The Girl Who Was Buried in Her Ball Gown

I immediately passed through the bathroom mirror, to the park. The area right where Peniel, Pohane and the whore-man had the awful clash, was completely cordoned off and crawling with police in white overalls. A girl was sitting within the cordoned off area. I knew it must have been the girl in the newspaper, now passed into my world. No one noticed her except me. I went over to her, she raised tear stained eyes to me as she saw my approach. Toni? Oh no! It was Toni from my class at school. She was such a sweet girl, quiet and pretty. I always loved her curly, blonde hair.

“Oh Toni! You poor thing!”

“Is that... Emma? What are you doing here? I thought you were…” She was distraught and her voice wavered between sobs.

“Yes, Toni. It’s me. What happened? Wait, I know what happened, you don’t need to tell me.” I was trembling myself and unsure how to comfort her. She told me anyway, I think it was helping her come to grips with it all.

“I don’t usually come this way but I wanted to see if it would be quicker. I felt queasy, like someone was trying to warn me not to come this way. I didn’t listen. Oh, Emma, it was horrible! This man, this monster just leapt out, onto me and dragged me into there.

“It hurt! He hurt me Emma! He ripped off my top and his breath stank of booze and dope!

“His teeth were brown and he was missing a few. He pressed his foul mouth against mine and I felt like vomiting. The rest was a blur, he was so strong and I couldn’t push him off me. He just pinned my arms under me and covered my mouth with his sweaty hand. Then he pulled out a knife and held it against my throat as he did his business. I was burning inside, but I stayed quiet, I didn’t make a sound Emma. I couldn’t even scream.”

Toni was sobbing openly and shaking in fits of rage. “I was a virgin until then, trying to save myself for a husband one day, for the future. I hate him! I thought he would slit my throat. I HATE HIM!”

“It’s over Toni. He’s gone. Don’t worry anymore, I’ll keep you safe.” I’ll try to anyway. Toni started to relax a little and talked some more. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what she was going to say, but if it helped her I would listen.

“Afterwards, I thought he would just leave me alone, but no.” She looked off into the distance...

“There was someone else there, a Maori girl. It looked like she was pushing something into his head and she was telling him to choke me... I thought she was going to help me but… she didn’t.”

Pohane! I knew it!

“‘We don’t want anyone to find out about her!’ she said. ‘They will send you to prison forever, if they do! Kill her, while you can! Then she won’t be able to tell anyone.’”

Toni continued, “I could tell she was an evil wench, but what could I do?

“His hands were stronger than I would have imagined. Hot and strong, and burning against my throat.

“My head felt like it would burst as I tried to suck in some air, any air. None came though.

“I heard my neck make this kind of crunching sound and I could only make a little squeak, a silly, pathetic squeak! That’s all I could do... but it wasn’t enough. He killed me! Then he walked off, as if nothing had happened. I followed him over there, yelling he was a bloody murderer, a monster! He didn’t even listen, he didn’t even care what he had done. What a sick man. HE’S A SICK MAN!”

Toni cried and moaned. She was horrified at what had happened, and I didn’t blame her. I wished I knew how to comfort her, but I didn’t; I just sat there hugging her and feeling her tears dampen my face and shoulder.

After a while, I noticed her body had already gone from the scene. I wondered where it had been taken to.

“Come on Toni, let’s get away from here. I’ll look after you now, I’ll show you around your new, ahh, life.” I wanted to find her body, so we set off to the hospital, courtesy of the nearby police car mirror. She came with me and kept close. I knew how everything felt for me, the first time I ventured into this realm. I was just glad that the person (or whatever) guiding her, was not the same one that guided me. Pohane! I wasn’t going to suddenly turn into a giant spider, but something else just as terrifying did happen…

We hunted through the hospital and finally found Toni’s body in the surgery. The doctors were opening her up and they took out her stilled heart. They put it into some kind of bag and then a chilly-bin, on ice. What was going on?

Toni was a little shocked but not too stressed. She was more curious than I was, I couldn’t imagine how I would have felt if that was me lying there, having my heart removed.

I remembered Toni in school and how she did have a fascination with medical practices and procedures. I remember a conversation we had once, during a lunch break, after we had visited the careers advisor, before we re-connected in this space.

She told me how she was going to be a doctor, like her father. She said she had already seen surgical procedures and didn’t mind the sight of blood, unlike me. I hated it. It made me queasy, nearly fainting on the odd occasion that presented itself.

Once, my dear little sister broke her arm, after foolishly jumping from the trampoline over a shrub. I saw her land hard on her arm against the unrelenting earth. She cleared the shrub alright, but at the cost of a protruding bone through the elbow. I saw the splintered bone and it wasn’t Nikki who fainted, it was me. Mum had to deal with the both of us. Just as well we had good neighbours, who came over to take Nikki to the hospital; Mum would go later when she was able.

Toni and I suddenly heard the helicopter landing on the roof of the hospital and the nurses rushed Toni’s heart, in the chilly-bin to it. This was odd. We simply had to find out why. After the odd cargo was loaded, the helicopter flew away, with two curious and feather–light stowaways on board.

Toni looked like she was enjoying her free ride and the view was pretty, I think we both enjoyed our first helicopter ride.

We chatted about a lot of stuff on our ride; from boys to favourite shops, foods, clothes and other things and then back to boys again.

Toni hadn’t been to the ball those many months ago, so I told her about it. I also told her about Martin and about the accident. Toni did wonder why I was actually still in my ball gown. It seemed odd, but then again there aren’t too many shops in this realm, in fact I hadn’t found any since my passing.

We tried to frighten the pilot with silly ghost ’boo’s’ but of course he didn’t hear us; we were not the best haunters in this world, or in fact, this helicopter lol. However, it was good to see Toni laugh a little. Her whole life had been ripped away from her in such a vicious attack. I was glad to be able to help her get through it.

About two hours later, we finally landed on another hospital roof, in some city I hadn’t been to before. We had worked out during the flight, by catching bits of conversation and the radio communication between the helicopter pilot and the hospital, that Toni’s heart was going to be transplanted into another girl. She sounded like she was about nine or ten years old. Wow! That was exciting, because it was as if Toni was given another chance. Of course, it wasn’t all of her, but if it was going to bring life to another person, then that was wonderful. We were both very excited for her and the girl. Perhaps, what happened to Toni had its own reward in some other way; we were glad we came.

We followed the doctors and nurses who were rushing the precious heart to the girl, Sophia. She was a pretty blonde thing, waif–like, as if she hadn’t had a decent meal for a long time. She looked very sick and everything you could imagine was hooked up to her. There was beeping, cables and vacuums; you name it, it was all there and very complex.

At one point, while we were watching the skilled hands of the surgeons the beeping flat–lined. The whole room erupted with action and there she was sitting up. Gorgeous little Sophia, looking right at us with her big blue, moon–shaped eyes, full of wonder and curiosity.

“Hello,” she said in her high soprano voice. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

“Hello Sophia, we’re just friends. Please lie down again, the doctors are trying very hard to keep you alive.”

“Oh no, will I be alright?” she asked and we gave her some reassuring nods. I was so glad when she did lie back down, and then the beeping settled back into its rhythm, showing signs of life; she would be alright.

The surgery took ages and we were totally engrossed. While observing it all silently, it was fascinating to watch, but then they came! We heard them first, but only quietly; a high–pitched scream–come–growl. The sound reminded me of a time once in school, when a boy scraped his finger nails down the chalk–board, only this was worse and although it was not very loud, it rattled our souls, like an earthquake tremor had just hit.

There were four of them, dripping wickedness and smelling of hot sulfur and rotten meat. They came up from the floor, about four metres away from us and it was only by chance that I saw them before they got close. Their hands and fingers were elongated and gnarly, vicious looking. They were totally black and stealthy. Hulking great lumps of filthy sin, on tree stump legs. I knew they were not just passing tourists; they were here for a reason.

“Run Toni. With me!” We tore off in the direction of the theatre equipment. I didn’t know what we would find on the other side, but once we passed through the equipment and the wall, it would hide us, briefly anyway. Toni delayed, I think she was imagining us crashing into the equipment and scattering all the stainless tools about, or maybe she thought we would get slashed to pieces with the sharp scalpels; I never found out just what she was thinking. We needed to find a mirror, fast.

We ran through a stock room and out the other side of another wall before we found one. “Toni, hurry!” She had fallen behind and I could hear their screeching, resonating in my head. They were getting closer, they must have been delayed a little as we went through another wall; I hoped they were, anyway.

Toni was nearly two metres behind me, when I saw the mirror. At the same time, I saw the first demon passing into the same room as us and reaching for her. “Toni! You must run. Toni, jump with me, now!” I jumped into the mirror, but Toni never came after me. “No! No! Toni!” It was too late; did I see a flash, before I melted into the mirror? I couldn’t remember. She was gone, but where to? Would I ever know? My heart filled with despair, or anger, I wasn’t sure which. Inside the room of mirrors, I dropped to the never–never’s of the space and the tears flowed freely. One thing for sure, was that I would definitely be coming back and visiting Sophia again. Perhaps, Toni would still be living–on, within the fragile frame of this gorgeous girl? Part of her anyway.