R slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the grey light that flooded his vision. Shivering in the cold air, he realized he was lying on his side on something hard. Grey wood slats supported his head. Before him stretched a field of brown grasses and dark skeletal trees. The old oak leaned perilously in the center of the park, supporting the immolated carcass of a sedan and its driver.

Fuuuck.

I'm here again.

Wrapping his arms around himself, he sat up against the bench, still shivering in the cold. The familiar fabric of his old red hoodie wasn't doing the job against the chilly pall that hung over the park. Pulling the hood over his head, he quickly scanned the area, looking for the girl.

She wasn't anywhere to be seen.

I have had it with this shit.

"You might as well show yourself and get it over with!" he yelled into the cold day, "I'm done playing along!"

Frowning deeply, he slouched back against the bench, pulling his hood lower as he watched his breath fog in the crisp air of a grey afternoon.

"I'll save you the trouble, I've got to find you, got it," he muttered. "Can I wake up now?"

A terribly sad sound reached him, as if from very far away, and slowly grew louder until it was very, very near.

Someone was crying next to him.

Twisting around at the sound, he saw the girl on the other side of the bench, curled over her knees, shaking in deep sobs, her auburn hair a wild tangled mass around her shoulders.

His instincts immediately started screaming.

Oh shit.

He'd been ready for anything, but crying was so completely off the radar he found himself staring at her, frozen. As he waited for her to do something, his nerves firing signals to run, get away, her sobs only deepened, full of despair. It tugged at him, and he tried to resist the urge to reach out and comfort her.

If he did, he had no doubt she would leap up at him. Probably with no face. This was a horror movie waiting to happen, just like every other dream he'd had with her.

But she didn't jump, she didn't change. Her cries were real, and her grief washed over him, pulling at his heart. Without meaning to, he found himself stretching out a hand in comfort.

"Hey... uh..." he asked, completely lost as to what to say.

As his hand pressed down onto her pink jacket, her head turned towards him, her large brown eyes red-rimmed and swollen. And she was human. Just a human kid, terribly sad.

It broke his heart.

"I'm so sorry for what I did to you," he said quietly. "If I could take it back, I would."

The girl sniffed, running the sleeve of her pink jacket across her nose. "I know," she sighed. "Me too. I... I never meant to be so mean."

R didn't say anything. He didn't want to make her more upset. Instead he gently rubbed her shoulder, trying to be comforting, as his nerves still jangled oddly.

"I just wanted to get your attention," she added softly.

"Well you've fucking got it!" he blurted out laughing, then winced as she started to cry again.

"I was angry okay!?" she cried at him, almost spitting the words, "You hurt me! You killed me!"

As he sat there, his heart wrenched in guilt, not sure what to say, she curled against her knees again and her weeping drifted over the sad scene of the park.

With a heavy sigh, he shuffled closer, draping his arm over her shoulders. The echoes of that day came back to him, the way he'd held her fast as he killed her, and he went to pull away, but she suddenly flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his midriff.

Panic flooded through him until he realized she was still crying, still shaking with a terrible sadness. Slowly his arms fell and he held her as she cried.

"I can't... take this anymore," she whispered against him. "Please... help me."

"How?"

She pulled away to stare at him, her brown eyes pleading, "Find me. Stop him."

R frowned, completely confused. "Who?"

"My brother," she whispered, and he could tell she was scared.

Her brother? What?

"I don't understand," he said, staring down at her, "why do I have to stop your brother?"

Her eyes were unnaturally wide as she whispered up at him, "He's doing very bad things."

R's mouth went suddenly dry, and his heart thumped loudly in his chest. "What things?"

"He won't let me die," she said, her voice barely audible, and her eyes filled with tears again, "I just want it to stop, but he won't let me die."

"What?" he said, not understanding at all, his skin crawling with a growing sense of dread.

"He keeps... feeding me."

As she spoke, her voice changed from that of a terrified young girl, to the sound of grinding stone over dry earth. Her eyes dulled over, then were swallowed completely by the dark hollows of her sockets, as her skin pulled taut over her teeth, exposing withered blackened gums.

R cried out and tried to push the mummified skeleton away, but it held onto him fast, its arms locked around his chest, nails digging through the thick cotton of his hoodie into his skin.

"Get off!" he yelled, and started hammering the withered skull with his fists, desperate to get free. Its grip only tightened and he screamed as he felt something crack inside. The agony burned him like a fire and he trembled with it, unable to breathe, unable to get away.

"Please..." he gasped, trying to reach whatever was left of the girl inside the corpse, "I can't help... if you keep... killing me."

The grip slowly eased, and he took in a deep rasping breath, then whimpered from the pain of his crushed ribs. He tried to focus on the face of the creature as it pulled its arms free and stood before him.

"Where... where are you?" he whispered, cradling his side.

The skeleton lifted a withered arm and pointed behind him. He tried to follow where, but yelped and doubled over as something crunched wetly inside. Every breath he took was gurgling, and he didn't understand why until he coughed and his mouth flooded with blood.

"Oh... great," he rasped, spitting blood onto the dry wood of the bench. "Please say... find me... so I... can wake up."

The skeleton slowly leaned towards him, its skull drawing level with R's face as he struggled to breathe.

With shocking speed, it thrust its clawed hand deep into R's chest.

R stared down in shock.

Blood pulsed from the wound, over the creatures arm, over his lap. There was no pain, just a tremendous, terrifying pressure.

With a violent wrench the boney ripped its hand away, and his chest was suddenly hollow inside, where it should never feel hollow.

R coughed and looked up, his eyes fading.

She was holding his heart. Blood spurted from the jaggedly severed arteries and veins as it trembled in her withered hand.

As he sagged against the bench, blood pouring from the massive hole in his chest, it leaned over him again.

"Set me free..." it rasped, and its jaws closed over the quivering organ, biting deeply through the thick muscle.

"...FIND ME..."