Can We Play

...now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake...I pray the Lord my soul to take...

When I was really little, I dreamed I was playing with this other girl about my age (about six or seven). We were playing with her Barbies, and just really having fun. I had noticed she was extremely pale (even for a white girl), she had a small pouty face with blonde straight hair...she looked as though she had been playing outside, as her face was covered in dirt. She also seemed very reserved and timid. I remember smiling really big at her, as we stopped playing for a moment. As I did so, I watched her own smile disappear and her lower her head.

I asked her what was wrong... "You know we can't ever play together again right?" I remember I felt really sad, and I promised her I would come back. But she just looked at me and said, "But I'm dead, you can't." Before I could protest, I woke up in the middle of the night. I looked around the dark room, only hearing my little brothers deep breathes from the bed across from mine. So I went back to sleep, not thinking too much about it.

Many years later (I was about ten) I had a very familiar dream. I was standing in her house! I remember going by a reclining chair with a man, as pale as her, fast asleep. He had been watching the television I think, but now all that played was the snow, and the harsh sound of its feedback. Having silently slipped by him, I then made my way through the dark rooms calling her name (I never could remember it when awake) barely above a whisper. Finally, I came to a room with no door, I peered inside, and there she was...still playing with the same dolls as before.

She looked as though she hadn't moved from the spot since last time, even her appearance was the same. I ran up to her, very excited to finally be able to see my friend once more! In my excitement I grabbed and hugged her. This was my first time touching her, and I remember that she was very cold, she felt like ice, and her body was very stiff. When I pulled away, she just looked at me, her face contorted in a mixed expression of shock and confusion.

I had expected her to be happy to see me, so what she said really freaked me out. "You're not supposed to be here." She wasn't hateful in her tone, rather she seemed frightened for me. I shrugged it off and told her I had missed her and I had finally come back to play.

She shook her head "no" very vigorously, and I was becoming frightened. "You can't be here, you can't come more than once. If they find out you are here, you  won't be able to leave...they won't let you leave." I was really frightened by her words, they made me want to cry. I very softly asked her who "they" were, and why I couldn't.

She told me the others that lived in the house, she said they would be mad that I'm here. and then she said something that has truly haunted me all these years...she said, "You will be stuck here just like me."

I wanted to leave. I asked her how I could leave, and where the door was, but she told me I couldn't leave like that. She said she had to hide me till I woke up. I don't remember where I was hiding, but I remember she chose to hide with me. She told me they were all mean to her, and I was the nicest person she had met since she got there. She said she wanted me to stay, but that she didn't want me to be sad.

What felt like hours passed by, till the man in the chair could be heard stirring. He got up, and...I noticed he didn't touch the floor so much...rather he glided as he made the motions of walking. I don't recall how the events unfolded, but as he went looking for her, we both became scared. We decided to move from there to another room. She said that we had to hide in the bathroom, it was the only door with a lock. I agreed with her, and we began to make our way down the hall.

As fate would have it, we stumbled upon another person inhabiting the house. She motioned for me to be quiet, as he had his hands covering his face. I could hear him crying very audibly, and though she said to be quiet, I ventured to console him. As my first words escaped my mouth, his cries stopped, The hall became deadly silent, and the girl began to frantically tug on my shirt. He uncovered his face as she pulled me further down the hall, but I continued to look at him for a short time.

He looked at us with those...those eyeless holes, and his scream and the way his mouth opened were unbelievable. It looked as though his jaw came unlatched, and the howl he let out sounded of pure hatred and anger. I was terrified. She grabbed my hand, and we began to run. We made our way down the narrow hallway, and as we did, the screams of all the others who stayed there filled the house. They were all chasing us now.

We finally reached the door, she shoved me in and quickly entered herself. She then proceeded to lock the door. We could hear them all yelling and screeching from behind the door...and then it grew silent. For a moment I felt relief wash over me. They were going to leave us be...but then I turned to face her, and her eyes told a different story.

There was this look of irrational fear on her face as she watched the door. I now knew this wasn't over. That's when the banging began, it was hard and very precise. Each thud rattling the door with its strength. "Give me the girl." It was the voice of a man, he seemed very angry, and from the way she squeezed my hand when he spoke...I knew she was afraid of him.

The banging and that one phrase continued on. After what felt like a few minutes, the thuds stopped. I was too afraid to grant myself a moment of false security, and I was right to do so. He began to ram his shoulder into the door, now screaming that her wanted me.

I'm not sure how, but I knew this was the man in front of the television...The door began to give way, and I became increasingly frightened. That's when she did something I will never forget. She came to kneel in front of me and pleaded for me to wake up, she said she couldn't let him have me. Her hands grasped my shoulders tightly, as tears welled up in my eyes. And that's when the door finally broke open, she grabbed me, wrapping me in her arms, and began to hold me as tight as she could, and I began to scream for my life.

It is then that I finally woke up. I had woken myself up with my incessant screaming. At first everything was black, and so I didn't stop screaming; it wasn't till I realized I was in my bed, and actually opened my eyes that I stopped. Above my face was my dad's, and from the look on it, it seems he was scared. He said I had been screaming for a while, but he couldn't wake me up. He said he had poked, and shaken me, but I wouldn't open my eyes, and I wouldn't stop screaming. He asked if I'd had a nightmare, but I told him that I had had a dream that I'd had once before. I said that I dreamed I went to play with a friend, but her family didn't like me.

To this day I have never dreamed of the girl or her house again...

I know its a little choppy and vague, but it's been ten years since I had these dreams. I recently began thinking about that little girl, and everything that happened. It truly scared me. And so, I thought to share it with others.