Vengeance.

I couldn’t help it; my family was driving me crazy. I know it’s late, I’ve heard the stories. I know that in October the barrier that holds the spirits in check is weak. I don’t care I had to get out of there. I can feel my face burning as my cheeks flush, my eyes stinging with hot tears. I walked through the forest near the house. Before my grandmother was murdered she would take me here when my mother was on the verge of madness, which, is often. She was everything to me, but it’s been five years since I’ve had a chance to take comfort in her arms. It’s harder for me to handle my mother’s outrage and abuse without her. I looked up at the canopy, the stars shining through the leaves onto my face and the ground. The tears that had stung my eyes finally trailed down my cheeks, leaving clean white lines on my dirt-caked face.

The breath in my lungs came out slowly, producing a long sigh. My neck relaxed and my head drooped as I slowed to a stop. Tendrils of my brown hair fell into my dark eyes, strands that had fallen from my bun in my haste to leave. The wind brushed past me sending a chill through my spine. I pulled my coat tighter around my thin underfed frame and sighed again. “This is going nowhere” I commented referring to my thin coat.

I caught a small movement out of the corner of my eye and I wheeled towards the sound. “Hello?” My voice echoed through the vacant trees. I could feel my eyes narrowing as I quickly scanned the forest, “You better come out!” I yelled again. I suddenly feeling foolish. My heart pounded in my chest as I realized that nothing was there. I let out the breath I was holding and relaxed.

Again, a motion caught my eye. Fear gripped my heart and my hand flew to where my weapon, my hand-carved bow would normally be. I grasped the air at my back and I panicked. I had nothing to defend myself with. “Wh-who’s there!?” My voice cracked as I struggled to remain composed.

I heard the loud snap behind me and I turned in the direction of the sound. It was my grandmother’s favorite tree! Where she would take me after an episode with my mother. A slight shimmer glowed next to the tree, and my eyes struggled to focus. A figure formed in the mist, taking shape of a human form. My heart dropped into my stomach as the figure became more apparent.

My body tensed and my senses flared into life, the green scent of the forest filled my nose. The sounds had stopped and the forest seemed a deadly silent. I couldn’t feel my heart beat. “M-Meme?” My voice was weak, my throat constricted.

She smiled at me. My teeth pulled my lip into their grasp and gnawed on them slightly. My chest ached as my heart ripped itself apart. “Meme,” I whispered. My feet moved slowly in the direction of the figure and her smile grew wider. I can’t believe it. My grandmother stood before me, her hair hung in brown rivulets, so much like my own. She was younger, this image of her. “Is it really…,” I took another step forward and the form vanished.

“NO!” I screamed and ran toward the tree. I stopped where my grandmother had been and fell to my knees. “No,” I whimpered through the sobs that tore through my frame. “Meme, I need you, please.” My fist pounded into the soft earth, leaving a dent. “Why did he take you from me!” My voice carried on the slight wind and echoed through the forest. I buried my face in my hands and lets the sobs flow.

“I needed you; you kept me sane. You protected me from my mothers ranting when I could not stand up for myself.” My body trembled as my arms wrapped around my chest, “He’ll pay for this, for taking every bit of my life and my heart away from me,” I sobbed still. My breath caught in my lungs and I looked up at the stars. “Just watch Meme, he’ll regret the day he took you from me.” I stayed there for what seemed like hours letting the tears wash through me.

My tears finally ran dry and I decided to return home, back to the hell I was born and raised in.