Reminiscence

I hated my sister.

I hated her for being born on the same day as me.

I hated her for being a child prodigy, with me stuck in her shadow.

I hated her for running away from home at 16, leaving me all alone with our belligerent father.

I hated her for graduating from college at 19 and immediately getting hired by NASA, while I was still working at our farm.

And then I hated her for failing to become the youngest person to ever step foot on the moon, instead disappearing amongst the wreckage of her spacecraft. Forever bound to a view of the entire earth beneath her, just as she probably liked it.

Tonight started off like any other.

I was almost finished tending to the horses in the old barn. Spraying them with insect repellent, refilling their water buckets, replacing their bedding, and checking on their hooves. I was fulfilling the same routine I do every night, when I heard a loud car roll up outside.

I wasn’t expecting visitors nor does anyone else live with me, so I walked outside wondering who it was. But there was no car in sight.

Confused, I closed the barn door shut and started walking to the main house.

As I got in through my front door, I looked out the window to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.

I walked to my kitchen to start working on my supper, when I heard another loud noise from outside. There’s no way I’m making this up.

I looked out the window again, and saw that the old barn’s doors were wide open.

I immediately went upstairs looking for my rifle. When I found it, I hurried outside.

When I got to the barn’s entrance, footsteps had formed by the intruder.

I had my rifle pointed up, and slowly traced the footsteps inside of my barn.

One of the horses had gotten out of his stable, I followed the footsteps past him.

I followed the steps along the horses’ stables, until they disappeared turning into the last stable on the left. The empty stable.

“You’ve got 10 seconds to show your hands and walk out of there before I start shooting,” I loudly said.

Not a single move was made.

I fired a shot into the ground. “I mean it!”

A soft voice replied, “Just wait!”

Two hands shot up in the air. The hands moved out from the stable until an entire human being emerged.

My long lost sister. Looking exactly the way she did when she was 25 years old.

I stumbled back on my feet, and she attempted to come towards me as if to help prevent me from falling. But I pointed my gun at her even more sharply.

Maybe tonight’s the night I kill my sister.

“Stay right there,” I said. Clearly my eyes were deceiving me.

“It’s me. Joseph, It’s really me,” she said.

“Stop..Stop it,” I kept my rifle up. “That’s not possible.” I kept shaking my head in denial. Her voice was spot on. Just how I remembered.

I must be going crazy. I must be having a hallucination.

I stared into her eyes, and my heart started racing.

“Just put the gun down and I’ll explain everything,” she said.

Hesitantly, I eventually put the gun down. I was too overwhelmed and anxious to even speak to her further, so I started tending to the horse that had gotten out.

She attempted to help me. When we had him back set up behind the stable, I sat down in the middle of the old barn, cushioned by some hay.

She sat down next to me. As much as I tried, I couldn’t properly process the presence of the person in front of me. I felt as if I was being visited by a ghost. Maybe I was?

“This place doesn’t look that different from what I remember,” she said.

“What exactly do you remember?” I asked.

“There didn’t used to be just horses in here. We had cows for milk, chickens for eggs. A pig sty, even the occasional goat,” she said while smiling. She looked at each spot of the barn those animals used to be as she spoke.

“Yeah, well..a lot’s changed since I’ve been stuck here by myself.”

“How long have you been working this place yourself?” She asked.

“About 20 years.”

“You don’t have any wife or kids?”

“No.. could never really convince anyone else to move out here with me,” I said.

“What about dad?” She finally asked.

“He uh.. he died about 5 years after you were presumed dead.”

She nodded her head, as if seeing it her mind.

“Funny enough,” I continued, “he always said that you weren’t actually dead. You were just missing. Towards the end he grew a little demented, I mean he always was but I mean real dementia. You know. So he would call for you a lot at the end. I didn’t have the heart to remind him of reality every time.”

She nodded her head again.

We sat there in silence a little longer until I decided to finally break it.

“Are you going to tell me how you’re alive? And why you haven’t aged a day since?”

She took a deep breath. “It would be a lot to explain right now.”

I scoffed under my breath.

“Figures. You don’t think I’d be able to understand.”

“It’s not that,” she replied. “There’s just more pressing issues right now. There’s some people after me. I came here for your help.”

“Why should I help you?” I asked. “After..After you abandoned me so long ago?” I felt myself getting emotional. “You’ve clearly never cared for me or this home.”

“Joseph..” she came up and held my hand. “I look back at my memories now and can’t think of a single instance where I felt anything other than love for you. I’m sorry for leaving you here. The truth is I regret everything. I want a second chance.”

I pondered her words for a moment. If you had asked me a day ago, I might not have minded killing my sister let alone protecting her.

“So, You need to start a new life and came here?”

“Yes,” she said. “Back where it all started.”

I took her words in closely. “Why now?” I asked.

“Because as far as you run away, there’s nothing that can replace your favorite childhood memories. Playing with your brother on the farm, sleeping under the stars on the weekends.”

I looked up at her eyes as she said that. I imagined the two of us as kids finally getting to reunite again to play our favorite games. I felt my inner child finally being allowed to yearn for her again.

“Who are these people after you?”

“They’re a government agency that doesn’t exactly let it’s employees retire.”

“And they’re on your tail?”

“Yes, I don’t know exactly how far behind but it can’t be that far.”

“Okay, I’ll help you out,” I said. I couldn’t believe myself. A few kind words from her is all it took. Maybe those words are all I’ve wanted all these years. I guess I won’t be killing my sister tonight after all.

We spent the rest of that night in the old barn, underneath the stars like we always did. She even remembered how to play the same card games we’d always played.

We reminisced about every memory. I couldn’t believe the detail with which she remembered. She really did care after all.

The dawn had came before we knew it. But with it, a loud police siren suddenly sounded off outside. A police officer must be approaching.

“Hide in the stable,” I told her.

We had already cleaned up her footsteps from earlier. I went to the horses near the front of the barn and started tending to them while the police car approached.

An officer parked in front of the barn and stepped out of his vehicle.

“Good morning, Officer. Something you need?” I asked.

“We’re actually looking for a runaway fugitive. Have you seen anything suspicious this past night?”

“No, I haven’t. A fugitive?”

“Yes, somebody really dangerous. You sure you haven’t seen anyone?”

“No, I haven’t,” I said.

“Well, then you won’t mind if I search the premises.”

He started walking inside of the barn.

I froze for a second. If I object too strongly he might become suspicious and call his buddies.

I have to just hope he takes a quick glance and leaves.

He walked through the front door of the barn and started looking at the stables.

For some reason, he was going as far as to look inside each stable. He even pulled out his gun.

Right before he got to the last stable, I was left with no choice. I pulled out my rifle and pointed it at him.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

He turned around slowly.

“There is somebody in here isn’t there.”

I stood silent.

“You’re making a big mista-”

Before he could finish his sentence, my sister jumped out from the stable and grabbed him from behind.

To my horror, she grabbed his gun and shot him in the back.

He fell to the ground and she darted out past me, taking one of my horses with her.

“What are you doing!” I exclaimed.

She ignored me while she got up on the horses, and prepared to ride away.

I pointed my gun right at her and screamed, “stop right there!”

She turned around and pointed the officer’s gun right back at me.

We both stood there frozen for a second. I looked into her eyes again. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.

She turned around and started riding.

I screamed for her to stop.

I ran back inside to the officer, who was still breathing.

“How do I help you call for back-up?” I asked.

“They’re already on their way,” he said through weak breaths.

“Okay, good. I, I didn’t-”

“It’s okay,” he weakly said. “It’s not a creature of this earth. It could fool anyone.”

“What do you mean not of this earth?”

“I’m not a regular cop. I hunt those things. It’s a creature that can look into the memories of any of the people its consumed, and shape shift into them.”

I sat on his words for a moment.

He breathed his last breaths in my arms before turning cold.

I got up, grabbed my rifle, grabbed a horse, and rode after her.

Maybe I’ll get to kill my sister tonight after all.