Haunted

A long time ago I had a nightmare about a little girl in a dirty white dress with long black hair; it was terrifying. No matter where I went she was always there; killed in so many ways. I would walk into a bathroom and find her bludgeoned to death. B l o o d y, b l u d g e o n e d, b a t h r o o m. Or I would be in a car and see her hanging from a tree. Somehow though she was never fully dead, and always looked up at me with dark eyes; like she wanted me to find out who kept killing her. Finally, I'm in a car and she's standing by the road with that terrible look on her face, and suddenly she's standing right in front of the car and I hit her and kill her. I realize that the person who keeps hurting, keeps killing, her is me.

That dream has stuck with me and she pops back into my head uninvited every so often. Recently, I keep seeing things, ordinary things, that remind me of her again. This house near mine that I often drive by put this plastic skeleton in their tree for Halloween.... and it's still there. It creeps me out. I saw it swinging in the breeze and suddenly it was that little girl hanging from the tree. I was convinced that a few seconds later she would suddenly be standing in front of my car and I was going to hit her... her final death of so many. I really wish they would take it down.

I had this dream long before the movie "The Ring" ever came out, and when I saw that movie years ago, and saw that little girl who had long dark hair and a white dress I almost lost it. I wonder if my dream meant something... or if little girls with dark hair in dirty white dresses are just the norm of scary.