Cambria's Corner

I opened my eyes, but saw only white.

The next thing I noticed was that my head hurt. A lot. I reached up to touch the sore spot, and my fingers came away wet and slick. Blood? I thought, and as my vision began to return, I saw the telltale shiny redness of blood.

With my vision, my memory began to return. My little sister, Anya, and I, had been together. We were in my living room, watching a movie and eating ice cream directly from the carton. She had just gotten dumped by her boyfriend and she wasn’t taking it well.

Not that I could blame her. They had been together for almost two years, and she was going through a lot lately. Most of her friends had distanced themselves from her, she hadn’t made her school’s softball team this year, and she had just gotten into a really big fight with her long-time best friend. And of course, all of these problems had led her grades slipping, and that clearly made her feel even worse. So, I decided to flex my older sibling powers and have a night in with her. It had been the first time I’d seen her smile in weeks.

I shook my head and cupped my cheeks with my hands to break my train of thought. Anya, I thought. Where is she? I looked around the room. It looked like a bomb had gone off, literally. Most of my living room was obliterated, an entire wall reduced to rubble. Whatever happened, I had been thrown to the far side of the room from the destroyed wall, and had probably hit my head. My leg was hurt too – I couldn’t fully feel the toes on my left foot. The cold winter air coming in the destroyed wall made my skin prickle, and the room smelled like sulfur and barbecue. 

I looked around frantically for Anya, but couldn’t see her anywhere. I half-ran, half-limped to the destroyed wall, and I noticed a trail in the snow and rubble leading away. I called out to Anya, and started heading down the trail, more afraid than I had ever been in my life. 

As I searched for her, my mind kept wandering. Anya was such a sweet kid, but she really hadn’t been doing well. The other day, she had called me sobbing because of the fight with her best friend. The two had been inseparable for over a decade, and I knew they would work it out like they always did, and I’m sure Anya did too, deep down. But it had hit her pretty hard this time. I think losing her other friends had hurt her more deeply than she let on.

Tonight had been her idea, actually. She had asked me to come over just to hang out, and I think she just didn’t want to be alone with Mom and Dad after the breakup. I had grabbed some ice cream (superman for me, mint chip for her), she had picked a movie, and we had a great night just bonding as siblings, like we hadn’t really done in years. It had been great to see her happy, laughing and smiling, because I’d felt like I hadn’t in too long.

But then Mom had called.

That train of thought was interrupted when I noticed footprints in the snow. Footprints about Anya’s size. I called out to her, and started running as best as I could with my probably broken leg. But just as abruptly as the footprints started, they stopped. I looked around, confused. The snow didn’t stop, just the prints. It was like she flew away. 

I heard a rumble and a crash from somewhere ahead of me, and I rounded the corner of the house at the end of the road.

What I saw made me stop as suddenly as the footprints. Floating above the street was a whirling maelstrom of vehicles, rubble, snow, and earth. The detritus lifted off the ground and swirled around, before getting sucked into the center of the storm like water going down a drain. And at the center, glowing with a brilliant white light, was Anya.

“Anya!” I yelled, shocked. “Anya!” I yelled again, and started running towards her. I didn’t make it 10 feet before a wall of dirt and concrete raised in front of me, blocking my path. 

“Camryn,” I heard her say, and even though she was at least 50 feet away, it sounded like she was whispering in my ear. “You don’t have to shout. I can hear you.”

I shouted anyway. “Anya, what happened? Are you doing all of this?”
“Yes, I am,” she replied, and her voice didn’t sound right. Not just because of the whispering, but it sounded too flat, too calm. 

“What’s going on, Anya?” I yelled desperately.

“I’m building, Camryn.”

“Building what?”
“A better world,” and as she said that, the wall of earth in front of me parted. Anya was manipulating the terrain, building… something. It looked like… people. Or, people shaped statues, at least. They were crude, and barely recognizable, but as I watched, the shapes began to refine themselves and resolve into people. One of them I recognized as Anya’s ex, and one was…

Dad.

“Do you see them, Camryn?” This time, her voice seemed to boom out from everywhere and nowhere at once. “I am going to make them perfect. This way, they will never leave me. They won’t be able to. I won’t even give them the thought.”

I gaped at the statues for a moment. “Anya this… how are you doing this?”

“Hm,” the whisper in my ear again. “I don’t know. I just… am. And I can do more.”

As she spoke, the area around us began to change, too. The earth and debris shifted and roiled as she manipulated it. By now, people had started coming out of their houses to watch in fear and awe. Anya’s maelstrom expanded and writhed, and part of it moved towards the row of houses. The people in front of it were instantly swallowed up, and that’s when everyone else started screaming and running.

“Anya, stop!” I yelled. “You got people-”

“I need them, Camryn.” She pulled the people in closer to her. They seemed to be still alive, barely, but battered into bloody meat by the maelstrom. Anya clenched a fist, and the people disintegrated. She waved her hand towards the statues, and the clouds of blood and viscera flowed into the statues like water down a drain.

Then the statues began to move on their own.

I stared, horrified. This was my sister, but she was capable of all this? How could she do it? How could I have let this happen.

I turned back to face Anya and started to push my way into the maelstrom. I knew she wouldn’t let me get hurt. 

“Anya, stop this! People are dying!”

“People are already dead. And gone. My new people will never die. They will never leave me.”

Suddenly, I understood. She was grieving. Her friendships, her relationship… Dad. 

“Listen to me!” I began, but she interrupted with a sardonic laugh. It was the first emotion I had heard from her since I found her floating there.

“Dad is gone, Camryn! What, are you gonna tell me it’s okay? That we’ll get through it together? Or are you going to promise not to leave me too? You wouldn’t be the first one to break that promise.”

I didn’t respond for a moment. That had been exactly what I was going to say. I hadn’t really processed Mom’s call about Dad either. But she was right. I shook my head, instead.

“You’re right. That’s all just words, and I can’t make that promise because I don’t know for sure that I can keep it.” I kept losing through the storm, just trying to get to her. “But I’ll be damned if I don’t try anyway.”

I kept pushing through the maelstrom, just trying to get to my sister. I wasn’t quite sure what I would do when I got there yet, but I knew I had to get to her. The storm got stronger as I got closer, the wind and dust and debris blasting by me fast enough to make me stumble. At points I had to grab chunks of rubble and pull myself closer. Anya seemed to be ignoring me, concentrating on whatever she was building instead. 

After what felt like ages, I finally made it to just underneath her. I reached up and grabbed her by the foot (she wasn’t even wearing shoes) and tried to pull her down. To my surprise, it worked. When I had her at eye level, I put my hands on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. They were glowing with the same light of her storm.

“Anya, we can get through this. I’ll do everything I can to stay with you,” and I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

As soon as my arms were around her, I felt the storm come to a crashing halt around us. She floated down the last few inches, and the light began to die. I felt her body start to shake, and before long we were both sobbing.

“I don’t want anyone else to leave me,” she choked out between her sobs.

“I know,” I said, hugging her tighter. “But sometimes they do. It sucks and it hurts and it’s not fair but we have to deal with it.”

“How?” she asked, and the pain in her voice broke my heart all over again.

“I don’t know, sis. But we will.” She nodded and hugged me even tighter. 

As the rubble continued to collapse and Anya’s creations crumbled to dust around us, I held my sister, and I knew that she would be alright.