Music Box
This one took placewhen I was very little, about 5 or 6. We had just moved into anew house, about a block down the street from where my twobrothers had been born. The previous owners had taken less thanperfect care of the house and the back porch, (which was enclosed)was filled with bags of garbage. It took my parents, with mehelping (mostly getting under-foot), almost two weeks to make thehouse clean enough to move into.
Once that was taken care of, I plodded myself upstairs,proclaiming loudly that the room at the top of the stairs wasmine, that Elizabeth had said she'd share. My parents looked atme strangely, but shrugged and chalked it up to an overactiveimagination, but giving into my request for the room.
About a month after moving in completely, I went to bed; tossingand turning, unable to sleep (I think the first day ofKindergarten was the next day...). As I rolled from facing thewall to facing my dresser across the room, I had a feeling thatsomething in the room just didn't seem right, but I couldn'tquite put my finger on it.
Focusing my eyes as best I could, I realized that I was seeing myreflection in my dresser mirror. But, no, wait, I didn't have ablue nightgown on! I did a double-take.
A girl of about 16 or 17 stood in front of the only window in myroom, clad in a pale blue gown, but white otherwise. She seemedto staring into the backyard for some reason. As I watched her, Ibegan to drift off to sleep, feeling nothing menacing about her.Then suddenly, that changed.
The temperature in the room dropped almost 20 degrees as sheslowly turned from the window and looked straight at me.
At first I was stunned. But as she began to approach the bed, herface changed from it's calm facade to a truly malevolent portrait.At about the same time, I remember a music box of mine beginningto play in the background (odd thing to happen, though my motherconfirms this).
Downstairs, my mother heard the music box start and came up tosee if I was out of bed and to yell at me. Halfway up the stairs,she says, she heard me scream.
All I remember is Elizabeth fading as my mother burst into theroom and the music immediately stopping at the same time.