CHAPTER THREE

 

"Come on James! Last one there's a rotten tomato!" cheerfully jeered Josh, as they ran out of the school grounds towards the park next door.
James slumped along behind Josh, feeling guilty and regretful.

"But Josh, isn't this... breaking the rules?" He uttered with a shiver, as a feeling of remorse engulfed him.
"Just because some girl died they think we're all gonna get ourselves killed!" Josh remarked, shaking his head in dismay.

James stopped in his tracks.
"A... girl... died?" He whispered in fear, a pale look of horror not too unlike his sisters danced around his face, swimming around his features. He could have easily seen a ghost with the terrified expresion on his face.

Josh nodded. "Yeah, a few weeks ago. But no one liked her anyway, actually, I didn't even know who she was, so who cares?" He shrugged, opening the creaky gate and entering the park.
James relucantly followed Josh past the climbing frame and the slide, to a corner in the far right of the park.

"There's a great tree here that we can play on!" He laughed, rolling up the sleeves of his uniform and climbing up the branches like a monkey climbing a ladder. 

"hello?" Came a whispered voice, that sounded strange and unknown. It tangled with the wind and blew in to James' ear, causing sparks of fear and anxiety.

James turned to be faced with the same blonde girl that he had seen in the picture in his room. She was much smaller than he had imagined her to be, and was even wearing the same school uniform as him.
The most peculiar thing, however, was that she was standing on top of the frozen lake.
"What a strange person." thought James to himself. As he timidly smiled at the girl, tugging at his sleeve.

"Who's that James?" Yelled Josh from the top of the tree. The girl adverted her gaze to Josh, following him with her eyes as he quickly scrambled down the tree. 
"Who are you then?" Josh asked, straightening his back in order to make himself look even bigger than he already was. "I ain't seen you around before."

She smiled at Josh, and reached her hand out to him.

"I'm very lonely... will you come join me... and be my friend?" she asked, tilting her head to one side and smiling politely.

The girls face actually reminded James of a character he saw in a movie. His sister had her friend, Annie, around the house they had once lived in, and they were squealing and giggling about something or other, so James decided he'd peek his head around the door, only to find that they were watching a movie. Curious to what all the fuss was about, James creeped in and sat behind the arm chair. He picked up a movie box. It had the words 'The exorcist' written on the front. As he watched, a scary looking girl with the face of... satan or something, was the main character in this movie.
Too young was James to understand the horror behind the movie, but simply sat in awe watching the girls face, and wondering how anyone could look that... terrifying.
The girl he saw in the picture didn't look like this girl standing on the lake. Of course, he could tell it was the same person, but the girl he saw stood before him didn't look alive, she looked pale and dull as if she had been living outside all of her life.
'Dead' was the only word he could think of that summed up the appearance of the girl before him.

Josh laughed at the girl, and shook his head. "Why would I want to play with you? You're creepy!".

James watched in horror as the girls face turned from an expression of loneliness and isolation to one of anger and fury. He screamed as he watched the girl lunge for Josh's neck, and launched him on to the ice.
James closed his eyes and tried to visualize a happier place, replacing the sound of Josh's head being bashed on the ice with the sound of smashing watermelons as a game at his fifth birthday party.
He tried as hard as he could to replace the sound of Josh's screams for help and moans of agony and pain, but found it impossible. No sound could be worse. He opened his eyes, and shook his head violently in disbelief, hoping that this was all a nightmare.

He stared in distress as Josh's corpse started to sink through a tear in the ice in to freezing cold water. All evidence of Josh was gone, apart from a limp lifeless hand, blood stained and deceased.

The girl turned to James, heaving heavy breaths.
"Would you... Like to play... with me?!" She screamed at James, getting ready to lunge at him. James fell backwards, avoiding the girls' grasp.

He franctically struggled to his feet, and ran away across the park as fast as he could. He could hear the screams of the girl, and thought she was chasing him. But as he reached the outside of the park, when he looked back over to the lake, the girl was no where to be seen.