Stricken

Zara's eyes opened, but she quickly closed them again. Was the sun always so bright? Groaning, she sat up and put her head in her hands. She almost wished her heart to stop so the blood would stop rushing to her head. Every heartbeat brought on a horrible banging in her skull.

Her door creaked open and Emily peeked her head in. "Hi, Zara,"she said.

"Hi, Em,"Zara mumbled through her hands. She looked through her fingers to read the clock. 1:30. "CRAP!"She scrambled out of bed, ignoring the pain in her head. "Emily! Why didn't you get me up?!"

"Mom told me to let you sleep. She called the Frogs and told them you were sick,"Emily said, stepping into the room farther.

Zara stopped. "Really?" Emily nodded. Gratefully, Zara collapsed back on her bed. "God, my head hurts."

Emily went out of the room without saying anything, then came back in with a tray. It had a plateful of soda crackers, a glass of water, and two Iburprofen. "Mom told me to give you this when you woke up,"Em explained. "She said you might not feel good."

Zara took the tray, feeling guilty and a little scared. Her mom thought she'd have a hang over? Didn't she trust her? Well...she did have a massive head ache, but it was because she'd been drugged. Right? Honestly, Zara didn't remember much of the night before.

"Where'd you get the earring?" Emily asked.

Zara looked up at her sister confused. "What?"

"The earring."Emily came over and sat beside her sister on the bed and tapped the dangley earring hanging from Zara's left lobe. "I thought you were scared of needles." Zara felt the earring, not believing what her sister was telling her. But it was there. "Its pretty. I like the little feather on it."

Zara didn't say anything. She took the painkillers and ate some of the crackers slowly. Eventually, the pills kicked in and she went downstairs to watch TV. She usually was out of the house at this time, but she really didn't feel like it. Every part of the house was bright with sunlight, which kept her headache from being completely nonexistant and she didn't want to kill her eyes by going outside. The pictures and the sound coming from the TV didn't make a lot of sense as Zara tried to comprehend last night. She remembered Michael being there and David. There was the railroad, and she'd climbed down to escape to train. Then...David had pulled her down with him and that was it. What had happened to Michael? What had happened to her?

Zara grabbed for the phone and quickly dialed Lucy's number that had been left on a piece of paper by her mom.

"Hello?"

"Sam? Its Zara."

"Oh, hey Zara! What's up?"

"Um...nothing. Can I talk to Michael?" Zara asked biting her lip. She hoped he was there and not dead in a ditch somewhere.

"Actually, he's still in bed. What'd you need?"

"Oh...nothing...Just...let him know I called, 'kay?"

"Yeah, I will. Everything ok? You don't sound very good," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I'm coming down with something, I think."

"Oh...well okay. I'll let Mike know you called."

Zara hung up after saying goodbye and laid down on the couch. She did feel like she was coming down with something.
~
The night was windy. The shutters banged loudly on the house. Deb was working late at the office again and it was just Zara and Emily. Emily had noticed something was off on her sister and left her alone, going upstairs to play with her barbie dolls. Zara sat alone in the living room, listening to the old house creak with the wind. It was creepy. She kept throwing glances at the large window in the living room, thinking that she'd see some masked killer standing outside. It made her shiver.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and lights began to flicker. Zara realized they were coming from outside, going around the windows. Roaring droaned out everything else as the lights circled. Zara, panicked, stumbled off the couch and away from the living room, but when she got the the kitchen the lights and roaring were there too.

Zara. A voice broke through the clamor. Zara. Her eyes widened as she recognized the voice. Zara. The curtains billowed with the wind, grabbing at her like long hands. She backed away from the window, grabbing a knife from the knife rack and holding it in front of her.

"What do you want?"her voice shook with fear, as she backed against the refridgerator. Deadly laughter floated on the wind towards her, making her feel cold. The roaring persisted.

Zara....Zara...Zara...The voice taunted.

"Stop it!"Zara screamed. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

It all stopped suddenly. Zara opened her eyes and stared out the windows, panting, her blood rushing in her ears. The wind had died down, the curtains now floated softly in the air.
There was no sign that anything had happened, but it was too quiet...

"Zara!"

Zara screamed, pointing the knife at the kitchen doorway. Her little sister stared back at her, fear clear in her eyes. "Zara...did you...see that?"

Zara let out a breath and put the knife down on the counter. Her hands were shaking terribly. Emily ran over and clung to her waiste. "What was that?"she asked, looking up at her sister.

"I--I don't know,"Zara swallowed hard, wrapping her arms around her sister. They stood like that for a long time before Emily finally let her go.

"I'll make us some sundays,"she said and went to the fridge.

Zara almost laughed by how quickly her sister recovered. She looked out the windows timidly, but all was quiet and still. Sitting herself down at the table while she waited for her sister, she played with her earring. That voice...she could have sworn it was David's. And those lights and the roaring had come from motorcycles. What were they doing to her?

Zara picked up her sunday from Emily and grabbed the phone from the wall. She tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang three times.

"Hello?"Michael answered almost in a whisper.

"Michael--"

"Zara? You're alive?"

"Yes...I'm alive. Why shouldn't I be? Didn't Sam tell you I called?"

"You went off the bridge with David...You fell. I heard you scream...I fell...And then I woke up...How are you...?" Michael rambled.

"Michael!"Zara snapped. "Get a hold of yourself! Something...weird just happened here. I think it had something to do with David."

Michael said nothing. Zara almost asked "Hello?" before he said, "Yeah, something freaky happned here too..."

"Motorcycles circling your house?"

"Yeah, how'd you--"

"Me too. Michael, what did you do?"

"Me? Why are you blaming me?"

"Because you're the one that had to follow those guys and be a stupid ass boy about it!" Zara snapped. "You couldn't leave things alone, could you? No! You couldn't! So you better fix this thing!"She slammed the phone down the receiver and let out a loud breath.

Emily was staring at her. "Did you just say the 'A' word?"she asked, looking almost horrified.

Zara looked at her with a glare that made her sister flinch. Without a word she got up and ran up the stairs. Then she slammed her bed room door behind her.