Speak with the Dead

Prologue

The world was grey.

All color had been stripped leaving her view of the world as a monochrome mess. She was standing on the porch. The swing groaned in protest of movement against some silent wind. She couldn't feel the wind, but she could hear her name.

Ariela...Ariela...

Ariela stepped off the porch and looked over at the swing, it stopped moving. In the distant, there was her family's lake and tree with the rope swing, but the rope was missing. She couldn't feel dirt or grass against her bare feet as she made her way toward the lake.

Ariela...Ariela...your sister needs you...

"Carmen?"

Her voice feel flat, not traveling far as she continued forward. The tree was ancient, its giant form spiraling out of the ground and with limbs hanging over the lake. This was the lake where the coming of age ceremony was to take place. It was the place where her and her sister played. She couldn't understand why such a vibrant place was now so dull.

Walking closer, she called out Carmen's name again. A rustling overhead caused her to look up, but she couldn't see anything in the thick, monochrome leaves. If Carmen was playing a game, it wasn't their usual game and she didn't like it. A branch creaked and it sounded as if the entire tree groaned. The crash came unexpectedly, the body dropped and sagged in the air as it hung from one of the branches.

Ariela jumped back as she took in the dirty, bare feet and white dress. Long black hair flowed to the middle of the back and led to a round discoloring face. Dark brown eyes were bloodshot and bulging.

"Carmen?" Ariela asked. "Carmen!"

Ariela Duerta snapped awake from her bed, tearing her tangled sheets from her body. The lingering warmth of sleep turned to a bitter chill. She hit the floor as her eyes searched her room for her twin, Carmen. Glancing out the window, she saw it was still night out and the moon was a sliver from being full.

She paused for a moment trying to gather her thoughts; it could've been a bad dream. Untangling herself from her sheets she stood up and saw her sister's bed was neatly made. Frowning, she looked to the door and saw that it was cracked open. Moving over the wooden floors and rug, she opened the door and stared down the hallway. There was only the nightlight and the other doors were shut.

Ariela continued down the hall and paused at her mother's door and hesitated knocking. Moving down the hall she went down the stairs and saw the front door was open as well. A knot was forming in her stomach. Each step was cool beneath her bare feet as she hurried down the steps and out the door. The summer nights were a bit muggy because they lived close to a lake.

Unlike her dream, she could hear the porch swing groaning and hear the whisper of the mountain breeze. She could barely make out the mountains in the distance under the light of the moon. In the distance, at the edge of their property there small lake and the giant tree that spiraled from the ground. The Bristlecone Pine's color was dulled in the night, the vibrant sandstone red hidden in the shade.

Through the needles she could make out the a figure standing on a branch over the lake.

"Carmen!" Ariela called out. "Carmen!"

Ariela took off down the dirt path between the blades of grass toward the lake. She called out Carmen's name and pleaded with her to wait as she drew nearer.

"I don't want this curse," Carmen said, her voice groggy.

Ariela bit back the tears as she stood at the base of the tree and gazed up at Carmen's shadowed face. Her nails bit into the wood as she wondered if she could claw her way to the top of the branch and save her sister.

"It's not a curse," Ariela pleaded. "It's not a curse."

She didn't know what else to say.

"You didn't see what I saw," Carmen cried.

"Shh...don't cry...you'll bring Her," Ariela was quick to say.

"Let Her come, let Her take me!"

"Carmen...we can help people like we see on tv."

Ariela Duerta had been twelve when her powers first came to fruition. Her sister kissed her goodbye before leaving the house. She climbed the family tree and put a rope around her neck and hung herself. It hadn't been a dream, but a triggered premonition due to her awakening powers. She'd been helpless to talk Carmen down and could only scream and call for her mother as her sister took the step off the branch. Like her premonition, her sister passed leaving her to come into her gifts, or curse alone.

"What makes a curse?"

The moon was full and the air was damp; it was a cool night with a bitter chill stinging deep at her bones. Ariela Duerta was twelve and dressed in white garments. The white of the dress brushed her bare feet. The iridescent veil shrouded her vision of her mother who dressed the same. They stood barefoot at the shore near the tree where her sister had hung herself.

"Is it intense negative feelings toward something? A spoken word? An action?"

Ariela did her best not to cross her arms, if she hadn't seen the curse in action she would've believed it all fake. The legend of La Llorona was basically a mother drowned her two children. She wasn't permitted into heaven, so she was cursed to wander, searching for them. Whenever she found children, she drowned them. There was more to the legend in her family, one child survived and awoken by his mother's distant cry he saw his sibling's ghost. Able to communicate with his brother's spirit, he escaped and thus, the family bloodline was borne.

"You look deep in though Mija."

Ariela thought of her premonition and how she couldn't save her sister and said, "I don't want this curse." Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of her sister.

Mother kneeled and touched her face through the veil saying, "We mustn't cry, we might summon Her." She brought her daughter into her arms. "It is a matter of perception. Please, try to be joyful."

Ariela nodded and took her mothers hand and they stepped toward the lake. Calm, they walked into the water feeling the chilled liquid wash over and up toward their knees. The stones at the bottom of the lake felt smooth, some bit at their feet.

When they were up their waist Ariela held her breathe.

"In a world where we must hide what we are, we are special."

They lowered themselves into the water.

Ariela's veil floated and washed away as she submerged herself. She opened her eyes beneath the water and felt body stiff, she saw it in the distance. There was a vision of her sisters ghost, floating in the water, gazing at them. Her mother's hand tightened on her hand and they both stood up.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Mother stated. "Ghosts are echoes of the past."

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TBC