ANNA
Anna and Ava were seated in the living room, reading the novels they had started the first night they arrived the cabin. Anna wasn’t particularly interested in her novel as she wasn’t a fan of reading. Unlike her, Ava was so engrossed in her book.
Anna was completely bored. She wanted to move about and do something much more fun than reading a novel. She threw her book on the table, seeking Ava’s attention.
She succeeded as Ava gave her a questioning look. “What’s the matter?”
“I’m bored.”
“You’re bored?”
Anna nodded.
Ava pointed at the book on the table. “Aren’t you enjoying the book? The title makes it seem like it’s interesting.”
She shook her head. “I’m not really interested in reading like you, Ava; you know that.” She rocked the chair she sat on and sighed. “I wish Beck was here. The boredom would have been less.”
She tilted her head. “I know Beck’s stories are interesting, but you have to at least read to stay occupied. It’s not my fault there’s nothing to do around here.”
At that moment, the idea of an exciting and adventurous thing she could do flashed in Anna’s head. A mischievous grin on her face soon followed.
Her facial expression must have been the reason Ava frowned. “I know that look. Anna, what are you up to?”
She raised her hands up in surrender. “Nothing, I swear!”
“Then why do you have that signature grin of yours?”
“I want to explore the woods.”
Right away, terror was all over Ava’s face and her hands trembled, letting the book fall to the floor. “D—did I hear you correctly? Didn’t you pay attention t—to the story Beck told us about this p—place? H—have you for—forgotten what he told me l—later that night?”
“Ava, come on. I won’t spend so much time for the ghost to sense me.” She rolled her eyes.
“Anna, th—there are dangerous a—and wild animals out there.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“Anna . . .” Ava whined.
She went on her knees, clasped her hands together, gave Ava the puppy eye, and pouted. “Please, Ava. I’ll be back before you know it.”
She shook her head. “Okay, fine. But I’m going with you, and we must stay close to each other.” She pointed at Anna. “Don’t get carried away, Anna. We have to be back here once we notice the sunset.”
She grinned. “I promise I won’t be carried away, Ava.”
******
About ten minutes later of strolling in the still and shady woods, Ava was still walking and Anna followed behind her. There was no conversation, at the moment, between them, so the only sound in Anna’s ear was the crunching of dry leaves caused by her and Ava; aside that, the place was so deadly silent you could hear a pin drop a mile away.
Then, Ava’s voice filled the silence: “When we get back home we have to tell people about this route. I don’t want people facing what we’re facing now.”
Anna nodded, humming.
Despite the fact that she was out of the cabin, she was still bored. Ava had been monitoring her movements. She couldn’t go to where she believed she would find something sweet to discover. She gave up, hoping for the right opportunity to get away from Ava and discover things in her own way.
A movement by the side of Anna’s eye caused her to sway her head and focus her attention on it. There was a figure walking in the opposite direction. The figure was like that of a man. However, she wasn’t sure if it was a male or female as the figure looked skinny.
She looked at Ava—who was staring at a tree—hesitating whether or not she should go and investigate. Knowing Ava, she wouldn’t let Anna go. I’ll be back before she knows it, she thought before stealthily stepping towards the place her gaze was previously fixed on.
She searched for the person, passing through the trees and looking all around her. She took note of where she was so she could easily find her way back.
When it seemed hopeless to find the person, she turned back and headed to where she last saw Ava.
By the time she got to the spot, Ava wasn’t there. Anna looked around. “Ava! Ava, where are you?”
She went in the direction they passed through to get to the spot the first time. Anna called, shouted, and begged Ava to reveal herself. Still, the woman didn’t come out of her hiding place.
Then, Anna heard footsteps of someone running. She swayed her head to the direction to see just in time a figure far away from her, running in the opposite direction. Anna’s legs drove her in that direction as she said, “Ava, wait! Come back. Ava, I’m right here.”
The person stopped running and bent over, placing their palms on their knees and panting really fast.
“Ava! A—” She cut her speech off when the person turned to look at her.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Ava neither was it Beck who could help Anna find Ava; it was a skinny man, who wore checked suspenders over his pale white shirt and faded black pants. He looked just about the age of Bruce but then he probably was a few years older. His pale blonde hair was packed up in a ponytail with a rubber band. His right eye was as blue as the ocean while his left was as green as the leaves in the forest she was in. She felt a bit scared seeing two different colors of eyes on one face; it was as if she was staring into the eyes of a cat.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you were—”
The person stood upright and gave her a questioning look. “I was your sister, right?”
“Yes.” She turned around to continue searching for Ava.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the man asked.
She stopped in tracks. Was it right to answer him or not? She wasn’t sure about that, however she said, “Nowhere,” so he would not ask further questions and let her be.
That didn’t work because he asked another just as she was about to take a step: “Weren’t you warned about this place?”
“I was.”
“So why are you outside the cabin?” His voice was louder this time. She turned around and saw he was right behind her.
She narrowed her eyes at his. “I got bored, and I wanted to do something adventurous to kill the boredom.”
She turned to go again.
“Do you love your sister?”
She stopped and grunted. Couldn’t this man just let her alone? “Yes.” She moved forward.
“Are you sure because you would have listened to her if you do love her?”
She snapped her head in the man’s direction. “I love her!” she barked at him. Her face felt as if it was just brought out of the oven as her brown eyes were narrowed at his blue and green ones.
He had a complacent smile. He examined her from head to toe with his thumb and index finger under his chin. Then he said, “You’re so perfect for the ritual.”
Due to her bewildered state, her face was scrunched up. “What ritual?”
He looked into her eyes. “Don’t tell me you still don’t understand why you’re here.”
It was now Anna understood why Ava hated strangers: they were creepy and vexatious. In fact, vexatious was an understatement: they were a gigantic pain in the behind who never minded their own business.
Anna was about to leave again but didn’t as the man held her wrist and dragged her in the direction opposite where she was headed. “Come with me,” he said, dragging her aggressively.
She struggled to get out of his hold. “Hey! Let go of me! Where are you taking me to?”
He stopped walking and looked at her. A wide smile, which revealed his imperfect set of yellow teeth, was displayed before Anna. She hissed, being disgusted, at the sight of his teeth.
“On an adventure,” he answered her question.
“I only go on adventures by myself.”
He faked a sad face. “That’s too bad”—his face became normal—“because as I said earlier, you’re perfect for the ritual. I would have chosen Ava but you’re younger, meaning you’d be more powerful. And, you did say you love Ava, so I want to spare her.”
Anna stood transfixed to the ground. “Who are you?” she inquired of the man. He had just mentioned her sister’s name. Was he someone Ava knew and she didn’t?
He still was grinning as he said, “I’ll tell you who I am after the ritual. But if you don’t want to do it I’d go for Ava. So choose: you or Ava.”
He wanted her to choose. Who was she going to pick: herself or Ava? Anna bowed her head. It was all her fault she was in this situation. If she had just managed the novel she wouldn’t be a sacrifice for whatever ritual this man was talking about.
Then it hit her: the ghost. The ghost, which hunted for human souls, was the one holding her hand. Anna knew Ava would never forgive herself for letting Anna out of her sight. She wanted to choose Ava but changed her mind when she reasoned within herself that Ava had lived longer than she had. It would be better if the younger, possibly, died while trying to reverse whatever was the reason the ghost was stuck in the woods. That way, Ava could achieve all her dreams which she had begun to pursue.
“I’ll do it,” she said with her head still bowed.
“Perfect.” She heard the glee in his voice.
Gradually, tears formed in her eyes. Why hadn’t she listened to Ava, or Beck? She had actually thought he just formed the story of the ghost and how he lost his parents and wife to hide the true reason why he didn’t want Ava and Anna to be in the woods.
“Am I going to die?” she asked with her head bowed when she thought the ritual would include the end of her life.
He grinned mischievously at her. “That, Anna, depends on how cooperative you are.”
AUTHORʼS NOTE
Hey, readers! Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And if you did, share with family, friends, and anyone you know would be interested in this story.
Feel free to share your thoughts with me about the chapter and book so far. And, if you have any songs in mind while reading this chapter or any other comment below and Iʼd give you a shout out and dedication.
ANNAThe walk to wherever the pale man with different colored eyes was taking Anna to would have been enduring if he hadn’t been talking throughout. She was more annoyed than earlier when she met him.He constantly went on and on of how he was at the cabin, eavesdropping on hers and Ava’s conversation before they left. He also didn’t stop talking about how Ava and she weren’t the first people to considered sacrifices to break the curse, which she had no idea of. He basically talked in circles.Soon, buildings and people were in sight. However, the buildings didn’t look like modern ones; they seemed old. She didn’t know how old they could be but based on what she’d seen in the movies, she thought to be the twentieth century kind of old.As she and the pale man got closer, she noticed everyone were just as pale as him but no paler than him—no matter their
AVAAvawas seated on a wooden chair in the living room. Her elbows were on her knees and her palms were rested on her head in a frustrated manner. She was muddling over the fact that she searched for Anna, for perhaps an hour, and she still didn’t find the redhead.Ava was still deep in her thoughts of how to find her until she heard a deep voice say, “Hey, Ava.”She raised her head only for her to see—with the help of the candle, which lit the room—Beck at the door with a gorgeous smile on his handsome face.Your sister’s missing,a part of her berated,and here you are mooning over a man. That part rolled her eyes.She dismissed the thought of how beautiful Beck was and stood up to help him with the big basket and car battery in both his hands.She stretched out her hand to collect the basket first. “Welcome, Beck.” She forced a smile. “How was your walk?”
BECKThe sun had set, but Beck and Ava were in the woods in search of Anna. It was Ava’s idea as, according to her, Beck knew the woods well. He didn’t want to do it, knowing that if Anna hadn’t already been found by the townspeople by now, they might run into one of them who would be on the look for one of the sisters. With the aid of flashlights, they searched for several minutes. They held each other throughout the way with Ava constantly leaning close to him and shouting Anna’s name. He walked in front of her so couldn’t read her body language. However, the fact that she clung to him told him how frantic she was.“Beck?” she said, stopping her desperate calls to Anna.“Yes,” he answered without glancing at her by still looking ahead.“I’m scared,” she said, gripping his arm tightly.He stopped, glanced at her
ANNAAs Anna stepped out of the house she was in, she sighted lots of people, probably hundreds of them, standing at a large clearing at the back of the house. Black and white; big and small; old and young all stood before her as they hummed an unknown ferocious melody.Then, Sara approached Anna from Anna’s right and stretched out her hand towards Anna with a smile on her pale brown face. “Hello, Anna. I’m Sara.”Anna’s brown eyes went a little wide as she recalled the role of Sara in this cursed town according to the stories her ladies-in-waiting had gossiped about.“I’m sure you must have heard the tales of why this town is like this, right?”Anna nodded.“That’s very good. Now”—she shook her hand, silently telling Anna to take it—“come with me.”Anna took her hand nervously. She honestly wanted to know how this whole ritual would unfold and if it would work, nev
BECKOn his return from the unsuccessful ritual ceremony, Beck went to Ava’s room to check on her before going to bed. With the aid of the light from the candle, which was about to be out, he went to sit beside Ava, deciding to spend a little time.Just as he stroked her cheek, Ava said, “Where were you?”Being startled Beck immediately removed his hand and moved a little away from her.Ava opened her eyes and stared at him. She stirred on the bed in order to sit up. “Where did you go?”“I uh . . .”She raised her brows questioningly and stared at him suspiciously.“I uh . . .” he continued. “I . . .”“You still went out to look for Anna, right?”Seeing as that was what she thought he did, he answered, “Yes,” to concur with her and clear any suspicion she might have.“Didn’t you say you would search in the morning?
ANNAAnna had expected to hear the melody the townspeople hummed all the times she became conscious after supposedly dying, rather she was greeted by dead silence.When she opened her eyes, she realized she stood by the door on the front porch of the cabin. She looked at herself, and was surprised that she didn’t look crisped, black, or even burned anywhere. She touched her face, and it felt just as smooth as when oil was rubbed on them. Her hair was intact just like the dress she wore—same as the previous times she knew she was dead. But then the question ran through her mind: was she really dead?Anna didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Right now, she didn’t know if being mad at Beck was right or wrong? She hoped that she’d been dreaming since the time she met Quinton. If she was, she would never disobey Ava ever again.She stretched out her hand to knock on the door. As soon as h
BECKAnna’s body lied still on the bed she once rested before the ritual. Her breath was faint, almost as if it wasn’t there. She still was dressed in the attire she was in for the ritual. Her body was just as normal as she was, as if she wasn’t in a fire the previous night. As Beck watched her, sitting at her feet, he wondered how he’d explain to Ava that her baby sister was alive despite that she had seen her ghost. She would never believe him. Heck! He couldn’t believe it, himself, as it was unusual—even for the abnormal things that went on in and around Strangeville.His mind ran into deep confusion as he recalled everything from the previous night to this late afternoon:1. Anna’s ghost was at the cabin the previous night, whereas her living body lied before him now, looking perfect unlike other failed sacrifices, whose
ANNAAs the front door shut close, Anna said, “I don’t like her,” with her eyes narrowed at the door.“She’s a nice girl,” her mom said.She faced her. “She seems so, but there’s something about her I can’t pinpoint. I just don’t know what it is.”Her mother glanced at her father. Both of them shrugged at each other before he stood. “We have to find Ava. She’s the only one that can help you get back.”Her mother stood as did she too.“How can she,” Anna said, “when she thinks I’m already dead since she supposedly saw my ghost, which was only for a brief while? There’s no way we can get to her.”“We’ll find a way somehow,” her mother said.They all held hands as her dad said, “Let’s go find our Ava.”In a blink of an eye, they all stood outside. Anna frantically glanced around, wondering how they had gotten out so quickly without lea