The Warcester playground has always been rumored to have ghosts running around it, whether they be children or adults. Perhaps it is the result of the Warcester graveyard being located right next to the playground, or maybe it is a figment of the town's imagination. Everyone in the town of less than 300 people knows about the rumors, but most decide to ignore it. Life goes on for the townspeople either way.
One of the townspeople, Margaret Thomson, brings her daughter Sammy Thomson there everyday after school. Sammy frolics and plays with some of the other children at the playground, but sometimes she goes off by herself. She goes to the aged and forgotten sand box and talks to herself, or at least that's what it looks like to her mother.
Sammy was in that sand box now. She and her friend Jenaveve were making a fortress out of sand. They were laughing and giggling with each other. While Sammy made the walls of their great fortress, Jenaveve kept watch to make sure no other children came to invade their base.
"Is anyone coming?" Sammy asked Jenaveve as she packed the sand walls together. Her back was turned to Jenaveve, although she'd only just met the girl.
"We're all clear right now." Jenaveve answered as she messed with her chocolate brown hair that reached the middle of her back.
"Okay, maybe you could help me with the walls now." Sammy suggested as some of her bleach blonde hair fell in her eyes. Her hair was cut to fit the shape of her face and it barely touched her shoulders.
"No I can't!" Jenaveve exclaimed nearly right after Sammy's suggestion. She quickly rebonded and came up with an excuse, "If I do that, someone might sneak up behind us."
"Good thinking Jena, we can't let them invade our fort." Sammy had come up with that nickname that day when the pair had started playing together.
After some laborious fort building and treacherous guarding, the two girls ended with a fort. Now that their magical fortress was made, there was no need for Jenaveve to guard it anymore. Their imaginations ran wild as they talked and laughed together. This, however, drew attention.
Margaret Thomson now found herself walking through woodchips in her pointy, red heels. She was utterly disgusted by the squishing noise her heels made as she sank down into the mud. She tried to remind herself why she brought Sammy here everyday, but she couldn't think of a good reason at that moment. When she reached the old sandbox, she scoffed. The wood was rotted and the sand spilled out the sides. There in the middle of the mess was her daughter, Sammy, talking to herself.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Her daughter looked like a fool as she talked to nothing but air. She even seemed to laugh as if the nothingness had told her a joke. Margaret couldn't help but think of what others would say if they saw her daughter talking to herself. They would think she was a horrendous parent. She wouldn't allow her identity to be tarnished by this, not after she'd worked so hard to make sure she seemed like a role model for others.
One word could describe Margaret, that word was uptight. She cared about what others thought. She had a strict schedule and a strict set of rules. That was simply who she was, she'd never known anything different. She was parenting in the only way she knew was right.
"Sammy, sweetie, it's time to go now." Margaret cooed in an attempt to get her daughter to listen the first time around. She knew her daughter wasn't ready to leave yet, and she would most likely argue, but she wasn't going to let her sit in the ancient-looking sandbox and talk to herself.
"But mom I want to stay and play more." Sammy complained looking at Jenaveve with a frown. "Can't we stay a little longer?"
"No," Her mother replied firmly, "it is time to go now."
Margaret stepped into the sandbox, nearly stepping on Jenaveve, and took her daughter's hand.
"I don't want to leave Jena here all alone."
"Jena?"
"My new friend, I told you about her yesterday."
Margaret glanced around at the children who were running around the playground. None of them matched the description that Sammy had given her of Jenaveve.
"I don't see her anywhere."
"She's right here." She pointed next to her at Jenaveve.
Jenaveve waved slowly. Her skin was paler than before, and she was biting down on her lower lip.
Margaret just shook her head and lead her daughter out of the sandbox. "We are leaving now, Sammy." She did not see Jenaveve.
"Mom!" Sammy whined, but it was no use, she was being ignored.
Sammy opened her eyes in a beautiful fenced in field overflowing with vibrant flowers of every color. The most prominent flowers in the field were the soft purple lilacs. They were wrapped around every fence, keeping Sammy trapped within their lovely garden. The sweet aroma of the Earth filled the air around the Sammy. She was only a small speck among the large flower garden. She seemed confused and afraid in the joyous place. Her shoulders were tense and she kept looking around her as if to make sure she were alone.
Unbeknownst to Sammy, the fences were slowly closing in on her. She could hardly see the wood of the fence through the sea of purple that covered it. She stood in the petals spinning around and around as if she were looking for someone.
"Jenaveve?" Sammy cried out, before she started to run in the direction of one of the fences.
She ran and ran until she reached the fence. It was a dead end for her. Now the fences closed in on her, towering over her like the walls of a prison. The wooden fence that was covered in lilacs now morphed into concrete, cold and unforgiving.
"Jenaveve!" She screeched again backing up into a wall. She shivered at the feeling of the wall against her back.
Somewhere off in the distance, she heard her name being called, before everything shook.
Sammy opened her eyes wide, gasping for breath. She looked around her own room, before her eyes landed on her mother.
"Sammy it is time to get up for school." Her mother spoke not expressing any concern for her daughter's heavy breathing.
"Okay." Sammy murmured looking around the room as if it weren't real.
Sammy went through her day as she normally would. She went to school, but she was quieter than normal. She wasn't her normal bubbly, bright self.
When her mother came to pick her up, Sammy walked slower than she usually did. She stopped to admire a few posters on the wall before she walked out the doors that lead to her mother's car. She looked at one that stood out to her. It was covered in flowers, advertising the town's new garden. The most prominent of the many flowers illustrated on the poster were the lilacs. Her back straightened up and her shoulders tensed before she quickly walked out the door.
Sammy ran down the sidewalk to her mother's car, and got in as fast as she could. She stared back at the school as her mother pulled away. She watched it get smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Only then did she look at her mother, who was minding her own business.
The two of them arrived at the park, and Sammy ran off to the prehistoric sand box, leaving Margaret with her thoughts. She wondered why her daughter seemed so frightened after she'd left school. She wondered why her daughter had run immediately to that dreadful sandbox once more. She continued to think and think until she noticed something alarming. Her daughter was missing. She sprung up off the bench she was sitting on.
"Sammy?" She cried as she sprinted over to the sandbox where she always found her daughter.
Her breathing grew heavier before she cried out once more, "Sammy!"
That is when she noticed footprints leading from the horrendous sandbox towards the graveyard. She followed them without hesitation. She was now desperate to find her daughter. Unfortunately for Margaret, Sammy was long gone.
Jenaveve lead Sammy through the large graveyard.
"Where are we going again?" Sammy asked, sounding bored and uninterested.
"You'll see." Jenaveve answered as she guided Sammy around gravestone after gravestone.
Eventually the two of them stopped at a sizeable black hole in the ground that seemed to sparkle in a similar way to how stars shine in the night sky.
"Will you come with me?" Jenaveve questioned Sammy with a look of hope in her eyes. It was clear she wanted the other girl to come with her into the darkness.
"Where does it go?" Sammy asked looking between Jenaveve and the hole. For once in her life, she seemed skeptical.
"I don't know," Jenaveve started, "but I thought we could find out together."
Sammy was silent for a moment, as if she were trying to decide the fate of the universe.
"Let's go." Sammy said with confidence as she partially climbed into the hole. She reached up for Jenaveve to take her hand, and she did, or at least she tried to.
Jenaveve's hand traveled through Sammy's hand causing a terrible look of sadness to appear on her face.
"I'm sorry that you will never know Sammy." Jenaveve spoke softly, almost as though she were speaking to herself.
She followed Sammy into the abyss-like hole. They walked into oblivion together, and Sammy thought she smelled the faint scent of lilacs far, far away. The darkness consumed them, and all of their worries washed away into nothingness.
