Cold

This... this rehearsal. I don't know what. It was weird.

I don't feel like typing this. But... I don't know, it kind of eases things. I woke up today. The blanket did nothing to ease the cold. It almost felt like the cold was a part of me. I tried taking a hot shower, but... well, it started getting really cold. I mean, freeze-you-to-the-bone cold. Yeah.

Then the room started misting up, like it usually did when I took a hot shower. But there was no way this shower could be hot. Then the glass pane started steaming up or getting frost on it... I'm not sure which one. Then, I heard a kid laugh, then I heard- and saw- letters forming in the steam/frost/thingy. They were backwards, but I could barely make it out...

"LITTLE MARY TOOK AN AXE."

I wondered if it was one of my younger siblings, Tanya and Ben. I didn't see who it was, but thankfully the pane was too clouded to see anything or I'd've thumped which one it was on the head.

I dressed in time to drive down to the community theater. It got much warmer when I entered the theatre-- much more welcoming I guess.

The rehearsal was fantastic, at least at first. I've had so much fun and everyone seemed to be brighter and cheerier than before. It might just be because everything else today seemed so... cold. Only one time did I feel cold at all during the performance. It was the end of the practice and the cold was coming back. Really bad. I went to go get my coat and Aaron walked with me. We talked for a minute, then the mist started forming. I thought the fog machine they had in the back was... turned on somehow.

"What? Where'd this..."

Then I heard something like the crinkling of paper. It wasn't. I looked behind and there was Aaron. I was so... I was terrified at the time. I didn't know what to do... so I ran. I ran past the doors with my coat. Everything was a thick mist. The director was frozen in his chair, papers spilled out everywhere, frosted over. I picked up one and looked at it. It said...

"LITTLE MARY TOOK AN AXE.
GAVE HER MOTHER FORTY WHACKS."

I ran then. I don't remember how long it took- it felt like an eternity. But I was only able to make it to the parking lot when I saw them. Children. Lined up and down the road. With icicles, with sharp, stabbing points at the ends of them. They smiled at me. In the center was a young boy, with cyan skin and a crack down his face. He didn't have one of the murdercicles, but he was the most terrifying of all- especially his eyes. They were pitch black.

I was about to scream when Aaron suddenly burst from the door, calling for me. I turned to look at him, surprised he was okay. I turned to face the boy with the crack down his face again, but he was gone. All the children were gone. The mist faded away into nothingness. Aaron told me the director saw me head down the stage and exit through the door in an almost panic. I wanted to tell him what I saw but... but I can't.

It would sound so stupid. I don't know what that was.

Maybe a vivid daydream. But I remember it as though it really happened.

...I need to get more sleep, probably.

Yeah. ...yeah...

-Kelly Desmond.