Ella

It all started the day Ella got that package. The events that were to occur that night sent me into an existential crisis. Contemplating heavily if my existence was merely a storyline...

Out of the silent night came a crash that shook the whole house. "Everyone okay?" Dad yelled. Voices from bedrooms upstairs and down, groggy, but present and a counted for- all except one. Where was Ella?

Ella is the baby in the family. She's 5 years old, 12 mentally. Big green eyes, light brown mocha skin, and dark brown hair. She looks nothing like me or any of my 3 other siblings. We're all fair-skinned, blue eyes, and dirty blonde hair. I honestly can't remember when Ella came here... I know she was just a baby, I don't know how old she was then. I was still young myself. At that age, I was under the impression that storks delivered babies to your home. So regardless of our differences, she was my sister and I was hers.

This is why I was shook to my core when the moments of our lives weaved a reality I couldn't even begin to comprehend. I took a few steps down the stairs. "Ellaaa." I called softly as I continued cautiously down the spiraling staircase. I could hear and smell the rain before I could see it, it sounded like it was pouring. Rounding the last corner I could feel the breeze from the rain hitting the surface, the door was wide open. As I ran to close it I stopped. Ella?

Ella was standing in the doorway, soaked from head to toe. She looked as though she had been outside. She was holding a box. A small box covered in brown paper, with a little tag hanging off the top. It was perfectly dry! We have a porch, but with the weather, it is getting drenched.

"Hey Ells, where'd you get the cute little box?" I asked curiously.

"Outside," Ella replied calmly in a daze. "It was sitting out in the lawn in front of the steps when the door blew in. It made a big bang then I went outside to get the box. I got all wet but the box didn't, the box is magic."

I prodded leerily and mildly curious. "Wh-who d-does it s-say it's for?" I mean we were just awoken in the dead of night to a frightfully loud crash, only to find the front door wide open, my baby sister soaked standing in the doorway holding a perfectly dry package of unknown origins. I'm glad everyone was watching overhead because I would have thought I was dreaming.

"It's for me, Mama got it for me." She said gleefully.

"I was in bed sleeping sweetheart it couldn't have been me." My mother rebutted back. "Noooo... Not Yoou!" Ella scoffed.

"Hehe... if not me, then who else Ells?" mother chuckled nervously.

Ella's face began to light up. "MY Mama is always here, but you never see her. She's always giving life yet you take it- " As she spoke the ground began to tremble.

"Ells?! What are you talking about?! Who told you these things?!?" Mother cried out in fear. The walls of the house now buckling under the pressure.

"She gives you tools of healing and path masters. Manipulated and abused they are." The house creaking and cracking, singing its symphony Cacophony of Clutter in acapella, while dust is falling from the ceiling.

I looked back and forth between mom and Ella, more confused and terrified now than when I was in bed hearing the crash while feeling the house shake me awake. There were so many questions... What was in the box? Who is Ella's mom? Why is the house falling apart so violently? Who the hell is Ella? Because she clearly can not be my sister. What is she even talking about?! Also What in the world is going on!? Are we the only ones feeling this right now?

"What once was we'll make anew. What once was we'll make anew. What once was we'll make anew." Ella began chanting as she unraveled the ribbon tied around the box. A glow seeping from the top where it meets the box.

My heart stopped the moment I saw that light shining from the box. I didn't have to nor want to see what was coming out of it to acknowledge that it is something well beyond my capabilities. I was in short, terrified.

Watching her reach her little hand to open that little paper-wrapped box was the most intense few seconds of my life. That brief moment gave me the chance to contemplate my entire life until this moment and in what way whatever's in the box is going to kill me. I believe a tear ran down my face as I clenched my hands together to pray for my life.

"Ella sweetie... I think we're done with the box, why don't we put it down." My mother said trying to soothingly coax Ella.

"Put the box down? Y-you, want me to.. put the box down?" Ella mocked back tauntingly. She squinted and smirked, "Yes Mommy, I'll put the box down now." Holding the top she allowed the bottom to drop aimlessly to the ground.

When I tell you I was so petrified, I couldn't even move. No words can describe what happened when that box hit the ground. I only remember a bright light and screams as white noise overtook me. When I came to, Ella was gone, and none of us have spoken since. We walk about the house without uttering a word to one another, we may pass glances but never exchanged phrases. For fear, if we did, we'd have to face what happened the night Ella went rogue.

There's not a month that goes by now that I'm older where I don't wonder where Ella could have come from and where she disappeared to. I wish I would have been tempted to ask my parents when they were alive. Now I will always have to wonder, feeling as though I need to sleep with one eye open.

To be continued...