What about blue though?"

Hours later, Emily was getting tired of waiting around for her new friend to come home.

"Where have you been all night?"
"I was out."

Who's creepier here?

Ok, he turns back into a doll at bedtime.

The next morning, the doll was still in doll form. Emily found Arcturus sitting in the kitchen. I don't think he moved since the birthday party, actually. "Dad. Why are you still a ghost? It's been a year, you know."

"Also, your Bill Cosby sweater and constant 'Ghost Dad' references
are making me uncomfortable at this point."

Later that night...

Still fishing... still trying.