The Little Girl

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The Little Girl

Postby Miki Yamuri » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:13 pm

Title: The Little Girl

All Characters played by liljennie and Miki Yamuri

Characters:

Emily

Mathew

Nora

Nana

Scene: At the large old estate
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"Well, there it is," said Mathew as they got out of the car. "It's not that big, but it sure has character, doesn't it? It looks like it needs some fixing up."

Sure enough, the old house had some ivy on its walls, but the windows weren't broken, and the roof looked intact. The paint could have used some touching up in places.

They had been looking for a place to live ever since Mathew had graduated with his MBA at age 21, a promising young entrepreneur already making his mark in advertising. His viral videos were the talk of the Internet, and every major agency wanted him to work for them. But first ... he needed a place to live. Somewhere out of the way, where he could think, plan, and create.

He had brought along his 18-year-old girlfriend Emily with him so she could help choose -- they hadn't started making wedding plans or anything, but who knew where things might go someday?

Emily closed the car door and walked up the short flight of steps onto the porch. It creaked as she stepped on it making her squeak as she flinched.

Mathew laughs at her cute antic as she turns and says in a huffy voice, "And just what are you laughing at, mister?"

Mathew shakes his head and replies, "You just looked adorable is all."

She sniffs as a smile breaks across her face. Emily walks up to one of the large windows and looks in. For just an instant, she swore she saw something move. She knew it was impossible for her not to have seen exactly what it was, because of the large open space that made up the living room.

Emily shrugged it off as she walked up to the rail on the far side and looked off into the huge yard surrounding the house. It was grown up, but the original grandeur of it was still very evident. It wouldn't take very much to restore the yard to its original garden like state.

Emily spins and says to Mathew, "This is perfect. It's quiet, there's a huge yard, and the nearest neighbor is over a mile away. The house is a little rough on the outside, but nothing that can't be quickly fixed. You think the door is locked?"

"Well it's supposed to be," said Mathew, "but the real estate agent, what was her name, Sally, gave me the key, so we're fine." He found the key in his pocket. "Let's see what it's like inside."

The key fit in the lock, and the creaking of the opening door echoed through the empty house. It revealed a large front hallway with a grand staircase leading to an upper level.

"Well, it's a bit ... big," Mathew said, "but you know, I can imagine making videos here. There's lots of space, and lots of possible angles."

He was looking up the stairs when he thought he heard a sound from up there -- some kind of rustling.

"What was that? Did you hear that?" he asked Emily.

Emily walks to the stairs and looks up. She replies, "I thought I heard something that sounded like ... rustling cloth or something. Probably the wind."

She slowly begins to climb the stairs. They were surprisingly sturdy and made no noises as she stepped on them. When she gets to the upper level, the landing was huge with a mezzanine over looking the huge living space. There were hallways leading off in several directions. Emily wanders towards the west since there was more sunlight filtering in from that direction. She wandered down a set of long stairs and discovered the basement, before returning to the upstairs.

She came to a door that used to have cute little appliques of animals, Unicorns, and other types of furry cute animals. She opens the door and steps in. There is a cool breeze that rushed past her as she steps into a little girl's fully furnished bedroom.

There was a cute little bed all made up in satin off to one side. There was a beautiful teak wood dresser with carvings decorating it in strategic places. She realized each carving was a pictogram story of some kind. There were toys and dolls of all sorts .... then as suddenly it all vanished and the room was empty with nothing but dust particles filtering through the rays of sunlight coming through the windows.

Emily screeches loudly, "Mathew!! Come here ... quick!" Emily can hear Mathews rapid footfalls as he climbs the stairs.

Mathew entered the room and saw Emily looking at it, the bare wooden floor, the arched windows, the faded floral wallpaper, the dusty mirror in an alcove ... and Emily.

"Yes Emily, what's going on? ... This looks like it might have been a little girl's room once. But everything's gone, no furniture or anything."

Emily screeches as she desperately grabs Mathew, "It ... it was completely furnished ... and ... I ... I saw it all. I even know where a hidden door is."

She walks quickly over to a blank wall and presses against it. There is a loud click and a panel opens revealing a dark opening behind. The opening was only about four feet tall and there was some faint light from the other end.

"How did you know ..." Mathew began, but he already knew that Emily didn't know how she knew. "What is going on here? Should we see where that goes? It's kind of small ..." He ducked and followed the short passageway.

It actually didn't go very far. There was a door of some kind on the other end, which was closed, and there was light coming in around the edges. It was easy to push the door open, though.

Light streamed into Mathew's eyes making it hard to see for a moment ... but then he clearly saw that it was daylight shining through the windows, which were framed by frothy white lace curtains. The walls were papered with an antique floral design, and the floor was dark hardwood, polished to a shine. There was a rocking horse and a large dollhouse, and in the middle of the room there was a large day bed shaped like the pumpkin carriage from Cinderella. There was a wardrobe shaped like a castle, and a toy chest shaped like a treasure chest, white with gold trim.

"Emily?" he asked softly, "Do you see this too?"

Emily followed Mathew into the small hallway. When she entered the room, her mouth fell open and her eyes got large.

She gasps, "Mathew, this is ... so beautiful. I must have had some kind of ... vision."
Emily went to the bed and pushed on it, it was very firm. She lifts the spread, it felt like stain or silk. Beneath the white linens, she found a mattress that appeared to be made like a stuffed bag.

Emily says softly, "Mathew, this appears to be a Ida Feather mattress. I'm not real sure when they stopped making them ... but it appears to be perfectly preserved."

Mathew had wandered over to a large chest and opened it. Within, was a very large collection of blocks, wooden toys of many varieties. He also finds several porcelain dolls sitting in the corner behind the chest.

Emily says, "This must have been a playroom. Look at that carousel. It appears to be hand made and painted. I bet the things in this room are all museum pieces."

But when Mathew looked again. The wallpaper now appeared faded, and there was a layer of dust on everything. "Wait ... just a moment ago didn't everything look ... newer?" He rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fingertips. "What's going on here?"

When he opened his eyes again, the room was brightly colored again and dust-free, and there was a young girl in front of him.

She looked up at him and said, "Have you come to play with me?"

He stared at her. "Who ... who are you? Where did you ..." he began, but she was gone, and the wallpaper was faded again.

Emily turns and looks at Mathew. She says, "You know who I am ... I'm Emily."

She walks over to Mathew and wraps her arms around him. She gives him a quick peck on his cheek.

She says softly, "That help jog your memory?"

Mathew looks at Emily blankly for a second before he replies, "I ... I saw a very little girl ... for just a split second. I ... I mean I was asking who she was."

Emily giggles, "So, I'm not the only one loosing my mind today it would appear."

The 2 of them look at each other, then burst into laughter.

Emily says, "I want to look the rest of the house over. If you want to play with these toys ... go ahead."

Emily ducks out of the small doorway. Mathew can hear her foot falls as they diminish with distance.

"Yeah, um, maybe later," he said to her now-distant footsteps. "So ... why is this room undisturbed, when the rest of the house is empty?" he asked himself.

He looked around the room again. Other than his footprints and Emily's, there weren't any disturbances in the dust on the floor. "This room's kind of hidden -- this girl had a secret playroom. That must have been fun for her." He thought. "But if the family had moved, surely they would have moved everything out of here too."

Then he had a thought. "Unless the people who moved everything weren't the people who had lived here, and they didn't know about this room! They might have sent movers, and the movers didn't find the room." Then he shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. They would have sent the movers back when they found everything from this room was missing."

He looked out the window onto the house's generous grounds. "I'm not sure I'd want to mow all that lawn," he said.

Then, up in the sky, the moon caught his eye. "The children's moon," he said. "The moon's in the sky during the daylight -- for little kids who go to bed early, that can be the only time they see the moon, especially when it's summer -- like now."

Then he thought he heard laughter behind him, echoing through the passageway. "Emily?" he said, turning around. But nobody was there.

Emily left the small passageway into the bedroom, then into the upstairs hall. She walked down the hall to her left away from the staircase. She wanders into a large door at the end of the hall next to a large bay type window. When she opens the door, the room is enormous. She wanders in and looks around. In her mind's eye, she imagines how this room looked completely furnished.

She walks to the bedroom window ... the yard was overgrown, but beautiful. Over and through the overgrowth, Emily could make out the sparkle of a pond off in the distance.

She thinks to herself, "This is perfect ... bet it costs a fortune."

Emily thinks she hears Mathew's voice, she turns and enters the hall once again.

She calls, "Mathew? Are you all right? What's up?" She walks back to the room, and to the small passage way. She calls o0nce again, "Mathew? Are you all right in there? I thought I heard you calling."

Mathew had already left. He had gone into the next room, the bathroom, and Emily had walked right past him without either of them noticing. He was admiring the brass fixtures and the claw-footed bathtub. This wouldn't take much fixing up at all -- aside from needing a bit of polishing, everything seemed like it was in good shape.

He suddenly heard a giggle and felt a splash of warm soapy water from the bathtub splatter all over his suit.

"Aah!" he moaned, "I'm gonna have to get it dry --" He paused. "Cleaned?"

He looked at his suit, and it was completely dry. He looked at the bathtub, and it was just as empty as before.

"Maybe I've been working too hard," he said. "Need a vacation. Too much stress."

Emily heard Mathew's voice and walked into the bathroom just in time ... to see a fading image of ... she wasn't really sure what she saw.

She says softly, "Mathew ... did you just see ... ?"

Emily shakes her head as she rubs her eyes. When she looks again, all she sees is the empty old fashion lion footed tub, complete with all the brass fittings.

Emily looks around before she comments, "Well, this looks like the perfect place for a guy to have his ... research library."

Mathew look at Emily. She stood with a completely innocent expression.

Mathew replies, "From what I've seen so far, there's not too much fixing up we would have to do."

Emily walks to the Mirrored cabinet and opens it. It is rather large, and has a very old and crusty soap jar with an equally old shaving brush stuck in the dried up rock hard soap. She picks up the slender, ivory handled straight razor. She opens it and looks at the slightly rusted blade.

Emily says, "Well, it appears at least one other man used to live here."

She hands the razor to Mathew for him to examine. Mathew realizes that the handle was inscribed with a delicate scrimshaw map of some sort.

"This looks like ... a map?" said Mathew, looking at the carvings in the razor's ivory handle. "That's the house, that's the front driveway, that's the garden in back, and that's ... is there a pond in the garden?"

Emily nodded, because she had seen a glimpse of it.

"This is a map to something that's there, I guess," Mathew said. "Should we ...? I'm not sure we should. It's not like this is our house."

Emily takes the razor back and examines the handle closely.

She replies, "I want to see where this might lead. I love the house, and I'm sure we're ... gonna own it soon enough that finding a hidden treasure would still constitute it belonging to us."

Mathew raises his eyebrows and sighs slightly.

Emily takes him by the hand, "Follow me ... I think we can find at least the general location."

Emily leads Mathew down the stairs and out the front door. They walked around the house slowly, marveling at how elegant the estate had been. They followed the overgrown stone path behind the house for a ways.

After walking through thick over growth, they step out onto the banks of a beautiful large pond. There were hyacinths blooming off in one corner, and a gaggle of ducks swimming around doing what ducks do on a pond. Emily looks at the map one more time before she points off toward an old falling in shed.

She says, "There, it has to be what this square is. It has those weird rocks off to one side."

She shows Mathew what she referred to. Mathew had to agree they were in the right place. As they headed for the shed, they swore they heard a little girl scream in the lake. Both of them turn quickly, expecting to see someone drowning. All they saw was the quiet scene from before.

"Did you hear ...?" said Mathew. Emily nodded, but neither of them could see anything. "Was it a bird or something?" A duck dove to the bottom of the lake, making a bit of a splash.

He shook his head, clearing it of cobwebs. "Let's have a look at this old shed," he said, walking down the stone path toward it.

Its door was barely attached, let alone locked; the shed didn't look as if it would provide much shelter from the elements to anything inside it. They found a number of terribly rusted gardening tools along with some dirty flowerpots and old useless bags that had once held grass seed and fertilizer. And ... an old rusty metal lock box.

"This might be what the map leads to," said Mathew, "or if it isn't, I don't know what it would be."

He tried prying it open ... and the latch was so badly rusted that it simply broke apart. Emily looked eagerly over Mathews shoulder. When they looked in, they found an old yellowed newspaper clipping and a yellowed piece of paper.

The paper clipping told of a young girl who had drowned in a pond one day when her parents were having a cook out. The eerie thing about the faded picture of the girl, both of them swore they had seen her someplace recently ... they just couldn't remember where.

Emily took the yellowed piece of paper and carefully unfolded it. It was super brittle with age. It was a hand written ... apology of sorts in the form of open prose poem. From what was left of the paper after she managed to unfold it, it was a parent's lamentation over the loss of a young child due to tragic means.

Emily gasps softly, "Mat ... this says that some little girl ...drowned here ... I'm sure of it."

She hands the crumbling paper to Mathew for him to examine more closely. Emily looks around the shed. She sees an oval gray stone or something with a strange carving on it almost buried in the earthen floor of the dilapidated shed.

She says softly, "Is ... that what it looks like?" Emily points to the gray object.

"... so although you were taken from us so early, and with you the light from our lives," Mathew read, "perhaps you are the lucky one, for you will remain forever young." He blinked. "It's so sad ... they must have lost their little girl and moved away. No wonder they didn't send someone back for the toys in that room -- they didn't have a child to play with them anymore." Then he saw the stone that Emily was looking at.

That is, Mathew had thought at first that it was a stone -- but then, taking a closer look, it was some kind of metal -- and round ...

"Wait, that looks like some kind of film canister," he said. "But it's halfway covered with dirt."

As Emily watched, he grasped it and tried to work it loose, finally freeing it from the ground.

"Home movies?" he said. "How'd this get way out here?"

He tried to open the steel canister, which was dirt-encrusted and rusty in places, but he finally opened it, revealing a reel of film.

"Looks like eight-millimeter," he said. "Didn't we see an old projector in the basement?"

Emily looks at the old film resting on the large reel in the film can.

She replies, "I thought I saw one in that room with the wooden walls ... the one to the left of the stairs when I was in the basement."

Emily looked at Mathew for a second before the both of them turn and leave the dilapidated shed and headed back towards the house. Emily noticed it felt slightly cooler and a small breeze had begun to blow. She shivers as they round the house.

Off in the far distance, large roiling dark clouds began building. Large electrical pyrotechnics flashed all through the clouds.

Emily says softly as the enter the kitchen's rear door, "Looks like a really nasty storm in coming our way."

Mathew stops and looks at the quickly approaching clouds. He can smell the fresh ozone smell of the storm. The wind had begun to pick up and small clouds of leaves and other small debris floated by.

The 2 of them entered the house as a large gust of cold wind blew past the door, causing it to slam hard. They both jumped in surprise at the noise.

Emily says, "Let's get to the basement before we loose power. I want to at least see if this film is viewable."

Mathew replies, "I think there is a generator if the power does go off."

They hurry to the door leading down. The way down the stairs to the basement is dark and damp. Not a single shred of light can be seen. Emily swore she left a light on when she was there earlier.

"OK, be careful," said Mathew, holding on to the railing and taking the stairs one at a time.

He finally made it to the bottom and felt for the light switch. It was an old-fashioned one that required him to press a button, but it worked, and the lights came on.

"So the projector was in here ...?" Mathew asked, looking in the room to the left, which had wood paneling on the walls.

Emily was right behind him, looking over his shoulder.

"Oh, yes, this was it," said Mathew, looking at a shelf full of boxes and finding a briefcase-sized container with a carry handle.

It didn't take him long to open the container and remove the small projector, plugging it in. "Now let's see if the film is in any shape to be viewed," he said.

Luckily the reel itself wasn't rusted or dirty, but the film ... Mathew reeled out a foot or two of film to see what shape it was in.

"Looks pretty brittle," he said, holding it up to the ceiling light. "But maybe the outer film protected the film farther in."

"You were in the A.V. club in school, weren't you?" asked Emily with a cute smile.

"How'd you guess?" Mathew said with a smile. "This part is probably going to break if we put it in the projector, but it's just the leader -- nothing to see here anyway. Let's see ..."

He pulled gently on the trailing end of the film, which broke off easily. He pulled again, and that section broke off too. But he pulled a third time, still on a section of leader with no frames, and this time it didn't break.

"OK, let's try it from here," he said, snapping the reel onto the center pin of the feed arm and threading the end into the projector, through the sprockets and into the take up reel.

"Here goes," he said, pointing the camera at the side of a white box and turning it on.

The film threaded noisily through the camera, but it was working. After some focusing, an image came into view.

What they saw was a black-and-white home movie of a beautiful little girl with dark hair. Her clothes looked like they were from perhaps the 1960s.

"Look -- that's the playroom from upstairs," said Mathew. Emily nodded.

The film jumped to another scene with the girl playing outside in the snow in her winter jacket. There were occasional glimpses of the girl's mother, a dark-haired beauty that the girl clearly took after. Her father was probably behind the camera.

There were other scenes, filmed at other times -- the girl on the floor in the living room, playing with other children, having dinner -- and then there was a scene of her in her swimsuit, by the side of the pond in the back yard.

As her mother watched warily, the girl sat at the side of the pond, dangling her feet in the water and playing with a toy boat on a string. Then suddenly there was some sort of black smudge across the film -- and the girl was in the water, below the surface, struggling, and her mother had jumped into the pond trying to help -- and the projector went black. There were no more frames.

"Oh my Lord," said Mathew, shaken. He stopped the projector..

"Oh no," said Emily. "That poor girl ... you don't think she ..."

"There's no more home movies after this," Mathew said. "The rest of the negatives must have been unused. But ... what happened?"

He ran the film back.

"There was some kind of black smudge," he said, going backwards to the start of the pond scene and running it forward slowly.

"There!" he said, as the black blur began to appear, entering the frame from the right. "It looks like a person ... but covered from head to toe in black. Black dress? Black veil? But if so, they're out of focus, and nothing else is."

Stepping forward by hand one frame at a time, Mathew and Emily watched as the black blur moved toward the little girl, blocked her from the camera's view, and seemed to push her into the water while moving through her, entering the water ahead of her and seemingly dragging her down with it. The hairs were rising on the back of Mathew's neck.

"What ... is that?" He ran it back again.

When he came to a place where the black shape was taking up as much of the frame as possible, there was a sudden brightening of the image. A white bubble appeared in the center of the black shape, briefly taking on a shape that looked disturbingly like a white human skull, and then the projector's bulb burned out. There was a smell of burning film.

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~~ End Pt1 ~~
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~~ The Little Girl - Pt2 ~~
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Emily says with a gasp, "That ... thing looked just like ... a boogeyman or something."

Mathew replies, "Don't be ridiculous ..."

About that time, a huge clap of thunder rolls through. The 2 of them can feel everything tremble slightly with it. Small motes of dust seem to fall from everywhere as the single light in the room brightens suddenly, then goes dark with a small tink sound. The room is suddenly pitch dark.

Emily screams. She shouts, "Mathew ... I ... I'm scared!"

Mathew even feels a tingle of fear run down his spine as the basement outside this small room brightens slightly with a large flash of lightning, then the loud clap of thunder. Mathew manages to find Emily's hand. He fumbles for a few seconds before finding the door knob and opening the door to the basement stairs. The light pouring in from upstairs lights the way enough they can return to the kitchen.

The 2 of them climb the stairs. When they entered the kitchen, the storm outside raged. It looked like a hurricane from where they stood looking out the window.

Emily says softly with fear trembling in her tone, "I think .... there's something wrong with that pond. Or this house ... or ... this entire estate."

Mathew looks at Emily as the kitchen lights brightly with another lightning flash. For the split second the flash was at its brightest, the image of a bone white skull could be seen looking in the large window over the sink.

"But what was that? That ... shadow?" Mathew wondered. "Some kind of gh-- no way! Besides, if this place is, well, haunted or whatever, why would it suddenly show up? It would have been there the whole ... time ..."

Suddenly Mathew remembered the scenes from the film, still fresh in his mind. Hadn't there been some shadows flitting around the walls in the playroom while the girl was playing? The flickering shadows from the candlelight at dinner -- wasn't there a shadow among them on the wall that didn't flicker? And while the girl had been playing in the living room with friends, hadn't there been a shadow of a figure on the back wall, cast by nothing, simply standing there? "I wish we could look at that film some more," he said faintly.

There was another flash of lightning and roll of thunder, when suddenly the two heard a faint sound of music coming from upstairs, the tinkling notes of a music box.

Emily clutches Mathew by his arms. he could tell she was trembling with fear.

She says in a trembling whisper, "Mat ... I wanna go. I don't wanna ..."

Her words were drowned out by another loud crash of thunder. The both of them began hearing soft laughter of a little girl at play.

Mathew says with reassurance he really didn't feel, "It's OK Emily," He pats her hand as he attempts to get her to lessen her vise grip on his arm, "Let's follow the sound of music and laughter. maybe ... if this isn't some kind of hallucination ... we might get to ... talk with the little girl?"

He looks at Emily's shocked face as he said it. Emily's eyes get huge with fear as she shrieks, "Talk with a ... a ... ghost? Are you insane?"

Emily rushes to the front door and throws it open. The rain fell so hard carried along by the gale force wind, she couldn't even see the car parked at the foot of the steps. A huge bolt of lightning slams into a tree slightly off to Emily's left, not only scaring her so badly she wets her panties, but shatters the tree into many splinters that fall all over the porch, and into the living room through the open door.

The smell of burning oak charcoal, fresh rain, mixed heavily with ozone filled the air. Emily ran screaming back into the living room and grabs Mathew. She hits him so hard in her mad dash, he almost looses his footing. The 2 of them stumble against the wall next to the stairs leading up to the mezzanine.

By this time, Emily is crying. She whimpers to Mathew, "This is horrid ... I ... I wet my panties I'm so afraid."

Mathew looks down, and sure enough, there is a large wet spot between Emily's legs all around her bottom.

"I don't blame you," said Mathew, "I almost did the same! Let's get that door closed so it doesn't rain in the house."

He went to the front door, kicked some of the larger bits of splintered tree branches outside, and shoved it closed. The sound of the storm was suddenly much quieter with no wide-open front door.

"I wish we had a change of clothes for you," he said. "Maybe we can check for something upstairs."

Taking her hand, Mathew led her up the stairs again toward the sound of the music box. They entered the little girl's bedroom and heard the sound coming from the passage to the playroom, which was still open.

Emily gasped as the two entered the playroom because it was no longer dark and filled with dust and cobwebs. It was bright and clean, and seemed filled with a serene golden light. There was no sound of wind and rain from outside at all, despite the fact that they could see out the windows; the trees were lashing about in the wind.

On a counter top, a music box was playing merrily, and on the floor a little girl sat, playing with a dollhouse.

"H-hello," said Mathew to the girl. "Are you ... having fun?"

The little girl looked up at them. Her eyes had no trace of the malice or fury of the storm outside, and her voice was sweet but sounded far away when she answered, "Oh, yes. I love my dollies. Have you come to play with me?" She looked at Emily's pants and added, "Oh dear, you're wet. Maybe Nana can help you. She always takes care of me when I have little accidents."

Emily looks down at her wet pants as she gasps softly, "Your ... Nana? What does Nana do for you when you have accidents sweet heart?"

The little girl looks at Emily and giggles, "Silly, she changes my wet pannies an puts me inna comfy diapers n plassic pannies sos I can b safe n no have another accident." The little girl shakes her head as she goes back to playing.

Mathew laughs, "Now, that would be a really cute thing to see."

Emily's eyes get big as she swats him on his shoulder.

She says in a huff, "What's that supposed to mean? I was so scared it just happened."

The little girl giggles, "Yups, that's why it called an accident ya know."

Mathew bursts into laughter as Emily blushes deeply red with humiliation and embarrassment.

The little girl stands up suddenly and seems to glide over to the small entrance. She calls, "Nnnnaaaannaaa ... this little girl needs help ... She wet her pannies!"

A matronly voice calls back softly, "Tell your friend I'll be there as soon as I gather up a few things."

The little girl glides back to her original position and says, "Nana on her way ... she help you."

Emily grabs Mathew's arm and says with fear, "We ... need to leave. That little girl ... is the one that drowned in the film ... and heaven only knows what's coming in the form of Nana."

Mathew felt somewhat bad about joking about this. "Yes," he said, "all joking aside, we have to get out of here before this 'Nana' arrives. Come on."

He took Emily's arm and headed back out the passage, only to run into an imposingly tall woman with a hooked nose and craggy face, dressed all in black. Her mere presence was enough to make Mathew and Emily feel small. She carried a stack of neatly folded clothing of some kind.

"N-Nana?" asked Mathew, looking up at her.

"Nana" smiled ... in a way. Her face cracked open like dried clay, and she wore badly deteriorated dentures.

In a voice like a scratchy violin she said, "Yes, I am Nana, and it is my job to keep my charges safe and happy."

Turning to Emily she said, "And you, poor dear, cannot possibly be happy in those wet clothes. But don't worry, Nana will have you right as rain in a jiffy."

Outside the window, the trees thrashed silently in the horrible storm as massive streaks of lightning flashed. Within the playroom, all was as serene as a sunny summer's day.

The huge woman effortlessly scoops Emily up with one arm and carries her back into the room on her hip as if she were no older than the little girl. Emily screams loudly as Mathew watches helplessly. He has no idea why he stands rooted in place as Nana carries Emily off.

After Nana and Emily vanish from site, he shakes off what ever has him immobilized and rushes after them. By the time Mathew arrives in the place Nana had taken Emily, he could see Nana had Emily's wet pants and panties off and was holding her by the ankles as she placed a diaper beneath Emily's cute bottom. It happened so quickly, Mathew couldn't believe it. Nana had powdered her, pinned the diaper on, and had a cute pair of white plastic panties with little kittens on them on her in a blink.

Nana picks Emily up and stands her beside Mathew after patting her softly on her cute poofy bottom. Without warning, Mathew feels Nana pull open his pants and check him as if he were a toddler.

She smiles as she says in her screechy voice, "Wouldn't you want to be in a nice safe diaper too little one?"

She had Mathew by his arm and was pulling him effortlessly towards the changing table. He could hear Emily whimpering in embarrassment behind him as the table came closer.

"N-no," said Mathew, "I don't need diapers! I'm a big boy!" His voice wavered, as if he were trying to convince himself of this.

"That," said Nana, "is what the littlest ones always say." She towered over him, and Mathew suddenly felt very small indeed. "But I wasn't finished with the little girl anyway, so I suppose you can wait a bit."

She let go of Mathew's arm and turned suddenly to Emily, who would have wet her diaper in terror right then if there had been anything to wet it with.

"What are you wearing, my dear? Those clothes are much too old for you. I've got something much prettier that's just your age."

She unfolded what was obviously a little girl's dress, in a style that looked like it was from the 1940s or perhaps even earlier. She undressed Emily effortlessly, tossing her top and bra into a heap that seemed to vanish before Mathew's eyes.

Mathew noticed with a chill that she looked like a little girl now, with no traces of breasts or curves. She then dropped a slip followed by this yellow and white dress on over Emily's head, guiding her arms through the sleeves, buttoning it up in back and tying the sash.

Mathew watched this process helplessly, not knowing what he would do if he could have moved. Emily's face was a mask of terror. The spectral Nana replaced Emily's shoes with black and white saddle shoes, then suddenly turned toward Mathew again.

"Still the big boy, are you?" she wheezed, pointing at his pants.

Mathew looked down and found that he had been wetting his pants without even realizing it, and it was still happening. He tried to stop it, but his muscles were frozen with terror.

"Oh my, it looks like the big boy needs some big boy diapers to keep his big boy pants dry." Wheezed Nana with obvious glee in her eerie voice.

Mathew felt it when Nana undid his pants and pulled them and his undies down. He realized he was on his back, being held by his ankles as Nana placed a soft diaper beneath his hinny and set him in it's soft, warm embrace. She very quickly has powdered him and pinned the diaper on him and stood him on his feet before he realized what was going on.

It dawned on him, he had stepped into a cute pair of blue plastic panties with multicolored clowns all over them. Nana turned away from Mathew for a second. He looked down and touched the plastic pants. They felt very real. He could feel the elastic around his legs and waist, and the softness of the thick diaper between his legs.

When Mathew looked up, Nana held out a cute little boy's sailor outfit. She quickly pulled the unsnapped bottom part over his head and threaded his arms and head through the proper openings. She was snapping the snaps between his legs before he knew it. He heard Emily gasp softly, he turns and sees her stare at him with huge eyes.

Nana says, "Now, The big boy is all safe in his big boy clothes and is ready to go back and play with the girls."

Nana picks Mathew and Emily up as if they were a toddler and sits them beside the little girl in the other room.

Emily says with fear and embarrassment in her voice, We ... have to get out of here ... now! Before this ... enchantment takes us over completely."

The 2 of them look around as the Nana says in her eerie voice, "Now, you children play nice, Nana will go and get all of you a nice bottle of juice."

As she leaves, their hearts sink as Nana closes and locks the door. They can hear the bolt as it slide loudly in place.

"Emily!" Mathew said. "You look like ... a little girl! No older than ..." he looked at the little black-haired girl, the one who had drowned.

"Nora," she said. "I'm Nora. Like Nana said. And you should play wif me now. Nana said to." She added, "It's bestest to do as Nana says."

Looking over his shoulder down the passage toward the other room and its locked door, Mathew said, "Um, OK. What are you playing?"

As Nora explained about playing dolls, Emily looks down at herself. She looked no older than about 3. She looks up at Mathew ... he also looked to be about 3 ... and it was obvious he was in a diaper. He looked so cute in the sailor outfit for sure.

Emily says shyly, "Mat?? What happens if we ... can't help going in our diapers? What if we just go without realizing it?"

Before Mathew could answer, the sound of the bolt sliding back is heard. Nana enters the room once again. She was carrying a large platter. There were 3 large bottles and a pile of tea cakes and sparkle covered cookies. Nana walks up to Emily and takes her by the arm after she sets the tray down.

Nana wraps her arms around Emily and presses just below her tummy ... really hard. Emily's eyes get large as she feels a very sharp pain near her bladder. Nana smiles when Emily gasps. She releases Emily and pulls Mathew to his feet in the same manner and presses on him in the same way. Mathew gasps as he too feels the very sharp pain stab him near his bladder.

Nana smiles and says, "Enjoy your bottles and snacks children. I just made sure that all 3 of you will be exactly equal when it comes to potty training."

Nora looks around with big fearful eyes. She says softly with a quiver in her voice, "Ohh ... Nana ... am afraid of the potty monster. Please ... rather be inna soft n comfy diaper."

Nana pats Nora on her head as she says, "For now, you will be. But soon, I'm going to put the 3 of you in panties and try potty training again." Nana turns and leaves.

The sound of the bolt sliding in place is heard once again.

"What does that mean, we're exactly equal in potty training?" asked Mathew. "Does it mean that we need these diapers now?"

"Of course we do, silly," said Nora, picking up a bottle from the tray. "We can all play now. Nana makes great cookies an' starberry milk." She drank happily from the bottle.

"Should ... should we eat these?" Mathew asked, looking at Emily. "Is it ... risky? I mean ..." He whispered in her ear. "We do want to get out of here ... right?"

"Of course you should eat and drink," said Nora. "Silly boy! It's super yummy!"

Emily picks up one of the tea cakes and sniffs it. It was very sweet smelling and felt warm to the touch. She stands up and walks towards the door. To her amazement, walking was ... different now, especially with the thick diaper on. She felt weird in her tummy now that Nana had pressed on her the way she did.

Emily tries the door. The bolt holds it fast. Emily toddles over to the window. Outside, a raging tempest ensued. Howling wind, torrential rains, and massive pyrotechnics of lighting. Nothing seemed to enter the room however. All was quiet. Emily put her hand to the window ... it wasn't just cold ... it was arctic. She pulls her hand back with a gasp. It was so cold from just the touch, her hand was numb.

Emily says quietly as she blows on her hand to warm it up, "I ... don't know how to leave. It seems we are trapped for now. Have any ideas?"

"Aww," said Nora, "you haven't even begun to play, and already you want to leave? Don't you like me?"

"Uh, it's not that," Mathew interceded. "It's just that ... our mommies and daddies might worry if we stay here too long."

"Mommy and Daddy ..." Nora said, with a faraway look in her eye. "They were worried ..." She dropped her bottle, which thumped and rolled on the floor, startling her out of her reverie. She picked it up again. "Such lovely milk," she said. "You should try yours. You'll love it!"

"I, uh ..." Mathew said. "Actually I am very thirsty." Looking at Emily, he said, "Maybe if we go along with it, we'll get an opper ... oppertoo ..." That was odd. He couldn't seem to think of the word. "A chance," he finished. He picked up a bottle and started to drink from it.

It was a bit difficult getting used to drinking from the baby bottle at first, but it was like riding a bicycle -- something he'd once known how to do that was easy to pick up again. The strawberry milk was actually quite tasty. But how real was any of this?

Emily continued poking around the room looking for some way out. Behind a large Teddy bear that leaned against the far wall, she realized there was some kind of door. She pushes with all her might, the huge Teddy Bear slowly begins to tilt to one side.

Emily says with a gaping voice due to the exertion, "Mathew ... quit being such a baby and get over here and help. I think I found a door."

Nora looks up with big eyes and watches for a few seconds before lowering her bottle and says, "Thats jus tha other room wif tha ladder in it. We too young ta go inna basements alone."

Mathew was enjoying his bottle a whole lot more that he realized as he plopped on his poofy diapered hinny and watched Emily push on the Large Teddy Bear. It was bigger than they were by a long shot.

Emily managed to over center the Teddy Bear and it fell over with a soft thump. The door knob was just above Emily's reach. She looks around until she sees a small step stool pushed over into a shadowy corner. She toddles over and pulls it from the shadows. As the light hits it, a tingle of fear runs through Emily as she realizes ... this was a potty monster hiding in the corner. She screams and hurries over to Mathew and sort of hides behind him.

Pulling the bottle out of his mouth, Mathew said, "What, Emily, what is it?"

Then he saw it too. The very shape of it somehow struck terror into his heart. He wanted to stay as far away from it as he could, never look at it, never think about it, forget what it was.

Then he thought about it for a moment. It was a child's potty seat. It wasn't a monster. Why was he so afraid of it? Emily was too. He looked at it again but had to look away.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly. "Is this somehow part of Nana's spell?"

He looked again. It was just a piece of plastic, he reminded himself. Just plastic. Nothing special.

"You are just a thing," he said aloud. "Just a plastic thing that can't do anything."

Standing up, he took a step toward it, and rolled back onto his padded bottom. Walking was suddenly much more difficult, he realized, as Emily had earlier. He got back up and carefully wobbled his way toward it. Emily stood on wobbly legs and watched with huge fearful eyes as Mathew approached the potty.

She says in a trembling voice full of infantile fear, "Matties?? Wha ... wahtcha doin?? Thatta monser ... it gonna bites u onna hinny."

Emily looked the potty over as Nora came up beside her and said with fear in her voice, "he gonna gets eated. Thata bad monser ... bites me onna hinny ever time Nana make me sit on it."

Emily toddles up behind Mathew with Nora and they grab him by the back of his cute sailor suit. Several of the snaps along his shoulders come undone as the girls try and pull him back. Emily has a sort of realization within her. Why is she so afraid of ... that thing?

All it is ... is a lump of shaped plastic. Emily still feels the intense tingle of fear run through her as Mathew continues to struggle closer.

Mathew had to fight both this irrational fear and the hands of Emily and Nora to get to the potty, but he made it. Just a piece of plastic, he continued thinking to himself as he stepped up on top of it and reached for the doorknob.

The potty chair wasn't very stable; it slipped out from under his feet, leaving him hanging from the doorknob with his hands, swinging -- and then the knob turned and the door swung slightly open with a bit of a creak.

"See?" said Nora. "Can't trust those things."

"Maybe, but I think it is open," he said, looking through the crack in the door the best he could from where he hung, "It dark in there."

Emily said, "Let us help you down." Emily took Nora by her hand and pulled her towards the door. Emily reaches up ... Mathew lets go of the knob and falls on top of Emily.

They both lie in a wiggling pile for a minute as Nora giggles, "You bof are so silly."

Emily stands on her wobbly legs and pulls the door open. The room on the other side lights up suddenly as a huge lightning stroke soundlessly arks outside the storm ravaged exterior. All Emily saw in the momentary flash, before her eyesight became flash blind for a second ... was an almost empty room. On one side, was a large rocking chair facing the large window. Emily rubs her eyes as she tries to see better. There's another large flash, the room is totally bare except for the chair, and a place that looked like the upper landing to a stairway.

Mathew looks around the door. In the last flash of lightning, he saw the square of the light switch above their heads.

Mathew says, "Emily, come stand on my back while I'm on my hands and knees ... the light switch ... it's right above us."

Nora's face blanches very white as she says in a very small ... eerie voice, "We ... mustn't go in there ... it's ... it's a bad place."

Mathew gets on his hands and knees as Emily does her best to climb up to the light switch above her head. She just manages to reach it. When the light comes on ... Emily returns to the floor. When she and Mathew look around the room .... what they see sitting in the chair .... leaves them weak and breathless with fear.

"Oh my g ... it's ..." Mathew said, barely able to breathe.

He barely noticed that his diaper was wet now. He was unable to look away from the corpse in the chair. Desiccated and skeletal, it sat there, dressed in a prim black dress ... just like Nana's.

"It's N ... N ..." Mathew tried again, "It's Nana!"

-------------------------------------
~~ End Pt2 ~~
-------------------------------------


------------------------------------
~~ The Little Girl - Pt3 ~~
-----------------------------------

"No!" shouted Nora. "It's not! Not the real Nana! The real Nana makes cookies and starberry milk and tea cakes and takes care of me so I can play all I want."

Nora was refusing to even look at the chair or its occupant.

"W-where does the stair go?" asked Mathew. "The ground floor? Or is it another way to the basement?"

Nora says softly in an even stranger sounding voice, "It goes ... down. To that dark place where it's cold an ... an wet."

Nora viably shivers as she wraps her arms around herself. Emily walks to the landing and looks down. The stairs are sort of lit by a dim bulb from down below. Emily sits at the top step and goes down them one at a time on her hinny.

She says, "Mathew ... it's very cold down here ... and damp."

When Emily got to the bottom of the stairs, she stood in a different part of the basement they had not yet seen. The floor was made entirely of hard packed earth. There was some kind of concrete statue in the very center. In the bowl in the hands of the figure ... a flame burned brightly.

Emily looked the statue over ... it was a perfect rendition of Nora dressed in a very cute little gown. The bowl she held in her hands was decorated with many different kinds of figures and animals.

Emily calls, "Mathew ... come look at this ... I think this might be a memorial to Nora from her parents."

"That's really creepy," said Mathew. Then his mind cleared a bit. "And it makes no sense. A monument in the basement where nobody can see it? And why would there be a flame?" He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs.

He looked again and found himself looking at the house's hot water heater. "That's ... different," he said. "It's Nora and Nana -- somehow they're making us see things." He looked down at himself next. "But I guess not everything is an illusion."

He was his normal height again, but he was still dressed in a little boy's sailor suit, and his diaper was still wet -- the only difference was that the clothes were adult sized.

"C'mon, Emily, snap out of it," he said, taking Emily's hand.

Yes, she was adorable in that little girl style dress, even though it was adult sized to fit her adult body. But it would be hard for them both to escape this house if she was still under the delusion that she was too small to reach doorknobs.

"We've gotta get out of ... umm."

Mathew felt himself wetting his diaper again, and no matter what he tried, he couldn't seem to make it stop. No, Nana had done something to them, something as real as the clothes they still had on.

Emily shakes her head to clear it. She looks down at herself. She can feel a small warmth trickling around her legs and bottom as she wet her diaper too. She was unable to help herself. She shivers as she tries as hard as she can ... but to no avail. Emily remembers Nana pushing hard at the bottom of her tummy and how much it had hurt ... she hoped it wasn't permanent ... but she had a sneaking fear that it might be.

Emily comes back to her right mind. She looks around this part of the basement and sees another door. She walks to it ... it is standing slightly open. Emily pushes on it ... slowly it opens with a loud creak that raises chills on both of them. She peeks around the door frame. In the dim light, she sees the part of the basement she recognizes.

Emily says with excitement, "Mat ... the stairs ... they're right here ... the ones that go to the kitchen."

Emily enters the other part of the basement, but discovers she is unable to go up the stairs. She tries several times, but finds it impossible.

She turns, frustrated, and says with exasperation, "I ... don't know how to go up the stairs. I ... can't get up them."

She stands adorably with her hands on her hips ... looking all the world like a cute Ababy. Mathew shakes his head to bring his thoughts back to escape.

"Let's look around for a minute then," said Mathew, "before we even think about the stairs." He took Emily's hand, and they looked in another room but didn't find anything but a bunch of old folding chairs. "They're doing something to us," he said, "the little girl and the old Nanny. Nana's taking care of Nora, and Nora's happy, but what's Nana getting out of it?"

"Maybe taking care of kids is all she knows?" suggested Emily.

"Maybe," said Matthew, "but there's gotta be more than that. They're two different kinds of ghosts, or whatever they are. When Nora's in the room it's all bright and golden, but when Nana's in the room it's dark and creepy."

They entered the room they'd been in earlier. "Hey, here's the projector," said Mathew. "Let's take it with us. It might be useful." He packed it up in its carrying case.

Mat led the way as they returned to the upstairs room with Nana's desiccated body.
Mat struggled with the projector for a minute as he reached the threshold of the door. It was like the projector had gained 20 or 30 pounds. Mathew stumbles at the increased drag and falls forward with enough momentum to bring everything into the room. For just an instant, a loud rumble permeates the room as a huge flash of lightning flashes. Mathew smiles ... he knows he's on to something.

Emily looks around at the window and puts a hand over her mouth in surprise.

She says softly, "That's odd ... we haven't been able to hear anything from outside since we discovered Nora in the playroom.

Mathew says as he holds out the projector, "I think ... showing Nora this film ... might be the answer. If we can somehow break the spell that binds the 2 of them together in this plain ... we can end this and escape."

Nora's sweet voice can be heard from the playroom singing, "Ring around the Rosy ... pocket fulla posies ..."

Emily says in thought, "What if it's the innocents that fuels the evil? Maybe ... keeps Nana from ... going on to some kind of awful place?"

"I don't know," whispered Mathew, "but Nora thinks Nana's her only protector and caregiver. We've got to convince her that she isn't. Then maybe whoever or whatever Nana is won't have Nora to draw on."

"Oh my, and what do we have here?" asked a familiar and bone-chilling voice as the door was suddenly flung open wide. "I think it's time for a diaper change and a nap for our two little junior detectives," said Nana as she reached for them.

Mathew and Emily could feel themselves getting smaller again and forgetting more of their plans. The projector lay on the floor of the room with the rocking chair, in the dark, waiting.

Nana changed Emily and Mathew. Both of them were so humiliated at the fact they had wet themselves. Nana made sure to tell them all about it and powdered them well. When Nana had put all 3 of them in their cribs, all they had on were diapers and cute pink lined rumba panties. Nana tickled Mathew in his ribs after she finished tying the ribbon on the booties on his feet.

Nana coos softly, "Now ... silly baby has had a double dose and will stay so adorable."

She tucks Mathew in and places a small pillow next to his head. Mathew realizes with a start, Nana placed the nipple of a large bottle in his mouth. The wonderfully sweet taste of strawberry milk fills his mouth. He began to nurse before he realized what he was doing.

Nana says, "That's a good baby ... just relax and let all of who you used to be flow away."

Nana turns and puts a similar pillow next to Emily's head, then next to Nora's. Nora begins nursing contentedly as she closes her eyes.

Emily manages to spit the nipple out. She says in a now very cute toddler's voice, "Matties? We ... no can llow thisa happens .. we ... gonna forgets who we is."

Nana arrives back over Emily's crib and puts the nipple back in her mouth.

Nana says, "Be a good little girl and accept your fate. For all eternity, you and your friend will be Nora's toddler playmates ... and I'll be your Nana. Ummm ... the life forces from you are so ... refreshing."

Helpless now, Emily feels her eyes getting so heavy. Before she realizes it, she's dreaming sweet baby dreams ... along with Mathew.

Mathew dreamed dreams of sweet innocence and delight, playing with the two girls happily, without a care in the world. Nana would bring food and change their diapers and give them baths, and one day blurred into another and another until he couldn't remember anything but playtime and bath time and nap time and feeding time and diaper change time. And it felt wonderful ... Except ... somewhere there was something he was forgetting ... and he knew it.

Emily dreamed of a large fuzzy Teddy Bear ... and soft snugly dolls. Emily dreamed of a very large playpen and playing baby games with Mathew and Nora. Emily especially enjoyed being in Nana's arms in the large rocking chair ... and being fed her bottle. Each day seemed to blend into the next ... and what ever it was bothering her ... seemed to be faded and unimportant. She was sure something needed to be remembered ... but she wasn't sure what it might have been.

Then there came the day when a strange thing happened. There had always been the funny wooden wall with the shiny round thing sticking out of it, too high for any of them to reach, and it was in the corner with the potty monster in it anyway, so Mathew and Emily never wanted to go over there or even think about it.

But one day, they looked and saw that it was all scratched up, all covered with marks of arrows and lines, all pointing at the shiny round thing.

"What that?" asked Mathew. "Somebody naughty writed onna wall."

Emily sat on her thickly diapered hinny and sucked her thumb thoughtfully. She had noticed that shiny thing before ... but now ... it seemed she knew something about it ... she couldn't quite remember. She takes her thumb from her mouth and crawls over towards the marked up wall, her ruffled hinny wiggling adorably as she crawled along. When she reached the shiny thing, it appeared to be some kind of metal round thing above her head ... and there was the potty monster sitting there as plain as day.

Emily was sure she knew what that shiny object was ... but something in her mind kept washing her ability to think clearly away in tingly, infantile waves of innocence. Emily also felt an strong fear of the potty monster she saw sitting there against the wall.

She sits on her thickly diapered hinny once again and says in her adorable voice, "Matties?? This thingy ... look .. somehow mailliars ta me." She scratches her head in thought as she tries to remember what the object above her head was.

She points, "Anna potty monser sittin right there inna shadows ... waitina pounce on us." Emily pokes out her bottom lip in a cute pout.

"Oh, please do stay away from the potty monster," said Nora. "Come on, let's play a nice game and forget all about that thing. It only makes me scared and sad."

"But all these lines," said Mathew. "They are all like ... like ..." He paused. He was having so much trouble thinking, as if every time he had a thought, another much happier and more infantile thought came along to push it out of his head. But ... "is like the scriggles on the thing we found in the bafroom once. Long time ago."

Mathew toddled unsteadily toward the funny wooden wall with all the marks and looked up at the shiny thing that they all pointed at and sometimes circled around.

"Some buddy likes this fing," he said.

Emily got to her hands and knees, then pushed off the floor and stood up on her wobbly legs. She looked up at the shiny thing ... and had some sort of realization ... she didn't really understand. Somehow, something whispered in the back of her mind, that if she turned that shiny thing something very important was on the other side of the wall. Emily stood on her tippy toes and leaned against the wall and stretched as far as she could reach. The very tips of her fingers could barely touch the bottom of the object.

Nora says with fear in her voice, "Don't ... do that ... there's scary stuffs in there."

Mathew replies, "Why comes alla marks onna wall? Seems someone wanna has babies sees it."

Nora stands and viably shivers as Emily plops back on her hinny.

Emily says, "Matties?? Am too smalla reach that thingy ... ummm," She shivers in fear, "maybes we pusha potty monser over n stand on its head?? Can be big nuff ta reach then maybes? U think it'll bite us onna hinny?"

Mathew took one look at the potty monster and his heart was struck with fear. Had this happened before? He couldn't remember. It seemed ... much stronger than perhaps it used to be.

"I ... I can't!" he said. "Can't go near ... that fing." He looked around. "Lots of other fings we can use," he said. "Like ... the dollhouse!"

"Hey, that's my dollhouse," said Nora. "It was made to look justest like this house. See? Here is Nana, and here is a little girl that I call Edwina, and here is Edwina's Mommy and Daddy ..."

While Nora had been distracted by her dolls, Mathew had dragged the dollhouse over by the wooden wall with all the scratches and was trying to climb up and stand on top of it.

"Is kinda hard to stand on ..." Mathew said, but he was able to reach the shiny round thing, just barely, and turn it just a bit.

"Hey, how come Edwina's Daddy is all scratched up?" Nora was saying, looking at one of the dolls.

Then the door opened, and so did the door to Mathew and Emily's memory. Emily gasps as her mind suddenly clears. She looks down at herself just as a small trickle leaks out of her into her diaper. She feels humiliated that she can't stop it ... but also remembers what is behind the door that is noisily opening in a slow eerie way. Emily gets to her feet, she has no trouble except for the bulk of her diaper.

She says, "Mathew, the projector and the film should be ... just inside the door. If we can get Nora to watch it ... it might set us all free."

Emily comes up beside Mathew as the door opens enough for them to look in. Instead of the storm they expected to see through the large window over looking the pond in the back, they saw bright sunshine pouring into the room. Emily could see the projector sitting on the floor, right where it had been dropped when Nana had found them ... how ever long ago that had been.

Emily enters the room, there is definitely a temperature change ... a cold chill runs all through her. She bends and picks up the projector. She remembers the light was burned out as she carries it back into the play room. She sees Nora standing by the far wall with an extremely fearful look on her face.

"We have to replace the bulb, but there are spares," said Mathew, going over to Emily. "Wait, why is getting cold? Is ... she coming back?"

"N-no," said Nora, "not yet." She looked away.

"That's good," said Mathew. "Maybe we have time ... there are replacement bulbs in the storage compartment." He found a bulb and set to work replacing it. "Now, Nora, we found some pictures of you and your mommy, and your daddy is behind the camera but he's there too, OK? Remember your mommy and daddy?"

"... Mommy and Daddy ..." said Nora wistfully.

Plugging the projector in and threading the film in place, Mathew said, "We'll just point this at a flat white part of the wall, and ..."

He blinked, as the door to the secret room was blank and white, unscratched.

"What happened to the marks on the door?" he asked.

"I think Edwina's Daddy made them," said Nora. "I think he is still around somewhere."

"Isn't Edwina one of your dolls?" Mathew wondered. "Never mind. Let's show you some pictures, OK?"

The projector begins its rattling noise as the frames flipped past on the wall. The pictures of Nora began to dance across the wall. Nora, who had been hiding her eyes and trembling in fear, slowly dropped her hands and began to watch. A very large happy grin spread across her face as she began to bounce on her toes and clap her hands.

She points and says joyously, "That's ... my birfday party. Mommy made me a huge cake n tonsa icecream."

Emily asks softly, "What ... happened at the pond sweety?"

Nora's smile vanished as she put her hand over her mouth and gasped. Her eyes get large as she looks at Emily ... fear once again crossing her face.

Nora says in a fearful squeak, "That ... that's when I not llowed ta cross overs. Am cared for n kept n can play all time here."

Emily asks softly, "What do you mean ... crossover? Where were you going?"

Nora screams loudly, "Nooooo. It's so cold an .... wet. It hurts ... it hurts!"

Nora collapses into a screaming, thrashing, kicking mass. The room definitely changes ... it is now extremely cold and all the things within the play room appear to be faded like old images in a very old photo.

"But Nora ..." Mathew said. "You're going to see your mommy and daddy again someday if you go through. If you ... cross over to the other side."

"Mommy and Daddy ..." Nora said with a tearful wistfulness, "I miss them so ..."

Mathew didn't know whether Nora's parents were alive or dead, and he wasn't particularly religious, but after what he'd experienced, he knew there was something after death ... so if Nora's parents weren't on the other side yet, he was sure they would be one day.

"See, Nora, there's your mommy," Mathew said, pointing to the scene of Nora playing outdoors. "You look so much like her."

"That's what Gramma always said," said Nora, "and Auntie Mary and Uncle John. They said I looked like Mommy."

The image changed to Nora playing by the pond. "And then there was this day," said Mathew. "Playing by the ..."

"The pond!" Nora shouted. "I don't wanna see!"

"But it happened," said Mathew. "You were playing and then something pushed you in and pulled you down ..."

And on the screen, there was that black shadow flitting across the frame ... No, the black shadow was in front of the camera, partly blocking the light.

"Ah, memories," said Nana, standing right in front of them all, "They do seem to keep coming back, no matter how much we might want to forget them, don't they, Nora? But don't worry, Nana will take care of them ..."

"No!" Nora shouted. "I wanna see Mommy and Daddy!"

Nana's face takes on a horrible demeanor. Emily and Mathew back as far away from her as they could.

Emily grabs Mathew and holds on tight as she whispers, "She ... she's a demon ... she's ... starting to loose her hold on the image she was trying to maintain."

Nora screams loudly, "I WANT MY MOMMY AN DADDY!!!" She begins to cry hysterically.

The image Mathew and Emily saw of Nana wavered. Her face appears to become sunken ... Drawn in.

Mathew gasps, "It was her .... she's the skull we saw."

Nana's voice rumbles through the room in a terrible echoing way that froze Mathew and Emily to their very soul, "No, Nora ... I have made it where you can play always. I care for you and give you everything your little heart desires."

Nora screams, "It ... it'sa lie ... you no give me mommy or daddy! I no can go out n play inna yard ... or or ... has friends over."

Nana replies, "I brought friends over for you to play with ... forever and always."

Nora shouts as she stomps her foot and clinches her hands together, "They ... they not my friends. I wanna see Tammy an Donna an Kerry an ... Judy. I want my friends!"

Nana turns, her head had become a skull with flaming eyes and a very dark smoke like mist surrounding it.

She says in her terrible voice, "It was you who did this. I will make you suffer in ways your imagination cannot conceive."

Nora rushes between Nana and the 2 of them. She stands with her hands on her hips and her bottom lip poked out defiantly.

Nora says loudly, "No! I realize ... you lied to me! It was sorta like what you said, but none of the true fun was ever here. No one .. jus you ... and me."

Mathew and Emily had backed up against a wall. But Mathew realized that they were adult-sized again.

"She was taking power from Nora!" he said to Emily. "She's weakening now that Nora isn't letting her!"

Mathew looked out a window at the pond in the back yard. "Nora, look!" he said. "Look at the bright light out there by the pond!"

"The light ..." said Nora. "It is calling my name. It says to come inside. To come home."

"But this is your home, child," said Nana, although her head was still a skull with eyes of flame.

"No," said Nora, "my home is somewhere else now." She flickered and vanished, and Mathew and Emily could see her outside now, walking through the grass toward the column of light that had appeared by the pond.

Nana's horrid countenance scowled at Mathew and Emily. "Curse you!" said her fearsome voice, but then she vanished too, appearing outside by Nora, trying to convince her to stop.

"Come on!" said Mathew, taking Emily's hand. "We've got to help Nora!"

As Mathew began to drag Emily from the room, she realized the 2 of them were wearing nothing but a cloth diaper and plastic panties. The way was no longer blocked. Mathew pressed quickly through the tight passage into the mezzanine.

The 2 of them hurried down the winding stairs and into the kitchen. By the time they reached the door of the kitchen and had exited to the yard, there seemed to be some kind of localized severe storm going on down by the lake.

When Emily rounded the last obstruction, she could see a large swirling tornadic cloud of debris intermixed with massive flashes of lightning and fire. She could see Nora on her hands and knees dragging her self slowly towards a very large shaft of bright white light that was in no wise effected by the swirling cloud in any way.

They heard a very resonate and eerie voice boom across the expanse, "Stop, I command you. You belong to me for all eternity."

Emily heard Nora's defiant voice call back, "You lied ... about ever thin ... means nothing agreed is valid ... You have no power over me."

As Nora crawled onward determinedly, Emily and Mathew fought their way through the cold, biting winds, almost unprotected from the driving rain and blowing debris.

"Keep going, Nora!" Mathew shouted at the top of his lungs. "You can do it! You're almost safe from her!"

"Shut up!" snarled Nana, her head rotating briefly to face the pair of them, turning farther than it should have been able on her neck. "I'll deal with you two bad little babies later."

"Leave them alone!" Nora's voice came from up ahead, through the rain. "You did bad things to Edwina and then Edwina's daddy killed you and then you came back and did bad things to Edwina's daddy, and he was your first one, wasn't he, the first one you made a little child and kept in the house, kept him until you used him up?"

"He was a very bad little boy and deserved everything he got," said Nana in a gravely voice.

"And then Nora's family moved in, and you saw your opportunity," said Mathew, "but then you were forced to take drastic action when they were going to move out. You killed her and have been keeping her soul captive here all this time!"

"Graaaah!" roared Nana, and Mathew was pelted with hailstones and twigs.

The raging whirlwind seemed to come alive as it attacked Mathew. This in turn had taken the intensity off of Nora, who stood up from her crawling. She was totally bedraggled. Her dress was tattered and torn and she was covered in mud. Her hair was straggly and filled with many kinds of debris.

She reached the threshold of the shaft of light, there was a beautiful golden showering flash of light. Nora's whole continence changed. She was dressed in a very bright white gown that sparkled as if energy flowed through it in many wonderful patterns. Her hair now flowed softly around her shoulders as she turned and looked back on the carnage Nana wreaked on Mathew ... and now upon Emily as well.

Nora's voice had changed as she spoke. It sounded like the tinkling of small bells as she said, "Demon Nana, you have wreaked havoc upon the world of men for centuries ... upon me ... an innocent. This is a violation of all spiritual covenants."

Nora raises her hand and points at the apparition of Nana ... the storm vanishes with a very weird noise. Nana's flaming eyes change and actually showed massive fear. The ground beneath her vaporous form opens with a loud and ominous rumble as large chunks fall away into the huge void beneath.

Emily and Mathew could feel a rush of massive heat as the Nana Apparition screams a blood curdling, soul freezing yell that fades away as she falls rapidly into the yawning chasm.

Emily and Mathew creep slowly up to the edge of the yawing chasm and peer in. As far down as they could see ... was just ... Stygian darkness. They could hear many screams and pleas for help as the agonized voices begged for mercy. Then ... the crack sealed seemingly from the bottom up ... and was totally gone before their astonished eyes.

Mathew gaped at where the chasm had been, but then he noticed that the light was still there. "Nora?" he said, turning.

"You helped me get free," said Nora, her voice that of a little girl once more. "Thank you both."

Nora looked just as she always had, really, an angelic little girl bathed in a golden light, but now she wore a flowing white robe like dress and a shining golden circlet holding back her hair.

"You're ... welcome," said Mathew, realizing that he was still dressed in only a diaper and plastic pants, and that his diaper was now wet -- but of course after Nana's storm, he and Emily were soaked and freezing anyway.

"There was one other who helped," said Nora, "when he could." She nodded, looking over their shoulders, and they turned around to see a young boy in tattered clothing, looking gaunt and wild-haired.

"Are you ..." Emily began.

"Edwina's father," finished Mathew.

The boy went to stand with Nora. "A cruel man in life, but he suffered at Nana's hands in death, and in the end helped to defeat her."

"He drew the scratches on the razor handle," said Mathew, "and on the door."

In Nora's light, the boy was growing to be a man.

"Nana reduced him to a little boy, and drained him of all his strength as she would have done to you two," said Nora, "if things had gone differently. And now, perhaps he has redeemed himself and perhaps not, but that is not mine to judge."

Nora smiles as she looks Emily and Mathew over.

She says in a different tone, "I think the 2 of you .... made very adorable babies. You may also find that giving up diapers ... isn't as easy as you may think."

Emily looks down at her very soaked and droopy hinnied diaper. She covers her breasts with her hands in an embarrassed way as she says with a gasp, "Oh .... my ... I don't have any dry clothes. I wet my panties when lightning struck that tree out front."

Nora giggles. She replies, "Not to worry, in the playroom, you will find diapers and panties and ... outfits suitable to your new reality. They are real enough. I also hope that you realize this whole estate is intrusted to your care now ... I do so hope you live long and be well and that I see you again ... after."

The shaft of light fades away. Nora and the man were gone. The sun shone warmly and bright as the 2 of them stood all alone, by the pond ... in just wet diapers and panties.

Emily says softly to Mathew, "I ... think we better return to the house before some one finds us out here like this. I wouldn't want to try and explain it ... would you?"

Mathew looks down at his wet and droopy hinnied diaper and agrees. Emily and Mathew return to the house hand in hand ... and enter the playroom looking for the change of clothing Nora had said were there.

-----------------------------------------
~~ The End ~~
-----------------------------------------
Miki Yamuri
 
Posts: 327
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 3:06 pm

Re: The Little Girl

Postby TiresiasRex » Sat Aug 06, 2016 1:06 pm

Dear Miki and Jennie:

I absolutely LOVED this story. One of Miki's most "polished" efforts yet; and as you both know, I'm a sucker for Gothic-style horror or suspense. The atmosphere was wonderful..bringing up memories of scary movies like THE OTHERS, THE ORPHANAGE and THE RING...(especially with that skull and "black spot" on the film). And I have to confess: I was never scared of "the potty monster" until reading this! A great and tense scene as our characters kept asking: "But why is she afraid...of that?" Bravo! (I will never look at that "innocent" little pink potty the same way again). It was also a refreshing thrill to see that the "little girl" in question had more power than she (or anyone) thought: standing up to the boogey-Nan (heh) as the heroine did at the end of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Children are so vulnerable...but they also possess a strength and a power of belief (faith?) that can cast aside demons.

Looking forward to your next collaborative effort....

With love,

Tye (8/6/16)
TiresiasRex
 
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2014 9:05 pm


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