Chapter 01

I really can't believe this was finally happening. Even though I had huge piles of boxes to unpack, I felt like the happiest person alive. I sighed, turning around and looking once more at where our new room would be. It had been a few hours since we had been here, there was so much to pack, so much to clean, so many things to be done, but I couldn't hide the huge smile on my face that just couldn't get rid of.

Our house was very small, lost in the middle of the state of Wyoming in the United States in a small town called Buford, if I may say so since it had no road signs, no public agencies, no post office, the town only had one gas station and the cell phone signal was terrible since it only had one "tower", The place has only one supermarket, and if you are unlucky enough to look for something there and not find it, you have two options, either go without and be content, or drive five miles to a neighboring town a little more developed than Buford.

And here we are in this house that looked like it was a thousand years old, maybe more, as old as this "town", there was only one small bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a tiny bathroom. The walls that were once, I believe, painted white, are now worn with a yellowish color, in the parts that were not totally peeling. The old tiles, I feel that at any moment they will be blown away by a simple wind, and the floor creaks under my feet with every step I take. The house was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bushes, in short, we have a long job ahead of us, we were not really in Chicago anymore.

I hear a familiar noise coming from the kitchen, it seems that someone has decided to cook, bad idea. I hurry through the dusty house to the kitchen, and there she is in her worn-out strawberry shorts and a blouse that had seen better days, and yet surprisingly was still beautiful. Carrie and I lived in a small orphanage in Chicago, we hated living there and always dreamed of the day we could finally leave. Everything there was controlled - bedtime, wake-up time, time to eat, to watch, to play, to study, to bathe, as well as our behavior, how to sit, how to eat, how to walk, how to act. And we always had to share, bed, sweets, toys, even hairbrushes. I really hate that place!

Since we were little we were always connected to each other, we could know what the other was thinking even before someone said something, we felt when the other was not well, when she was happy, when she was hurt, in short we knew everything about each other, and although we had no blood connection, we were sisters of the heart. The employees of the orphanage were not very talkative, only Graça, the cook, a pudgy lady with her skin stained and worn by age, who sometimes gave us few words, according to her, we arrived the same day at the orphanage carrying on our necks the amulets that were left with us by the person who abandoned us.

At first they thought we were sisters, but later it was found that we were not related, so let's suppose that either our parents were friends and had the excellent idea of abandoning us at the same time or it was really a coincidence of fate or something. We always dreamed with the idea that our parents would one day come for us, take us from that place and fill us with love, we were innocent and dreamy, but we learned the hard way that the world is often not on our side and that what we wish for doesn't always come true. I don't know why our parents abandoned us, Carrie always believed they had a good reason for it, but whether for good or bad, it hurts me that they never came looking for us, never came to see if we were okay.

Leaving the orphanage was a relief for us, but we didn't know what to expect from the world and the difficulties we would face. When children are not adopted and come of age, they are thrown out on the streets and are simply told goodbye. Since we lived our whole life in the orphanage, we didn't know how to behave outside of it, and we had to support each other in order to move on. Since we lived in the orphanage we always collected money at fundraising parties or selling candy at school, we always managed, and when we left the orphanage we worked wherever we could, slept wherever we could, and so on until we had enough money to travel and we were able to rent this house for a bargain.

At first we didn't know where to go, and until now I don't know why we ended up in this town where the closest neighbor is about six kilometers away from where we were, but inexplicably something drew us to this place, we didn't know how we would survive but here we are. Now looking at my sister I can see how much she has changed, how much we have changed, Carrie was always beautiful and always drew the attention of the boys at school, with her long and wavy hair, slim waist, and perky buttocks she always attracted attention wherever she went, I looked totally dull next to her, I was rounder than she was and my hair was a mess of totally uncontrolled curls, in short I was a mess.

I stop at the door and watch in awe as she murders a tomato with a knife, smiling I pull out a chair and sit down, she stops what she is doing and looks back with a jump, and starts waving at me with the knife in her hand.

- Oh you've already given up on cleaning out the mess of boxes?

Looking at the knife and the stove totally splattered with grease, my hand starts itching to clean up the mess, but I don't know how to argue about that tragedy and her cooking hum... culinary "skills" without making her angry or wanting to kill me. Well at least she hadn't burned whatever she was doing yet, um seems like we're trying to make a breakthrough here. I decide not to bring it up.

- Well, I'm not even half done, but we'll have to find a place to sleep, I'm tired, hungry, and... ¬- I raise my little finger, showing it to her - with a chipped nail.

She gives me a sideways smile and sits down beside me.

- Oh, poor nail, I'm glad you're hungry, I decided to make us something to eat, I'm getting better...

Yeah, I wasn't so sure about that, but if I survived maybe I could question it.

- Well, when we finish eating, let's try to tidy up the room and get that pile of boxes out so we can sleep.

Since we arrived at the house in the morning, we have only rested half a day when we sat down to eat bread with scrambled eggs and passion fruit juice, and since then, almost seven o'clock at night, we have been cleaning floors, dusting things, unpacking boxes, fighting, and so on.

Carrie reels at me and rests her head on the table

- Yeah, well, that sounds like a good idea to me," she stretches her legs and wiggles her big toes, "I feel like my legs are made of Jell-O, and if for some reason something bloodthirsty comes to kill us at night, you could be the bait.

I look at her hurt and exaggeratedly put my hand to my chest.

- I know it may be difficult, but I'll pass this sacrifice on to you, I promise to give you a proper burial, bitch!

She lunges at me with the knife and I scream, smiling halfway into the living room, in the midst of my running away and her failed attempt to catch me, we smell burning coming from the kitchen. Carrie looks at me and grimaces, running into the kitchen she starts to cuss endlessly and more creatively. Finding her rather clumsy attempt at cooking amusing, I turn to the small box of cereal we bought.

- Cookie?

She looks at me with a look of disgust and sadness as she scraps what looks to me like burnt egg leftovers from the pan and throws them in the trash.

- I'll make some juice.

I look at her and know that if she even tries to make it it will be a total disaster. I go ahead and get some water from a pitcher and the small packet of industrialized juice we bought.

- All right, I'll do it.

Throwing the totally burnt pan into the sink, she looks at me nodding and sits down at the table waiting for the juice. Well I take that back, it seems we haven't had a breakthrough. Carrie has no gift in cooking.

X

I feel a gust of icy air prickling my back and fear snakes through my body. Not again! Since I was a little girl I have been having the same dream, at first I was very afraid, and only woke up screaming when Carrie came to wake me up, but then I realized that if I concentrated and wanted to get out of there I could wake up. It is a little strange that every time I dream I have the same dream, the same images, the same sensations, but this time it seems I don't know, different.

Opening my eyes slowly, I see the same image I have been seeing since I was a child, the same crooked trees, the same dark smoke, the same smell of burning and rotting, but somehow there seems to be something different, something that I don't want to find out what it is. I desperately wish it wasn't there, but nothing happens, I close my eyes again and wish even harder and nothing, okay I'm starting to get desperate, this isn't normal. Why can't I wake up?

The wind lifts my dress and it starts to move according to the movements of the gusts around my knees, suddenly I feel distressed as if I have lost someone, someone really important, I feel something wet running down my face, I bring my fingers to the wetness and see that I am crying, why the hell am I crying? I try to move but I just can't, I am lying down, yes I am lying on my stomach with my face on the oak floors that pinch and hurt me, I am out of air and I can't feel my body, what is happening? This has never happened, you can't feel pain in your dreams can you? Then what is it? I feel despair and pain fill me, guilt blushes me and makes me feel weak and helpless.

Slowly turning my neck I can see bodies on the floor, but I can't define them, everything is blurred and confused, I feel cold hands wrap around my wrist and feel an uncontrollable urge to pull it to my chest and hug it, but I can't move, I entwine my fingers in that hand and close my eyes, I am weak and want to give myself up to the darkness, when I am almost absolved by the desire, I hear a cold and guttural voice envelop my body and shiver my skin, "come back to me child", I try to look at the owner of that voice but I only see his outline, "come back to me child NOW".

I feel myself being pulled into a deep dark place and I start to struggle, the voice is interrupted by a bright pulsating light and I try desperately to hold on to it, I hear someone calling me but it is too far away and too faint it seemed to come from another world, "Lauren? Lauren can you hear me? Breathe you're not breathing LAUREN WAKE UP!!!!" I wake up with a jump, trying to absorb as much oxygen as I could which was getting very difficult as there was a very shaken and out of control Carrie crying and hugging me not leaving much room to breathe. When she was sure I was alive, she pulled away and I started to take long gasps of air, until I calmed down and my breathing returned to normal. Carrie goes to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water, looks at me worriedly and bites her lips waiting for me to tell her what the hell happened. As I take my time to speak, she sits up and crosses her hands on her lap, looking at me with anxious eyes.

- So what happened? I was asleep and woke up to you crying and mumbling, logically I tried to wake you up but you wouldn't, and then I got even more desperate when you just stopped breathing, Lauren, you fucking stopped breathing, I thought you were going to die, this is so weird, are you okay?

Carrie starts talking without pausing for breath, she was truly scared. Getting up she starts to pull me along, so I pull her back down to sit up again, she looks at me with concern.

- Carrie relax I am fine, we are only going to waste time walking forty minutes to the hospital, it was just a bad dream.

-Lauren, it wasn't just a bad dream, you weren't breathing, - she sighs and looks down at me with tearful eyes- you almost died.

- I'm fine, I swear, you don't have to worry. - I sigh and hold her hands, seeing that she is still unsure-I was having the same dream, only it was different.

Carrie looks at me, squeezing my hands and frowns, moving closer to me.

- How was it different?

I run my hands through my hair and feel a shiver as I remember the dream, sighing I look down and squeeze her hands tighter.

- I don't know, everything seemed normal, the trees, the smell, but then I couldn't wake up, and my feelings were tumultuous, I felt anguished and guilty and then suddenly a voice was calling me, telling me to come back and then I woke up.

Carrie looks at me with her hand on her chin and nervously ties her hair into a messy pulp, she always does this when she is worried about something.

- Do you think you might have sleep apnea or something?

- No Carrie relax, it's just a bad dream, it's normal.

- Lauren, there is nothing normal about having the same nightmares over and over again and just stopping breathing in them.

Just as I was about to tell her not to worry, we heard a noise somewhere in the house, not a simple creaking or popping of wood, it sounded like someone was hitting something. Carrie looks at me startled and approaches me grabbing my arm, I think she was serious earlier today in the kitchen, I look at her and signal her to get up and get some weapon. I do a little sweep around the room and find a baseball bat, okay that should do it, I look at Carrie and she is holding a broom as she looks at me startled.

- What's going on?

- I don't know, we'll have to find out, we've only been here a few hours and I've almost died in my sleep and someone is breaking into our house, that's great.

She looks at me with a face of amusement and fear at the same time.

- Someone or something.

I look at her and roll my eyes.

- Stop fooling around and let's go, we have to take him by surprise.

She shows me her tongue and moves behind me.

- Come on, you lead the way.

I look at her and roll my eyes again. We move slowly following the constant noise that winds through the house, it sounds like someone is knocking on a door, all right now I am scared, it sounds like a horror movie and we are going straight to the source of the noise, how clever, I always questioned why the characters always chose to follow the sound of death, but now seeing myself in the same situation I understand that adrenaline speaks louder than fear. With each step we take between bumps and stumbles we get even closer to the sound, we pass through the living room and are in the hallway to the kitchen when the sound suddenly increases as we approach a door in the hallway, this door was not there I am sure, what the hell is going on? I open my eyes and start to mentally chant the blood of Jesus has power.

Carrie seems to have this same thought because she looks at me with confusion evident in her eyes. Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard I grip the baseball bat tighter and hold the doorknob, I look at Carrie and she grabs my hand, I count to three softly and together we open the door in a jolt jumping into the room, we start screaming and throwing punches preparing ourselves for the worst, but we never imagined we would find this?

I look at Carrie and she is stunned, not blinking.

- What the fuck is this?

X

When we opened the door of the room we held tightly our "weapons" to use them for whatever, but we were not prepared for what we found. The room was all closed, there were no windows or air vents, which made it completely dark and gloomy, the only way in was through the door and the only way out too, it was all made of wood but somehow it was different from the other rooms in the house, the room was still very well kept, although we could see that no one had cleaned it for a long time, as evidenced by the thick branches of weeds that stretched across the walls.

I look at Carrie and see that she has the same confusion, this place was really strange, not only this room but the whole house itself, we were surprised when the owner of the house rented it for such a low price and when we asked him why, he simply said that people were not interested in a house in the country and blah, blah, blah. Carrie and I both noticed a certain tension in his voice, but we didn't pay much attention to it, because the price was great for us and the house wasn't that bad, until we got a job it would do. Carrie approaches me still holding her broom and looks at me with a wrinkled forehead, clearly afraid.

- Now I know why the owner rented us out for such a cheap price, and why nobody wanted to live here.

I nod my head in agreement with her when I notice in the center of the room a circle of some kind of fine black sand.

- All right, I may be going crazy, but that shit wasn't there when we walked in, was it?

Carrie looks at what she was looking at and stares wide-eyed putting down her broom and tilting her head as if to understand all that shit.

- Fuck no.

We look at each other and swallowing hard I instinctively start to move towards that circle almost as if I am being drawn into it with Carrie by my side, suddenly she stops me and grabs my arm looking at me in astonishment.

- I think we'd better not get any closer, this is clearly witchcraft and I am strangely tempted to enter this circle which is not normal given the circumstances we are in now.

As if awakened from a trance I blink my eyes several times and shake my head Carrie is right, we better get out of here, I turn to her and hold out my hand.

- You're right, after you.

Without a second thought we start to distance ourselves in the circle and get closer to the door, when the door suddenly closes with a deafening thud, we abruptly stop and start screaming in despair, okay maybe Carrie was right, we were not dealing with someone but something. We ran to the corner of the wall at the other end of the door and there we crouched embracing each other. Carrie looks at me with eyes full of tears and despair.

- What are we going to do now?

I would have laughed at Carrie's face of desperation if I hadn't been as terrified as she was, leaning in to ensure a bit of safety, or trying to.

- We wait for death.

Carrie looks at me with even more desperation.

- What a great way to die, trapped in a room with a sinister circle resulting from evil witchcraft.

I look at her and have to agree we have found a great way to die. Sighing I lower my head and start thinking about the options we have.

- All right, what can we do, here are the options: letter A, we wait for whatever is doing this to come kill us or letter B, we get in that circle of shit and do exactly what our conscience tells us is wrong.

Carrie looks at me and seems to be pondering the options, she then undoes her bun and does it again, looking at me I already know which option she has chosen by the way she is looking at me.

- Well, let's go, since we are going to die, let's at least see where this is all going.

We slowly got up and started to move closer to the circle, the closer we got the more attracted I became, it was as if I had a rope pulling me and I couldn't let go, no matter how much I wanted to get away I couldn't, but at the same time that it was suffocating not being able to get away was somewhat pleasurable, I felt alive at last as if I could do anything, I felt... powerful.

Reaching the center of the circle still immersed in this feeling I look to the side and see Carrie who seemed to share the same feeling, grabbing her hand I take a deep breath waiting for what was going to happen next but nothing was happening, we look at each other and Carrie wrinkles her forehead as confused as I am, we wait some more and nothing.

Carrie looks at me with a frown and I shrug, she looks around and seems to be looking for something, when she looks at me again I raise an eyebrow and stare at her.

- What? maybe we should do something.

- Maybe we should take this generous opportunity," I join my hands in prayer and look up in thanks, "thank you very much whoever did this, seeing that nothing happened in this idiotic suicide attempt and send us on our way, how about it?

I look at her with a sarcastic smile, and wait for her to retort with the same sarcasm.

- We can't go now, there's something... - She keeps looking around expecting something-I don't know, I know it's crazy, but

I look at her quite surprised, she has to be crazy, is she really telling us to stay in that strange business? I grab both her arms and open my eyes trying to make her understand

- Carrie, this is the feeling of death calling us.

She gives a little smile and just as she is about to open her mouth to argue, she closes it again and tilts her head as if she hears something. I let go of her arms and tilt my head too, trying to hear something.

- Shhh! Did you hear that?

- What? I didn't hear it at...

Suddenly everything started spinning and little flames flew through the air like little pieces of paper were being burned, it was all so bright and alive, still feeling Carrie's hand in mine, a blinding flash of light appeared in front of us, I shielded my eyes awkwardly with my hands, and fighting the urge to leave them open to see what was happening, I stay that way until a strong gust of wind noisily blows loudly past my body, I try to open my eyes but the light is still too strong and I can't keep them open. I feel Carrie's hand loosen from mine and try desperately to hold on to it again, I try to scream her name but I have no voice, I try to move but I can't get out of the place and with that wind I just can't hear anything, desperate looking for Carrie I feel my body getting lighter and lighter, weaker and weaker until I can't stand up anymore, I drop gently on the ground like a sack of potatoes, until everything falls into complete darkness and my despair was replaced by. ... nothing.