VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

t e n ✔

"Fuck. Stella. Stella!" Fighting her flighty pulse and her stomach about to burst out her throat, Arielle snatched her friend's wrist with one hand and slid her other behind her neck to stabilize her and lift her into a seated position. "Stel!"

Stella convulsed, foamed at the mouth, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Somehow, she gargled a few words. "Secrets... secrets."

Arielle sat there, unsure what to do but brace to heave her up and scream for help if she lost consciousness.

But after a few minutes passed, the foaming and tremors stopped. Stella deflated and melted into Arielle, her episode of delirium ended in an instant.

"Stella?"

The whipping winds around them ceased. The eerie darkness that had settled seemed to evaporate, leaving place for sunlight to pierce through the overhead leaves.

Stella's breaths were shallow, but there, which reassured Arielle. She released her, and Stella managed to sit up on her own. "What the..." She brushed a hand over her damp forehead and coughed, hunching forward, shaking out her platinum mane and clutching at her sides. "Fuck."

"You okay?" Arielle's heart took its time, but finally calmed down. She tipped backwards and fell on her behind with a loud sigh. "Shit, you scared the crap out of me!"

Stella zipped back up. "I scared myself, girl!" She unleashed a nervous chuckle, blinking to adjust her sight, cruising her fingers through her tresses to tug them into another bun. "Never... never... fuck, that hasn't even happened to Mom. Not that she ever told me."

Arielle gulped. "It was... unreal."

"Oh shit," said Stella, hauling herself up, her legs wobbly as she peered around. "The crystals!" As if she hadn't been seizing and out-of-it, she found the tree where the gems had smashed. "That was... that was real?" She peeked at Arielle, who nodded. "Wow." Hesitant, she meandered over to the trunk and gathered up the crystals, some of which were unscathed. "That thing... she... she threw them?"

"Did you see it?" Arielle also stood and picked up the candles. They were frozen, which sent a strange wave of chills up her arms. "They... hovered... then smashed into the trunk and you started losing it."

She handed the candles to Stella, whose eyebrows swished up as she shook her head. "It... she, this being... she whispered in my ear. Kept saying secrets... secrets... too many... lies." Stella suppressed a shiver as she shoved her materials into her bag and slid the crystals into her pouch. "Secrets and lies about what? Death? Wasn't that the last thing you asked about? Ugh, I'm never shopping at that place again. And I'm telling Mom how inefficient her crystal method was."

Arielle helped her fold the blanket, put it away, and they shrugged on their backpacks to exit their isolated woods section. They found no further disruptions in the Cemetery. No disturbing sounds or negative energies or sickening feelings in their bellies. Arielle's overwhelming fear from earlier had vanished; and Stella, though shaky, seemed unperturbed, albeit spooked.

"But you... I mean that... it made you believe, yeah? It made you accept your... abilities?" Arielle rubbed her upper arms as a tremor swished down her spine. "Because you... spoke with it?"

Cringing, Stella wouldn't let their eyes meet and focused on the path ahead. She sped up, urging Arielle to do the same. "I'd say it spoke to me. Into me. The weirdest shit... like I received all your pent-up fear and it swirled in me like a toxic hurricane, dude. You... you have some serious issues, Ari." They passed a group of kids laughing, and the sound fizzled in Arielle's ears, muffled and distant. "But yeah, yes, that fucked up experiment definitely pushed me closer to accepting the insane shit my mom deals with. The occult, the medium-stuff... I channeled something and it freaked me out."