Chapter Text
Chapter 1.
My sister, Nadii and I went to our grandmother’s for the summer. This would be our last summer together, as Nadii would be off to college in just a few months.
The drive up there was beautiful, as always. I enjoyed watching the trees turn denser and the roads from tar to dirt. We had loved coming up here since we were kids.
It’s really the only place I felt safe, away from our tiny apartment and our shitass parents.
The woods always felt more like home than anything else.
Apart from the fact that it was my grandmother’s house.
She didn’t like me very much. She was civil at least, but I could see the distrust in her eyes.
I wasn’t exactly sure why, though. And I don’t think anyone else knew either.
She was a very superstitious person, she believed in covering the mirrors during thunderstorms and shit like that. My mom’s ex boyfriend called her “some kind of evil voodoo, black magic wielding witch.” This was right before she accused him of being possessed by a malevolent spirit.
People said she had a sense for things most others did not.
That’s why everyone was skeptical of me after she told me, at the ripe age of four, that I had something dark and evil attached to my soul.
I was four years old, so I didn’t really do anything but cry and tell my mom.
My family didn’t talk to me as much after that. But that was bound to happen anyway.
Except for Nadii. She didn’t give a damn what Grandmother had to say about anything.
She believed she had gone insane after her husband died.
If I didn’t have Naddi, I don’t know what I would have done.
Once we arrived, I carried in our luggage and put it into our rooms while Grandmother gave Nadii hugs and kisses.
I started unpacking my clothes and putting them into the drawer next to the guest bed. I always slept in the guest room. I didn’t really feel like being ignored so I stayed in my room, reading ‘On A Pale Horse’ until Nadii knocked and told me dinner was ready.
I always found it odd how Grandma would eat lunch at like 6:00 p.m.
Anywhere else, dinner was usually around 8:00 p.m., which is how I preferred it.
I grabbed my food and ate on the back porch. From there you could see the entrance to the woods.
I was itching to explore, but I knew that Grandmother would not like me to go in alone at “night”, is what she called anything after 5:00 p.m.
Not because she cared about me, but because she would be responsible for my death.
Once I finished eating, I silently rinsed off my dishes and went back to my room.
I sat down at the bay window and stared into the forest.
Once you’ve been staring at the trembling branches and shaking leaves for longer than sixty seconds, your mind starts to make things up. I was told that this was my brain’s way of telling me, “I’m bored!” Which is the reasoning I used when I saw a silhouette in the foliage, seemingly staring right at me. I squinted, and got closer to the window to get a better look.
“Koda!”
I jumped, heart racing a million miles per hour. Nadii giggled from the doorway. “You’re so easy to scare. What were you staring at?”
I shrugged. “Just...trees n’ stuff…”
She laughed again. “Ok, weirdo.” She came in and sat down beside me.
I stared at the floor, as I usually do when I have no idea what else to say.
“I’m sorry. About her,” She said.
“Don’t be!” I perked up. “Not your fault. I’m just glad to be here.”
“I know, but still…It shouldn’t be like this.” She looked down and started fidgeting with her fingernails. Something she did often when she had a lot on her mind.
“Well. Can’t be helped!” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
She gave no response. I leaned over, trying to make my face visible through her thick curtain of hair. “You ok?” I asked.
She took a deep breath in before lifting her head and giving a tight lipped smile, exposing her three dimples. One large and one small on the right side, one large one on the left. The one on the left was the deepest.
“I don’t know, man. It pisses me off. She knows this is our only escape from mom, and she still treats you like this…”
“It’s okay. Really. I’m used to it. I’d rather have no attention than negative attention. Besides, I’ll be spending most of my time in the woods anyway!” I wanted to change the subject onto something I knew she would already have on her mind. “You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
She looked up at me in a hurry. “Do you believe her? The shit she said about you?”
I thought about it for a moment. I hadn’t really genuinely considered Grandmother’s words.
“I…I don’t know. I’ve never really believed in ghosts. I don’t think so.”
She nodded. “If you were there before mom cut off the rest of our family, you probably would. Most of them were like grandma. Minus the...crazy.”
I nodded and stared at the floor.
She sighed, and slapped her knee, signifying her soon-to-be-off demeanor.
She stood and smiled at me. Genuinely this time. “Of course I’ll come with you. Tomorrow morning, how about?”
I smiled back. “For sure, dude.” I tried to contain my excitement.
“Alright ‘dude’, get some sleep. I’ll wake you up around 5:00 a.m.”
“Not if I wake you before then,” I said.
“You won’t live to see another day.”
I laughed and nudged her out of my room before turning off the light.
I decided to get into bed right after, early as it was.
I knew I would be too excited to actually fall asleep, so I spent the next couple hours daydreaming about the woods anyway.
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I woke up to a knock at my door. “Wakey wakey, shithead!” Nadii whispered through the door.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “I’m on it, fuckhead,” I replied, my voice scratchy and hoarse.
Once dressed and ready to go, Nadii approached me in the hallway with a cheeky grin and her hands behind her back. “May I help you?” I asked mockingly.
“You’ll never believe what I’ve found in the basement.”
“A jacket so we can hurry up and leave?”
She slapped my shoulder and revealed the secret object. “A CAMCORDER!”
“Holy shit, that thing is old as hell.”
“Yeah, It’s like one of those ones mom probably used in the 80s…”
I side-eyed her. “Yeah, I think we’d do best not to check the footage on it.”
She snickered, which was cut short as we both heard the floorboards creak under the weight of our grandmother coming down the stairs from her room.
Nadii hid the camera behind her back and put on a tight smile.
“Good morning, Nadii. You’re up early,” grandmother said, walking past us and into the kitchen, hunched over on her cane.
Nadii smiled wider and tighter. “Yep! Koda and I are gonna go for a walk through the woods.”
Grandmother scoffed. “I still really don’t like you going out there… There are strange things in those woods.”
“We’ll be safe, grandma,” Nadii reassured her. “Don’t worry.”
She turned and faced us, both hands on her cane. For the first time in a very, very long time, she looked at me. She looked into my eyes and said, “You had better be. There will always be a price to pay for those who disobey.” I felt like someone was taking sewing needles and jabbing me lightly in the neck. I gave Nadii the side eye again.
She nodded and smiled, “Of course, Grandma. You don’t have to worry. See ya later, ‘kay?”
Grandmother only nodded in response.
We headed out the back door, eager to get the hell out of there.
I really wanted to ask Nadii what she thought grandmother meant, but more than that I wanted to forget she was there and enjoy the outdoors.
I had made sure to bring my pocket knife in case I found a nice stick to whittle into a shiv or a spear.
Nadii giggled and opened the screen of the camcorder. “This is so cool.”
“What even are we gonna do with it?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. We could film…a nature documentary.”
She turned the camera on and pointed it at me. “It works! It’s on!”
I smiled awkwardly at the camera. “U-uhm…This here is a tree.”
She laughed at me and gave me the camera. “Here. Let me try.” She jogged ahead, farther into the woods, looking for something she could talk about.
She put on a silly accent that was a mix of…I don’t even know. Just imagine an American with that shitty not-quite-English accent. You know the one.
I pointed the camera at her, trying my best to keep the frame steady.
“This tree is called a Black Spruce tree. It is common in the woods of New Jersey.” She stifled a giggle. “Black Spruce trees can grow up to sixty feet tall! These trees were historically used by Natives for their spiritual healing practices!”
“Really?” I asked.
“Shhhut up!” She whispered. “...Yes. That’s what grandma told me. A long time ago.”
“Oh.” She turned and scoured the area for something else she could talk about.
She ran ahead, surprisingly fast. I was always amazed by how fast she could run, as was everybody else. She was in the track team in high school. She went to state twice, during her sophomore year and junior year.
“D- WAIT!” I called after her, panic sprinting. “DUDE, WAIT!”
I quickly lost sight of her, with how dense the forest was. I heard her laughing at me from about fifty yards away.
I slowed to a stop, my lungs burning. I was breathing heavily, heavier than I’d like to admit. I wasn't a runner like my sister was. I wasn’t that in shape either.
I put my hand on my chest and took a few deep breaths. “Nadii. Dude. Please.”
She didn’t respond. “Nadii?” I called again. She couldn’t have run that far, I thought. Not so far that she couldn’t hear me. Besides, I couldn’t even hear her running anymore.
“Nadiina!” I called a litter louder, walking farther into the woods.
She wasn’t making a sound, so I jogged toward her, calling her name.
I slowed down once I saw her hair through the trees just ahead. “Hey?”
She stood, unmoving, facing the opposite direction of me. I jogged just ahead and turned to face her. “I told you to wait-” the look on her face was not the one I was expecting.
She looked like she had just seen the world’s biggest spider, had lost it immediately and was now analyzing every detail around her, trying to find it again.
I wanted to say something. I wanted to ask her if she was okay. Before the words could pass my lips, a searing pain exploded through my ear canals, rattling my brain against my skull.
All I heard was white noise as a blistering, flashing light flooded my vision, getting brighter by the second. I held my head in my hands, hoping that would somehow make it better. “N-Nad-”
My sister collapsed onto the ground. The way her body fell, weightless, made my stomach drop.
I don’t remember how long the event lasted, but it felt like an eternity of new waves of pain crashing over me, eventually sending me into convulsions.
Once I had inevitably ended up on the ground, my mouth gaping open, hands gripping my hair, something approached me.
It was vaguely humanoid. Head, shoulders, body, legs. I tried to move, but panic quickly erupted from within me upon the realization that I was paralyzed. I felt trapped, and helpless, a rabbit against a wolf. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest, and I felt that alone could have killed me.
There is no way out, I thought, this is it. This is where I die.
The massive mass of static and white noise inched closer, unbearably slow. It looked as if it were limping. I considered trying to get up again and taking Nadiina with me, with how sluggish this creature was.
Before I could even attempt, my vision blackened. Last I had felt, my lungs and brain felt like they were disintegrating, and the last thing I had seen was Nadii lying beside me.