and I dreamed...

My family was visiting a resort. I was a teenaged girl. My brother was back to being my little brother. He kept going on and on about his imaginary friend Eleanor. I went along with it- never seeing her, but she apparently helped me find stuff, I'd ask out loud where X is, and it would be there when I looked down.

Then the other teenaged girls at the mall started to die. This mall used to be a factory, converted to shops. Eleanor started telling us who was next so we could try to stop it. But then my name was carved into the skin of my arm- Joan- and I knew I was next.

I gathered all of the rest of the girls in the same room-the room Eleanor directed us to. We nervously played cards and waited and discussed how we refused to die any more and wanted to know what was going on. Then one of the girls suggested a seance. As soon as we started to get ready, a man broke into the room. He confessed all to us... and we saw what happened. A woman was on the table- only more of teen girl like me. She was trying to give birth and having a difficult time. The man stepped into the scene overlapping in time. He tried to save her, tried to save the baby, and failed.

The man broke down before us. "It's undone. Take your friends and leave."

My friends left, one by one, looks of horror on their faces. I waited.

The dead girls materialized and came back to life, and also walked away. I waited.

"Where's Eleanor?" I demanded.

"Don't you get it?" he cried out. "Eleanor was on the table. She is the only one you can't save. And you can't save me either."

As I walked out, one of the candles fell over, and I knew the place would burn and purify, and it would be over. I would miss Eleanor.  ¶ 5:43 AM