Hello believers, non-believers, and everyone in between. You're listening to stories with

Sapphire. I am Sapphire Sandalo. Now get cozy and open your mind because it's Welcome to Stories with Sapphire just for chills. We're on select weeks in between regular episodes,

I read spooky, spine-tingling fictional stories

just for the chill of it.

If you'd like to submit one, you send it to stories with sapphire at gmail.com.

Today I'll be sharing the story of a father trying to find what's scaring his daughter.

Then I tell the tale of two friends who became

psychically linked through a doll. And the Chapter 1, The Prangster Before Christmas by Gila Jensen.

David Bernard briefly looked at the narrow overgrown path opening up before him, then walked down it.

The ground was wet with thin icy patches, spreading it like virus clusters of a disease that

refuses to go away. His feet nearly slipped on a leaf stuck on pieces of gravel frozen in time. Tomorrow was supposed to be the start of the holidays.

He smiled to himself, the angry voice of his father booming inside his head.

Winter holidays are for boys like you.

Any excuse not to go out?

Now he was a father himself, three of them, all girls.

He and his wife Lindsay decided to have them early.

In truth, he pushed for it more than she did. As much as he loved his father,

having the oldest dad in the whole school, wasn't cool at the age of 10. Not cool at all.

He looked ahead. The gate wasn't far. The sun was disappearing fast, a click on his mobile and the torch

app beamed a faint light into the growing darkness before him. Tonight he would not

walk away empty-handed. He promised Christmas was almost here, after all.

It started three months ago, a week after they had moved into their new home.

...