The Girl in the White Dress

It was time for spring break. The time of year all students look forward to. This year was especially hot. The air was warm and crisp and gave most exciting feelings for the holiday soon to come. This year, as many other years, a young group of six second year college students chose to take a trip to florida. Three girls and three boys, off on an adventure of fun and sun bathing, not knowing what was to come. March 15th the gang took off in excitement. The three females, Ashley, Kate and Jessica, all spent the 3 hour plane ride discussing their bathing suits and the beach itself. Speaking in detail of how they planned to spend the week baking in the sun and drinking cocktails on the beach. The three males, Robert, John and Max spent the plane ride having their conversations as well. Theirs about parties and beach sports of course. Once arriving in Florida they all checked into a beautiful hotel where they were sharing one large suite and splitting it between the six of them. “Oh my god! This is amazing!” squealed Ashley flopping into a large king sized bed. Kate, the more quiet of the three girls, agreed by smiling and nodding her head. She joined Ashley and sat on the end of the large bed. Robert and John both ran to look at the view. There was a serious of “Yo, Check it out man” and “Dude that’s amazing” As they looked out at the endless blue ocean and beautiful sand. Jessica, sitting down on the couch with Max was overcome by the charm of everything. Max slipped his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him smiling. “Isn’t this perfect?” she said quietly. “Yes. Too perfect.” Smiled max as he leaned down giving her a kiss on the head. Max was a happy guy. He never had many problems making friends because he was social and made everyone laugh. Everyone thought Max made a crowd a party. Since he started dating Jess he had taken her ideas about animal rights and had become a vegetarian. He loved his girlfriend to the ends of the earth. In fact he was planning to propose to her on her 20th birthday in August. It was only March now and he knew he might be moving a little fast, but Max loved moving fast and he knew she was the only girl he could even imagine being with. Robert chose that time to turn around and yell “Get a room you guys come on!” and Ashley threw a pillow at them all the while giggling.
A couple hours later the six adolescents decided to go to the dining room for dinner. While they sat their enjoying their meal a young girl around the age of 6, with long straggly brown hair walked up to them. The girl was strangely pale and had on a long, slightly dirty white dress that covered her ankles. The small girl walked up to the gang slowly. Staring almost, what seemed to be, through them. The group was confused but figured there was no harm to come from a girl of that age. They all sat staring at her waiting for her to make her way to them. The little girl pointed. They looked to see she was pointing at Max, who was at the head of the table. Before the child could speak one of the boys, Robert, got up the courage to sweetly ask the girl “Where’s your mom sweetie?” The little girl did not respond. Instead staring directly at Robert and slowly lowering her hand. With that she turned around and walked away. The group turned to Max and when they turned back the girl was gone. “What...just...happened?” Asked Ashley sounding slightly panicked. Everyone else looked around. No one had an answer. John pushed his food away “Let’s just go back to our room. It was just a kid playing some trick everybody. Calm down! We’re on vacation” Each person gave one another weak grins and small head nods, all attempting to believe this to be true. No one continued to eat. The bill was quickly paid and they went upstairs. Being tired from the plain ride there the group of 6 called it a night at nine and went to sleep trying not to think about their encounter at dinner. The pack woke up the next morning in a slightly tired haze but mostly happy to be there. Jessica walked to the window and starred smiling at the beautiful beach. “You’re right Max” she called over her shoulder. “This is almost too perfect” Ashley joined her at the window. “Max isn’t here Jess...” Jessica looked at her startled. “Where is he?” she asked confused and trying to cover up the worry she had as she recalled the night before. Robert called over to them, “Don’t worry Jess he probably just went to grab us some breakfast. Let’s head to the beach and leave him a note.” Jessica and Ashley smiled knowing very well that Robert was right. The gang were all soon dressed in swim suits. With towels in hand they left a note for their friend and left the room. Kate said she’d stay for a bit. “You guys go ahead, I’ll wait for max here” the friends pouted but eventually gave in and let her stay. Kate was quiet and good at covering things up. She had straight blond hair just to her shoulders and a pretty face. She had never been in a real relationship, mostly because she was too shy but did have a slight crush on John and things had been going well for them lately. Kate was never like Ashley in her bouncy preppy way. She preferred to be alone and keep to herself, it was the only way she ever knew. She grew up without much attention from her family and kept her nose in the books. Always working towards a better life for herself. Without financial struggles or family fights. She worked hard and never had many friends. Luckily Jess met her in math in first year and brought her into the group. Soon, Kate was the quiet one out of the six but still part of the six and she loved them all. She loved being a part of something. Now, she had a bad feeling about Max’s disappearance. She didn’t say anything, as the group all believed he had gone to get breakfast. Something didn’t seem right to Kate though so she stayed behind. As she plopped down onto the couch and turned on the television something odd happen. The television was fuzzy. Curious, Kate picked up the phone to call the front desk but the line was dead. Kate heard a sound. She slowly turned around and standing there was the young girl from the restaurant pointing at Kate. Kate started to let out a scream but fell silent.

Back at the beach the 4 friends had set up their towels and umbrellas and were rubbing on their sunscreen slightly curious as to where Max and Kate had gone. After all casually dismissing the thought, Ashley had a strange idea about the little girl last night. The child just popped into her head for no apparent reason. Ashley had always been the more excited of them. Her and Robert had been friends since the 9th grade and went to university together, there continuing their friendship. Along the way, Robert met John and Max, who introduced Jess during first year. Soon after that Kate joined in too. That’s how this group of six came about and they’d all been inseparable ever since. Ashley had grown up in a happy home with a good family and great friends. But everyones life has a problem. Ashley was seen as preppy, bouncy, happy and confident. Inside she was quite the opposite. She designed her life to stay skinny, stay pretty and keep to everyones images. She went through a short stage of anorexia in high school but only Robert knew about that and she was determined to keep it that way. Since then she spent tons of money on gym memberships, make up and up to date clothes. If Ashley didn’t look her best she thought everyone was judging her. Saying she was ugly or fat or a loser. She had really low self esteem and that’s why she had slept around a lot in high school. Trying to find someone who loved her. She was known as the school slut by everyone and she figured out too late that all these boys were going after her not because of her beauty or intelligence but because they all thought she was “easy.” Robert was one of the only guys she didn’t sleep with and he stood by her all through those four years. Now that she was in university she wanted to make a fresh start. She was friends with a different type of crowd and she had finally realized the error of her ways in high school. University was a change for her, a time to be someone different and new. Even though she didn’t have the highest self esteem it was getting better and she was just hoping that in her next couple years of school and her many more years of life she’d find the confidence to be herself. Ashley stood up. “I’m going to go to the water you guys anyone wanna come with me?” They all shook their heads so Ashley walked over by herself. As she stepped into the water she noticed something mesmerizing in front of her. Almost like a glow of white. Ashley kept staring and walking towards with thing in the water and as she got closer she realized it was the little girl from dinner. Automatically she knew something was wrong but she was all ready up to her shoulders in water. Ashley turned around to try and run back to her friends but they were specks in the distance. Then she felt a strong force pull her under the water and there went Ashley.
The three friends on the beach sat still laughing and chatting until Robert realized he hadn’t seen Ashley in awhile. He scanned his eyes over the water but she wasn’t there. He started to get worried now. He had always been friends with Ashley but he had also always loved her. That’s why he didn’t want to sleep with her in high school. He was afraid if he did she would think he was like every other guy. Of course it was hard to not give into temptation but he managed and all he hopped for now was over the next couple years this strong friendship could maybe blossom into a strong relationship. Robert was smart. He got good grades but he put in effort for them. He was the kind of guy everyone looks up to. He was smart, funny, good looking and was the head of multiple clubs. He didn’t boast or brag about it though. He was also kind. Everyone loved Robert and of course he had multiple opportunities to date someone but very rarely took them, for his love for his best friend was too strong. At this point Robert couldn’t see her anywhere. He turned to Jess and John. “Hey do either of you guys see Ashley?” Jess looked around vaguely “Nope, I’m sure she’ll turn up in a second.” Jess lay back down on her towel. She was a brunette with long hair. She wasn’t as skinny as Ashley but she wasn’t fat either. She wasn’t as smart as Kate but she wasn’t at all dumb. Jess was kind of in the middle of two extremes. She was a vegetarian and stood up for animals rights. That was something she strongly believed in and she took pride in this. Jess had been dating Max for a little over a year now. They were happily in love and they hoped to someday get married. They had so much in common and Max really kept Jess happy and feeling good. She was starting to wonder why he hadn’t come down to the beach yet and the thought kept popping into her head at odd times. Jess kept dismissing it. Nothing could have gone wrong he was probably just talking to Kate and they were making their way down. Jess now lay tanning with her sun glasses on wishing Robert would stop worrying about Ashley. She was fine they were on a public beach with tons of people around. So she thought. John thought this too. John was captain of the football team and had shaggy brown hair that every girl adored. Through out his life John had been with a lot of girls. Mostly cheerleaders or desperate girls with low self esteem he met at parties. This was fine with John. No real commitment but he still gets the fun part with a beautiful girl. Now though, he had really started to want something real since university started. The minute he saw Kate he knew that he wanted her. She was small and pretty and cute and shy, which he assumed meant she’d be an easy target. He soon found out though that she wasn’t. Kate spent a lot of time studying for classes that John didn’t take and for a long time she seemed to have no interest in him. This was new to John which is what kept him going after her. She was different and he loved it. Since the second year started though John wanted more than just to sleep with her. He wanted a real relationship. With love and all the other things that he thought only losers wanted. Kate was the real thing and for the last few months she really had seemed to be showing more interest. Flirting with him a bit, hugging him more and she even kissed him on the cheek once. That’s why right now the person he was worried about was Kate. “Where is she?” He kept thinking to himself. He’d never admit he was this worried about her though. Besides, he was sure Jess was worried about Max and it was clear Robert was freaking out over Ashley. Just then, John took off his sun glasses and stood up to look at Robert who had just let out a blood curdling scream. The beach they thought was so crowded was now empty except for Robert, John and Jess. Standing alone on the beach. “WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?” Screamed Jess. Moments ago there had been hundreds of families standing on the beach. Now it was an empty long stretch of sand and water. That’s when John saw something he knew he would never get out of his mind. He pointed straight ahead. Out far in the water was Ashley’s dead body, floating towards them. Eyes stuck open with fear. With fear the group of three all started crying and screaming. They began to run back to the hotel. In every corner, every time they turned their heads, there stood the little girl in the dirty white dress staring and pointing with that same grave look on her face. Once they were in their room and had locked the door the group split up to find their friends. They all ran from room to room in utter panic shouting “MAX!” “KATE” “WE HAVE TO GO NOW!” All of a sudden John and Robert heard a loud piercing scream. They ran to the sound and saw Jess standing in the doorway of her bedroom looking at the two dead bodies of Max and Kate. Jess got down on her knees and began to cry. Robert and John stood shocked, scared and in horror. Thats when the last 3 heard the door lock from the inside. The three looked out into the main room and standing before them in the door way was the little girl. Pointing and staring, knowing there was no escape.