BURN ━━𝐏. 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

Prologue

trigger warning: suicide

"Callie?" the girl asked, stepping cautiously into the dimly lit hallway. Her wild red hair fell in tangles over her shoulders as she peered fearfully into the dark. She was too old to be afraid of the dark, but she'd heard a noise that made her think someone was in the house. 

It was the middle of the night, and the two's mother was still at work. She'd been called in overtime at the hospital since there was a shortage of nurses. The sound couldn't have been their mother, otherwise they'd have heard the jingling of her keys. 

"Callie?" Andi said again. 

No response. 

"This isn't funny, Calliope," Andi called out. 

Usually, using her older sister's full name got a reaction out of her. Both of the girls disliked the use of their full names, which annoyed their mother to no end. She'd named them after the women in her favorite Greek mythology stories, thinking it was poetic. The girls didn't think so. 

Still no response. 

Andi's head filled with worry as she slinked back into her room to grab some sort of weapon. What if there's a killer in the house? What if Callie snuck out and I'm gonna die? What if the killer got her already?

She stood on her bed and pulled out the curtain rod, and holding it like a bat, she slowly stepped out of her bedroom again. 

She kept her back to the wall and made her way to the light switch. She flicked it on and scanned what she could see from there before entering her sister's bedroom. 

Callie wasn't there. Her bed was messed up, and dirty clothes were thrown all over the place. A stale slice of pizza sat on her desk, and a half-finished can of Dr. Pepper accompanied it. Her backpack was still full, meaning she hadn't started on her homework at all that night. Perfume bottles, random pieces of paper with scribbled notes on them, and dirty dishes littered the floor. 

Andi knew better than to judge. Callie had always been a messy person, and at that point, their mother had given up. If she couldn't change that habit in 17 years, than she figured it was impossible. 

But she still didn't know where her sister was. Furrowing her eyebrows, the 14 year old turned around and went back out into the hallway. 

She searched the kitchen and her mother's room, but couldn't find her. The last place left to look was the bathroom. 

Andi opened the door to the bathroom. 

The curtain rod fell from her grip and clattered to the floor. 

Calliope lay still in the bathtub, red tinted water soaking into her skin. Her eyes were closed, and she looked peaceful for the first time in years. 

Andi was frozen in her place. It was like she couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think. All she could do was stare at her sister's lifeless body before her and cry. 

Turns out there was a killer in the house that night.