The Replacement

Supernatural Stories | Apr 4, 2013 | 4 min read
12 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
I don't consider myself a superstitious person. I don't wear a rabbit's foot around for good luck, or throw salt over my shoulder when I spill it. As many spooky things that I've seen, or creepy sounds or bumps in the night, I've always been comforted by the fact that there was a reasonable explanation for it all. That whisper in the dark was just the wind, nothing more. The odd noise in the kitchen was just the cat playing with a mouse he had caught. You see, there was always something that made sense behind them.
But something happened recently, that didn't make any sense. Something that chills my blood just to think of it...
I had been going to school for the past several months, pursuing a nursing degree to help out with my Mother's bills. Just a little community college, in a quiet southern town. Nothing out of the ordinary. Gradually me and my classmates settled into a routine. We'd come in the morning, we'd study and the teacher would lecture us, and we'd leave in the afternoon. After the first few weeks we went to the Nursing Lab across the hall to practice ours skills. Now don't get me wrong, I've never been afraid of mannequins or dolls or anything of that sort, but this mannequin we were using was just...eerie. The expressionless face seemed a little too real for my liking. Whenever you walked about, it's cold, plastic eyes seemed to follow you. Following, but not seeing. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me, so I tried not to think of it.
Before too long, something odd happened. Jim (one of my classmates) had decided to stay after class to practice in the lab. The next morning, he showed up and explained that he had been talking with his girlfriend, who was breaking up with him. He got so angry, he took it out on the mannequin. Our teacher gave him an ancient looking set of keys, and sent him down to the underground storage room to get a replacement. When he came back, he brought an even creepier mannequin than the first. It was completely expressionless and blank. Soulless. I paid it no more attention, since we had a test coming up, and I had to devote all my brain power to studying. Over the next week though, I started noticing something funny about Jim. He was looking paler, and when he moved, he sort of stiffened up, like it was hard for him to walk. He started spending more time alone after class in the Lab, and soon he vanished altogether. Nobody could reach him. He just up and disappeared. The weirdest thing though, was that the mannequin was starting to look more and more like the first one. More life like.
Another few weeks went by, and one afternoon me and some of my classmate friends decided to have some fun with the mannequins. We put them in wheelchairs and raced them down the hallway. Before too long though, there was an accident. I happened to push the mannequin from the Lab too hard, and it fell down the stairs and shattered. It's plastic limbs were scattered everywhere, and it's head rolled over to reveal it's face. It was eerily familiar, and it looked like it was staring at me...more mind tricks, I thought.
The next day, after we told the teacher what had happened, she sent me downstairs to get another replacement. She gave me the same keys, and I went down the same path Jim had taken a month before. When I reached the right hallway, I saw the rusty door and pried it open. It looked like it hadn't been used in ages, as it was dark and full of cobwebs, and unmarked boxes, and what looked like a rack of cadavers, but I didn't stick around too long. The place gave me the creeps, so I grabbed the nearest mannequin and left without a backwards glance.
Now as I said before, I'm not inclined to believe in the paranormal, but I've been feeling awful sick lately. I didn't show up in class for three days, and I've got headaches. My mother says I'm looking pretty pale, and I'm starting to feel stiff...

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