Mimic

The terror overtook me before my eyes opened to meet the darkness. My sister’s sleeping bag sat tussled, cold, and empty beside me. I tore out of the tent and rushed to the water’s edge, hating myself for being so sure of what had happened. 

Watching snow flakes fall from the sky and disappear into the lake, I came to the conclusion that no one is afraid of the water. They’re afraid of what might be in the water. Staring at the still black portal sitting at the tips of my toes, I understood this reality more than I ever thought possible. It was almost hopeless. The possibility of finding my sister in the darkness of the deep was almost nonexistent- but I couldn’t go home without her. So no matter how terrifying the lake might seem, I had no choice but to go in. 

I had begged mom to let me bring Ella. ‘Please,’ I had implored, ‘I swear she’ll be fine. I wouldn’t ever let anything happen to her.’ The memory of my promise sent painful tears to my eyes. 

It was my last year at home with my family. In our little Maine hometown, I was preparing for my big move to Denver. I couldn’t wait to get out on my own. Not like in college where I was still technically a kid, but really on my own. There was nothing to like about my home- nothing to miss. Nothing but Ella. I had practically raised my sweet sister since she was born. 

Shortly after she came along, my deadbeat dad decided to do us all a favor and actually leave instead of sticking around and rubbing his lack of fatherly affection in our little faces. Even at eleven years old I knew we were much better off without Paul in our lives. My mom didn’t see it that way. She didn’t leave us all at once; it was a slow and painful process. First she got another job to help support us, like any good mother would do. But then, she was always tired. She napped… a lot. And she left us alone while she was at ‘work’... a lot. Before too long I was the lady of the house for all intents and purposes. But as sad as it is when a mom stops having the drive to look after her own little girls, it wasn’t all bad. I had Ella and she had me. That was enough. 

Not wanting to leave Ella without getting some good quality time first, I had dragged her out into the woods with me for some sister winter camping adventures during the final days of her Christmas break. Stupidly, I set up our site right by the lake. By dinner I had already had to yell at Ella not to get too close to the water too many times. I should’ve told her one more time. I knew that was where she had gone. All because I didn’t take us just a little farther away where the woods that separated us from the water would have been enough of a deterrent to keep her in the tent. I feared I might already be too late.

I took a deep, shuddering breath as I stepped into the frigid pitch black. I splashed around as much as I could, not sure how to even begin searching for someone in a body of water like this with no light but the moon, no boat to carry me, and temperatures that can kill. All I had was my hands and complete and utter panic flooding my chest. 

Before I knew it, I had somehow swum all the way across the lake without so much as a single sign of Ella. Exhausted and drained, I collapsed onto the shore. My limbs felt like frozen lead. I let my body sink into the dirt as I struggled to catch my breath. But more than the fire in my lungs and the ache in my body, the weight of losing the only person I loved began to truly settle on my chest. I wished for it to push me into the earth- for the ground to swallow me whole and put me out of my misery. 

But just when I had lost all hope, I heard a small voice. It called from far away, “Hailey! Hailey, come get me!” I wasn’t even sure it was real at first. I thought I must be imagining it, that the grief was already making me crazy. But it called out again, “Hailey! Please, Hailey!”

I dragged my tired body up and out of the mud and started doing something as close to sprinting as my numb legs could manage in the general direction of the voice. I couldn’t imagine how she could possibly have gotten across the water on her own, but I thanked all the lucky stars in the sky that she had. Ella was alive, and she had found me. 

“Ella!” I cried as loud as I could, “Ella keep calling for me! Where are you?” 

“Hailey!” This one sounded a little different. Higher, more desperate. The tone change scared me, but it was closer. I veered to the right, toward her voice. As I turned, my foot found an unfortunate root and I slammed onto the invisible ground. I winced, immediately noticing the sharp pain in my ankle, but I wasn’t going to waste any time. I picked myself up and began limping through the trees. I could hardly see anything, my only light being the moon shining through cracks in the canopy. 

“H-H-Hailey!” I stopped in my tracks. The voice had moved. It seemed to come from behind me now. Had I passed her somehow? 

“Ella?” I turned around. 

“Hailey! Over here!” Air seemed to return to my lungs as I saw her figure against the edge of the woods. Of course she went closer to the light. Ella is afraid of the dark.

As I started toward her, she seemed to move away from me. It looked like she was coming back into the woods, but not towards me. I yelled at her to stay where she was. I kept limping toward her, but every time I made any progress, she would change position. 

Her movements were strange. They had an element of sharpness, and held none of the childlike essence that they normally would. One of her shoulders appeared to be slumped over at an awkward angle. It didn’t look like she was injured, just like she was holding herself in a way that seemed unnatural. I narrowed my eyes trying to get a good look at her, but only her silhouette was visible. 

As I stood there trying to assess her, she moved again. My eyes narrowed as they tried to make sense of what they had just seen. She didn’t walk, run, scamper, or limp to her new position. She had glitched. Her limbs didn’t move. She just suddenly somewhere other than where she had been. My heart beat heavily in my chest. I opened my mouth to call out for her, but I hesitated. The urge to go embrace her had been totally replaced with the all consuming desire to run the other way. My feet wouldn’t take me any closer. 

“Ha-H-Hailey. Come get me.” My stomach turned at the sound. For the first time, I noticed an actual change in the quality of her voice. It hadn’t been urgency or desperation. It was just different. Her usual singsong tone had morphed into this rasping thing I didn’t recognize. It sounded like I imagined it would if she had swallowed sharp bits of metal. The longer I looked at the figure, the less it resembled my sister. The angles were too sharp, the limbs too long, and the head tilted oddly to the side. This thing, whatever it was, wasn’t Ella. 

I stood there frozen. I knew I didn’t want to brave the dark woods with that thing behind me. I didn’t want to take my eyes off of it. I had the terrible feeling that if I did, it would just appear in front of my face. 

I gasped as the figure ‘glitched’ again. To my horror, it had vanished from my line of vision. I thought looking at it was bad, but it turned out that not being able to see it made it all the more terrifying. I had no choice but to make a break for the treeline. I dragged my throbbing ankle behind me, moving as fast as I could back toward the water. If nothing else, I would at least be able to see whatever foul thing had been mimicking my sweet sister. What must have been thirty seconds felt like an eternity, but I was finally just a stone’s throw away from the edge of the woods. I felt a moment of relief before crashing to the ground yet again. 

“Ahh!” I cried in pain as my ankle reminded me of my previous carelessness. My leg was still over top of whatever it was I had tripped on. It had sort of moved with me as I fell. I turned myself onto my backside not sure what I was looking at, until I saw a pair of sneakers illuminated by a shaft of moonlight. Ella’s sneakers. I heaved as I realized what I was seeing. My leg was draped over the lifeless corpse of my little sister.

 No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the horrific sight. She wasn’t just dead. She had been murdered, savagely. Her legs were covered in hundreds of cuts that looked like the work of a box cutter. She had fingers missing from both hands, and her abdomen was laid entirely bare and open. But the worst part was her face. Her jaw was slack, clearly broken. And her eyes- they were both laying in the dirt next to her head. I wretched, unable to process the shocking evil before me. 

I noticed movement in my periphery. I turned to the side to see that thing lumbering towards me at an incredible speed. While my body wanted to run, my racing heart forced me to stay right where I was. As the creature approached me, I could see more and more disgusting detail, each more awful than the last. My blood curdled at the sight, but I had already accepted my fate. I was going to stay here in these woods with my sister. Forever.

Standing over me was an elongated, warped version of the little girl I had raised. Mousy brown hair hung in tatters over her black eyes. Her mouth was a thin line that stretched all the way across her face. It opened slightly, revealing grotesque rows of sharp teeth that looked like they were made for shredding. I shuddered as it spoke once again, this time sounding exactly like Ella, “You came to get me.” 

My end was much quicker than I had anticipated. A sharp pain across my throat, and a ripping sensation in my chest, and it was over. The moonlight disappeared, the ache in my heart left, and there was a still peace like I didn’t think possible after what I had witnessed. 

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Ella just as she had been before- only paler and with a beautiful starry glow about her. She looked happy. Running up to me, she took my hand. Without a word, she led me to the lake to look out over the water. I somehow remembered being scared of it before. But seeing it now with the moon all aglow, I knew there was nothing to be afraid of. Nothing so beautiful could be frightening.   

After a while, she began pulling me back toward the woods. “Let’s go!” She insisted sweetly, “These woods are so pretty. I want to show you.” I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t think. I just ran with my perfect little Ella into the night.