What We'll Survive Together (UD One-Shots)

Hannah and Beth- Together Again

     Upon waking up, the first thing Hannah realized was the change. She no longer had long, thin arms and gnarly claws. She looked down and instead saw her own petite hands. She hadn't seen them in a year.
     Upon looking around, she saw something out of a nightmare; the lodge that she and her siblings had grown up visiting was up in flames. The grotesque body she had grown accustomed to was laying under her, it's skin melting from the heat. She turned away and saw even more similar corpses scattered around. Not knowing what else to do, she fled to the basement, not expecting to find a ghost hanging from a wire. It almost looked like...
     It didn't matter. She had a sister to find. Stepping away from the strange dummy, she kept going down the hall and eventually found a staircase that led to a lower level.
    'So Josh wasn't kidding about that...' she thought to herself as she made her way down. The winding hallways and corridors eventually gave way to a tunnel, which she knew from memory led to the sanatorium further up the mountain. How many times had she wandered the decrepit building, hoping to get her grotesque hands on a meal? She lost count. All she knew was that she was thankful that the painful hunger deep in her gut had finally gone away.
Making her way through the psychiatric wing of the hospital, she couldn't help but cringe at the sights she saw. Many of her once-fellow wendigos had been freed thanks to an explosion that broke the bars to many of their cells. They bounced around on the wall aimlessly, screeching at each other as if they were arguing. Hannah was thankful that they couldn't seem to detect her presence.
Several more minutes went by, and she felt a cruel sense of deja vu as she entered the mineshaft. She remembered what she had almost done to her former friends as she walked through the dark tunnels. Jessica's screams, Emily's quiet whimpers, Chris's heavy footsteps, they all replayed in her mind as she stood at the edge of the large pool of water. She knew that she had been fast, but she was thankful that her friends were somehow faster.
Pushing the thoughts of what could have been to the back of her mind, Hannah began to hover over the dark water effortlessly. She was sure that if she had still been able to feel, she'd be shivering at the cold air that was undoubtedly surrounding her. She soon reached the other side of the water, and found herself standing in a familiar spot; the same spot she had buried the corpse of her sister almost a year ago, then dug back up to... she didn't know spirits could cry until she felt tears on what would have been her skin. She didn't bother wiping them away, despite how scorching hot they were compared to her cold spirit. She felt as if she had earned that pain and so much more.

I'm sorry Beth. I had no choice. I'm DYING. It's the only way I can survive any more. If someone finds this I'm SORRY. I had to. I had no choice. Forgive me Beth. I'm sorry.

Remembering her own written words, Hannah's cries devolved into sobs. 'I was wrong, I DID have a choice!' She thought to herself. 'I should've just starved! I could've been with you!'
"Hannah...?"
The voice startled the spirit for only a moment. She turned, only to be greeted by her own face. No, not quite...
"Beth?!" Hannah cried, her eyes going wide. Beth nodded, her head leaning at an awkward angle as she opened her arms. Taking the hint, Hannah ran, or more accurately, levitated, to her sister, throwing her arms around her and sobbing into her shoulder.
"I'm sorry!" Hannah cried over and over again. "I'm so so sorry!"
Beth gently returned the hug, not quite able to match her sister's death-grip. "Don't. It's okay."
After a few more moments, Hannah's sobs died down to sniffles. "H-how long have you been here...?" She asked, finally loosening her grip.
"Well," Beth began. "I've been here since the fall, so... about a year." She said.
"So you saw everything..." Hannah said, her eyes no longer meeting her sister's.
"Yeah, I did." Beth confirmed. "I tried to talk to you, honest, but I don't think you could hear me."
Hannah shook her head. "I'm sorry..." she said again.
"Oh knock it off, you sound like a broken record." Beth joked, elbowing her sister's side.
Hannah smiled, managing to surprise herself considering the situation. "And you sound exactly the same as before."
Beth shrugged. "After being stuck in the same place for so long, you try to make the best of it. Which reminds me... I appreciate your, uh, attempt to keep me around." She said awkwardly.
Hannah raised an eyebrow in confusion, only for her eyes to go wide. "Oh my god, your head!" She shouted. "I forgot about that!"
Beth chuckled. "It was kinda weird at first, but I guess it sorta became... endearing? As time went on. Even like that, you were always the chatty one."
Hannah tried her best not to laugh, she really did. How on earth could her sister be telling jokes after what had happened? She wasn't complaining, it was nice to have something to smile about, but she was still surprised.
     "Well at least now it won't be a one-sided conversation." Hannah joked back. "Actually, now that I think about it... should we, you know, put it back...?"
     "What do you mean?" Beth asked.
     "You know, reunite your head and body? Like a proper burial." Hannah explained.
     Beth quickly shook her head. "No no no, it's fine."
     "Are you sure? It won't take long-"
     "No!" Beth snapped. "We... we can't do that."
     "Why not?" 
     The younger twin sighed. "Look, if you rebury my body, I'm pretty sure i'll... I'll disappear." She explained.
     "Disappear? As in, move on?" Hannah tried to clarify. "Isn't that a really good thing?"
"Well, yes, but no." Beth answered. "I'll move on and finally be able to leave, but... I don't think I can bring you with me."
Hannah's face fell at this. Of course it wouldn't be that easy for her to pass on! She was taken over, possessed, whatever, by and awful creature and nearly slaughtered all of her friends.
"I'd be okay here, Beth." She tried to reassure her sister. "It wouldn't be any different-"
"But it would be!" Beth interrupted her. "I just got you back after a whole goddamn year! I..." She paused, as if trying to compose herself. "I don't wanna lose you again...."
Hannah was speechless for a moment. It was her fault that Beth died, her fault that she couldn't move on for all this time, and her fault that so much misery had taken place in the past year. Was Beth really about to give up an eternity at peace just for her?
"I-I can't trap you here..." Hannah argued weakly. "Not again."
Beth shook her head. "I'm not trapped if I want to be here. I don't care that this place isn't... well, home. You're here. That's all I care about."
If there was one thing Hannah knew about her sister, it was that she was as stubborn as a tired mule. Once she had made her choice, there was nothing that could be said or done to change it.
Sighing, Hannah hugged her sister one more time. "I don't deserve you." She mumbled into her shoulder.
Beth tried and failed to stifle a laugh as she pet her sister's hair. "Nope, but you've got me anyway, and that's perfectly fine by me."