My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 56: The Curse

(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety)

**Isabelle**

I stood at the boundary between the Bennetts' lawn and the destroyed forest, trying to will myself forward. The sun's heat coursed through my skin to my bones, and I clutched the bands of the blue backpack slung over my shoulders.

My body shook with every rapid heartbeat. I tried to pick up my foot and step onto the forest grass, but it wouldn't budge. I told myself that going in there didn't mean anything; Pitch was coming after me anyway. But I still couldn't move. So I reminded myself that if I didn't do this, terror would torment me forever. But it still let me step.

"Isabelle," Jamie said next to me. "It's okay. You'll be fine."

As I glanced up, I saw the knife held tightly in his fist, and seeing it there helped. He was coming with me for moral support.

I took a short, small breath, and managed to step one of my feet into the forest, the grass crunching beneath it.

And nothing bad happened. Yet.

I took another small step. Another. Jamie paced beside me. I jumped at every sound, the wind or an animal. My backpack rattled with its contents. My mind numb with fear but my legs carrying me forward, I slowly picked up speed.

I could get paralyzed. I could get kidnapped. I could die. How was Ranya doing? Had Pitch killed her? Had she found him yet?

My chest tightened even further. Pitch had done something, corrupted her heart perhaps. She had always been so against my protecting myself, like getting rid of my powers, and she was immune to Terror Storms... Did she have ulterior motives for taking my place? Was Pitch controlling her? What could Dakota sense?

If I came across Ranya, would I need to... defend myself?

Something flickered in my peripheral vision. I jumped and spun, but when I looked at where it was, there were only tree stumps, bushes, and fallen logs.

"It's nothing, Isabelle," said Jamie.

Something flashed again, to the other side. I whirled to face it, but again, there was nothing but destroyed forest. Yet, my muscles tightened, and I considered hiding. But then something flickered to life 10 feet in front of me.

It was a boy about Zachary's age. He was blue and translucent, like a ghost, an echo from the past. And he was from the past, I knew instinctively. He wore a plain shirt with a vest over it, and pants, but no shoes.

"You can't catch me!" he called behind him before dashing off to my left behind a stump. He vanished into the air.

I stopped, my legs refusing to budge again. I glanced up at Jamie and his knife and tried to will myself forward. It took a minute for my legs to agree. Another Echo appeared, a girl my age walking with an older boy. Only after they disappeared did I realize they'd been Jamie and Sophie. That Echo wasn't from long ago. Two weeks, I somehow knew.

Branches snapped and cracked around me, and I froze.

"Just animals, Isabelle," Jamie said.

But everything seemed to be growing darker. I looked up. Clouds swirled above, but nothing black and dangerous.

All around, children, adults, and sometimes animals or forces of nature appeared and disappeared, all translucent blue. A woman clutching a letter to her chest. A man slouching dazed against a rock. Two birds circling each other. I realized I was mumbling under my breath things my mind didn't know:

"She married her love there in 1976, and they had three children, one of whom became mayor. That storm uprooted 48 trees in all. He hates it when she does that. She—" I couldn't stop. Jamie gave me an odd look, rubbing his chin, but didn't say anything.

Something hummed under my skin like an electric current but fuller. My power, I knew. It sent jitters through my body whenever an Echo appeared.

The sky darkened further. I looked up. The clouds were blackening.

A Terror Storm.

My heart pounded so hard it hurt. This wasn't what I knew how to stop! I only wanted to defeat the Fear Angels! Terror Storms could kill me!

Jamie's gaze jerked toward the sky, and a visible shudder ran through him.

I broke into a sprint. He followed. Could we outrun the storm?

But soon the clouds enveloped the sky. Half a minute later, as my legs and lungs scorched like a wildfire, rain poured, soaking me instantly. Lightning struck in the distance.

Whispers filled my ears. The air shimmered, and shadows bent, and the air smelled of corpses in the hot sun. I raced into the unharmed part of the forest, jumping over rocks and ducking under branches as I panted hard. The ground began to pull at my feet, and I tripped into mud.

I glimpsed the dark beings with their blank faces and many claws forming at my back. They raced toward me.

The Echoes vanished, and Jamie bolted away as my powers burst uncontrollably from my body. For a moment, I had hope against the monsters, my terror ignoring my destruction. My shields shot from my fingertips on one hand in forceful bursts, and blasts of pure blue light erupted from the other, thrusting over trees and ripping up bushes. Swaths of trees were rewound in time in front of me, losing leaves and gaining animal corpses.

But none of it hit the monsters. They passed right through. I screamed.

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