Page 5

In the back seat is a little girl. She is no older then nine. She has long brown hair which reaches down to her mid back. She is wearing winter clothing, but she is soaking wet and her skin is blue. Her dead, glassy eyes stare up at the ceiling of the car.

Virginia turns to see what is distracting her lover. She sees the dead girl in the back and laughs. "Oh come on Jeff, she is dead and that’s a long time ago. Don’t let that spoil our evening."

Jeff’s eyes shot open. He expected to see his living room as he left it moments earlier, however instead the little girl from the dream now stood over him, except now she appeared to be alive. Jeff, startled, pulled back and clawed his way up the couch.

"Who the hell are you?" He called out. He felt foolish, still convinced this is all a hallucination from his meds, but he decided to just go with it. What was it his doctor had told him once?

These pills, they might make the world a little funny. You may see from time to time things that are not there, or hear things that are not there. Keep telling yourself it is just the side effects from the drug. You are not going insane. If need be, just go with it and allow your brain to believe as not to frighten or confuse it. Do this in desperation when you just can’t shake the hallucinations.

This certainly seemed like one of those moments. He tried to tell himself it was not real but still she remained before him. He will just go with it and play the game.

"Will you play with me Jeffery?" the little girl asked. Her voice was distorted, similar to a cassette tape in a player where the batteries were running low.

"How do you know my name? How did you get in here?" The needle pulled across the record as the music stopped. His living room melted away all around him. The windows, the furniture, the walls, the ceiling, it all melted like the Salvador Dali painting with the melting clocks. He now stood in a playground in the middle of winter. Snow was everywhere and the cold icy New England wind tore though him. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Ok Lydia, I’m coming!" a little boy yelled from behind him. Jeff stepped back, barefoot in the snow, as a child in a thick New England Patriots winter jacket ran past him toward the little girl. She ran as the boy playfully chased her.

"My god, that that’s me. How is this possible?" He shook his head laughing. "I have truly gone insane. Fucking insane. I have finally gone off the deep end."

He knew the park from his youth. It was in Middleboro, near the town pool. He played here a lot, but he didn’t know that little girl. A headache tore through his brain as he clawed at his skull in desperation to release the pressure. The image of the little girl flashed through his mind, memories of birthday parties and recess with the unknown girl. He saw his mother picking her up in their 1988 Honda Accord. She enters the car and smiles at him. He closed his eyes.

"I don’t know Lydia. There is not Lydia!"

Classroom, cafeteria, gymnasium, Christmas, Easter…all these memories of childhood come flowing through his brain with this girl placed inside them, however he didn’t know her.

 He heard his record playing again. He opened his eyes and he was inside his living room again. There was the couches, the television, the table, it was all here. He sighed with relief but his relief was short lived, for in the corner of his eye he saw a figure.

What stood just across the room was something beyond reason. This was an ash or granite colored, hulking figure; a towering six feet of sinew. It had not features, just a silhouette like a three dimensional shadow. Where its eyes, nose and mouth would be was nothing but a dark, black void. The creature was surrounded by a red aura that intensified and dulled. This aura seemed to be feeding the creature and it seemed to be siphoning from an aura which came from Jeff’s own body.

Gooseflesh covered him as his jaw quivered. He swallowed as he tried in desperation to control his breathing; he pulled at the collar of his shirt trying to swallow the lump. As his fear increased, the aura grew a deeper red. Jeff closed his eyes tight.

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