“It’s true. I was there, he said it.” Emily said.
“What man?” The mother asked.
“That one, there!” Rose turned to point. The park was empty. Rose looked confused.
“Well, he was there,” Emily said. “He must have left.”
“Right, OK,” Rose’s mother said. “And what have I told you about talking to strangers?”
“But he was fine, he’s just passing through,” Rose said innocently.
“That does not make it fine!” Her mother snapped “I think we need to have another talk about stranger danger don’t we. To both of you girls!”
Rose & Emily were marched inside where they were sent to go and get washed up for dinner.
The girls sat at the dinner table. Chicken nuggets, chips and peas were on the plates in front of them. Emily’s eyes lit up; at home she wasn’t allowed nuggets and other junk food like that. Her mother knew that she was eating that stuff when at Rose’s house, but she didn’t mind. It was her father that had the problem with it, so they just kept it between them.
“Aren’t you eating, Mummy?” Rose asked.
“No, darling. I’m going to eat later when Daddy is home. Oh by the way, I spoke to Emily’s Mum, Emily is going to sleep here tonight. You girls OK with that?”
The girls looked at each other with huge grins.
“Sleep over!” Rose shouted.
‘Woooo, yeah!” Emily screamed.
“Now, calm down. You’re still at the dinner table, remember,” her mother said.
“Sorry,” the girls said together and continued to eat their dinner.
“I really do love these nuggets,” Emily said and she shoved another into her mouth.
Night time came quickly, as it often does when you’re having fun. Rose and Emily pretended to go to sleep until they were left alone in the room.
“Psst, Rose. Are you asleep?” Emily asked.
“No, are you?”
“How could I be asleep if I just asked you?”
“Oh yeah.”
The girls giggled. Rose sat up and turned the little lamp next to her bed on. Emily, who was sleeping on a make shift bed on the floor, sat up as well.
“What shall we do now?” Rose asked. “I’m not tired at all.”
“Me neither, wanna tell ghost stories?”
“Yeah!”
“OK, me first,” Emily said.
“OK, sure. Go on.”
Emily put her finger on her chin and looked to the ceiling. As if to show Rose that she was thinking.
“Well?” Rose asked.
“Gimme a sec, I’m thinking.”
“Well if you don’t know one I can go first.”
“No, no, no. OK, I got one.” Emily smiled. “Are you ready to be scared?”
“Come on, get on with it.”
“OK, so there was this little girl, ummm…named…ummm…Katie. Yeah, Katie. She loved to go to the park and swing on the swings. She was only little, so she had to go with her dad. She couldn’t go on her own like us. One day, when her dad was pushing her on the swings, she called out to him, “Higher, Daddy! Higher.” He laughed and pushed her higher. Then she decided that she wanted to try and fly. So she jumped off, she landed on her head and died!”
Rose crossed her arms and pulled a face.
“That’s not a scary story. That’s just what that old man told us before about his daughter.”
“Wait, that’s not the scary bit.”
“Good!” Rose said, “cause that’s not scary, it’s just sad.”
“I’m getting to the scary part,” Emily pulled her tongue. “Now, every night when it gets dark, little Katie goes and plays on the swings. She looks up into the window of the house across the street. This house.”
“Stop it, Emily. That’s not funny.”
“She swings high enough so she can jump off and fly. So she can fly to this window.”
“Emily. It’s not funny!”
“Then she’s gonna come through the window and take the little girl that sleeps in here. She’s gonna kill her and take her body.”
“Emily, stop!”
“She’s gonna get you, Rose! She’s gonna kill you!”
‘Shut up!” Rose screamed.
The bedroom door flew open. Rose’s father burst into the room. Both girls sat up in in shock, looking like two deer in the headlights.
“What on Earth is going on in here? What’s the screaming for?” He asked.
“I, um had a nightmare,” Emily said. “I’m sorry.”
He stood at the door for a moment, weighing up whether he thought this was true or not. If it was Rose he would go and give her a kiss and cuddle and tell her it’s all OK. But this was someone else's kid and he didn’t really know how to act.
“Um, would you like a glass of water?”
“No I’m OK now, thank you.” Emily smiled and tucked herself back in to bed.
With a sigh of relief, Rose’s father said, “OK then, girls. Get straight to sleep now?”
“OK,” Emily said.
“Night, Daddy.” Rose yawned.
“Night, girls.”
The door closed.
“Anyway,” Rose whispered. “If she’s coming to get me, then she’ll get you too.”
“Not if she comes tomorrow.”
Emily turned over to go to sleep. Rose lay awake all night, eyes wide, watching shadows in her room.
Waiting for the little girl to come through the window.
The following day, Rose was ill. The lack of sleep had taken its toll on her. After her father took one look at her and saw the pale grey look on her face, he decided that she needed to spend the day in bed. Rose whined as Emily was still there and she wanted to play with her friend, but it was no use. She was to spend the day in bed. Emily could play in the park until her mother came to collect her.
Rose sat at her bedroom window watching the outside world. Her appearance to others from the outside would have appeared sinister if they were to see her. She still looked very ill, with dark rings around her eyes. Her face was set in a permanent scowl. At a glance she could possibly have been mistaken for a ghost.
While Emily swung back and forth on the swings, she was under close watch from Rose. Emily looked up and waved, but Rose did not return the gesture. Jealous of her friend having fun, she turned away.
“It’s not fair, it’s her fault I didn’t sleep. Telling me that stupid story.”
Rose looked back out of the window. Emily was no longer alone. The old man was back, and her was pushing her on the swing. Rose stared as Emily laughed with the wind rushing through her hair. The old man had a wide grin on his face. He pushed again, Emily started to swing higher and higher. The man's grin morphed into something maniacal. Emily didn’t look to be enjoying it anymore. Rose could see that she was distressed.
“Emily! Dad, Dad! Help!” Rose screamed.
The old man turned to look at Rose and smiled, it sent chills down her spine. Emily had tears streaming down her face. Rose couldn’t hear her, but she could see that Emily was screaming for him to stop. Rose struggled with the stiff window, but she managed to open it.
“Emily!”
She could hear Emily’s cries. “Stop, please. It’s too high, I don’t like it.”
The man began to laugh. To Rose it seemed that his laughter echoed through the whole park and all the way to her. Then he called out.
“Jump!”
“No, Emily. Don’t!” Rose screamed. “Don’t jump!”
“Jump!” The man screamed again.
Emily looked to Rose, her face soaked in her tears.
“Help,” she whispered.
Then she let go. She flew through the air. The man raised his hands in triumph. Both he and Rose watched as Emily moved along like a rag doll, her arms and legs flaying all over the place. She was turned upside and landed on her head. Her neck snapped, killing her instantly. Her collar bone burst through the skin. Rose heard the crack from her
bedroom window. She screamed for her father again as she ran down the stairs and out of the house and across to the park, to her friend.
Rose sat on the floor holding Emily’s head in her lap, refusing to leave until an ambulance arrived. Paramedics were able to talk Rose around to let them take Emily, but it was too late. She knew that. While she stood in the park, painted red with her friend's blood. She felt completely alone. The old man was nowhere to be seen.
Emily was cremated as was her parents' wishes. Most of the people who attended were family. There were some close friends. That included Rose and her family. Rose cried for the entire service. Afterwards, there was a small gathering in the local pub. Here people were supposed to be talking to each other and helping one another deal with Emily’s loss. To Rose, all these people were doing was getting drunk. They didn’t act like they were sad at all. This made her angry and so she sat in floods of tears in the pub. Her parents decided it was for the best that they leave and take her home.
When they got home, Rose went straight to bed. She didn’t want to see anyone, she just wanted to be left alone. Her parents had offered her lunch, but she refused. She felt sick, she felt that Emily’s death was her fault. Maybe if she had ran down the stairs sooner and called for help then Emily would be alive. Maybe if she had screamed louder.
She had told her parents about the old man, but it had been dismissed as her imagination. They told her that she had witnessed a traumatic event and her mind was playing tricks on her. She cried and pleaded that she saw the man there. But apparently there had been other people in the park who witnessed the event. Rose had been so fixated on Emily that she hadn’t noticed them. They saw Emily on the swings and they watched her fall to her death. Their attention was drawn to her with the sound of her screams as she flew through the air. No one had seen the old man, except for Rose. She cried into her pillow until sleep took her.
“Rose.”
Rose sat up startled to the sound of her name.
“Rose.”
She heard it again. She looked to her bedroom door, but there was no one there. Rubbing her eyes, she dismissed it as still being half asleep.
“Rose.”
She turned to her side to be face to face with Emily.
“Why didn’t you help me, Rose?”
Rose screamed and pushed herself backwards on the bed until she was up against her wall. Her father came bursting into the room.
“What’s wrong, what is it?” he asked in a panic.
“Emily, it’s Emily, she’s right….” Rose stopped, stunned to see that her room was empty.
“It was just a bad dream, sweetheart.”
“No, I, I saw her. She spoke to me.”
“Rose, Emily is dead. I know it’s hard, but…”
“No!” Rose shouted. “I saw her!”
“Calm down. Come on.”
“I saw…”
“Come on, it was just a dream. Just lie down and go back to sleep.”
Knowing that the argument was a lost cause, Rose lay back down. She asked her father to stay with her until she was asleep. He did. Eventually she drifted off.
The following morning when Rose awoke, she looked around her room for any evidence of Emily's presence. There was nothing. Her father was right - it was just a dream. Probably because she missed her so much. She sighed and looked out of her window. There in the park stood the old man again. He was looking right at her and smiling. He waved and the beckoned her to come to the park.
“Daddy!” She screamed “He’s there! He’s there!”
She ran from her room downstairs to get her father. She wasn’t hanging around again this time.
“What is it? Rose calm down. What is it?”
“He’s there, he’s back in the park again.”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
“The old man, the one who killed Emily.” She said while grabbing her father's hand and pulling him to the front door.
“Come on now, Rose. We’ve been through this. There was no man there.”
“Just come one.”
She opened the door and they went outside. The park was empty.
“Right, that’s enough of that now, Rose.” Her father scorned. “I’ll have no more of old men or ghosts!”
“But I saw him. He must have left when I came to get you.”
“He was never there, Rose! I know that it’s hard and you saw a horrible, horrible thing. But this is just your imagination. You need to accept that.”
“I, I saw him,” she muttered, almost a whisper.
“No, Rose. You didn’t.”
For the rest of the day Rose walked around in a complete daze.
A combination of tiredness, confusion and grief had taken its toll on her. When bedtime came, she was more than ready for it. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
“Rose.”
She woke startled once again. Her face held a look of terror as she was eye to eye with Emily once again.
“It’s the old man, Rose.”
“Daddy!” She screamed.
“He wants to bring his daughter back, Rose.” A ghostly whisper came from Emily’s pale dead lips.
“Daddy! Mummy!” Rose screamed again. She ran to the door and paused for a second to look back at Emily.
“He wants to bring her back, Rose.”
She ran to her parent's room and spent the night in there.
Much to the annoyance of her parents, Rose spent the following three nights in their room, until her father had finally said that enough was enough and he demanded she sleep back in her own room. Rose sat awake for the whole night, waiting for Emily to show up. She didn’t.
She kept peeking through her curtains to look over to the park, waiting to see the old man. There was nothing.
Finally she had to accept that her parents were right. She had imagined the whole thing. She promised herself that she would never forget Emily, she would always be her best friend. But she couldn’t spend her whole life dwelling on her death.
The park looked beautiful now; it was almost Christmas and snow had covered every inch of it. Rose and her friend Bekki had run over there to have a snowball fight. They laughed as they pelted each other with snowballs. Rose had climbed the slide and then made an avalanche by sliding down it. Bekki ran to the swings. She brushed the snow off and jumped on. Kicking her legs back and forth she called to Rose.
“Come on, you can see for miles when you get high. Everywhere is white.”
Rose stared at the swing. Her friend's deathtrap.
“No, I’m good. I’ll pass.”
“Come on, Rose. It’s so beautiful,” Bekki shouted.
There is no man, and there is no ghost. Her father's voice rang in her head. She remembered that she had proved to herself there was nothing to be afraid of. It had all been her imagination. She brushed off the snow and climbed on.
Swinging back and forth, now laughing along with Bekki, Rose couldn’t believe that she was too scared to get on these because of a ghost. She laughed again at the thought.
“Come on swing higher!” Bekki giggled.
“OK, OK.” Rose laughed as well.
Their laughter was joined by that of a man's. Rose looked behind her to see that god awful grin. The old man was stood behind her swing. He began to push her.
“Get off me! Get off, get off!” Rose screamed.
“What’s the matter, Rose?” Bekki looked shocked.
“It’s him, it’s the man. Get off!” Tears now streamed down Rose’s face.
The man kept pushing until she was going higher and higher. Bekki scraped her feet along the floor until she came to a stop.
“Rose, what’s wrong?”
“It’s him! He’s pushing me!”
Bekki couldn’t see anyone.
“Just stop yourself and get off.”
“I can’t,” Rose cried, “he won’t let me. He won’t let me stop.”
The old man's laughter
filled the park. Bekki ran behind Rose’s swing and tried to grab it to help her stop. It came back too fast and knocked her to the ground.
“Rose, you need to slow down and get off. What’s the matter?”
Rose’s face was now ice cold with her tears.
“I can’t, he keeps pushing me.”
“Then jump off,” Bekki shouted, thinking that Rose had lost her mind.
“Yes jump!” The old man shouted and laughed. Only Rose heard him.
“Jump!” Bekki called
“Jump!” the old man repeated.
“I can’t,” Rose sobbed.
Bekki ran to Rose’s house to get help. She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she knew there was something wrong.
“Jump!” The old man laughed “Jump!”
Finally, with no other option left. Rose let go of the swings. Her body flew through the air.
“Rose!” her father screamed.
She was turned upside down and landed on her head.
“Rose!” he ran to her and scooped her up from the ground.
He carried her back to the house, Bekki followed. She didn’t know what to do. Looking at Rose’s lifeless body in her father's arms, Bekki started to cry herself.
“Is she dead?” She asked bluntly.
“No,” Rose’s father replied. “She’s just knocked herself out.”
“Dad, Daddy?” A mumble came from Rose’s mouth.
“Oh, thank God!” her father cried “Thank God, yes. Yes, sweetheart it’s me.”
“What happened?” Rose asked.
“You’ve just had a fall and banged your head that’s all. Don’t worry sweetheart.”
“Is she going to be OK?” Bekki asked apprehensively.
“Yes, she’ll be fine, Bekki. Thank you. I’m going to take Rose to bed, are you OK to call your mother to come and collect you? I’ll be back down in a second.”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I hope you’re OK, Rose.”
“Thank you, Bekki. I promise she’ll be fine.”
Rose’s father carried her upstairs. He stripped her off her wet clothes and put her pyjamas on her then he put in her bed and tucked her in tight.
“You just stay there and get warmed up, OK? You’ve given me a hell of a fright. Just lie down and get some rest. He kissed her on the forehead.
Twisted Shorts: Ten Chilling Short Stories Page 9
