The Dead Kingdom

15 - Little Lies

Aspen woke up in the dead of the night. Not a sound, except the crickets croaking. The wind was blowing gently through the window. But the shadowy figure was staring straight at her. She ran to the lamp and attempted her best to light it. It was just a pile of clothes on a chair.

"Calm Down Aspen... It's nothing..." She thought to herself, surely her eyes were playing tricks on her right? Right?! She switched off the lamp. She closed her eyes and attempted her best to sleep.

The breeze stopped abruptly. A figure approached her, a sword on her neck. 

"Did you really think you could replace me? Did you seriously think I would die so easily. Try again." The figure gritted happily.

 SLASH! Aspen's head was on the ground. But her body, on the bed. 

"You're pathetic little sister." _____________________________________________________________________

The morning sun entered Violet's room,  it smelled funny, Aspen was no where to be seen. The smell was growing stronger, Violet turned to the source of the smell, Aspen's bed. She must've gone fishing or something, the metallicy smell of blood. But Aspen used to do these kinds of things when they were younger.

She used to always go and hunt for animals and go fishing with Nathaniel, but after a while she just kind of stopped, it was sudden, people grow out of their own stages but not as suddenly as Aspen did.

Violet got up, trying to shake of the strange feeling that she got, the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong. She looked outside the window, a million pinkish leaves falling from the Sakura Trees. It reminded her of when they were younger, to a less chaotic time...

"NATHAN!" Aspen called, she was fiddling with some twigs, in the center of a forest. It was growing darker by the second. Soon enough the sky turned from a haze of purple to a darkish blue. The only way se could see was the giant white marbled mansion at the top of the hill at the ed of the forest.

"Nathan?" Aspen called again.

"Where did you go?" Aspen said softly. Had her best friend left her? Surely not right?! 

She was scared, a little nine year old girl exposed to the elements in an unsafe, dangerous forest with no shelter, food or water. The light from the mansion was the only thing that gave her some hope. 

Suddenly, two kids popped out from a bush. One was crying a lot, while the other was bleeding from the nose.

"Aspen!" The one with blood yelled while running to her.

"Nathan!" Aspen ran to him with a happy expression. "Whose that?" She referred to the crying child near the bushes.

"That's my sister, Violet." Nathaniel explained.

"H-hey? L-lets go to th-that house? th-they might give us so-something to eat..." Violet stammered her tears flowing down across her face. 

"No." Aspen said with a dead-pan face. "They might be rude to us." 

Nathaniel nodded trusting his best friend's judgement. From the mansion, you could see the silhouette of a girl about Aspen's height and size just staring at them. Ever since then she seemed to always stand there, growing with Aspen's size. 

The day the girl from the balcony left, the same day Aspen changed.

"VIO! COMING FOR BREAKFAST?" Nathaniel yelled.

"what..." Violet thought to herself. She was back in her room, in present time. "Just a memory, just a simple memory." She thought. 

She got up, looking through the room seeing the pile of clothes from last night, it wasn't like that before. She brushed that thought off. She got up, looking through the room seeing the pile of clothes from last night, it wasn't like that before. She brushed that thought off. and walked towards the door. As her hand touched the cold metal of the door knob, she noticed the mirror in the entrance.

She looked way different then she remembered.

"Get a hold of yourself Violet!!" She thought to herself.

Her eyes, which once were full of bright and positive energy, were now dull and cold. She looked different, unrecognizable. What happened to the sweet girl, who travelled with her brother through the forest? The one who hated the idea of daring and is now obsessed with it?

Most importantly what happened to her? This couldn't be.

"Never abandon family." her sub-conscious echoed.

But would she follow?

"Yes" She said. "I am not abandoning my family over some 'guy'."

She twisted the door knob and proudly walked out. She started off slow but started speeding through the path, until she saw a giant patch of Sakura trees. Under those very trees sat her friends, gathered around a campfire which glistened under the sun.

They were all enjoying their breakfast while talking, chatting, playing. Once they saw Violet they all welcomed her!

How could they still possibly care for her. After she didn't believe them and betrayed them.

She was obviously not going to question their kindness, but was this what she was missing out on? all this fun?

"I made the right choice..." She mumbled to herself.

"What was that?" Griffin asked.

"Nothing! Heh. So what's for breakfast?"