Lily

I was about seven years old at the time, and I was playing at a park just a block away from my house. My mom was sitting on the bench with an old friend of hers, talking about whatever it was adults talked about.

I was on the swing trying to get as high as I could when I saw someone by the playground, but when they saw me they ducked beneath the slide.

I quickly jumped off the swing, stumbling a bit as I landed on the sand.

I didn't see anyone arrive with my mom's friend, so they must have been there alone since there was no other adults around.

I ran to the slide and looked underneath it, excited to find someone to play with.

There was no one.

When I heard giggling above me I looked up, and there was a girl on the playground. She wore her hair in two curly blond pigtails, and her pink dress was adorned with white lace and frills. Her bright blue eyes stared down at me, a big smile on her face.

I didn't really think to wonder how she got up there so fast, or why I never saw her go up the steps that led up to the upper playground.

"Hi!" I called to her, but she just giggled in response.

I started to head to the steps, keeping my eyes on her the whole time.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

She just stared at me, quirking her head slightly.

"Wanna be friends?" I asked, walking up the steps.

I was just a few feet from her when I heard my mom shout my name.

Looking over to the bench, I could see my mom looking at me, her eyebrow quirked.

"Honey, who are you talking to?"

I laughed. Why was she asking that? The 'who' was right in front of me!

But when I looked back to the girl, she was gone.

I frowned. Did she go down the slide without me noticing?

Before I could look around for her, my mom decided it was time to go home.

As we walked up the block I looked back, but I couldn't see anyone. She must have been hiding, she seemed to be a fan of playing hide and seek.

A week or two passed before I went to the park again, this time there were more kids.

Kids as we were, we got along easy and made friends fast. We were playing tag, running around the park as fast as we could, crying when we fell down and got a scrape but got up moments later to continue the game.

I was running after a boy I didn't really know the name of when something caught my eye. I stopped dead in my tracks.

It was the girl, all the way out in the field.

She looked sad, and I saw her turn around and start walking to the woods.

Panicking, I yelled for the other kids.

I tried to explain to them what I saw, but they all just laughed at me. When I tried to point out the girl, I could see she was no longer there. Had she made it to the woods already?

Shocked, I started running across the field and towards the trees. She could get lost out there, I had to help her!

I could hear the shouts of protest from the other kids, but they didn't have the guts to chase after me. Even during the daytime, the woods were shadowed and bathed in darkness. No child would ever even dare go near the trees, so why would this girl just walk right into them? But what I wondered even more was, why was I choosing to follow her?