The trees of the forest stood tall and the shadows danced and cackled as a young girl wandered deeper through the darkened wood. The lantern held in her hand was useless as the shadows consumed the light emanating from it. The girl tripped and caught herself on the tall oak next to her.
“Now why on earth would you come here?” The young girl turned towards the source of the voice.
“I could ask the same of you, Clarissa,” The girl said.
“Oh Annie, Annie, Annie. I’m not the one clinging to a lamp while I trudge through the woods in the middle of the night.”
Annie adjusted her grip on the lantern.
“You thought I had forgotten?” Clarissa chuckled and circled around Annie.
Shadows thickened around the pair.
“I knew you wouldn’t, Cissy,” Annie said.
“How could I forget?” Clarissa stopped circling and stepped closer to Annie, leaning forward, “I’m the one who died, after all,” she muttered in Annie’s ear.
Darkness swallowed the two sisters and blocked Annie’s view of Clarissa but not before she could see dark maroon spread across Clarissa’s shirt.
Annie opened her eyes to find herself in the back of her father’s Jeep.
“Honey, are you okay?” Her father glanced back at her from the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, Dad, I’m – I’m fine,” she said. She looked out the window and watched the darkened woods pass. The headlights cast a low glow on the wet black-top.
“You sure about that?” Clarissa pushed her hair back over her shoulder. “You’re looking kinda pale, kiddo.”
Annie looked at her sister. “This isn’t real, none of this is real.”
Clarissa smirked. “Gee, you think? I mean, dead siblings don’t normally return from the dead. It’s kind of a one way pass, don’t you think?”
Annie scoffed and waved her hand around the car. “Then why this, huh? Why here?”
Clarissa sat up straight. “Why not this? Why not here? What? Would you prefer something more like,” she snapped her fingers, “this?”
Annie’s eyes widened and a gasp escaped from her mouth. Her father was leaning prone over the steering wheel. Smoke streamed from the crunched front end of the car. The windshield was dotted with rain and a spider-webbed crack over the front passenger’s seat. Annie leaned forward and peeked over the back of the seat. Clarissa, the real Clarissa, lay slumped in her seat. Blood matted her hair, blood seeped from her nose. Her eyes were open and blank.
“Oh god, oh god, no, not this, take me back!” Annie turned where Clarissa sat with her legs crossed, watching Annie. “I don’t want this!”
Clarissa leaned forward and peered at the lifeless figure in the passenger seat. “I have to admit, not my greatest look.”
Annie slumped back into her seat. She shook her head. “I don’t want this…” she murmured.
Clarissa leaned back and looked at Annie. She snapped her fingers. The two of them were back in the forest. Annie slumped against the tall oak standing behind her. She slid to the ground and pulled her knees to her chest. The shadows behind the tree fed off of each other. The cold cut through Annie’s clothes and she could feel the growing shadows reach out, trying to pull her closer to them.
Annie shook her head, her face pale and glimmered with the wet tears streaming down her face. “Why are you here, Cissy?”
Clarissa clasped her hands in front of her and moved to stand in front of her younger sister. “Why do you think?”
Annie rubbed her face with balled hands. “I don’t know,” she stood up and stepped toward her sister. “How would I know that?”
Clarissa tilted her head, like she was trying to understand why someone didn’t see something that was so obvious to another person. “I died, Annie.”
Annie looked at Clarissa incredulously. “I know, Clarissa! I was there!”
Clarissa nodded her head and turned away from Annie. “Yes, you were. And I still died.”
Clarissa began walking back toward the shadows in between the trees.
Annie shook her head and glared at her sister. “It wasn’t my fault! The car was out of control, I couldn’t do anything! I couldn’t stop it!”
The shadows behind Clarissa reached out and pulled her back into them. Annie took a hesitant step forward before crumpling to the ground in horror. Clarissa’s pale flesh melted into the shadows, leaving her skeleton.
“Maybe it’s time for you to accept that.” Clarissa whispered as her bones fell into the embrace of the shadows.
Annie opened her eyes. She was lying in sweat soaked sheets that tangled around her legs. She could still hear Clarissa’s last words echoing in her head. A hint of a smile wisped on her face.
“It’s not your fault; maybe it’s time you to accepted that.”
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