I sit quietly on the sofa in our vacation home and stare at the wall. “Why did I have to join this trip?” I whine, looking over at my sister. “Because dad is on a business trip and he’s going to be gone all summer. Also, you and Hikari should become friends. After all, he is my boyfriend,” she replies. She has an ugly scar that runs down her cheek and stretches her lips so she speaks strangely. I remember the day I saw it for the first time.
I still don’t know how she got it. But every time I ask she just shakes her head and says it’s private. “I don’t want to be ‘friends’ with Hikari,” I protest, turning my head. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a nice girl and I like people. But there’s just something wrong with Hikari. He’s scary. I think he’s mean to Klara. Poor sister.
“But you have to!” she sounds almost hysterical. I slowly shake my head and stand up. “No, I don’t have to,” I mumble and walk out to the porch before stopping abruptly. Shit. It’s Hikari. And he’s seen me. “Hello!” he grins and waves me over. It’s creepy. I don’t like him. But maybe he’ll hurt my sister if I don’t listen? I dont want that to happen.
“Hey…” I look down and walk over to him. I regret not bringing my knife collection. I could have cut this guy up into several pieces and thrown him into the sea. No one hurts my sister. But then I would have ended up in prison and I don’t think dad can bear to lose anyone else. Besides, I’m innocent… almost.
“Isn’t the sunset beautiful?” he asks me and his nasty crystal clear eyes look like they’re staring right through my soul and digging up all my secrets that I’ve worked so hard to bury. Ugh, I hate it. It makes me sick. “Yes…” I answer after a few minutes and lean over the railing. He can’t kill me here, can he?
The sunset is actually nice. It’s a dance between the sea, the moon and the sun. The sky is painted beautiful muted colors before it finally sinks into darkness and everything goes black. I wonder if the sun longs for the moon as I long for freedom? It must be sad to be right next to each other, but still so far away.
“I’m going to bed now,” I take a step back before I’m startled by Hikari grabbing my arm. “Lock your door and don’t come out,” he whispers into my ear. “You’re crazy!” I hiss and push him. I can see the shock in his eyes. Haha, take that! I’ve actually been working out a lot.
I turn and run off the porch. He probably wants me to lock the door so he can hurt Klara without me knowing. But it’s okay. I won’t let him touch her. She’s my sister. My dear sister. The only one I have left. Yes, I have my father… but we’re not as close after…
I grab the door to my room and open it. The walls look like they’re going to eat me. The room is cold. That’s weird, my window won’t open. “…uh,” I mumble to myself and close the door behind me. My legs take me to my soft bed and I crawl under the covers…….
I wake up suddenly to the sound of someone trying to open my door. I yawn and look around the dark room. It’s become quiet now. But it’s still scary. All I can see in the faint moonlight from my window are shadows and outlines.
“Is anyone there?” I ask, standing up. Slowly but surely I move towards my door. I get no answer. It’s quiet. Too quiet. My heart beats fast and my hand shakes as I grab the door handle. I open the door and look around. There’s no one there.
I laugh quietly to myself. Of course there isn’t anyone there. Hikari and Klara are sleeping. Or they’re awake… ew. Anyway, I must’ve imagined the sounds. That’s certainly what happened. I shake my head and go back to my bed before screaming. My scream turns into a desperate gasp as someone grabs my neck and covers my mouth.
I feel the warm tears roll down my cheeks. My heart is beating fast. It feels like it’s going to pop out of my ribcage. The soft hands squeeze around my neck. I turn around abruptly and stumble away as I feel the grip loosen.
I gasp and desperately look for my phone, but just as I see it, the person pushes me against the wall. My eyes quickly register the gleaming knife in their hand. My favorite knife. Mom’s knife. The figure must be Hikari. He was so curious about my knife collection. I had told him about the knife I found by my mother’s body… that knife.
“Let go of me..” I mutter and push Hikari, but he’s much stronger than me. “You can’t kill me! Klara never had-” He punches me in the face and my head crashes on the desk as I stumble back. It hurts. I’m dizzy. He kneels next to me and looks down at my face.
That’s when I see it… how could I have- “OUCH!” I scream as she digs the knife into my arm. “Stop! Stop! Please stop!” I cry. She pulls the knife out slowly before thrusting it into my arm again, harder, faster. “Hik…” I can’t say more because she covers my mouth and everything goes black.
/I gasped as I saw her lying on the ground, blood gushing out of her stomach. “Sister! Sis!” I screamed, panic in my voice. Tears rolled down my cold cheeks as I tried to keep her alive. “What’s-” I heard the startled gasp coming from my sister who was standing behind me now. I didn’t know when she came down - she hadn’t gone down the stairs.
“Mommy!” She collapsed next to our mother’s body and hugged her. Then I saw blood running down her cheek - she had a nasty cut on it that reached down to her lip. “Sis… h-how did you get that?” I stuttered. “… it was an accident,” she whispered softly and I was sure I heard regret in her voice. But what did she regret? She’s a clumsy person, but she doesn’t regret it when she hurts herself.. unless-
“The ambulance!” I screamed and stood up, my legs almost moving on their own. I couldn’t lose my mom. We couldn’t lose her. I grabbed the phone before suddenly falling to the ground. I thought I heard Klara’s terrified voice and Hikari’s angry voice… but I wasn’t sure./
I’m lying in a hospital bed. Dad, Klara and Hikari had been here a few minutes ago. Now I’m alone. You know, one always thinks of the raven in one’s life. One is always worried about the raven. For what the raven does. You always think that it’s the raven that’s going to hurt you. You never think about the rose. The beautiful rose. You touch it - you forget that it has thorns.
That was why I hadn’t seen the scar down the cheek of the figure that had attacked me. Or, I had seen it. But didn’t believe my eyes. Now I get it. Now I understand why I heard regret in her voice… where the scar came from…
I will never forget this summer.
I will live it over and over again.
I never believed in restless souls staying behind… but now I do.
Now when I look at the heart monitor next to me.
The flat line.