Let me apologize, before we begin. I’m so sorry.  This is all of my fault. You shouldn't trust me… But if you decide to stay.. you have to read this until the end. Deal?

My name is Eli, and I’m a single mother. My husband died in a big car crash. No. I’m not expecting any sympathy, or a pat on the back... I just want- need some of your time.
    I still feel the deep emotional pain that I felt when I lost him. His name was Mason, dark brown eyes, a signature quaff in his hair. He had a smile that would lighten up my morning, and would always sing the tune from, ‘Little Rascals’ “You are so beautiful.. to me...” When Alfalfa serenaded Darla..    And whenever I think of him, I tend to start singing that tune, and my heart hurts all over again. He would always leave me, sighing, “See ya later, Eli.”
I have one person that makes it all better. And that’s my only child, Alyssa. She’s in sixth grade, 11. Which made me twenty years older than her. She was a generally happy child. And she stayed that way. Until Violet came into play of course. All I wanted was for Alyssa to be happy. But of course. We couldn’t even keep that to ourselves.
Wednesday Morning
         Violet had sat next to Alyssa all day Wednesday. So when I picked her up, it was naturally all that she had talked about. Except the constant repeating of, “Violet is a great friend” helped me notice how pale my child was….and how awfully sweaty..
         “Violet is my new best friend.” I looked away from the wheel and peered at her.“I know, I cant wait to meet her.” I would say back, although I wasn’t really sure myself. “You really should meet her mom. She’s amazing.” We’ve had to have had that same conversation countless times now.
All through dinner, and homework. It was Violet this. Violet that. But as I tucked her in, she asked me one thing. “You believe me right mom?” I looked down at her eyes, which were reflecting her closet light. Her silver duvet all the way up to her chin. “About what?” she looked to her left, and then right at me. “Violet?” I slowly nodded. I checked her temperature. But she had no fever… humph.. I wonder why..
         Thursday Morning
Alyssa pulled on her pink windbreaker, the Chicagoan winds got a bit harsh in February. However, when we pulled up into her schools drop-off lane, she gained this sickly look upon her face. Something called dread? “Hey, are you feeling okay today?” she subsequently nodded. “Yeah- Yeah I need to play the game.” She opened her car door, and left. No goodbye. No “I-love-you”. Nothing. But as I began to think over that, a little girl appeared in front of my car. Four seconds and she would have been run over! She was pale, with bright green eyes. She knocked on my hood four times, and waved. Before I could wave back she sprinted into the school building, leaving me to drown in my own thoughts.
As I picked up Alyssa, she looked a lot better. She was not only a bit paler, but seemed happy as she told me every itty-bitty detail of her day. “Mom! You’ll never guess what we did today at recess!” I smiled. “Well are you going to tell me what you did at recess..” “I joined a church!” I almost stopped the car in shock. “Is this what kids are doing nowadays..?” she (a bit suspiciously if I do say so myself)  nodded. “The church of Violet.” She proclaimed, messing with the zippers on her backpack. Make believe? No.. “Its Violets church mom…” she face palmed, and mouthed, ‘duh.’ “Okay, and what do you do as members?” I inquired. “Everything! But today we listened to her talk, and we all got sleepy and dozed off.” I pulled into our driveway, but didn’t get out of the car. “oh and we got flyers too.” She handed me a crumbled piece of paper. ‘CHURCH OF VIOLET” I kept hypothesizing back towards yesterday, and something poked my gut.
“Alyssa, what’s going on?” No fever. “We played The Death Game today.” Her words hit me like a wrecking ball. “What’s the Death game?” her head was like a ball, for she couldn’t keep her gaze. Her amber eyes darted all over the car, and sweat beaded from her brows. “I said no thank you, but she told me we wouldn’t be friends anymore if I didn’t!” a tear ran down her cheek. “WHAT. IS. THE. DEATH. GAME. TELL. ME. CHILD.” I turned off the car. “I cant tell you, the rules are so horrible! I can't!” she screamed. “Well will Violet tell me?” the look on Alyssa’s face was pure torture towards me. No one ever wants their child to appear so angry and frustrated. “NO!!” she squealed, scaring me, and making my blood run cold. “DON’T ASK HER. PLEASE. DON’T!” I opened my car door, confused and frightened. “PROMISE ME MOM!” I shut the door, heading towards her side where she was going ballistic. She was bawling, terrified. I opened her door and took her in my arms, and rocked her the way I used to when she was little, and had a bad dream. She fell asleep there, and I calmly took her to her room and laid her in her bed. Maybe sleep would make her better?
I turned on my inner ‘Master chef’, and ate dinner alone. I checked on her at nine, happy to see her sleeping so peacefully. She seemed alright so I went to bed.
Friday Morning-
It was 1:13 In the morning when the ear popping sound of shrill fear alarmed me. The scream of Alyssa. I ran into her room, but I couldn’t find her. But suddenly she flew out of her closet as if being chased. She latched onto my leg, screaming.
I attempted to calm her down, and ask what was wrong. However she wasn’t making any sense, just blabbing on and on about The Death Game. She was utterly impossible. Yet, I took her into my room, and she instantly fell asleep, while I wondered about the rules of this stupid game.
         You know that feeling you get when you’re on the verge of falling asleep, but suddenly you’re pushed awake? Like you’ve fallen in a dream, but you could feel it? Well that happened to me all night last night. Except I kept seeing a dark figure in the doormat. And every time I began to drift off  I’d see the outline of the ghastly figure, but each time I reopened my eyes, it was like it had taken a baby step, and somehow- gotten closer to me. This happened until morning.
         Daytime~ Friday
Alyssa was completely out of it. Horrified. Psychotic. And as I forced myself to drop her off, we sat in silence.
No more than twenty minutes later, I got a call claiming that Alyssa had thrown up in class.
She said nothing until we pulled into the driveway. “Can Violet come over today?” I shrugged. “I don’t know, kiddo.  You’re not feeling too well.. And do you really want her over?” she nodded. “Yes Ma’am.” “Okay, well do you have her parents’ number?” she shook her head as she headed upstairs. And as I began to ask her how I was supposed to call them, there were four sharp knocks on the door. I opened it quickly, and standing on the steps was the pale little girl I had almost run over on Wednesday. A boy stood next to her with the exact look. Pale. But he had brown hair, and green eyes.
“Hi Eliza.” The little boy said. “Is Alyssa home?” Quite selfishly I only wondered about how he knew my full name. I had changed it when I was eighteen.. “No.” I lied. The little boy nodded. “Well that’s fine, my name is Mason. You should already know my sisters name.” Everything clicked together in my head. “Violet?” the pale creatures giggled, and I noticed their sleeveless arms. “Its quite simple, really. ‘ ‘Rule One: No matter what Don’t walk past any mirrors in the dark. Rule two: Don’t leave your door open when you go to sleep tonight. Ask Alyssa rule three. And remember. A creak means you’ve fallen behind. A rustle means you’ve lost, and when the lights go down hopefully you won't see a dark shadow in the corner of the room. And you won't hear It breathing as you begin to drift off. And if you hear a bang? Well hopefully you won't hear a bang.’ ”
       Violet turned and walked away with her brother. Her humming a tune that sounded a little too familiar. And, as Violet began to sing the first few lyrics, ‘You are so beautiful..’  I shook head. And as they walked farther away, the silent sigh of Mason rang out. “See ya later, Eli,”
My bones shook with distortion. My body raged in anger, my eyes welled up, and I was furious. And then my heart sunk.
Eliza was scared.
I wouldn’t play their stupid game. I walked into the house and found Alyssa shaking and crying. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I heard a bang.”
My mouth went dry and my heart began to flutter amongst my chest. “When does the game end?” “It never does mom.” My heart was beating faster and faster the rapid rate alarming me. “What’s the third rule?” her face fell. “Knowing all three rules makes you a player.? My heart stopped beating, and dropped. “Wha-What if you lose?” “You’ll hear them coming. They like you to know when they’re getting close.” I paused. “Who?” “Violet and Mason. They’ll reach through mirror, or open doorways and drag you through.” She ran a hand through her head. “How do you win?” I asked. “You need to tell more people than the person that told you does.”
Like I said earlier. I am so sorry.. but thank you for your help. And the best part is, you now know all three rules. I will enjoy my freedom. Happy nightmares.
Oh.

Give Violet and Mason my best.