"Do you want to play a game?" she said. We sat in her garage out of the rain that pitter-pattered steadily against the windows of the garage door.
"What kind of game?" my muffled voice replied. The air, even in the garage, was muggy and I was in the middle of ditching my sweatshirt.
"A fun game, duh." She laughed.
I pulled my face free, finally. "Well, obviously, but-" I glimpsed something in her face, something that crawled across my skin and my voice choked.
It disappeared in a blink.
"What? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
I shook my head. "It's nothing."
She grinned cheerfully. "Hah! Maybe you really did see one!"

"You're being awfully quiet," she said.
I tripped over a rock, shivering. It was still raining, the clear cold raindrops tapping and sliding off the leaves of the trees and bushes around us. The ground was muddy and my new Keds, white, were ruined. I blinked away water and rubbed away goosebumps, wishing desperately for the sweatshirt I had so easily ditched in comfort.
"Sorry," I said. "I'm just thinking a lot." I couldn't get out of my head what I had seen in her face. It felt... dark. Like an old creepy attic or basement. Something felt unreal about it too, but I couldn't place it. I just got the feeling I wasn't supposed to see it.
"Thinking? That couldn't be any lamer than if you dressed even worse than you do now." She cackled like a serrated blade, so sharp I felt my voice cut and die in my throat. "No wonder you don't have any friends."
I wavered, unsure of myself. I had moved to her neighborhood a week ago so of course I wouldn't have any friends...
"But... we're friends... right?"
She giggled harshly. "Sure! And friends always play together, right? You're my friend so you'll play my game with me, right?"
She smiled and my stomach churned with uneasiness. I nodded.
She laughed again, grabbing my hand and pulling me along. "Let's go then! It'll be so fun!"
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Somewhere special. I only show it to my friends." She looked back at me, her face bright and happy. "Don't you trust me?"
I bit my lip, the pit of my stomach nurturing a dark seed of fear. "Well, yes, but-"
"And you don't want to be alone, right?"
I shuddered. Something didn't feel right. "No, I don't, but-"
She halted abruptly and I bumped my nose into her shoulder.
"We're here!" she cheered. Before us was a slight dip in the terrain. In the center of the bowl of earth below was a dark lake. I couldn't tell if the water really was so dark, or if it was just the reflected gray sky. Either way, I wanted to go home- but I didn't even know the way.
So I followed her.
She approached the water's edge excitedly, ditching her shoes to wade into the black rippling against the pebbled shore.
"Come on!" she called. "Friends don't let friends play alone!"
"I don't know..." I said, nervous. "It's so cold... Can we play somewhere else?"
She laid lightless eyes on me in a state as cold as the water. Her voice was flat and accusing. "I can't be friends with someone like that. I'll never play with you and I'll make sure no one does either."
She was the most popular girl in the school, so I knew it was true. I was the new kid so what right did I have?
I breathed deeply and ditched my mud-splotched sneakers for the freezing water. My hands trembled and I shoved them in my armpits, shivering uncomfortably at the slimy mud squeezing between my toes and dirty water lapping at my knees. 
When I looked up, she was much farther ahead, already waist-deep. "I can't wait for you to meet my friends!" she called to me, her unbridled cheer echoing sinisterly in my ears despite the pounding rain.
"What? What friends?" I stopped as the water reached my breastbone, anxiously watching her back.
She swam out until the water reached her chin and finally turned to face me. Her skin was white, with blue veins pulsing beneath the nearly translucent skin in a pattern like shattered glass. Her hair was dull and matted, collected around her face in thin strands. Her eyes were glassy and her teeth, decaying, hid a tongue as dry with age as dust. It struck me, finally, what I had seen.
She was dead.
"Now you won't be alone anymore," she cooed, wading towards me. "All my other friends, they were just like you. But then I helped them and now we're all together here."
I backed away. "W-where?"
She spread her arms wide and grinned. "Let's all play a game."
My feet were numb, the water was so cold. That's why I didn't feel anything- until it was too late.
All those hands pulled me under and I made the mistake of gasping for air as I went under. The dirty water gushed into my lungs.
Young faces, crumbling and bloated, surrounded me on every side, the bony fingers wrapped tightly around my ankles and wrists. I kicked and screamed breathlessly and we sank deeper and darker.
"They like you a lot," she said, her hair floating around her white face in stringy tentacles of dark brown. She stroked my face from forehead to chin, her hand resting on my throat. "Now you'll have lots of friends."
She yanked me down, squeezing my throat. The air rushed out of me and I fought harder. The water was so dark, or maybe I was so close to unconsciousness, that I couldn't see anything anymore. I could only hear her voice.
"Isn't this fun? Isn't this fun?"

It's been weeks since then. I can't feel the cold water or the burning in my lungs anymore. I can't feel anything, physically. But I feel really happy. I've made so many friends.
Do you want to play a game?