Jessie's Friend
“Wake up, Wake up! Do you hear me? Wake up!” Jessie sat up in bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She was a little startled to find the young girl standing by her bed since she was home alone tonight. Her mom had to fill in on the late shift at work tonight and Jessie wouldn’t hear of a baby sitter, even if one could be found that would spend the night. Her mother and she had argued for a while but Jessie had finally convinced her that a thirteen year old would be just fine for one night by herself. Jessie regretted that now. Who was this girl in her room? She had blonde curly hair and was wearing a pretty sundress with a large hat that seemed like something out of the 1800’s. In her hands was a ball the size of a small soccer ball which on second glance seemed to glow with a dull light. Jessie scooted back against the wall and pulled the blankets around her. “Who are you? “ She stammered keeping as far away from the little girl as possible. Jessie was not a person that was easily scared. She’d been taking Kung Fu for the last two years and had become pretty confident with being able to handle herself. In fact she had defended herself against a boy at school that had been, as her mother would say, “getting fresh” with her. There was just something strange about this little girl, besides the fact she was in her room in the middle of the night. She seemed so out of place. She had a glow about her almost like the sun was shining directly on her in the middle of the night. She looked like something straight out of Little House on the Prairie. “I’m Lilly” The little girl replied hurriedly. “But you’ve got to get up now” “Why” asked Jessie. She was beginning to feel a little more at ease with the little girl. “If you tell me why you’re here maybe I can help you” “No, no, no, you can’t help me” the little girl said. “I’m here to help you. You’ve got to hurry and get up now” “Are you lost or something, do you live around here?” Jessie asked “You have to listen to me” said the little girl, “He’s in the house and he’s looking for you.” Jessie was shocked at the little girl’s words. “Who’s in the house, who’s looking for me?” “The man” Said Lily, eyes wide with fear. “The bad man who collects little girls.” Jessie remembered hearing on the news about the girls that had gone missing lately, in fact it was one of the reasons her mother had argued so hard about Jessie not staying alone. The news had said that eight girls had disappeared in the last two weeks in a small town outside Oklahoma City. The girls were stolen out of their beds in the middle of the night and no traces have been found of them since. Jessie had told her mom not to be ridiculous, that was near Oklahoma City and they lived just outside of Dallas, she wasn’t in any danger. Was she wrong or was this all a dream? “That man is a long way away” said Jessie “I’m just having a nightmare” “No, no, no,” Lily replied “He’s here, right now, in your house. This isn’t a dream, you have to get out. I’m going to throw you my ball and you catch it. If you can catch it will you believe me that it’s not a dream?” “I guess so” Jessie responded skeptically holding out her hands. Lily threw the ball towards her. Jessie reached out and grabbed a hold of the ball. “It’s warm” she said. “Look into it” Lily urged “but look quickly, there’s not much time” Jessie looked into the ball and was surprised to see her own living room. Standing in the middle of the room she could see a man. Well, she could see the shape of a man. She couldn’t actually see his face. It wasn’t that he was covering it, it just wasn’t there. It was like a void with two green, glowing dots for eyes. All of a sudden the man looked directly at her through the ball and from downstairs she could hear a noise that seemed a little like a growl but eerily sounded more like a laugh.. “Oh my god, there is a man down there!” Jessie yelled. “Who, what is he” “He’s the collector of little girls” Responded Lily. “He’s evil and he has to have them. He’s a bad man possessed by an evil spirit escaped from Hell. The man does whatever he wishes with her and then the spirit takes her soul to wait for him in Hell until he returns to torture them for eternity. Please, please you have to get out of here. If you don’t he’ll come up here and take you away. You really don’t want to go with him. Not him.” Jessie jumped up out of bed and ran to her window. There was a large tree just outside her window and she was hoping she could climb down and go to Ms. Belmire’s house next door. If she could just get there she would be ok. She ran to the window and tried her best to open it but she couldn’t. Her dad had put storm windows on before he had gone out of town for work and it was just impossible to get out that way. Jessie was trying to figure out what to do and decided to hide and maybe the man wouldn’t find her. She was starting to crawl under her bed when she heard Lily say”That won’t work, he’ll find you there. You have to get out of the house, he’ll know where you are no matter where you hide, he always knows.” “What am I supposed to do then” Jessie yelled in frustration. She had to calm down and think. The man was probably headed up stairs already and there was only one way down stairs. There was no way she could get around him. She had to figure out something. She looked around her room, looking for something, anything she could use as a weapon. She actually had a weapon, a staff that she used to practice her forms for martial arts but it was down stairs. Finally she had and idea. Last Christmas her parents had given her two hanging candle holders. They were both shaped like boxes with designs cut into the sides, you put the candles inside and they projected the designs on the wall. They were hanging in the corners of her room and they were made out of metal and were very heavy. Jessie dragged a chair to the nearest one and took it off the hook. She then went to her desk and grabbed a pair of scissors; carrying the scissors to her window she cut the string from her blinds. Tying the string to the candle holder she created a pretty good weapon. Sticking the scissors in the waistband of her pajamas so she could use them if he got close, something she really didn’t want to happen, she went to her door and peaked out. “Where is he?” she asked Lilly. “He’s on the stairs near the bottom” Leaving her room she went toward the stairs. The staircase opened up on a wide area overlooking the living room. At the top of the stairs to the right was a small hallway the led to a bathroom. Standing against the wall she glanced down the stairs and could see the two glowing eyes slowing advancing towards her. Jessie ducked back and wrapped the string around her left hand and grabbed it with her right. It seemed like it took forever for the man to make it up the stairs, almost as if he wasn’t worried about anything at all. She watched him top the stairs and walk passed her and just as she was about to swing he turned and looked right at her. “He always knows” Said Lily smugly. “You can’t hide from him.” The man started to reach out for her and Jessie swung the candle holder with all her might hitting the man right in the temple. The man fell to the ground but to Jessie’s dismay started slowly to get right back up again. Jessie took the few moments break to jet down the stairs as fast as she could. The front door was right in front of her and she fumbled with the locks to get the door open but when she looked back the man was already halfway down the stairs. “Run” Lily yelled. “If you stay there he will get you” Jessie started to run to the back door but the man reached over the banister and grabbed her by the hair jerking her off her feet. The man lifted and pulled Jessie up by her hair until her feet were all the way off the ground. Grabbing the scissors Jessie tried to stab at his hand, but couldn’t quiet reach. Putting her fingers in the scissors Jessie cut her own hair and dropped to the ground. The shift in weight caused the man to stumble back. Jessie reached through the railing of the banister and jammed the scissors as hard as she could into the man’s leg. The man let out a long growl but seemed otherwise unfazed by the pain. “This way” Jessie heard Lily say and looked over to see Lily standing in the kitchen door. Jessie started across the room towards Lily. While passing the fireplace she grabbed the poker used to move the logs. The man was down the stairs and moving faster now than he had before. “Hurry, Hurry.” Lily screamed. Just as Jessie entered the kitchen seeing Onyx, her cat standing on the kitchen table with his back arched hissing at something behind her, she felt the man grab hold of the back of her shirt. The man spun her around and grasped her by the shoulders. Striking out as fast as she could Jessie jabbed the fireplace poker into his stomach feeling resistance before the poker actually went into him. The man let go and using as much force as possible Jessie gave him her best side kick knocking the man back. Jessie ran through the kitchen to the door and started unlocking it. She heard Onyx hissing again and turned to see the man heading right for her. When the man noticed Onyx he seemed suddenly wary. Jessie watched with sudden interest as Onyx leaped off the table onto the man and started scratching him all over his face. It almost seemed as if the cat was aiming for the eyes. The man stumbled around the room trying to fling the cat off. Jessie watched as the man fell to his knees struggling with the cat. Suddenly realizing that nothing she had done had seemed to bother the man Jessie decided that she had to kill the evil spirit to be rid of her attacker. Grabbing a knife out of the wooded block sitting on the counter Jessie started toward the man. Just as she reached him the man was finally able to fling the cat away. The man’s head turned in the direction of the flying cat to make sure it wasn’t coming back for more, but the cat landed a few feet away and scampered off through the living room. Slowly the man turn back to his intended prey, but as he turned the only thing he saw was the blade of a butcher knife as it entered his eye. Jessie heard a sudden loud shriek. Backing up to the door she saw a bright burst of green light that almost looked like fire, then the whole house shook and the man fell flat on his face. Jessie looked down at her monster and could see that the man now had a face. He was average looking and didn’t appear to be the sort you would think of to do the things he had done. “It’s ok now.” Jessie heard behind her. She turned to see Lily standing there with a big smile on her face. “He can’t hurt you now.” “Is he dead?” Jessie asked. “The man is” Lily replied. “The thing that was in him isn’t, but you don’t have to worry it won’t be back for a long time. It’s gone back to hell where it came from. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. ” “Thank you for helping me” Jessie said “I would have been a goner without you. “You’re welcome’” the girl said smiling. “I‘ve got to go now, but I’ll keep an eye on you.” With that the girl slowly faded away and Jessie was left all alone with a dead man. Not wanting to stick around Jessie ran out the door and to Ms. Belmire’s house next door where she explained everything and the police and her mother were called. The next morning Jessie and her mother were leaving to go to spend the rest of the weekend with her grandpa. The car was parked in the driveway in the back so they left through the back door. “Mom?” Jessie said. When Jessie’s mother turned around she saw Jessie staring in the garden. “What is it honey” “Where did that come from?” Jessie said. “Oh that?” her mother said pointing at a small statue of a girl in a sundress wearing a hat and holding a white ball. “I bought that off of the weird old man down the road. I really wanted a different one but that’s the only one he would sell me for some reason” Jessie just smiled and said “Thanks.” Her mother replied “Your welcome, honey” but thought it was a little weird that Jessie seemed to be speaking to the statue and not her.
Copyright © 2005 Mike McWade |