Stay Out of The Playhouse
Sonja Moralez, NM, USA
September 2000
It happened nearly ten years ago, while I was living in England. (I am almost 17 now). Me, my younger sisters, and my half-brother were out playing in the woods surrounding the home we were living at. Now, when I say woods, I do mean a forest-type area complete with pond, and the ancient mill far in the back. This is very relevant to the story.
We were very young, between five and eight years old, and we were very far into these woods. We had been out for almost two hours, at least, and were getting board of chasing each other through the trees, when we suddenly ran past the clearing where the old wood- mill was. This building was very off-limits to us, and the owner of the house had told us they would punish us severely if we ever entered it, but being eight years old, my brother hadn't really cared.
We entered the mill, and found a treasure house for little kids, with toys and hay every where. Naturally, we thought and wondered about why there was fresh hay and new toys here, but didn't think about it. We began playing with the toys, and we heard a very quiet crying begin. Naturally, we assumed it was our baby sister, and told her to quit being a baby. She said she wasn't crying. The crying got louder, and a little girl's voice told us, "I want to play, too!" We jerked around, and there was a little girl standing behind us. She had a mean face, very pretty but cruel looking. "who are you?" we asked her. "those are my toys. I want to play!" and then she began walking towards us. We asked her other questions but she only replied, "I want to play!" naturally, we became frightened and ran away from her, and she walked after us. We took off out of the mill, and began running through the forest. Ahead was a play house where my sisters and I would play sometimes when we were very bored. My brother pulled us into the house and told us, "shhh. she's coming." so we sat and hid from her, until an angry voice yelled at us from the corner, "Why are you hiding from her? Go play with her!" We spun around and there was an older man and woman, standing and looking very angry. The woman was holding a broken broom handle and the man was swinging an old leather belt. We screamed and ran out, and didn't stop to look back until we got to the house. We were hysterical, and told the owners of the house what had happened. This is what they told us:
"a very long time ago, the first owners of this house used to have a little girl. They worked in the wood-mill, and built a house for the little girl so that while they worked, she could play. The little girl was angry that her parents always set her aside and never paid any attention to her, so one day she took all her toys and moved them up to the hayloft so that she could play with her parents. Unfortunately, her parents found her and were so upset with her, they decided to whip her to teach her a lesson. The father beat her with a leather belt, and the mother beat her with a broom stick, and then left her lying in the hay to bleed to death. The parents were later found, seemingly dead of fright, in the play house. And ever since, the little girl waits for children to play with in the mill, and the parents attack children who won't. "You kids are lucky you weren't caught. The last two owner's children were found, beaten to death, in the woods, and the owners are all locked up in institutions." Needless to say, we moved just two weeks later and never have we gone back to that land or that part of England!!