Chapter Two

Nell's bedroom always had been littered with stuff animals. The amount of times her mother has said to clean them up have been countless. Even at night though, now found it a strange comfort to have her toys scattered about. Her walls were filled with drawings she had completed telling stories adventures she had gone on in her mind. Strip them bare and one wood on earth a pale pink wallpaper that matches the bedspread on the small twin bed, in the corner of the room, near the window.

Tucked under the covers was a little lump. The lump lets out a tiny snore, and as it rolls over it exposes little Nell's innocent face. Her eyes are closed and she looks completely at peace.

The room was still; so when a small voice in the dark whispered, "Nell." It sounded almost as though it was put through a loudspeaker. Although it was loud it did not disturb the little seven-year-old remained motionless under her covers. "Nelly." It came again and this time dragging out every syllable.

Little Nell's eyes shot open almost as if she was awakened from a spell. She popped up in her covers allowing her plaited hair to fall to her sides. She looked around the room trying to find the source of the call. There was a panic in her face as she pan from wall to wall. Someone was calling to her, right? She wasn't dreaming it? She thought very hard to remember exactly what she had been dreaming moments before she was woken by the voice. Maybe there was some clue as to what it might have been. Nothing came to her though.

"Hello?" She answered back into the darkness. Her voice shook giving away the fear she was trying really hard to keep down.

"Hello." A new voice responded. It was more mature. Not at all like the one that woke her which sounded as if it had come from a child. Now looked into the far corner of her room where the two walls met and just before her closet door frame began. The darkness appeared to be even more prominent there. She squinted to try and make out anyting. A faint figure began to take shape. A woman in a flowing nightgown. Her head was tilted to one side and the silhouette of her hair hung down.

Nell's breath began to deepen. Her chest grew heavy as the shape became sharper. The woman's neck was bulging almost as if it had been snapped like a twig. Nell was frozen in her fear. The shape floated closer, but once it hit the moonlight something remarkable happened. It transformed into a little girl.

"Don't be scared!" The new figure was quick to say. That voice? That was the voice that Nell remembered. That was the voice that woke her.

The new little girl that stood before her looked very similar to Nell. Both shared similar eyes and a reassuring smile. This girl was dressed in an onesie, one that Nell had thought she had seen before but couldn't place where. Her skin was pale and her eyes appeared hollow.

"I didn't mean to scare you." The young girl may have looked about Nell's age but when she spoke it made her appear a lot older. Almost as if she was just trapped in a young body. "I've been wanting to say hello for some time now."

Nell's nerves had begun to calm, but her voice was still shaky. "Who are you?"

The girl took another step forward bringing her to the foot of Nell's bed. "A friend." She said. "Just a friend."

"How did you get in here?" Nell wasn't dumb. She was the only child and didn't recognize the girl from the neighborhood. "Tell me before I call for my daddy!"

"Magic! See, where I'm from if you close your eyes really tight and wish really hard then when you open them you're where you wish you could be!" She climbed onto the bed and sat on its edge."And I wished that I could be here- with you."

Nell looked around the darkened room. "At night?"

"It sometimes doesn't work the way you want it to." The girl chuckled.

Now a lot more calm and relaxed Nell felt more comfortable with the strange girl. By this point she had set up all the way and made room.

"It sounds like a really cool place."

"Sometimes. Sometimes it can also be very lonely, but I have my friend Abigail to play with."

"It's lonely here too sometimes." Nell's excitement turned to sadness. "A lot of people are mean when they find out who my family is."

"Why?" There was no fairness in her ask. Could she really not know who Nell's Great Uncle was? It was a comfort. They had a well documented past and whenever people got wind of the last name Crain all the usual questions and taunts began.

"Even at Halloween, the kids in class would dress up as ghosts and say that they are my grandmother or that the house is going to get me." Nell explained.

Without warning the darkness was interrupted by a burst of light. Nell squinted into the direction of the source. Her father, Robin Crain, stood in the doorway. He was in his bathrobe and looked half asleep himself. She hadn't even noticed the hallway light going on otherwise she would have lowered her voice.

She had forgot the little girl sitting on her bed. How was she to justify her? Her father didn't seem to notice as he said in a raspy voice, "Nell, it's two in the morning. Why are you up?"

"I was just talking to my new-" she paused as she realized that the girl had disappeared. She was all alone on the bed. Her voice drifted off as she realized this, "my new friend?" How was she to justify anything now? "Daddy, I swear she was here! She had pj's and was being really nice to me and..."

Her father came over and talked her back into her bed. "She probably decided that it was late and that little girls should be asleep." Once she was back under the covers he kissed her forehead and bid her goodnight. When he closed the door Nell was left alone in the dark again.

For one last time she sat up and looked around the darkness. No creepy woman and no little girl. Has she dreamt the entire thing? All she knew is that she could feel the grip of sleep's hold returning to her. She laid back down and within moments was out.