Purple Dreams

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. Then I would wake up and find Sara, my friend, floating above me in her white nightgown, her hair spread apart as if she were in water.

"You could just say hello like normal people." I said to her as she stared me in the face. Vanishing out of thin air in ripples, she reappeared next to the bay window, staring out into the night.

"But see? The moon. It's so bright." she said. I threw off my covers and joined her.

"Hm. Yeah. Your obsession with the moon is a bit concerning."

"I only just look at it." she said.

"Every night?"

"It's pretty!"

"Chloe?" I heard my mother call.

"Here she comes again." I said, rolling my eyes. Sara disappeared like she usually did when my mother came to pry.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Myself." I replied, following the promise I made to Sara that I wouldn't tell her. My mother peered into my room with concerned eyes, searching me and then coming in further to have a look at my bed and my closet. She always looked under the bed and in the closet, as if someone were intruding.

"But I heard another voice." my mother said.

"Yeah. That was me mom."

"It sounded different, like another girl was with you." she insisted.

I shrugged.

"Nope. Just me."

My mother didn't seem convinced, but after finding no evidence of a second person in the room she finally accepted my excuse.

"Try to get some sleep. It's late." my mother said, sounding concerned and irritated as if she knew something but couldn't do anything about it.

"Ok," I said. She then left to go back to her room, and Sara reappeared. There was that sound again that I had asked about many times before. A rattling of chains, of which she explained that it was simply a pair of anklets she liked to wear while she was alive.

I tried asking her how she died before too. Only to receive the same answer.

"What does it matter? I'm here now, and the moon is just so bright."

Of course, it made sense she wouldn't want to share this kind of information with someone like me who only moved into this old house 5 months ago. They first met around 4 months ago, after I had spent a great while in her room and she wasn't sure she liked it. Or me, for that matter. But then it seemed she took a liking to me. And then the dreams started. The dreams of the purple clouds.

Sara returned to the spot next to me by the window, staring at the moon some more. After a while though, I started to feel my eyes getting sore, and I yawned.

"I really should get back to bed." I said, standing and going to crawl under the covers.

"Makes sense. Must be nice being able to sleep. Sweet dreams." Sara replied, her voice coming from nowhere in particular.

"Goodnight." I said sleepily, as my head lay back down on the pillow. And soon enough my dreams were filled with purple clouds once more.

I woke up in the morning to Sara gone, as usual, and nowhere to find her. I could never find her during the day, which was probably better because if she were around during the day I'd be too distracted to get ready for school.

I showered, got dressed, and headed down the stairs quietly to the kitchen. My parents were speaking in hushed tones as I came down. I made my footsteps lighter when I heard they were talking about me.

"She was talking to someone named Sara. She's been talking to her for a few nights now. What I can't figure out is how she's been getting in the house." my mom started saying.

"Well at least it's a girl and not a boy. If it were a boy I'd be very con..."

I came down the stairs too suddenly for him to continue on. When my mother saw me, she grew nervous.

"Chloe pumpkin! I made you cereal. Eat up we have to leave soon."

I ate, and then we drove to school, where the classes blurred together and the day went by as I floated on purple clouds in my mind.

Then suddenly school ended, and I went to my usual place to meet Sara. By the water, along the bank, where it has signs on it that say "Danger: Do Not Enter. Uneven Ground, Slide Risk. Do not Enter."

Despite the signs, I had sat next to the river bank many times before. And just like before, Sara was there, waiting. We sat on the bank together, staring at the dark water. How easy it would be to drown in there. How easy it would be to drop a rock or metal weight and have it sink to the bottom, where it would never be found again. Such mysterious waters with so many secrets...

"Do you think there are bodies in this water?" I asked Sara.

"I know there are."

"How?"

"I just do."

"Have you been in?"

"Oh yes, many times, when the water was clear and blue like an emerald," replied Sara. I looked at the almost black water and began to feel cold. Empty. Like I was a corpse hanging in the abyss.

I walked home, back to the house. I felt tired, so I went straight to bed. I strange smell filled my nose. Like chemicals. The purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. Whispering voices filled my ears.

Plug your nose... they whispered. Don't smell it, don't take it in. Resist the urge to sleep. Don't smell it. Resist. The purple clouds cannot come in....

Sara's face appeared in my mind, pale like before. But this time I saw her ankles, cuffs, and chains holding her to a weight deep in water. She floated lifelessly in the abyss. I called out to her, but she couldn't hear me. Bubbles were all that came out as I started to feel myself sink like I was drowning. Like I too was dead and sunk at the bottom of the lake.