Play Thing

Carol sat quietly on the park bench completely consumed by her novel, barely glancing up sporadically to check on her daughter. She felt her heart flutter as the lovers in the pages of her book finally had their moment together.

Georgina played quietly, mimicking her mother, in the sand by the swings. She hummed to herself as she built tower after tower of her magnificent castle.

“Do you want to play on the jungle gym? We can pretend that’s our castle!” Said a voice above Georgina. She looked up from her sand castle to see a strange looking girl about her age watching her play. The girl looked like she hadn’t showered or changed her clothes in months but she smiled and seemed friendly. Georgina stood up and wiped the sand from her dress.

“I’m Georgina, what’s your name?”

“My name is Lucy. Come on, let’s play!” Answered the odd little girl. She grabbed Georgina’s hand and pulled her to the jungle gym. Even more strange, Georgina thought, was that Lucy’s hands were clammy and cold.

“I’ll be the princess!” Screamed Georgina from the top of the tower.

“I’ll be the knight in shining armor who comes to save you!” Lucy pulled out an invisible sword from her side with a playful laugh and started running around the jungle gym.

“Please sweet prince! Come save me!” Georgina screamed once on top of the highest point of the jungle gym. She grabbed onto the dented, metal orange bars and let herself swing openly back and forth.

“I shall save you! Oh no! A giant dragon!” Lucy exclaimed while running around the play equipment wheedling her sword. ‘Take that and that, you monstrous beast!”

Georgina laughed as she watched her new friend fight for her honor and continued to scream her helpless pleas from the high tower of the make-believe castle.

With one final stab Lucy defeated the fictional dragon and shouted in celebration as she climbed up to rescue Georgina.

“Want to play something even more fun?” Lucy asked once she had reached Georgina. Georgina, still catching her breath from screaming and laughing nodded with excitement.

“It’s called ‘save the dead girl’”.

Suddenly, Lucy’s face turned even more pale and haunting. Georgina stopped smiling completely as the fear rose in her.

“I don’t think I want to play that. That doesn’t sound fun….” Georgina’s voice trailed off as she started to move away from Lucy.

“But I need you, I need your help to save me.” Lucy whispered, slowly moving closer.

“How? How can I save you?” Georgina muttered feeling her foot hit the top of the slide. A hollow and wicked smile spread across Lucy’s face. She suddenly moved quicker than Georgina’s eyes could follow until she was directly in front of her. Lucy reached out her cold, clammy hand and touched Georgina’s face. As she did all the blood seemed to drain from Georgina’s face and rise up in Lucy’s. Georgina was suddenly finding it so difficult to breathe. She screamed and stepped back, sliding backwards down the slide and hitting her head on the ground with a deafening smack.

“Georgina!” Carol cried out, suddenly able to pull herself from the pages of her novel to parent her child. She ran quickly and picked her daughter up from the ground. Georgina was bleeding and looked very pale. Slowly, Georgina opened her eyes and looked at her mother. “Georgina, what happened? Honey, are you okay?”

Georgina glanced upwards at the top of the slide to see Lucy staring down at her, her eyes had turned to slits. Georgia muffled a scream.

“Please, take me home, mommy.”

Carol picked up her daughter and started to carry her back to the car, Georgina held tightly to her mother and stared at the ghost child still waiting for her on the top of the jungle gym.