Sixteen Years Ago

Sixteen Years Ago, I was in the fifth grade. Just before the summer break ended, a local girl was reported missing, and I was concerned for the fact that there maybe someone kidnapping and killing children, and my younger brother was close to her age. She was found dead in a water pit in a foundry. The initial thought was that she was raped and murdered due to the fact that she was in the water for that long. Early the next month, school had started, and I was losing sleep.

Luckily for me, my fifth grade teacher (God rest his soul) was not only a good teacher, getting lessons done quickly to give us extra study time, he was understanding of my sleep issues. I had fallen asleep in class, and he didn't wake me up.

I had the first dream, then. I saw two people having sex, an older, thin male with long scraggly hair, and a larger blonde woman. At the time, I didn't know what they were doing, other than "hugging" on the couch. I heard my own voice, only it was a little girl. "Mommy?"

The woman shoved the man off of her, screaming at me. She reached for a weapon, an arm cast from a prior injury, and hit me repeatedly. "I gave you life, I can take it away!" she screamed as she beat me with her cast, then a wrench, and finally stomping on me. The man stood there, holding his pants up, staring. I eventually blacked out, and woke up underwater, watching as cement, wrought iron, and bricks fell on top of me. I blacked out again. This time, when I woke up, I was in school, and a girl was shaking me awake. "It's lunch time," she said. All I could think of was that my face hurt like hell.

I had recognized the woman from my dream as the missing girl's mother. I told my family, but they told me it was a coincidence due to fear. In my family, psychics and ghosts were either fake, or the work of the devil. "Hell," my dad said, "if psychics are so damn good, why didn't they find her body in the river like they predicted?" A week later, the missing girl's mother had confessed to murder. The details that were released were that she beat her daughter with an arm cast, and, with her neighbor who she was having sex with, buried her body in a foundry pit with debris.

Those of you who live in the Dayton area may remember this case. Those who don't live in the Dayton area, I filled you in on the basics, except for the names. It may sound all too familiar, still.

Sixteen years ago this coming August, I had a dream that I was Samantha Ritchie, and my mother killed me. This week, I started hearing Samantha's voice in my right ear. I delved back into the research and found details of the case that I didn't know about from the press until two days ago. The wrench, the stomping, even the neighbor holding his pants as he watched her mother murder her. I'm also finding out for the first time that the psychics were on the right path; she was found in water. Yes, they were thinking Mad River and Eastwood Lake, but who would have thought of looking in a flooded foundry? Search dogs found her on a routine scan, from the sounds of it. But, she was in water.

I have tried to repress this in my mind for sixteen years. But, after seeing bizarre phenomena involving pet rats that I have lost, and seeing a friend's dead cat run in front of his house, I had started hearing Samantha's voice again. She asked me, "Is Mommy still mad at me?" She then continues, "I miss Daddy." But, it's the last one that makes me question if it is really her: "Can I play with the rats again?" If it is her, why ask that? If it is her, why follow me? Why did I start showing a sudden interest in the case again, even though I know how it ended?

Most importantly, if she is following me, why now?