Don't Say Skully

Chapter 8: Handicapped Rider

I had dropped Rose's tricycle outside and went back in to bring her out. "I'll have to carry you, unless you want to wheel yourself down the front steps." I wasn't sure if my words came out harsh or mockingly but Rose gave no reaction.

"I don't want my wheels getting dirty." She said.

I nodded and moved to pick her up. I carried her in my arms. "I think you should drop that....skull. It might fall and crack while you're riding."

For the first time ever, she didn't argue with me and she kept it on her wheelchair before we went outside.  I placed her on the tricycle and arranged her leg properly on both sides. I tried to place her feet on the paddles but they kept lifelessly slipping off. "Don't Bother." Rose said to me and I did so.

"Ready?" I asked her already excited about pushing her round. I thought back to when I had ridden a bicycle for the first time and how my dad had pushed me around till I got used to paddling. Rose however seemed uninterested and only shrugged as a response.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Ten." She replied after some seconds.

"I like your style. Dark and Gothic. I'm Goth too."

She turned to look at me and scoffed. "Firstly you're too lame to be Goth. Secondly I'm not Gothic like mediocre classify themselves. I just embrace darkness."

How this girl could talk like this, I didn't know. How she knew words most kids her age didn't, I didn't know but what I did know she was one heck of strange being.

I was sure we stayed out there for about ten minutes before the skies began to rumble and the little drops of water were spat out of the sky. All the while Rose had been bored and uninterested in the activity I had made her take part in, but as soon as it began to drizzle and the sky darkened her lips curved up slightly and she looked up. She inhaled and exhaled exaggeratedly with her hands apart.

"We need to get back in. Before it starts to pour heavily. I told her."

"No. Not yet." She said.

I frowned."You can't play under the rain, you'll catch a cold and your mum wouldn't like that one bit." I said to her.

She folded her arms obviously angry but she didn't utter a word. I hurriedly carried her back inside and placed her on her wheelchair and rushed back out to bring her bicycle in.

As I got back to the door I began to hear voices. Rose was talking to someone. I could clearly hear her voice but the other was barely a whisper, even still it's words weren't coherent. I couldn't understand it.

"I know, but not yet." Rose said. "You still have Talia."

That wasn't quite as alarming as the next words she said. "You can't take her yet. I'll kill her myself." Her voice went low into a whisper and it sounded much more sinister.

I immediately rushed in to see her talking to the skull on her leg. "Who are you talking to." I asked to be sure.

She slowly looked up at me and shook her head. "Answer me Rose!" I asked. "Who was here?"

"Skully."  She said and looked to the side. Was her invisible friend real? Sure I did have invisible friends while growing up, but I never took them seriously, they were invisible after all. A figment of my imagination. Unseen. Hers was too or Was it real?

It couldn't. I tried to convince myself that this kid had a dangerously over active imagination. Her mother had said she was troubled after all. Still my curiosity got me to ask. "Who the heck is S-"

"No!" She said alarmed, her arms outstretched and her skull toy almost fell off. She quickly gripped it and regained her calm composure. "Don't say his name." She said her voice in odd whisper as she wheeled herself towards me. Her deadly gaze piercing into mine.

I would have said the drop in the temperature was odd as goosebumps appeared on my skin. But then it was raining and the weather cold. "Why?" I simply asked somewhat curious and somewhat afraid of her reply.

"Just. Don't. Say. Skully." She said.

Just then I heard a rattling noise and a hard continuous tap coming from the side. I looked over to a table by the side and saw what looked like the skull of a dog or fox there. It faced me as though it was looking at me and intended for me to see what it would do. It's mouth kept opening up and closing while its head moved in an odd translational motion.

I looked to another table and a skull suddenly turned to face me. It did so in a taunting slow manner that sent shivers down my spine.

I stepped back, my heart racing and fear taking a hold of me. My body grew colder and my rib cages seemed too weak to hold my rapidly beating heart. The door slammed shut and as I turned to see it, Rose let out a pain filled screamed and fell to the floor. Unconscious.

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