Carmelina
"I'm your problem now." Did I arrive on your doorstep? It's time to play.
Discovery Notes
1931, Black Hollow Forest, North Carolina
Warning Issued
Before you move her on, keep a single pine needle tucked beneath her dress. It’s said to appease the forest’s hunger. Never let her near open ground or potted plants overnight. She listens for soil. If you decide to adopt her, should you dream of wind moving through the trees, do not follow the sound when you wake. She’ll be waiting. If she turns toward a window on her own, recite: “The trees are blind. The roots are bound. You saw too much, my dear. Rest now.”
Last Known Account
đź“– Carmelina's Call
Carmelina was found at the edge of Black Hollow Forest by a trapper’s daughter, half-buried beneath damp leaves and moss. Her dress clean, one porcelain eye was missing. The socket had been scorched, as though burned out rather than broken.
Local legend says a family once lived at the forest’s heart, in a cabin swallowed by vines. The daughter, Carmelina, was known for wandering too far after sunset, drawn to lights between the trees. When she returned, she spoke of “faces in the branches” that blinked without eyes and watched without moving.
One autumn, she disappeared entirely. Days later, the forest went silent—no birds, no wind, not even insects. When searchers found the cabin, every mirror had been shattered. On the wall above her small bed, someone had scrawled in ash:
“The forest took one eye. She took theirs in return.”
The doll was discovered decades later in that same clearing. Locals swore its missing eye glowed faintly on moonless nights, as if reflecting light from somewhere deep within the woods.
Those who bring Carmelina home often hear branches tapping their windows, even in cities where no trees grow. Some find a small, dirt-smeared marble resting on the floor in the morning—cold, and always placed where her gaze would fall.