Laura

Laura belonged to the daughter of Dr. Erasmus Finch, the last apothecary in Black Hollow. His shop already infamous for unregulated tinctures and whispered charms was shut down after a string sudden deaths swept through village. Families accused poisoning them he insisted villagers misused medicines. When townspeople finally stormed the store, they found only silence, overturned shelves and shattered bottles. Laura was discovered sitting behind the counter, perched neatly among jars of dried foxglove, monkshood, and powdered bone. Her porcelain hands reaching out and on the countertop before her was a prescription ledger written in a child’s hand. Each page listed villagers’ names, followed by a single word: “Cured,” “Condemned,” or “Collected.” Owners of the doll report strange ailments after her arrival—bitter tastes on the tongue, rashes that spell words, and fevers that lift only after she is repositioned. One woman claims she awoke to find tiny glass bottles beside her bed, each labeled in immaculate script with her family’s names. Another swears Laura tried to feed her a mixture of lavender and lye in the night. Locals whisper Laura is still “filling prescriptions.” To call her a doll is to miss the truth—she is the last apprentice of her family's cursed trade, carrying forward the work long after they stopped.