I couldn’t help but scream as the figure approached. The light started to dim and I couldn’t move. I was frozen like a statue. I felt a pair of hands start to tighten around my throat as the figure got closer to my face. I was helpless. I could barely gasp for air as the claws of the figure scratched at my throat, almost piercing my skin.The figure finally let go of me and I yelled and cried as I ran toward my door and banged loudly in hope someone would let me out. “Help me please” I yelled. Was this how she felt? But then something I could never imagine, it actually happened.

…

SIX YEARS EARLIER

Me and Haylee were walking around an abandoned daycare during lunch when Haylee started acting weird. Haylee was a fairly normal person so I didn’t expect it at all. She went to the small playground outside the daycare and sat on one of the swings. She then started singing ‘Ring Around the Rosy’. “Haylee, are you okay?” I kept asking. The only reply I was getting was “Ashes, ashes, they all fall down.”. I jumped over the small metal fence and went over to check on her. Her face was turning blue and purple. I screamed in shock and tried to get her attention. She was zoned out, she wasn’t alive, she wasn’t dead, but she was about as close as she would ever get for a long time. Or so I thought. 

She finally looked at me with her bloodshot eyes and said “WE ALL FALL DOWN”. It took me a minute to understand what she was saying until, ring around the rosy, the original song we used to sing. Not the new kid-appropriate song we know now. She was referring to an old song about the Black Plague. I backed up a few steps and  stared as she started to turn blue again.

 I didn’t know what to do, so like the idiot I was I watched as my sister gasped for air and begged for mercy. My older sister, reaching her hand out for help, and all I can do is stare?! I watched as she slowly lost oxygen and begged for me to help her. I couldn't make out what was going on. I watched in horror as Haylee took her final breath.

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 I don’t know why I just stared in shock. After what seemed to be hours of staring at her I screamed. My older sister, my best friend, just died right in front of me, and I didn’t even try to help. I fell to my knees crying as Haylee laid there limp and lifeless. I, at the age of fourteen, witnessed the death of my older sister. I fell to the ground crying and screaming for someone to come. This couldn't be her end. She was such a sweet person, she never deserved this, and she would be alive if it weren’t for me.

 I finally got the courage to stand up. I picked up my phone and dialed for an ambulance. The ambulance was going to take a while so I sat next to Haylee and said “I’m sorry, please be okay. I promise to never annoy you again. I won’t even ask you to help me with my homework but just please be okay.”. I placed my hand over her face to make sure I didn’t look at her bloodshot eyes.

 I eventually passed out next to Haylee moments before the ambulance arrived. When I woke up my father was sitting next to the hospital bed I was laying on. His soft blue eyes looked at me the way my mother used to. He held my hand and softly said “She’s gone”.

 At that moment I just looked at him and gave him the biggest hug I had given him since I was little. I knew he was in pain, I could see it in his eyes. I had hoped so hard that Haylee would be okay, but I guess hoping doesn’t exactly work for me. I tried to not let my father see the tears forming in my eyes, right now he needed me to be strong for him, so that’s what I did. 

I knew I should have helped her. But when I thought of helping her I saw this dark aura surrounding her. Why was something stopping me from helping her? It was so weird. I didn’t even want to think about it as I held back tears trying to comfort my father. How could I be so stupid to let this happen? I let my sister die over some damn darkness?

My father squeezed my hand as he tried to hold back his tears. “It’s all my fault!” I let out while crying. “No, no. Nothing could be done.” He said shakily, trying to provide me comfort. “I didn’t even help her!” I yelled. “Nothing you could have said or done could have prevented it.