Into the Void

Chap #5 - A Sinister Presence

"~ Just the wind, playing tricks? ~"

The next few moments pass in a blur. Screams fill the air, whether slipping out of my own lips or the voids' I'm not quite sure. A blinding flash of light envelops this part of the forest, before there comes a silence so sudden and complete that my ears ring after the previous moments of chaos. The world begins to sway and I struggle to remain consciousness. Why, all of the sudden, am I so drained? Gradually, I regain my hearing and my vision steadies. I become aware of so many things at once: the pounding of my frantic heartbeat to match the headache that wracks my temples, the whimpering sobs of my sister close by, and a weak mooing from in the trees a short distance away. A sharp pain in my ankle shoots through the tender area of my foot and my head protests in pain as I sit up. I open my eyes a crack and look at my ankle, which appears eerie in the dim moonlight. It's lucky I don't have a sensitive stomach, perhaps as a result of the many days I spent hunting in the forest. Killing animals. The sickening sight of my twisted (and probably broken) ankle makes me want to avert my eyes, but I force myself to examine and analyze the damage.

Blood trickles in red streams down my foot, staining the tattered sock that I'm wearing. My shoe lies a few feet away, ripped off probably when I tripped earlier. My ankle is bent at a sickening angle and my foot has swollen alarmingly. I see a glint of white and stare. A particularly loud sob catches my attention and breaks me out of the trance. I attempt to dislodge my right foot from the root that it's stuck beneath, it's my turn to cry out.

I sit up quickly as another sound reaches my ears - a tearful sob. Ella. I must focus. But my fuzzy brain won't listen to my will.

I immediately whip around, experiencing another sharp stab of pain. I search the shadows around me intently, scanning the dark forest for the source of the noise. My cloudy, cotton-stuffed head won't allow me to think straight, so my reaction is delayed. I see my sister lying on the cold, leafy ground. She's weeping softly and clawing at herself with disturbing intensity. I grab at the branch that's restraining me and let out a yelp as the throbbing pain of my ankle sends another dizzying dose of pain through me.

Ella abruptly sits up and stops scratching at herself to look up at me. I'm relieved to see the milky white of her irises has been replaced by her normal sky-blue, but brimming with tears of regret.

"Raina!" she gasps. She sounds so afraid... Haunted. It scares me to see her like this. "Oh, Raina!" she sobs, and lets the tears spill from her eyes. "I'm s-sorry! I couldn't c-control myself, i-it was inside of me!" she sniffs, the tears running down her face, and backs away from me. She suddenly falls to her knees and breaks down in front of me. She claws at her eyes, muttering dark words. It feels like a dagger stabbing me in the heart, to see her like this, broken and so afraid that she can't trust herself to come near me. Her already fragile shell shatters and crumbles in front of my eyes It stabs me harder that it was our parents that were the reason for this - well no, not our parents; our parents our dead. However blunt it may sound, our parents were dead and gone long ago. Denial has blinded me. Our parents would never hurt us.

My heart... Is just bleeding out.

"Ella, it's not your fault. Ella, come here." She stares at me with eyes wide with terror, almost distrustful. But I can tell that it's not me she fears... It's herself.

She's ten years old, and she's gone through so much. So much more than anyone should ever have to go through. When I was ten, I was living a happy life. My family wasn't rich, but there was enough money to afford anything we ever needed. I remember... We were a happy family. I remember how I used to whine in embarrassment whenever my parents hugged me warm and tight and told me that they loved me. Now I wish for nothing more but for them to be alive, to rewind the clock and live in a time when the only worries were of nightmares and false shadows. To go back to being a family.