screaming season

lily

Paige dropped a box down in her new room and looked around. Her sister had gotten first pick out of the bedrooms because her parents were trying to make up for tearing her away from her friends. Paige didn't mind,it was only a room after all,besides she could easily make any room into her dream room by making it her own, she would have to ask her dad to help paint the walls. "You two okay up there?" Her dad called up the stairs. "We're fine" Paige's sister Maybel called down. Before Paige began to unpack she checked on her sister who was already taking all her stuffies out of the box. "I like this room" Maybel said as she looked up at Paige. "That's good" Paige helped unpack Maybel's things,they went quiet for a while but after a few minutes Maybel whispered in the softest voice "i miss her" Paige embraced Maybel in a hug. "I miss her too,but she would want us to be happy, she would want dad to be happy, and there were too many memories in our old house." Paige left Maybel alone and went back to her room to start to unpack. Just as Paige had opened the door to her room she noticed something she could have sworn wasn't there before, there was a book hiding under the closet door. It was bound in red leather and it looked like it had been left there for a while, Paige picked up the book and opened it to the first page. It was a diary,belonging to a girl named Amy. Paige opened to the first entry

October 4th
No one knows where my sister went.. it wasn't supposed to happen, we went into the woods that night for a game of hide and seek but everyone was found, except for Lily, I didn't even want to bring her with me but she caught me as i was leaving and she threatened to tell mom and dad if i didnt take her with, i was supposed to watch her, its my fault shes missing, im a horrible sister.

"What are you reading?" Paige jumped as the voice came from behind her,she turned around to see Maybel looking over her shoulder. "Nothing" she said as she closed the book, she didn't want to scare Maybel. "Dad said he went to get  pizza" Maybel said before leaving back to her own room. Paige put the book inside her sleeping bag and went downstairs to get more boxes.
"When will the new beds come?" Maybel asked that night over dinner.
"They should be here by Monday, you won't be sleeping in the floor for long." Her dad told her in between bites. The pizza was good but Paige missed their old pizza place, she missed a lot of things from her old town.
When Paige went to bed that night she heard Maybel talking to herself, Paige was about to leave her alone but then she heard another voice,a soft raspy voice that she hadn't heard before. Paige opened the door to Maybel's room and looked inside but it was only Maybel.. "Is there someone else in here?" Paige asked. Maybel shook her head. Paige closed the door and walked to her room. "I'm just tired, the voice wasn't there" she thought to herself as she crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep under the pale glow of the moonlight shining onto her floor.

Paige didn't pick the diary up again until Tuesday afternoon after her dad helped put her bed together and she put her sleeping bag in the garage. She had forgotten about it until it fell out of her sleeping bag when she stuffed it with the rest of her camping bag. She opened it up again and it landed on an entry from November fourth

Lily is still here.. she visits me at night, at first I thought it was a dream but it's happened too many times, she doesn't visit Mom and dad,just me. She's different, in the dark it's kind of hard to see but once my eyes adjust i can see that her eyes are this impossible shade of black and her skin is almost greyish in color. I didn't hear her speak until the fifth time she visited. Her voice has changed too,instead of being the sweet little girl voice that I remembered it was raspy and whispery like she was afraid of being too loud. I truly don't think it's Lily anymore,I believe it was once but something in that forest has changed her. She doesn't like light,whenever I try to shine a flashlight to see her better she runs off.

Paige closed the book as she thought about how much her mom would have enjoyed it,her mom lived for shit like this. Paige knew none of it was real,just the overactive imagination of a little girl but the more she read it the more the unease grew inside her. When Paige got back to her room she discovered something was missing, the doll her mom had given her when she was younger,she knew exactly where it went. Paige stormed to Maybel's room and threw open the door "alright you little brat where is it?!" She yelled as Maybel jumped at the sudden slam of the door. "Where is what?" Maybel asked with a tremor in her voice. "Don't play games with me,the doll, I know you took it." Maybel shook her head. "She took it,I don't know why" Paige picked up her sister and held her against the wall "Where the fuck is it Maybel?,don't lie to me!" Maybel began to cry as she stammered a response. "I don't know,she took it" Paige immediately felt guilty as her sisters tears came out. She gently set Maybel down and asked her again where she hid the doll. "That doll is not a toy Maybel it's very fragile,it's the last thing I have left of mom, just tell me where it is,I won't hurt you" Maybel didn't answer. Paige began to turn the room upside down looking for the doll but then Maybel mumbled something barely audible. "She comes to visit me sometimes,she says this used to be her room" Paige stopped cleaning. "Did you find the book?" Paige asked hoping that her sister was just repeating what she had read. Maybel didn't answer,she got up off the bed and left the room as Paige continued to search the room.

Paige couldnt sleep that night. She quietly crept out of her room to get a glass of water but when she filled the cup from the sink she turned to go back upstairs and saw a silhouette in the darkness watching her,her tired eyes couldn't place the figure but she knew it was Maybel,and she was holding something in her hands. "What are you doing up?" She whispered. The figure held out it's object toward her. "I'm sorry.." it whispered is a raspy voice. Paige took the object and found herself holding her mother's doll. She smiled and tried to take Maybel's hand to lead her upstairs but then she heard a familiar voice behind her. "
What are you doing down here?" Paige slowly turned around to see Maybel standing near the fridge with a flashlight aimed at Paige. "I thought you were.." Paige trailed off.. it had seemed that Lily or whatever used to be Lily, had found their way home