When I was a child, me and my friend, Donan, were always considered the weirdos of the class. It was at the time every single little girl had a crush on the fastest boy of the group; so, every day, most boys of the classrooms would compete at recess to see who would beat the fastest one in class, racing to the other side of the small yard, usually knocking down other students in the process. Me and Donan were the only two that didn’t feel like sweating enough to seem like we’d swam across a river by the time recess was over. We were more invested in other stuff.
At the time, things like anime, the supernatural and occultism weren’t exactly famous, and we were probably the only people in class that liked them. After school, we’d usually stay at Donan’s house, since my parents were mostly out working until late afternoon. His mother was usually locked inside her office, and his father, working outside. This meant that, while we didn’t make much of a mess, we had the place to ourselves.
There was only one rule that both him and his parents insisted on following at all times; it was to never mention his older sister, Elora. She was locked in her room, in silence most of the time, with just the ocational visits of her mother. I’d only seen her face once. It was in a family picture, almost three years ago, when she was happily smiling. She was really pretty at the time, I’ll be honest.
Thanks to the occasional and vague conversations I had with Donan and his mother about Elora, she used to be a really good sister. She loved to talk to younger Donan about the night sky, and how she wished to live there one day; that was until she mysteriously fell into insanity across a long period of time, to the point of blinding herself with a kitchen fork.
After that, her room stayed silent most times I visited. I was sure she was listening, since the walls were incredibly thin, and the living room was directly connected to the bedrooms and office. Sometimes, when her mother came out of her workspace to offer her food, I was able to see inside her bedroom. It seemed de-organized, and, from what I could tell, dirty, messy and covered in strange markings.
Me and Donan had been best friends for about two years now; he’s told me that, when I first approached him, he was actually really hurt mentally because of Elora, and I helped him get out of his shell a little bit. He told me that the nights after Elora’s pure descent into insanity were incredibly painful, full of loud screaming and neighbors calling the police. Most of those neighbors either moved out or died a long time afterwards.
Mostly because of that reason, the day he asked me to stay over at his house for the night, I started thinking something might be wrong. Sleepovers would mostly be at my place, since that’s when my parents were home, and when Donan’s were not.
That same day, afterschool, I went to get some stuff from my parent’s house for the night. It was Donan’s mother who took me there, alongside my friend. As me and Donan got into my bedroom and started packing some stuff, he confirmed that there was something going on at his place, but he couldn’t tell me what it was. When I asked him why, he simply answered with;
“… I can’t describe it in words. You’ll see tonight” he said nervously, with a weak smile.
We were just kids; around nine to ten years old, so I just went with it. We finished packing and drove to his place.
The afternoon was as usual; we explored the park outside, played for a bit, went inside, ate everything in the fridge and did normal innocent kid stuff. We watched Naruto and talked about summoning him with a ritual, and decided against it, since we were both scared of accidentally calling something else.
Then, the night came. His mother tucked us in, me being in the spare mattress Donan had under his bed. As his mother hugged us goodnight, she leaned in and whispered something in my ear;
“Do not say her name. Stay quiet”
Donan seemed to want to say the same thing, judging by his stare. I gave them both a thumbs up, thinking I’d soon know why he wanted me to sleep at his place. As the last rays of sunlight shined over the horizon, Donan signed me over to sit next to him. We both looked out the window, as he got close to talk to me comfortably without anyone hearing. I still remember that conversation to this day.
“Look, this is it” he whispered pointing out at the black sky. I looked at the moon and stars; they shined a lot brighter, since the place was in a really young neighborhood.
“The moon?” I asked, just as he shushed me. He signed at his ears, wanting me to listen carefully.
I followed his silent instructions, looking straight at the moon. We waited for long minutes that seemed like ages, seeing more and more stars appearing in the distance. Now embraced by the deep darkness, I started to wonder why it was so incredibly quiet. Every single bird or grasshopper, little creatures of the night, seemed to have abandoned the place; even the wind had stopped flowing the moment the sun went down.
That is, when I heard the whisperings. It was a female voice, just quiet enough to be able to hear her but not exactly comprehend what she’s saying. And then, I saw a faint shadowy hand coming out of Elora’s bedroom window.
“…out..” said the voice, as the figure started pulling herself out of the window. There was something stopping her from moving further, something like an invisible rope keeping her inside the house.
“…Elora..?” I whispered, as I sneaked underneath the window with Donan in case she saw us.
Suddenly, her movements stopped. The whispering died down, as I realized my fatal mistake: I had said her name. Donan ran to the bedroom door, as the loudest of screaming filled the house. It was like a thousand voices yelling at once, coming from outside the room. It couldn’t be human; it just wasn’t. It didn’t stop, as I saw Donan signaling me to close the curtains. I looked behind me, and Elora’s figure was right at the window.
Her now distorted face was covered in blood-soaked bandages, and she didn’t seem capable of speaking. She smashed her head against the window, breaking the glass and getting inside. Elora grabbed my neck, drowning me with scratched pale hands. As my screams were mixed with the other constant ones, I saw Donan pushing his sister away from me.
“Elora, stop!” his screams were barely audible between the chaos around us. As he fighted against his sister, he looked at me, pain in his eyes “Take me! Please, just take me and stop this! Elora!”
Donan stopped fighting, as Elora attacked him with her inhumanly long nails. He looked at me one last time, the screaming now dying down, “I’m sorry”
As it all fades to darkness, I could only see out of the window the shadowy figure of Elora taking Donan to the wilderness. The screaming finally dies down, and I pass out, hearing Donan’s mother trying to get in through the blocked bedroom door.
It’s been five years now; me and Donan’s family have long since lost contact. After the incident, me and Donan’s mother tried to tell the police about what happened. Of course, they didn’t believe most of the details we gave them, but they started an investigation for Elora having killed or kidnapped her brother in an insane mental state. They were never found.
Some time ago, I found Donan’s mother in the news, who disappeared under unknown circumstances; this also seems to have happened to every single police investigator that was once involved in Elora’s case. To be honest, I think I have an idea of what really took them; they said her name too.
Be careful out there, and if you never hear from me again, you already know why it might have been. If you see a shadowy figure out there, don’t approach her; maybe saying her name isn’t the only thing that triggers her now.