Me and my wife had broken up about two months ago, so me and our daughter had a chance to have a fresh start in our new home. We were both excited to move to a new neighborhood, especially her, being the super curious little thing she is. Plus, it would be nice now that Lily would be able to play with her cousins more often, since my brother's house is only a few minutes walk from here.
William and my sister-in-law were glad to tour us around the neighborhood and the town. We played with Lily and my nephews at the park, sat on a restaurant and even bought my daughter a new stuffed monkey. Nothing seemed as if it could go wrong.
One day kissed Lily to sleep, the poor thing was exhausted after a while day of play and laughter. She fell asleep almost immediately, holding her monkey close to her as if it was the most precious thing to her. Soon I exited the room, closing the door behind me and heading to my bedroom that was almost next to hers. And it wasn't long after I almost fell asleep that I heard laughter and talking from Lily's room. At that moment I thought nothing of it, I imagined it was her playing with her toys, but it was late at night and she should have been sleeping, so I decided to get out of the bed and go over to her room to put her back to sleep. I opened the door only to see Lily shaking her monkey while laughing, as soon as she noticed me, she put down her toy and waved at me smiling. I headed over to her and made her lay back in the bed, covering her up so she wouldn't be cold.
"Papa, I thought my name was Lily.."
I stared in confusion "It is sweetheart." I simply replied
"But she called me Naomi"
I stayed silent for so seconds, trying to understand what she meant.
"Well Naomi I began, giving her a small smile "Little girls should be sleeping at this hour, you should too." And with that Lily puffed her cheeks, I kissed her goodnight again and went to bed.
The night went by slowly, I tried to understand what Lily meant by "She called me". Of course, at that time I couldn't have imagined, no, no one could have. I woke up in the morning, feeling a bit dizzy, further more I can still remember the pain I felt around my body, my limbs had several bruises that weren't there yesterday. I got off my bed and started my morning routine by brushing my teeth, then headed down in the kitchen to make breakfast. To my surprise I was greeted by a messy kitchen and a 9 year old covered in flour, it was a fun thing to see, clearly not an everyday view but at the same time I couldn't help but feel anger.
"I asked her If she could help me make breakfast" Lily said
I crossed my arms and started at her, my eyebrows drew closer
"And who may she be?"
"My new friend!"
First the event of last night, now this, I wont lie I was pretty creeped out. Worst part was that I thought it was the stuffed monkey. Dear god how much better would it be if it was the monkey. I grabbed the toy from her hands and she left a small gasp "papa no!" She exclaimed and shook her hands in the air trying to reach for it "ms monkey is grounded until I'm done cleaning up" I said bowing a bit to look at her "now you go wash yourself." I ordered, causing Lily to cross her arms and walk over to the bathroom. I sighed and started cleaning up the kitchen, leaving the monkey on the kitchen booth.
As soon as I was done I started making a list for stuff we needed from the supermarket, Lily and her "friend" had managed to waste a lot of food.
"Papa I'm hungry!"
I heard my daughter's voice point out, I raised my head from the paper and looked over to her. My expression was completely blank, Lily was holding the monkey I placed only a few centimeters away from in the table and I didn't see her coming over to take it "When did you take your toy back?" "She gave me Monkey back" she explained, I only held my pen tightly. "Lily sweetheart.." I began saying a bit timidly "why don't you let the monkey down and go dress up?" She blinked a couple of times and soon smiled "okay papa!" She said happily and rushed quickly up in her room. It's funny how something so tiny can make you feel so uneasy.
We were done with the shopping sooner than I thought we would. We searched for our car in the parking, which is very close to the town's large park(some would even confuse it for a forest). I quickly opened the back of the car to put in the bags in, one, two, three.. "Honey, could you give the rest?" I questioned as I held my hand out to grab the bags, head turned to the other bags that were already inside the car "Lily?" I questioned again and turned over to face her.
She was gone.
I quickly began to panic and look around "Lily!?" I shouted worried. It was then that I saw her run in to the park, accompanied by.. another girl. Or at least that what it looked like. "Lily wait!" I shouted again, forgetting everything I just started running after them, faster than I've ever ran before.
I rushed through the park in the speed of lightning, following the distant giggling and laughter, I had to find my daughter before something happened to her. The forest was thick, it's trees seemed high enough to reach the sky, while the park itself seemed endless. After some minutes that seemed to last forever I caught a glimpse of my daughter near a river. I managed to get close enough to be able to see and hear her clearly, noticing something I couldn't before, she was talking and holding hands with a girl that didn't seem very older than her. Around 12.. maybe even 15 or so. I wrapped my jacket around me and started moving towards them.
"Lily!" I shouted, caughting the attention of both of them.
"Daddy Daddy! Look! It's her!" She exclaimed happily shaking the other girls hands.
Things then started to get out of control. It was the infamous "she" of the past few days. A motherfucking ghost.
I began to examine the other girl, nothing on her looked odd, she wore a normal really dark grey coat as well as a long, red scarf, along with black boots and trousers. I kept moving closer to them, the wind began to feel like razors against my skin, Lily's dark blonde hair and red dress blew along with the wind, while the other girl's form seemed to not be affected by the wind at all. I noticed something else then, once I was close enough to make contact with both of them, the other girl had... white hair while the tips of her hair seemed to be black in color.
"Look Naomi! Nathan is here to play!" exclaimed the girl once I took hold of Lily's hand. But then it hit me, who the hell was Nathan? And who on earth was Naomi?
"Sweetheart we need to go." I pulled Lily's hand close to me. It didn't seem to please the other girl at all. I stared in to her cold, dead, blue eyes and saw that she had white pupils. I freaked out completely and started dragging Lily away from that place. My daughter started complaining and yelling that she wanted to stay. She quickly took hold of the girl's scarf and didn't seem to let it go. "Don't take Naomi away!" Screeched the girl, causing Lily to take off her scarf completely, stopping her immediately. I quickly grabbed the scarf away and started running along with my child out of there. But I could hear a faint giggle from behind us.
"Wrong choice."
I sit in my study quietly, examining the scarf, it has an odd feeling when you touch it, I don't know how to explain it.. it's smooth and soft but in a way I've never really seen before. Looking at it closely I manage to see something, a small label that reads "Winter".

And I remember it as if it was yesterday, I got out of bed rushed down to the study to check on my father who had just screamed, followed by a series of times falling down on the wooden floor. I remember myself timidly walking in to the room scared and seeing that thing I used to call a.. "friend" sitting on my father's cold lifeless body, wearing her scarf and sipping her finger in the pool of crimson liquid that surrounded them. That night I fist came in contact with blood. I tilted my head to the side and seeing her writing something on his forehead
"HIEMS"
I stared at the word which I could barely make out "Hiems?" I questioned out loud, caughting her attention. She first looked out the window, eyes pinned on the night sky and moon, "You are not Naomi.." she looked at me, her blue eyes and white pupils pinned onto mine, staring in to my soul "Naomi is not here.." she half sobbed and got off the body standing up, she smiled faintly "I wont let him take her alive.." her voice fainted and started walking out of the room. I stared in fear at the body and then rushed out of the room, but she was gone. She was nowhere. Luckily for me that night one of the neighbors called the police so I wasn't alone for long.
It's been 23 years since then and since that night I didn't get any encounters with that ghost.. again. I still some nights have to hold my husband close to feel safe, it works. But I don't know how to feel anymore, because my younger son wakes up crying. When his father asks him what's wrong, He replies.
"She called me Nathan.."