Little Sister

Chapter 5

The winds swirled rampantly, dragging countless leaves with it. Cries came from the hollow trees as the wind sailed through every wooden opening possible.

The large house was silent. That's what made it scarier. A dead porch, shrouded with dead leaves, some of which were lying in front of a dead door that was open and lead to a dead, dark hallway.
Peering through any windows was futile as grey curtains concealed the contents of what was inside.

The only signs of life in that haunted house were the crows that sat atop of it and the fish that swam in a small pond that was located right next to it.

I was starting to believe that there were actual monsters in that house.

Once the little girl was done embracing her dog... Or what was left of it, she held my hand
"Let's go back home big brother!" She said.

She pulled my hand but my body stayed in place.
If horror movies ever taught me anything, it's not to go willy-nilly to sketchy looking places like haunted houses or abandoned laboratories.

"Big brother?" The girl asked, with a huge concerned frown.

I swallowed my fear and followed her.

For each beat that my foot made on the ground, my heart made ten more. It throbbed in my chest. It felt like it was going to shoot up from my chest and right out of my mouth.

"So, are there really monsters in there?" I asked, my voice slightly shaky.

"Yeah. But they're asleep."
"How can you tell?"
"Because Fluffy is out"

I looked at the dog as it followed us. It never even barked at me. Not even once.

"Why is his head and his body like that?" I asked, pointing at the exposed skin of the dogs sculp and torso

"Those are his scars" she answered.

"Did the monsters do that to him?"
"Yep."
"Oh..."

We finally reached the porch and she led me inside the house.

It was quiet. It was dark. There was no scent. The floor boards creaked with each step I took.

Infront of me were a flight of stairs that led to the hallway of the second story of the house.
To my left, there was the living room. It had a broken TV and some old clothes over one the couches.

Everything looked old, from the box shaped TV to the couches that were so dusty, that they appeared grey.

There were a bunch of portraits and picture frames that were supposed to be on the wall, but just like the leaves outside, they were scattered all over the ground.

The little girl led me up stairs. At this point I was feeling a bit dizzy. Like this is some random dream that I was about to wake up from any moment.
I took my phone out of my pocket and started recording her leading me up the stairs.

The quality was low, but the camera showed the little girl turning back to look at me, smiling with her mouth wide open and her eyes filled with excitement.
The camera faced the ground and focused on the cracked boards of the stair case.

We made our way to the second floor. In front of us was a hallway with 3 doors leading to different rooms. At the end of the hallway was an open window. The wind blew in from it and leaves swooped into the house.

By the doors, there was an empty cabinet. One of its doors creaked wide open. Next to one of the rooms was a small table which had a few shiny decorations placed on top of it. A bunch of other picture frames seemed to have dropped from it.

As the girl went to pick up the frames, I inspected the table;
A bowl containing different types of necklaces on it, all of them gold.
A hollow emerald cup was placed right next to the bowl.

A bunch of white lines was also visible on the table. The only empty spaces I could see were just the spots that the frames would've taken up if they hadn't fallen to the ground.

I looked at the girl, who was staring at one of the picture frames she had picked up. Her expression was lifeless, as if for a second, all the emotion left in her took the form of tears that elegantly streamed down her smooth chubby cheeks.

"Hey... What's that you got there little sis?" I asked, approaching her and ready to give her a hug

She looked at me, then back at the picture, then back at me again.
She gave me her usual innocent smile and showed me the picture frame.

"Look, big brother!" She said with a wide innocent grin. "It's you!"

I froze. I shook. I panicked. I just... Mentally stopped.

In the picture were four people.
A loving mother
A proud father
A joyful little sister
And me... Or I thought it was me.

He had the same smile. The same hair colour. The same nose. The same ears. The same jaw. Only his hair style was different and only his eyes matched his family's.

My heart that had been beating rapidly the whole time felt like it had just stopped. The warm atmosphere of the room turned ice cold. In my eyes, all but the little girl and the picture darkened.

I took a step back.

"Big brother?" She asked.

I took another

"What's wrong, big brother?"

One more step back

*BANG*

Something broke... And it wasn't my senses.
I accidentally knocked the emerald cup off the table and it broke into hundreds of shards.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" screamed a loud hagged voice.

"Oh no." Whispered the little girl in a high pitched but terrified voice.

"JASELYNNE!?" Screamed the hagged voice once again.

The little girl pushed me into the large open cabinet
"Hide." She whispered as she closed the door.
I then heard her little footsteps run off elsewhere.

One of the doors crashed open and hit the wall with the force of a wrecking ball.

"JASELYNNE!?"

I shook at the hagged voice again. This time my heart wasn't just beating fast, it was beating at supersonic speed.
I had never been in such a situation before and I was clueless as to what should've been done.

Should I burst out and make a run for it?
Should I stay here and leave when the coast is clear?
Will I get caught?
Will I be killed?
Is this how I die?

"JASELYNNE! WHERE ARE YOU, YE' LITTLE SHIT!?" The woman yelled.

She took a deep sigh.

"Fine then, if ye gonna hide out on the mother then I might as well find ya', ye retched girl!"

I only had a small gap to look through, but even that offered little help in giving me the opportunity to scout what was going on. I just hid there, scared for my life.

I couldn't take it anymore. The pressure, the tension, the anxiety. It was too much. My stupid impulses screamed at me to just pop out of the cabinet and scream
"Here I am! Just kill me already and end it all!".

I begun to breath heavily, I felt my eyes begin to water.
I was terrified... I can't be blamed for crying.

The figure heard my silent sobs.

"That's where you are eh? Why you little..."

I felt her presence approach the cabinet. Her angry demeanor erupted and I could feel it.

She was getting closer, her silhouette growing ever larger.

I prayed to God or any of the gods
I begged to them
I pleaded.

The exterior handle shifted with force

"Please... A miracle... Any miracle. Please just save me."

*BANG*