Once again, Charlie heard the voice of the grey eyed woman sing: “Incy Wincy spider climbs up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out.” He hated her, he hated how she sang that cursed song and it echoed in his ears over and over again. He had been hearing it in every dream since his birthday two months ago when he first heard the voice of grey eyed woman sing. In the beginning, it was just her voice. He heard it in his dreams but could not see where it was coming from. Then a month ago, she started to show herself physically.

He could never forget that night. He was dreaming of walking into the forest and could feel something calling him there. He was proceeding with caution. That’s when she appeared. It was a rare sight. It was a woman with dark, long hair falling over her white dress. Her face showed no kind of expression. But what really terrified Charlie were her cold, grey eyes, staring at him, turning dreams into nightmares. The woman just stood there as she sang that song.
After a few nights he noticed something even more terrifying...she was getting closer to him every night. It wasn’t more than an inch every night, but as the time passed she got closer, and closer, and closer. Just a few more nights and she would be able to touch him. He couldn’t bare the thought of her catching him. “Terrified” did not come close to how scared he was now. He had to find a way to get rid of that demon, and he had to do it fast.
Charlie woke up, sweating like crazy. He drank the medicine the doctor had given him to stop the dreams, although by now he had realised they were ineffective. The next morning he felt sleepy.
“Awww! Sweety, did you see a nightmare again?” as always, his mom could sense when something was wrong with him.
“I swear I drank the medicine, but it isn’t working”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they will go away eventually,” she said giving him a cup of milk.
“You’re probably right,” Charlie lied.
He hadn’t told his mother the whole story. Just that he was having bad dreams. She would probably not believe him either way.
That night, when it was time to sleep the boy laid on his bed and prayed to God, like had done every night, that she wouldn’t appear. Unfortunately, she did. This time he stood in front of his house.
“Incy Wincy spider climbs up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out,
Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,”
Something was terribly wrong, he had heard that song hundreds of times now and never had he heard this last line. He knew she was closer, but he didn’t understand how close until she finally appeared. Charlie froze. The woman wasn’t more than one meter away. He could hear his heart beating like it wanted to blast his chest open. He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t think, the song stopped, no that wasn’t it, he couldn’t hear, time stopped. He could only see the woman mouthing the words of the song. It seemed like forever before he gathered his forces and shouted:
“Stay away from me!”
But she didn’t reply. As always she just stared at him and sang.
Charlie woke up, with tears running down his cheeks. Not being able to stand the fear anymore, he ran out. As he got into the front yard, he saw her standing in front of him. He thought he was going crazy. He felt his life being drained away. To him it felt like hours before he came back to his senses. But what good would that do to him now? Charlie knew that he couldn’t escape.
“Why are you doing this?”he shouted with all his voice “Tell me!”
First he thought she would start to sing again, but the woman pointed to his house. He turned his head and saw the front door opening by itself. He wanted to ask again but she was gone. The only thing he could do now, was go inside.
Inside, strangely enough, it didn’t look like his house at all. The furnitures were different, they looked like the furnitures you’d see in old movies. There were old vases with flowers and very ugly rugs on the floor. He heard steps and a little girl passed right by him entering the kitchen. He didn’t move for a moment. Then he started walking cautiously toward the kitchen.
The kitchen, like everything else in the house was really old style. The first person he saw was the little girl, and then his eyes moved to the person right besides her, a tall dark haired woman. From the looks of it she was in her thirties. She was cooking, and the little girl who wasn’t older than seven was trying to help. Charlie assumed the old woman was her mother. She smiled at her daughter and the little girl smiled back. He however, noticed that the mother’s smile was a fake one. In her eyes he saw sadness like something was bothering her but she didn’t want to worry the daughter. He was confused. What had this to do with what was happening to him. Everything became clear when the little girl turned toward him. He finally saw her face clearly.
She had grey, striking eyes and dark hair like her mother’s. She was the woman who had been haunting him. Her hair was shorter and her expression was childish, but there was no mistake she was the little girl. Also there was something else, her eyes, although they had the same color, the little girl’s eyes were cheerful and full of life, very different of the cold, lifeless ones he had seen. For a moment his head was filled with thoughts, but the thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on the door. The two of them froze, their eyes showed fear.
The woman opened the door and a there stood a tall muscular man. By the way he stood you could tell he was drunk. He pushed the woman aside and sat down on the couch in the living room. He didn’t say a word, like by only him being there everybody should have known what to do. She brought him a plate of the soup she was cooking and he ate it in the most disgusting way possible. The man was obviously the father, but he sure wasn’t acting like one.
Then the world around him changed. Charlie got dizzy and when he opened his eyes he was standing in his bedroom, or what his bedroom used to be like. There were no decorations or curtains or rugs, just some old dolls and a bed. The girl was laying in the bed. Her mother was standing beside her. The poor woman had a black eye, and Charlie could guess how she got it. The girl looked like she was about to cry but the mother calmed her down.
“Everything is okay honey, everything is okay,” she cleared her voice: “Incy Wincy spider climbs up the water spout, / Down came the rain and washed the spider out,/ Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain, / And incy wincy spider climbs up the spout again.” The mother finished the song and continued, “No matter what happens, whenever you’re scared, you just sing this song. It will give you strength and help you find the light in the darkness.”
The woman’s voice was sweet and reassuring. Even he could believe those words. The image changed again and Charlie stood in the living room. The father now looked a lot older. He looked mad and was shouting:
“C’mon, I don’t have all day.”
Charlie expected to see the mother running in but instead of her he saw the grey eyed girl. She also was older, maybe fifteen or sixteen. She had bruises all over her body. Her face was now full of sadness just like her mother’s.
“I make the money and afford for you and still you can’t do anything right, just like your mother, useless.”
The girl now had an angry look. Tears ran down her face. From behind her she pulled out a knife and went for the kill. The father now breathed heavily. His clothes were bloody. He stared at his daughter with a piercing rage. He cursed:
“You damn brat, you dare,” he coughed blood, for a moment Charlie thought it was over for him but the father smiled. “You think you can kill me and then just live happily ever after? Remember this girl, you will never find the light. After your death you will never move on. You will be stuck with my curse in the darkness of this world forever.”
As he said that his eyes turned to the ceiling and they never closed again. The girl dropped the knife and ran out of the house. And the imagery changed one last time.
Charlie now was standing in the forest where he had met her for the first time. It was dark. In front of  him stood the grey eyed woman. She was staring at him waiting to see how he would react to what he had just seen. He didn’t know what to do or how to react. He pitied the grey eyed woman. He no longer feared her. One thing was clear, she was not a demon, she was a spirit who had unfairly been cursed to stay in the darkness. He knew what she did was bad, but she didn’t deserve this. This also explained the song. The mother’s words were:
“No matter what happens, whenever you’re scared, you just sing this song. It will give you strength and help you find the light in the darkness.”
But he still didn’t know what he could do to help her. She was patient. She waited for Charlie to put some thought into it, but Charlie knew she had waited long enough. Finally he had an idea. He breathed in deeply and sang:
“Incy Wincy spider climbs up the water spout / Down came the rain and washed the spider out / Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain / And the incy wincy spider climbs up the spout again.”
The woman smiled. Charlie hadn’t realised just how beautiful she was till now. Her smile made you feel warm in the inside, like the sun that rises up in the morning after a long dark and cold night. Tears of joy came out of her eyes. Then in the darkness of the forest a light appeared. The woman looked at it like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She walked towards it slowly. She finally had found light in the darkness and could move on. Just before touching it she turned her head towards him and said “Thank you!”
After that she touched the light and it began to shine even brighter and to expand until it absorbed everything in sight.
Charlie opened his eyes and the light of the morning sun hit him. He was laying in his bed. Something was different today. He didn't feel tired and stressed, but relaxed and safe.
“Breakfast is ready.” his mother shouted from the other room.
“Coming mom” he replied and got up. He ran to the kitchen with a smile on his face and a song in his mind: “And Incy Wincy spider climbs up the spout again.”