Winter's Dark Past

Chapter 3

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"What can we really do to prevent death?" This has always been a question from my mind. Could I really have stopped my cousin from dying? He was always bullying me but he still didn't deserve this fate, especially if I am partially at fault. That deep, protruding thought sunk in my mind for hours, even today I think about it and how I witnessed the whole death and yet did nothing to help.

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I opened my eyes, the sun was blinding as I stared into the burning ball of fire. I looked over to see my cousin, Noah. He always was the mischievous type, pulling off hurtful pranks and sometimes bullying me. Although we were still close, we never had anything in common, just that we are related. We sometimes just sat in silence taking in the fresh, summer air. 

Noah looked back at me, his scowl was unforgettable. I got up and tagged him yelling "You're it". Then I started running towards the stables. He was right on my trail and when I escaped inside and ran out the other side. I heard a huge crash in the hayloft of the stables.

I looked back inside noticing tools and a bunch of other utilities on the ground, Noah peeked inside and stood next to the pile of messy and dusty tools. He looked at me menacingly. That's when I heard my dad yell "What in the fuck was that?" and he ran outside to see Noah near the mess. My dad went up to Noah and grabbed him by the shirt and said with a stern voice "Are you dumb or something, you made a huge mess, now clean it up immediately!" 

He paused, then looked into my eyes yelling " Get inside now, otherwise you will be in big trouble." I ran inside, what disturbed me is when he said "trouble" in a really scary voice mixed with the corrupt look in his eyes, as if he were gonna abuse me until I bled to death on the ground. Although I think that is just his demeanor, once you get to know him, he isn't a bad person.

A day later I was going to play outside with Noah but his comportment was off, he never smiled or laughed like he usually did. I also noticed he didn't play any pranks today, which was odd. When he finally looked at me it was very baleful and creepy. he slowly became closer, fear rose in my chest. I tried to back off but bumped into the back of the house. He started to hold his hands up and around my neck. I struggled for breathe, not expecting him to choke me.

I finally kicked him in the balls while I was flailing in the air, but it did nothing. When I was about to give up and let him steal my life away, he let go and tried to find distance from me. I sat there breathing heavily and he looked at me with concern and disbelief. Noah realized what he had done, his breathing became raspy and quick with panic. I then instinctively ran and told mom what had happened, asking not to tell anyone else.

Mom just looked at me with bewilderment and then calmly told me that everything's okay. What's funny is I actually believed her at the time. Soon after that I started seeing scary images in my sleep, thus started my sleeping habits to completely screw themselves. 

The next day I woke up in my room after an hour of sleep. I got up and went to the kitchen to get breakfast. Noah was sitting across the table, he was awkwardly quiet, along with the rest of my family. We went outside again but he didn't say a word nor did he look at me. It was really ominous the way he stared at the ground, unblinking. 

We went into the old barn and we played for a few minutes. Noah went to look up into the barn's hayloft and he was up there for a while. I decided to look for him, when I reached the top of the rickety, old ladder I looked around the area. I found him laying on the ground, I took a closer look and he opened his eyes slowly. 

I jumped back, scared that I would get choked again, and this time he would succeed. I pushed away the thought and he got up, unwavering. He started to walk towards the window, facing the cliff. I screamed and stumbled to stop him from his demise. Once he fell it seemed as though everything stopped, in an instant.

I ran to the edge of the window and saw him falling, after a few minutes I heard an echoing thump, as he hit the white, powdered snow and painted it a deep, taunting red. The crimson liquid ran throughout the snow, it felt like a dagger was driven through my chest at that moment. I was too scared to move, when I finally made up the courage to move I ran back to the house to tell my parents.