The voice was a whisper, a low growl almost. It was human, but it was terrifying. It sounded... altered, like it didn't hit my ears properly. Like it came out sounding different to me than what it actually did in reality. It was Creepy Little Girl's.

The lights turn on, the world continues on, Creepy Little Girl not behind me. Did time stop, or did I? My phone blinks back to life, my unsent message sticking out. I swallow, then rush to my open door, Creepy Little Girl nowhere in sight. I look up at my ceiling, all around my room, but no one, nothing. It wasn't my imagination. I had made Creepy Little Girl angry--angry enough to do something. To say something. I must've been telling Molly the trut-

MOLLY!

Creepy Little Girl never leaves my house, but she's been acting even more abnormal lately. At least, that's what I could tell. She had cuts but they didn't come from anywhere. She spoke to me. I have to make sure that Molly's okay.

I jump from my bed and run down the long hallway in my house, making my way towards the front door. I don't bother grabbing my jacket or even slipping on my shoes; I don't even lock the door once I'm through it, letting it slam shut and praying no one robbed me today. I run down street after street until I come to a wide house with a large lawn and trees.

I pound on the front door with my fists, calling Molly's name. "Molly! Molly, are you in there?! Molly!"

The door flings open, I stumble back. Molly looks at me as if I'm crazy.

"What the heck, Dakota?!" she demands, using my full name for the first time. It felt strange to hear her say it. I gently pass her and walk into the house without permission, looking around the empty space with paranoia. Her parents weren't there.

"Uh, come on in," she remarks, looking back in irritation and confusion.

"Sorry, Molly, I just had to make sure," I clarify, leaving her with more questions than answers though.

"Make sure? Of what?"

"Cree- I'll tell you later."

She lifts her eyebrow higher, staring at me. "Okay..."

I definitely look crazy to her now. Shit, maybe she thinks I'm on drugs. Who knows, but she's uncomfortable. I look back at her unapologetically once I was sure Creepy Little Girl wasn't around.

I quickly verbalize my remorse and exit her home, walking back to my own. As I make my way, I kick a few rocks on the cement, watching as they clutter into lawns or the street. I'm such an idiot! But I had to make sure. I also need to know where Creepy Little Girl is, find out what the heck happened! Was it even her that spoke to me like that? My head started to hurt from the stress and the rush.

I stare at my feet and the ground before me. I walk and walk and then... I stop. There's blood in front of me. I stare at it, letting my thoughts get the better of me, picturing awful things and Creepy Little Girl at the center of all of it. I look up, thirty feet away is my house. Thirty feet away could be where I die, I tell myself. Maybe I was being dramatic, maybe I wasn't. I shouldn't have been so nonchalant about Creepy Little Girl before, I don't know what she is or where she comes from. Thirty feet away from me could be where I get those answers, answers I probably won't want once they're in my fingers. Many things could be in that house... Many, many things. I swallowed, staring at the spots of blood that bled into the cement, that formed dark little patterns on the pavement.

I trudge forward.

I open my door slowly, peeking in. I run to my couch only feet away and sit down, lifting my feet onto the cushions. Like a child playing floor is lava, I look around the vacant room, scared to move with my knees to my chest. I sit there for a few minutes like that, making sure I am alone because my brain told me - despite the fact that my eyes could see no one - that I was not.

Once my nerves dropped just a little, I let my feet slide to the floor quietly. I peer around again, trying to see into my hallway but I was scared to look all the way down it. Looking at every shadow in the room casted by the television or the couch or the book of boxes, every corner where I couldn't make out where one side of the wall ends and the other begins, every crevice in the room that I could identify, I could find Creepy Little Girl nowhere. Thankfully.

I try to stand, pushing away the thought that anything was wrong, that there was blood thirty feet outside of my house, but I immediately sit back down, feeling as if something was above me. I look up and nearly scream in horror. My muscles tense and my tongue gets caught in my throat. Creepy Little Girl is sitting on top of the light, the light holding her up with strength. She was leaning over to stare at me, towering above me. She didn't move, just stared, deathly.

"Cr-Cr-Creepy Little Girl!" My voice is suddenly a lot higher. "G-get down from there!"

She doesn't move an inch, without blinking, looking into my own eyes. I felt as if my soul was naked, and she could tell I was afraid. Whether she cared or not, it was terrifying to think of how much power she had over me in this moment. She is not human, not of this world. The devil.

Or maybe I am far too paranoid to assume she is pure evil.

"Creepy Little Girl," I mumble, the syllables being too long to pour out quickly. Could she hear me even? I try speaking one more time, "Creepy Little Girl, was that voice you? Earlier?" I may just cry.

She shakes her head. An answer.

I felt as if my chest was heavy. I felt as if I couldn't move. It felt like the right decision to not move.

Then suddenly, she falls down to the floor, not bothering to land on her feet, just a lump of a girl on the floor. She would be injured if she was normal, but she stands without the help of her arms, and down the hall. I can hear her footsteps this time, thumping with quiet creaks of wood all the way down to my bedroom. I don't want to sleep in my bedroom tonight.