The sun threatened to set over the holler. The shadows grew long as light trickled in through the trees.
Down in the little valley lived a quaint cottage of wooden logs and stone bricks. The smell of wild Burdock root soup drifted from the kitchen and filled the house with its pleasant aroma: mushroom, ginger, seaweed, and onion, each foraged earlier in the day.
Young Ashley—turned seven only two weeks prior—hair plaited in two and tied off with pink ribbons—came skipping into the kitchen. Her sister, Katherine—three years her senior—followed not far behind.
“Come follow me!” Ashley chanted in a sing-songy voice.
The girls swarmed their mother.
“Down by the fire,” they harmonized, re-starting their short ballad. They ran and danced around the room, their little feet thumping on the ground.
“Girls,” their mom started, silencing the tumultuous noise instantly. “Why don’t you go pick me some new flowers for the table?”
“Yes!” They cheered.
Gathering flowers for the dining table centerpiece was their beloved hobby. Every other night, they took pleasure in artfully arranging the pink porcelain vase. The girls rushed for the door.
“Don’t forget your shoes. And girls, listen to me,” their mom said, drawing their attention back from the front door. “Do not go into the forest.”
Ashley bobbed her head. It was the same thing every day: ‘Don’t go into the forest’, ‘Stick together’, ‘Stay near the house’, blah, blah, blah. Ashley darted for the door.
Katherine grabbed her arm and responded, “I promise we won’t, Momma. I’ll make sure Ashley stays far from the trees.” She yanked her back. “Isn’t that right, Ashley?”
Ashley nodded, rolling her eyes at her stick-in-the-mud, rule-abiding older sister. As the girls slipped outside, she whispered in Katherine’s ear. “Lickspittle.”
Katherine retorted by maturely blowing a raspberry at her sister.
Once in the field, the girls skipped joyously, daggling through the spring runoff and singing their song on repeat.
“Down by the fire,
Down there, you may discover,
something calls you in,
beckoning in the wind.
She hopes that you will find her
in a place that’s like no other.
She sings:
Come follow me.
Come follow me.”
The girls found they had foraged most of the wildflowers near the house, so they decided to head closer to the grove, where there were sure to be plenty of colorful blossoms for the choosing.
They passed robins fishing for worms in the soil, chipmunk kittens trailing behind their mother, and a bright red fox creeping along the top of a wooden fence.
All the while, the girls sang their song—the one only they knew. They couldn’t remember exactly when or how they came up with the song. It just popped into their heads one day, and they’d been singing it since.
“Over there, look!” Ashley pointed to a bundle of daisies by the tree line of the grove. She skipped ahead of her sister to the flowers.
“Careful, Ashley. Momma said, stay out of the forest.” Katherine hurried after her wayward sister.
“Oh, Kat, don’t be so chicken-hearted.”
The girls began gathering flowers all along the trees, where they seemed to have popped up overnight.
“Down by the fire.” Ashley started.
“Down there, you may discover.”
“Something calls you in.”
“Beckoning in the wind.” The girls skipped hand in hand, wind rustling their hair and billowing their dresses. The scent of birch flowed through the breeze like water through shallow rapids.
“She hopes that you will find her.”
“In a place that’s like no other.”
Ashley twirled in a circle as the song came to a close. “She sings:”
Before the girls could execute the last two lines, a beautiful, ghostly voice swept through the trees, rattling their leaves.
“Come follow me.” The melodic noise concluded the ballad for them. “Come follow me.”
Ashley jumped at the sound of the unfamiliar, disembodied voice. She grabbed for her older sister’s hand and hid behind her. Ashley managed, through a shaky voice, “Katherine, d-don’t mess with me like that.”
But Katherine said nothing in return. She only stared blankly into the grove.
“Katherine? Don’t ignore me.” Ashley tried to sound stern, but instead, a tear trickled down her cheek. “Kat?” she shouted, yanking on her older sister’s arm.
“Down by the fire,” Katherine sang, her voice drained of all intonation and life.
The leaves rattled like disturbed sand above the girls before the ghostly voice responded. “Down here, you may discover.”
Katherine took a step into the tree line.
Ashley protested violently, yanking at her arm, kicking, and screaming, “Katherine! Momma said to stay out of the forest! I won’t hesitate to peach on you!” She tried to sound confident when she was anything but.
Katherine merely twisted out of her grip.
With the abrupt dislocation, Ashley tumbled onto the grass.
“Something calls you in,” Katherine droned, taking yet another step into the forest.
“Kat!” Tears streamed down her little sister’s face.
The susurrus of leaves circling like a tornado joined the trees in a discordant hiss as the haunting voice swept through the air again. “Beckoning in the wind.”
Katherine took a several more trance-induced steps into the trees, outwardly unaffected by Ashley’s tear-filled pleading. “She hopes that you will find her.”
From where Ashley sat in the weeds, Katherine was barely visible—stalky Aspens, along with the mysterious fog rolling in, obstructed her view.
“In a place that’s like no other.” For a second, there was almost a crack in Katherine’s voice, a hint of emotion, as if she were struggling against the spell.
Ashley sent a prayer to the heavens as salty tears rolled down her cheeks and into her weeping mouth:
Please don’t take her. Let this be a prank. Katherine. Please.
“She sings:” The Spirit was taking far too much pleasure in Ashley’s terror. Not a hint of guilt in its voice.
“Come follow me.”
The air grew stagnant as the last line hung in the air. The spirit savored the last bite of her meal.
Ashley fell silent, awaiting the final blow or perhaps someone to jump out and exclaim, “Got you!” In the racking stagnation, she wondered whether she should fetch her mother. Would Kat be gone when she got back?
She decided against it.
Finally, after several moments of uncomfortable, harrowing anticipation, she pushed herself upright. Maybe it got bored? she thought—more hope than reason.
Ashley, bleary-eyed and lachrymose, shaking in her boots, crept warily toward the grove where her sister stood.
“Ashley?”
Katherine’s voice froze her, her foot barely hovering over the tree line.
“Kat!” Ashley shouted
Katherine slowly spun around, tendrils of fog wrapping around her arms as she stood, now facing her little sister—the one with whom she alone shared the cursed song. Her eyes were wide as chasms and sweat collected on her brow like a fever.
She shook with terror.
She had been released from the curse.
She could move freely.
But she feared that if she did move, that… thing would come back and take them both this time.
No. Better to stay where I am, she thought. But the longer Katherine waited, the more survival seemed possible. She knew what she would do. She would tell Ashley to fetch their mother. If Momma could cast out the monsters in her closet, she could rid the world of this demon too.
A gust of wind rustled the leaves, interrupting Katherine’s thoughts. And with it came the dreaded finale.
“Come follow me.”
Katherine had but a second to shout her sister’s name and “Run!” before a bony, white hand with fingers as long as daggers—and as sharp as them too—shot out from behind an aspen.
The fingers wrapped themselves around Katherine’s throat, silencing her. In one swift motion, Katherine was wrenched behind the tree, disappearing on the other side.
Ashley was too stunned to speak. It was unreal. One moment her sister was there—given, haggard, and screaming—and the next, gone.
Shock and disbelief chained her feet to the grass as if the plants were tangling themselves around her ankles, pulling her into the soil—which they very well could have done, were Echo in a foul mood that evening.
The fog cleared, and the trees ceased their violent swaying. The rumble of the little creak and the beating of her little heart were the only things Ashley could hear.
She scoured the trees desperately searching for any sign of her beloved sister, but there were none.
After a moment, a faint scratching sound caught her attention. She sucked in a shuddering breath. Focusing on one aspen in particular, she watched as a blackened scar emerged from the bark.
The carving was quiet but audible even from where Ashley stood, several feet away. When the scratching subsided, Ashley spotted a black wound in the shape of a campfire on the bark of the tree.
Down by the fire.
Ashley crinkled her brow and stared in disbelief, so eerily calm she felt she might be dreaming.
Down there, you may discover.
She could be dreaming. And if it weren’t for the crushing pinch on her arm, she could have believed it. She looked down as blood trickled slowly from her porcelain skin. Echo had harmed her just to prove that she was real.
Something calls you in.
Not a dream.
Beckoning in the wind.
It’s real. Kat’s gone.
She hopes that you will find her.
Katherine. Is. Gone.
In a place that’s like no other.
Her feet were moving quicker than her mind.
She sings:
Run. Get away!
Come follow me.
No! Escape!
Come follow me…
Addison Hager 