Story Debate: Thriller

I yawned. The soft morning light streamed through the window, reaching my bed and creating a square of light on the covers. I turned over to look at the clock. 8:30 in the morning. I already missed Monday's school bus by half an hour. I tossed the covers off and headed to the closet where I keep my clothes. Why didn't Mama wake me? She always does; every day at exactly seven o'clock. I quickly grab a shirt and a pair of jeans, throwing them onto the bed. Maybe the power went out? The alarms reset, and she didn't wake up herself. But then how would my clock work? Socks and spiderman underwear flew across the room to the bed. I started dressing myself. Something was off, just a bit off. Why did she let me sleep until this late? Normally I got up last, and she first. I stopped myself. I was looking right at the wall Lucy usually appears. Her shadow wasn't there, but I could just make an outline in my mind of where she should be. As if the color was just a tad darker in those spots; I could clearly distinguish her branching hair, her head, her dress, and her bare feet standing on the ground. She would be shorter than me. That pose; I saw her yesterday. Right before going to sleep, she said something. That it would all start tomorrow? What would that even mean? I decided to wake Mama in case something actually started. I walked down the wooden hallway to my parents’ bedroom, which Papa called his “dormitorio”. The house was empty, I heard nothing but my footsteps patting on the floorboards. I stopped in front of their room, and held my ear to the door. Silence. And then a single short, metallic clink from the kitchen. I slowly came into the kitchen. Our dining room was partially connected to it, and I could see my older sister sitting at the counter with a bowl of cheerios. The glass door behind her illuminated the room in a wonderful sunshine. “Hi Juliet,” I said. “Hey,” she replied quietly, pushing away the black hair to reveal her puffy eyes. Her gaze set itself of me for a second before falling back down to the cereal. The cheerios were already soggy and melted. “Where’s Mama?” my question stood for a moment or two before she replied. “At the hospital,” her eyebrows rose as she gave the terse answer, offering no further explanation. Her spoon whirled another lengthy circle in the milk. “Is she waiting for a baby?” I asked. Papa always said that people waiting for babies had to go to the hospital often. That’s stupid. Couldn’t they just wait at home? “No, she’s waiting for Papa” her voice cracked and she looked away. I could hear her trying to cover a sniffle, but I couldn’t see her eyes. I sat down in the place next to her, and put my arm on hers to give comfort. “Do you have a boo-boo?” I asked, more inquisitively than in the comforting tone I wanted. She stood up, and walked away into the bathroom, leaving the cereal behind and sniffling all the way. Cheerios were Julie’s favorite; she would always eat Cheerios in the morning. Yeah, something was definitely wrong. The phone rang. I picked it up, and sat back down at the marble counter. The stool was too high for me, so I clamored up to sit on the cushion. “Hellooo?” I spoke into where I thought the microphone was. “Pepe? Is your sister there?” Mama’s voice sounded a bit dull on the other end, as if she was speaking while holding her nose. “No, she’s in the bathroom.” “Can you go get ella?” I stood up, left the phone on the counter, and walked up to the bathroom door on my tippy-toes. I tapped the white paint with my knuckles before trying the handle. It was locked. “Go away.” Julie said from behind the door. “Mama is calling... She wants to talk to you.” I said. No response. I waited at the door, waiting for her to come out. She opened up, the door swooshed behind her, and she stormed off to the phone. I watched her pick it up and put it to her ear. “Mom?” “I’m here, I’m here.” her voice was muffled by Julie’s head, but I could still make out Mama’s words. “What happened?” My sister looked out the glass doors into our backyard. “He’s dead.” A long pause. “The doctors say he choked on something in the middle on the night.” Julie sat down and closed her eyes. I could see the sunshine creating a shadow with her pink nose. I slowly retreated to my bedroom, and closed the door behind me. It creaked like every other time I closed my bedroom. The wall was empty, except for the light tints of different colored paint that reminded me of Lucy. “Are you okay?”her voice emanated from behind me. Her shadowy body suddenly came into view. She swam up to the wall, and stopped right in front of it to look at me, still standing by the door. Her hair took several seconds more to compensate, and slowly floated out to it’s regular position. “My Papa died.” I said. My voice had no tone at all; it was all one whole monotonous syllable. “I know. Exactly seven hours ago.” her hair finally froze in it’s perfect image, with no lock of hair crossing over another. It was enormous, expanding over the wall like cracks in the plaster. I brought to mind yesterday’s unfinished conversation with Lucy, when she disappeared into my parents’ dormitorio for the slightest second. What did she say? That ‘He’ was in there... and then she melted into a hole on the floor. But, why? I decided to take off from where I couldn’t explain, and ask Lucy for details. “I don’t really know. Maybe He was just letting his own anger out, and was justified by the fact that your Papa is a sinner. He hates sinners, but doesn’t usually do anything so drastic.” She paused, and her silhouetted head turned to look behind her. “Can you bring him back?” my question came out before I realized how stupid it is. She looked at me from behind the wall again, and shook her head. “I cannot give life,” she said. “Which is why I hesitate in taking it. But God is different.” Suddenly, the coldness I felt upon entering the room grasped my insides. What would prevent him from doing it again? From killing Mama, or Julie? How would life be without them? I have already lost Papa; why should I lose any more? Lucy tilted her head, and her hair was pulled along through the water. “We have to stop Him from repeating this. Can you go get your sister?” she asked. “But,” I thought aloud. “But my sister doesn’t know about you.” An unmistakable smile curled up Lucy’s face. She shook her head, and looked at my blank face. At that moment I understood, and I smiled as well at the prospect of what will happen. I stepped outside. It was a bit hotter in the corridor, and I noticed that Lucy cold doesn’t really bother me anymore. I walked off to the dining room, where I saw Juliet sitting at the table with her head down. I tapped her on the shoulder, and she attempted to slap my hand away. “Juliet, listen,” I noticed that the phone was lying back in it’s place. She didn’t move. “Juliet, come on, I want to show you something.” “I don’t wanna see it.” she replied, her voice cutting each letter short. I leaned on the table, and pretended to think for a minute. What could get her to follow me? “Or I’ll show your boyfriend the ‘hello kitty’ underwear you have!” I taunted, and quickly backed up. Juliet reached for me a second too late, and stumbled out of her chair. I ran down the hallway, keeping myself out of her reach until I stopped at my bedroom. Silence. She hadn’t followed me. “C’mon Julie, I’ll stop bugging you if you come for a second.” I ran back down to the kitchen, where I found her in her original position. “Please?” I pushed my face into her ear so that she couldn’t ignore me. “Okay, fine. Fine. Like, what is so important to you right now?” She got up and followed me as I led her to my room. I let her go through first, and shut the door behind me as I walked in. My sister stiffened, her muscles tensed up. She saw. I locked the door. “Hey Juliet.” Lucy’s voice sounded morose, but nevertheless welcoming. My sister tried to back up into me, but I pushed her forward. “Lucy. What are you doing?” my sister sounded surprised, and accusing at the same time. Did she already know her? I peeked out from behind my sister’s ripped jeans to see her shadow, dark as night, inside the wall. The sun clearly illuminated it, yet it only seemed to give Lucy’s shadow more clarity. “Me? I’m saving your brother from what happened seven hours ago.” the figure said, and I heard it coming from behind the door. Juliet didn’t turn around, as if she was accustomed to hearing her. “I told you not to talk to my brother unless - “ “ - it’s a life threatening situation.” Lucy finished. “And yes, it was. I don’t break deals, even ones that were made months ago.” Juliet slowly walked around to sit on the bed. Her eyes seemed heavy, and she looked at me with worry. “Did He come in?” she asked, directing the question at no one in particular. I let Lucy answer. “Mm-hmm. He tried to kill Pepe, but I was there.” Lucy paused. “But then he went to the parents, who haven’t accepted me yet,” she sighed, and rolled her head at Julie. “You know how that went.” Nobody spoke up after that, and Lucy’s words hung in the air like fire. Whoever made a sound first would have to clear that fire, and nobody really knew how. The words flowed to me, and I accepted because I knew who they came from. “So, Lucy says that we can free her if we destroy the wall she’s in.” I said, and then noticed that I simply changed the topic. Julie stared at me, and Lucy grimaced. “It’s a lot more technical than that. The wall doesn’t matter, you just have to show devotion by doing something hard. And it only releases me into you, so that you become me and I become you.” her words made my brain do a flip as it tried to concentrate, but Julie seemed to understand. “So, how are we going to destroy, like, a brick wall?” she asked Lucy. “Because I’m definitely into protecting my family.”