Wendy's Story

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I'm floating in an abyss of darkness and as far as I can tell there is no light at the end of the tunnel. No hope or promise. Just a never ending spiral of despair. It's cold in the darkness. Something shimmer at the corner of my eye as my sister appears. She looks transparent and she has a ring of light around her. Her hair floats wildly around her head. She has her face in her hands and I can hear her silently weeping. I reach out for her shoulder but she pulls away from me. She turns her back towards me. I don't move I keep my hand still in the space between us.
"Abigail," I breathe. She stops crying and wipes her cheek with her arm. I'm so confused and worried and all I want is for her to turn around and tell me what's going on. She doesn't at first. She just hovers there in the darkness above me.
"Abigail, I'm scared." My voice comes out timid and real. I would've never told that to anyone else. I bring my hand to where it's placed just over her shoulder. I can feel the cold that leaks off her pale skin. She pulls away from me.
"I don't know what to do, Abigail. What's going on?" I sound childish and scared. My voice echoes in the dark abyss.
"This is all your fault," she bites. Her voice is low and menacing and I pull my hand back. "You're the one who brought us here," She twists around so fast that I almost miss it. Her face is pale and her eyes are sunken into her skull. She looks dead. Her hair waves around her and makes her look twice as scary. I pull back in disgust.
"What happened to you..." the words slip through my lips before I have a second thought about it. She pulls back and points a finger at me.
"You did this to me. It's all your fault I'm like this." She lets the words hang in the air daring me to say anything else. I can't manage to say anything. I can hear my heart in my chest and I fear that she hears it too. She breaks into sobs and puts her face back in her hand.
"Abigail, I...I..." I stumble on what I'm supposed to say. I can't think and I swear I'm hearing whispers in the dark silence.
"It's all my fault." I can hear her whisper, barely audible under her sobs.
*****
Abigail has her hand in mine and is dragging me through a grove of trees. Its dark, past midnight and my only guide is the ghost of my dead sister. She leads me down a long curving path until we reach a tall oak tree. I know were we are. It's our tree that we used to climb every day. We would have contest to see who would reach the top first. We would eat our lunches up there and have long conversation in those branches. It was our place of protection. Our escape from the mean kids on the playground. Ultimately though, it was the burial place for my sister. It happened a month ago. We were sitting up in one of the highest branches. She had her legs hung over the branches and she fell. When the doctors got to her it was too late. She had died on impact. She appeared to me almost immediately. She never looked like one of those ghost you hear about in scary stories. She looked just the same as when she was alive.
I pulled my hand out of Abigail's. "What are we doing here?" I question. She backs up towards the tree and I see a figure take shape beside her. It's tall and lean and the only visible feature is a white, dagger-teeth smile. I look at him and the loon back at my sister.
"Abigail why did you bring me here," I almost scream it. I hear my heart racing in my chest. My breath is shallow and too hot.
"I want you come with me," she says her voice is so calm and reassuring that it reminds me of when she was alive. She was always able to get me to do thing I knew I shouldn't. Like climb a tree way too high. She holds her hand out to me. "Come with me and we can be together again. All the time," I start to put my hand out but quickly pull it back. The demonic shadow standing next to her turns into a a scowl.
"Do it," the lips whisper, the corners pulling their way back to a smile. I turn and look into my sisters eyes as I take her hand in mine. The demons shadow starts to laugh. Abigail's lips pull into an evil smile and a darkness comes over her. Her skin turns to a light gray color but her eyes are still crystal blue. They looked scared and sad. Her hands grip around my wrist and I'm pulled into darkness.
*****
"I trusted him," Abigail snaps into the air around her. "He told me he could help me. He said that we could be together. I trusted him and he lied."
"Abigail..." I say "It's not your fault." I reach out to her and she yanks away again.
"No, it's all yours," she spits it at me and it stings like fire, "We wouldn't be here if you never pushed me off that tree." My face heats up and tears rush down my face.
"I didn't mean to," I manage to stumble out "We were playing. I never meant to hurt you." She turns away from me and fades back into the darkness. I feel gravity pulling me down and I'm sucked into a bright light. I'm thrown out of the dark space and land hard on my back. I can smell grass and trees. My vision is blurry and there is something in my hand. I look down and see a flower matching the one in my hair. It's Abigail's.

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