Lilas' Mini Stories

My Sister Loved Crickets (Random)

My older sister, Harper, used to be the adventurous type. Every day, her and her best friend, Zoey, would go out into the woods behind our house and spend hours in there, doing who knows what. She would come home covered in mud, leaves, and a cricket in a small light blue box. When I used to ask why she had crickets with her, she'll simply reply with, "I'm just collecting them." I thought it was weird that she collected bugs, specifically crickets. She never kept them in her room or anywhere around the house. She'll just bring them in one day and then they'll be gone the next. I hate bugs so I was glad that she never kept them around. But I started getting a little weirded out when her and Zoey would spend hours talking about crickets. They would read books about bugs but focus on the cricket section, they learned the anatomy of crickets, they even taped drawings of crickets onto Harper's walls. My mom said it was just a phase but even I could tell that she was also a little unsettled by this. It's unusual for a teenage girl to be so obsessed about an insect.

But that wasn't the only thing that concerned my mom and I. We started to notice that Harper's personality began to change. She was usually a very happy, smart, and rebellious kind of girl. Always getting into some minor trouble but being smart enough to work her way out of it. She was good with words and even talked her way out of trouble a few times with my mom. But as her obsession with crickets grew, she started to become less happy and more blank. Nothing seemed to interest her anymore, including school as her grades began to drop. Her rebellious nature was fading away too as she became more submissive. Zoey had the same characteristics too. Both girls just seemed so quiet now. Instead of hours in the woods, it began turning into entire days. They skipped school just to be in the woods to my mother's dissatisfaction. After they've gotten into an argument about it, Harper began spending no less than an hour home, then it was back to the woods with Zoey.

Around the same time, I began hearing more and more cricket chirping at night and whenever Harper came around. It sounded like dozens of crickets all chirping in harmony but in a very disturbing way. I remember watching Harper walking by my room to hers and hearing a faint cricket chirp coming from her jacket. My sister was changing because of these bugs and I wanted to know why. I followed her into the woods one night without her knowing. She never allowed me to go because of how "dangerous" the woods were for a kid. I noticed quickly that Zoey wasn't with her this time. Harper didn't wait for her best friend at the tree line so I assumed that Zoey must've already went in. As I followed Harper, I made sure that I didn't give away myself. I carefully stepped over twigs and hid behind bushes and trees but I had a sneaking suspicion that my sister knew. She didn't flinch when I did step on a stick or gasped when a bird flew out of a bush. Wherever she was heading to, it had her complete attention.

I remember the dark feeling that slowly overcame me the further we got into the woods. We must've been at least 2 miles from home and I didn't see Zoey yet. Harper just continued to walk but her breathing became ragged and her movements seemed more forced. There were a few times where I thought that she would trip and fall but it looked like something invisible caught her each time. Harper finally stopped walking at a creek and just stood there. Not moving an inch. I debated revealing myself to her but my gut was telling me not to. So I stayed put behind a tree a distance away to watch her. I remember being startled by the sudden sound of crickets filling the creek. The sound was so loud that I had to cover my ears. The chirping was horrifying, it almost sounded like screaming. My eyes were closed but when I opened them, my sister was gone. I looked around the loud creek but didn't see any sign of her besides an opening to a cave nearby. Her jacket was laying outside of it and it was covered in crickets. I went up to the cave with my ears still covered and peaked inside to see my sister kneeling down to something. It was a small inky black creature settled between two rocks. It chirped like a cricket and had dozens of black eyes that it used to stare at my sister who was praying to it. My sister prayed as she crawled over to a dark corner in the cave and pulled out the body of Zoey as an offering to it. The creature didn't move but it did extend a thin goopy hand to the body and covered Zoey in the same black goop. I had never been so afraid in my life.

The last thing I remember before Harper turned around and saw me was the creature attacking her, her falling to the ground, and me following soon after. I don't know how long I was unconscious for but I woke up and found Harper still passed out, Zoey's body gone and the creature as well. I called my mom on Harper's phone and together we both carried my sister back home. I told my mom everything that had happen but she didn't believe me. Harper woke up as soon as we left the woods and vomited this thick black substance that had dead crickets floating in it. My mom screamed and Harper just giggled before passing out again. We settled her into her room and I remember my mom going to call for paramedics but the phones were mysteriously not working. She went to start the car but that too wasn't working either. I stayed with Harper in her room when she woke up and spoke like she hadn't spoken in years. A deep raspy voice that wasn't hers filled my body with fear. Harper tried grabbing me but luckily I was wearing my father's cross that day, it seemed to protect me from my sister.

We never figured out what happened to my sister. Ever since that day, she has been acting like an animal. She won't anything but raw meat, continually tries to attack my mother and I, and chirps all hours of the day and night like a cricket. It has gotten so bad that we moved her from her room and into the basement. We surrounded her with crosses chained her up to keep her out of sight from the world. Her and Zoey have come up missing in the news and we never went back to find Zoey's body. I believe that my real sister is dead and was replaced by that creature but my mom thinks that her daughter simply went insane no matter how many times I try to convince her.

As I'm writing this, Harper is still in the basement. She's right below my room so I'm constantly hearing chirps and the evil words she whispers to me at night. Begging me to let her go. I miss my sister before her obsession. Before she first went into the woods with Zoey. Before she was replaced by a monster.

Before she loved crickets.