"No! Please!"
Pitiful cries disturbed the quiet of the early morning.
Just as Sally Williams was about to be hit by the looming figure that haunted her nightmares, the scene vanished, and a new fear gripped her.
A realization that she wasn't alone.
Sally flailed wildly about for a few more moments until Elsa's "Shh, shhh, there, there, Sally, shhhh, shhhhhh, it's all right, it's okay. could be clearly heard, and the elf's warm, gentle yet firm reassuring hand was felt on her shoulder.
Slowly, Sally began to realize where she was, with whom, and why.
The little girl's cry quickly subsided to soft whimpers, and Elsa kept up the reassurances.
When Sally was feeling better, she stood up and asked, "Will you play with me?"
Elsa rolled her eyes. "Not now. It's time for breakfast. Or at least something to drink."
"Then will you play with me?"
Elsa couldn't help groaning. "I need to wake up properly first. and that means I'm not much good for anything until I've had my breakfast."
Sally giggled.
Elsa grinned. "That's more like it. So, do you want anything?" She listed several breakfast items.
"Toast and jam," Sally replied.
"Good. Come with me, but be very quiet. I don't think anyone else is up yet."
So Sally followed Elsa up to the kitchen and took a seat at the table while breakfast was being made.
After they had eaten, they went back to Indy's room, not wanting to awaken anyone else by talking in a main part of the house.
"Play with me?" Sally requested again.
Elsa sighed. "Okay, what do you have in mind? Cards? Board games? Video games?"
"Pokemon Go!" Sally exulted.
"Sorry, not that one. You have to go traipsing all over the city for that, and it's a huge drain on the battery."."
"Oh. How about truth or dare?"
Elsa winced. "As long as the dares are reasonable. Nothing involving being loud, breaking things, or getting into any sort of real trouble."
Sally nodded. "You go first."
"No, you," said the elf, "This is your idea. Truth, or dare?"
"Dare."
Elsa thought for a moment. "Okay... I dare you to repeat after me. Now listen carefully. This is coming in three parts. Here's the first. 'o wah."
Sally repeated the nonsense phrase.
"Ta-goo."
Again Sally repeated.
"Siam."
Sally had no problem saying it back.
"Now, say them all together."
Elsa prompted Sally until the girl had learned to say the nonsense sentence fluently, and then Sally repeated it on her own a couple of times, until it ran together.
elsa grinned.
Hey!" Sally laughed with a blush, having finally got the joke. You tricked me!"
When said fast enough, "O wah ta-goo Siam" came out very much like "Oh, what a goose I am!"
"Yep." Elsa grinned.
"Now it's your turn.
"Okay, truth.
"no, take dare." Sally said, laughing.
elsa chuckled, "Okay, dare."
"I dare you - to - "Sally thought a moment, then grinned mischievously from ear to ear. "Suck your thumb!"
Elsa spluttered. "Oh, seriously?"
"Yeah!" Sally giggled.
elsa looked at her with a pinched expression. "if I do, you have to promise me something."
"Okay."
"Promise you will not ask, tell, request, suggest, demand, or command anyone to play with you for the rest of today and the next night.
"But what if I want to play games with you?"
"That's too bad. We can't play games all the time."
"Okay, I won't say it any more. So go ahead, suck your thumb." Sally giggled. She looked as if she was about to die laughing.
"On one more condition." said Elsa.
Sally groaned. "One more condition..."
"That if you're going to laugh," Elsa said, giving her a lopsided grin, "that you keep your voice down. I meant what I said about not getting too loud."
"Okay, I'll be quiet." said Sally, and started giggling. "Go ahead.
Elsa heaved a sigh, and did as Sally asked.
The little girl doubled over, but managed to stifle her laughter quite well. Though she had tears running down her face by the time she gasped for air.
"There, done. Now, it's your turn." said Elsa.
Sally took some time to recover, but finally said, "Truth."
elsa was just waiting for this opportunity, and she knew it might unnerve Sally, but it would be worth a shot if she was eventually going to help her. "Where did your family live?"
Sally looked suddenly sad, but gave Elsa the information.
Elsa asked her where her aunt Karen and uncle Johnny lived.
Sally flinched, but told her. Then, she said, "I don't wanna play this any more."
Elsa gave her a sympathetic smile. "That's fine. The game is over now."
"Could I get another piece of toast and jam?" Sally asked.
"Sure. I'll fix it for you."
"No, I'll get it myself." the little girl insisted. "You can just stay here and rest."
Elsa smiled and nodded, but looked after Sally as she left.
In the kitchen, Sally took out the bread, a clean knife, and instead of jam, she took a small packet of ketchup, then another, and another.
She was pretty sure by now that she was alone, so she cut one of the packets open and started smearing ketchup in her hair - a big glob on the side of her head, and she started smearing it on her face.
As she was about to open another packet, she was startled out of her wits.
Someone took a firm hold of her by an upper arm. "So, you're not as big a girl as I thought."
It was Elsa Elf, and when Sally jumped and instinctively turned to look at her, she could see the elf was every bit as put out as the stern tone of voice indicated.
"elsa!" Sally gasped.
"I thought you might be up to something, but smearing ketchup all over yourself, really? What are you, eight, going on two?" Elsa said in disgust.
"Sorry." Sally said sheepishly.
"So am I. From now on, you're not working in the kitchen without supervision."
"I was trying to open it and I spilled it."
"Don't you lie to me." the elf stared her down, "I saw you smear that in your hair."
"I just thought I'd play a trick, it was just a game."
"So you just lied to me. You told me you were going to make toast and jam."
"I didn't mean - I didn't - "
"I suppose you meant this," Elsa snatched up the packets that had not been used and tossed them on to another cupboard, "to look like more bloody injuries, hm?"
"It was only meant as a joke.
"And if it had been Indy who came in here instead of me? Or one of the people living here you haven't met yet, you were going to have a blast frightening them, eh?"
Sally flinched. She couldn't bring herself to look at Elsa. "I'm sorry.
"You will be." Elsa growled, scowling back. "Around here, we don't like liars, and this kind of trickery is saved for April Fools. Capisce?"
Indy was lying awake on the living room couch, listening. She decided it was better not to just walk into the middle of it all.
The fact that Sally still even had it in her to try playing a rather nasty joke, strangely made Indy feel less upset. It meant Sally had recovered at least somewhat from what had happened to her in the past.
Back in the kitchen, Sally looked down.
"Well, do you?" Elsa persisted.
"Yeah." Sally mumbled.
Now, you go downstairs and clean yourself up. You look like a baby who can't feed herself yet with that muck all over your face."
Sally hung her head. "Sorry."
"Knock off the sorries and move it!" Elsa gave her a little jab in the direction of the stairs.
Indy chuckled to herself at Elsa's no-nonsense approach. She would've paid good money to see the elf put Cherie Evans in her place.
Sally ran down the stairs, trembling, but got the idea to burst into Pippi's room.
Pippi started awake to the door being thrown open, and Sally rushing in, trembling, twitching, and apparently still bloody.
"Sally!" Pippi looked alarmed.
"Wrong door, Sally, you know that." The elf was in hot pursuit.
"Elsa's mad at me." sally said breathlessly to Pippi.
"With good reason. Come with me!" Elsa took a firm hold of Sally and marched her out of Pippi's room.
"Oh, dear." Pippi sighed.
When Sally and Elsa were gone, Pippi went up to the living room couch to see Indy lying there, awake.
"Oh, wow, our little houseguest really got in trouble."
"What was that all about?" Pippi asked.
Indy explained what she had overheard.
Pippi frowned. "Well, we'll just have to help Elsa out and keep an eye on that little girl."
Indy nodded. "Did you get any sleep last night?"
"Yes, but not nearly enough. This whole thing upset me."
"Me too. And I always feel rotten after being freaked out like that."
"Ugh, this kid is gonna be a full time job." elsa sighed, coming up and into the living room. "She tries to re-create her bloody appearance with ketchup."
"What in heck for?" Pippi raised her eyebrows.
"Who knows. And it was planned. She started out by lying to me about fixing herself some more breakfast. I didn't trust that, especially when she told me to take a rest."
Pippi nodded in agreement.
"No kidding. she had a cruddy past, but she is a dealive creepy pasta kid after all." said Indy.
"Exactly." said Elsa. "So I followed her and caught her in the act. But she really did it with that whole "Elsa's such a meannie!" thing. Just because I was kind to her last night doesn't mean she'll get away with this crap."
"No kidding. Dealive little brat." Indy said with a scowl.
elsa looked at Pippi. "The shirt you kindly lent her last night, now has some ketchup on it. So I put it in the wash. And Sally will just have to go back to bed and be confined in her room until she can get some clean clothes."
Indy snickered. "I'll bet she wishes she didn't get the bright idea to try and scare us with that prank again."
"I hope she comes out of this wiser for it." said Elsa. "Better go back down there and make sure she doesn't try anything else, like a disappearing act."
Sure enough, a while later, Pippi and Indy heard Sally protesting her unfortunate situation, and Elsa telling her that it was of her own making.
NT came down, intending to fix herself some breakfast, but she heard Pippi and indy in the living room, and Elsa sounding annoyed with someone she didn't recognize. "What's up? elsa sounds kinda ticked off."
"Long story, NT." Indy grinned. "Grab a seat, and we'll fill you in."
Before Sally came out of the shower room, NT came downstairs with an armful of clothes.
Elsa was sitting on a chair, busily typing on her smartphone. She looked up and around. "NT - I hope we didn't wake you up."
"No, actually you didn't, but Pippi and Indy told me about our new guest. I thought she could borrow some of my clothes.
Elsa gave the fairy a puzzled look.
NT must've noticed, because she immediately explained, "I even magicked them down to size, more or less. They'll fit her perfectly when she puts them on."
"Oh! Wow, I hadn't even thought of that, thanks, NT!" Now I don't have to wrack my brain trying to figure out what to do with her while we go shopping for her."
"You're welcome!" NT grinned. "I'm gonna go get some breakfast now." with that, she turned and flitted up the stairs.
Elsa smiled, and returned to her task.
--
From: Elsa Elf
To: Mission Headquarters
Subject: Heads Up: Unexpected Dealive Visitor!
Hello everyone,
We have Sally Williams at our residence. She dropped in around two this morning. I expect she was trying for a scare or to haunt her parents, and she got the wrong house.
Her background is included in this information.
Sally Williams was mistreated in a most deplorable way by her uncle Johnny, not to be confused with her uncle Steve. Though Steve doesn't get along with her family, Johnny did/does. It was Johnny who turned her dealive.
what I am certain of is is this: Johnny is a Williams, not an uncle on the mother's side or through marriage. He is Sally's dad's brother.
It is not known how Sally actually got into the house last night, but it is advisable to use what security you can and be on the alert. She might try to disappear. I'll be doing everything I can to prevent this, but she has already tried to trick me once this morning, and that means she might keep trying to trick us all.
Elsa Elf
--
Elsa quickly sent the message off as Sally came out of the shower room and looked in puzzlement at the small pile of clothes right in front of the door.
"The clothes are for you. Go back in the shower room and put them on, and then we'll see what to do from there."
"Are you still mad at me, Elsa?" Sally asked.
The elf pulled no punches. "Yes, now go get changed."
With a wince, Sally hastily picked up the top and jeans and took them in to the shower room, shutting the door, quickly.
NT was first to reply to Elsa's message.
--
From: NT
To: Mission Headquarters
Subject: Re: Sally Williams
I'm on it. If she tries running away from here, she'll only try it once.
NT
--
When Sally came back out, Elsa ushered her upstairs to join the others. There, they looked after her while Elsa got ready for the day.
"Do any of you play Pokemon go?" Sally asked.
NT rolled her eyes. "I like Pokemon, but this game just isn't for me."
"It was an utterly annoying fad." said Indy.
"And I have to save my smartphone battery and space for more important things." said Pippi.
"Does Elsa stay mad for long?" Sally asked.
"That depends." said Pippi.
"How can I make her not mad at me?"
"You'll just have to wait for her to cool off, and then don't try to play any more idiotic tricks - on any of us." said Indy.
"Are you mad at me too?"
"Well, I'm not pleased." said Indy.
"You might as well know why Indy is upset, and it isn't all because of you." said Pippi. "Indy was nearly killed, too, by a very bad person, bad as your uncle."
Sally gaped.
Indy sighed, looking a bit uncomfortable. "You might as well know. She played sick games like your uncle did. She kept me locked up for weeks and wouldn't let me go. She cut and burned me. all kinds of stuff. She made me bleed. A lot... so when I saw you covered with what looked like blood last night, it reminded me of seeing my own blood running everywhere. I saw it...and smelled it...all over again."
Sally recoiled, and looked at Indy with dismay. "I'm sorry. I really am."
"Okay, so then you won't play that kind of trick again, right?"
"Right."
"Good." Pippi said with a smile.
The phone rang.
Pippi went into the kitchen to answer it.
"What games do you like playing? Sally asked.
"Don't ask me," said Indy, "I'm not in the mood for games."
"I like Trivial Pursuit. But that's probably a little tough for you." said NT.
"Well, how about dolls?" asked Sally.
Uh, hardly." said Indy.
"I have a few dolls," said NT, shaking her head, "but they're just ornaments, really. Too delicate to play with."
"How about teddybears?"
NT winced. Teddy bears never appealed to her much, and she had no idea how one would play teddy bears anyway. "Nah, tell you what, if Elsa says it's okay, maybe we can go shopping for some toys later."
"I hope so, but she's pretty mad at me."
"Well can you blame her?" Indy countered. "You don't like being lied to and tricked, do you? that's what your horrid uncle did, just so he could hurt you." She scowled.
Pippi came back, looking distressed.
"What's up?" asked Indy.
"That was Ameh. Melanie is in the hospital. She was attacked last night."
There was a collective gasp.
"Uncle Johnny?" Sally whimpered.
"I hope not." Pippi said grimly. "I'm going over there."
"We won't let him get you," Indy assured Sally.
"If we're lucky, we will find out who did this." said NT."