She's Alive! No She's Dead

She’s Alive! No, She’s Dead

July 10, 2023. Her birthday. It's been 9 years since she's been gone. She would be 13, her big birthday, she’d always looked forward to this day. Now I’m not even sure she is alive today. Everyone has lost hope. Saying goodbye as they released fake ashes into the ocean. Those ashes were just from the burned car where the last traces of her were. But ever since, I’ve felt a tug in my gut, like she’s pulling her way toward me.

I opened my eyes. I didn’t want to wake up. I’ve been dreading this day since we lost her. July 11, 2015. The day after her 5th birthday. I was 7. We spent the day at the park, the park near the woods. Trixie had worn her favorite blue Elsa dress, along with her Belle high heels, curled strands of her dark hair fell down to her shoulders. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

Her giant smile as we took turns pushing each other on the bright yellow swing, her laughter bringing her higher and higher until she reached the moon. She jumped. Boosting herself off the worn out seat, the old chains creaked as the pressure was released. I watched in slow motion as her arms let loose, raised high into the air, grasping the stars before touching down on the wood chips. I let go of the breath I didn’t know I was holding in. Short giggles erupted out of her as she caught her breath.

We did this 10 more times, switching each time. I never went as high but it felt like a force of joy lifted me into the sky. But I got tired. The biggest mistake of my life. Telling her that we should stop and go back to our parents, I looked around watching them smiling as they watched us on the swings. Trixie got mad. She started to cry as I told her I just needed a break.

“BUT IT’S MY BIRTHDAY MISTY! I'M FIVE AND YOUR SEVEN, TELLING ME YOU’RE TIRED??”

The whole park turned as I covered her mouth, looking back at my parents. They glared at me, mouthing the words, “Suck it up”.

I sighed. But turning back Trixie was gone. No sight of her blue Elsa dress anywhere.

“Where’d she go?” I questioned my parents, hoping they saw where she went.

“I don’t know but you better find her,” my mom replied, not looking up from her phone.

The next second I heard screams. These screams have haunted me since that day. It was Trixie. I looked around frantically, begging for a clue of where she was. I heard it again. This time near the woods. My heart was pounding as I took off. I tripped. The stupid Belle high heels Trixie had made me wear that day. Kicking them off I screamed her name, hoping for a response. My parents didn’t do a thing. They couldn’t even recognize the screams of my little sister. I ran toward the woods. The sound of a car engine filled the deafening silence as I watched it pull away towards the trees. My little sister, Trixie, in the back seat. Her petite hands pressed against the trunk window as I saw her mouth move in words I would never forget or hear again. “I love you”.

I ran back to the park, faster than I have ever ran before.

         “Mom! Dad! She’s been kidnapped! HURRY!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Nearby people in the park began to call 911. My parents finally got off their phone hearing the sirens of the police and I pounded on my dad’s arm crying for help. He was the only one who would listen to me. My mom never liked me, I was the reason why she had a second child. Not because she wanted a sister bond, she didn’t like me.

         “What happened honey?” my dad questioned blankly.

         “I heard there has been a kidnapping?” the police officer said to me as my parents watched in confusion.

         “WHAT? WHERE’S TRIXIE?” my mom shouted.

         “I TOLD YOU SHE WAS DRIVEN AWAY IN A CAR INTO THE WOODS!” I screamed back at her as tears of frustration and fear streamed down my face. I needed her back. I couldn’t handle my parents by myself. She was the golden child… without her I still wouldn’t make my parents happy.

         “She was driven into the woods?” another police officer asked. I nodded. She brought her walkie talkie towards her mouth, repeating the information I told her. Both police officers ran with me and my parents towards the woods, kicking up dirt as I ran the fastest. I wanted to find her. I needed to see her face again.

         “She’ll be fine. She’ll be fine,” I whispered to myself, my sister knew how to handle herself. My parents had left her at preschool on her first day. She didn’t panic, I taught her to call my grandparents on the phone to pick her up. I thought it wouldn’t happen again. I was wrong. They forgot me and her. Every. Single. Day. Eventually our grandparents would just pick us up on a daily basis. The sound of flames filled my ears. I ran faster, my parents begging me to wait up. The police were behind me as I saw my worst nightmare in front of me.

         The car that took her had driven into a ditch and erupted into flames. A blue fabric had caught my eye. A piece of her dress was caught on the door, Elsa, the ice queen’s face was slowly turning brown by the heat. The crackling of the flames brought me closer and closer towards the burned crisp. Both policemens grabbed me by my waist, keeping me back as the heat of the flames added to my anger. A couple minutes later a fire truck pulled up behind us as I watched Elsa’s face slowly disintegrating into ashes. Blasts of water stopped the flames as the firemen ran towards the car. Just touching the door was enough for it to collapse in debris. They searched the car bringing out more pieces of her dress, along with one item that helped me hold out hope. Just one of her Belle high heels was found in the car. No sign of anybody was found in the car. No signs of anyone’s burnt corpse. No traces of her or her kidnapper were found.

         “She’s alive. She’s alive!” I gasped at my parents. Their faces were filled with horror. My mom started screaming at me.

         “Are you stupid you little brat? SHE GOING TO DIE! AND GUESS WHAT IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU ARE THE DUMBEST LITTLE PIECE OF SH-” before another blast of water drowned out her evil words toward me. I looked at my dad, he just shrugged his shoulders, no obvious sign toward his emotion to finding the car.

         After that day, I’ve been to multiple therapists. My mom never apologized about her little outburst that day. She still secretly blamed me.

         “It’s not your fault, I just can’t believe you couldn’t watch her for 10 seconds,” she would say after calling me my new nickname “Child Killer”.

I hated her. My dad never said anything rude to me but he also didn’t say anything comforting to me either.

         This guilt was eating me alive. I didn’t know how to stop it until my mom bought a milk carton. Trixie’s smiling face was on it with the words below stating, “Child gone missing since 2015 due to her STUPID sister. Any signs of her should be reported. Would now be 14 years old.” She placed that stupid carton right in front of my face.

         “See what you did, Child Killer?” she asked me before rolling her cold eyes and walking away into the living room, a dark cloud of evil trailing behind her. Every phone call sent toward my phone I answered, hoping to hear the words, “I saw her”. I needed to find her. And fast. A couple days later I checked my mother’s phone, hoping to find any phone calls or texts regarding any clues where my sister was. I searched for a good 10 minutes before coming across her conversation with my Aunt Graceapple. Aunt Graceapple had never been able to pull any husbands so she’d always envied my mom for having 2 thriving daughters. Instead of texts regarding my sister, they were regarding me!

“I need to get away from this menace, yesterday she did the most rude thing any kid has ever done, she talked to me,” my mom texted along with the annoyed face.

“Can you please take her in for like a month or something? I’ve been with this Child Killer for soooo long.” She texted again with the begging face emoji

“Sure thing sweetheart, it’s been so long since I’ve seen your daughters, I’m so sorry to hear about Trixie.” My aunt replied.

My heart was pounding. My own mom wanted to get rid of me, to my aunt? A loud slam of the door interrupted my thoughts. After shoving the phone back into my mom’s purse, I turned around to face my worst nightmare. My mom was smiling, her eyes daring me to talk, head tilted like a dog, hands gripping on the door to prevent beating me up.

         “WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?” she screeched.

         “N-nothing?” I whispered quietly as she kept taking huge deep breaths, trying to keep her cool.

         “YOU WERE LOOKING THROUGH MY PHONE? YOU KNOW MY PHONE IS MY PRIVACY YOU LITTLE RAT! YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT?”

         “Y-yes,” I replied, She stomped towards her purse but before reaching her phone she slapped me hard right on my face. Unconsciously my hand brought itself up to my face, my mouth wide open from shock. She slapped me, and she slapped me HARD. I thought to myself. I wanted to slap her back, but she would hit me harder and I knew she had the capability to. My mom scrolled through her phone before pulling up the conversation with my aunt.

         “So, I assume you read the conversation with Aunt Graceapple?” she questioned me with a small smirk visible on her face. I nodded slowly, unable to read the emotion on her face.

“Ok good, I’ve already packed your clothes for you, you're leaving tomorrow!” she added gleefully, now the emotion was very clear. Finally an excuse to get away from my mother I thought to myself. I went to my room and locked the door. Time to put my plan into action. It was time to figure out where my sister was. I uncovered the box of clues from under my bed. Taking off the top, I was greeted by two items, a bag of ashes from the burnt car and the last trace of her, the little Belle high heel. I needed more clues on where my sister was. Then I remembered, Aunt Graceapple was a professional detective! I’m sure if anyone could find out where Trixie was, it was her. Deciding not to acknowledge the small box of “clues”, I went out into the dinning room for dinner.

My mom had made my favorite meal, lasagna. The last time I had this meal was the day before the kidnapping, she must’ve been in a really great mood. She greeted me at the table before placing down a giant plate holding my long-lost love.

“Eat it quickly while it’s hot!” she said cheerfully.

“Are you ok?” Who was this person, and what had she done to my mother?

“Yes of course Misty! I’m just so excited for you to go spend some quality time with your aunt!” She’d called me by my real name! I knew this was some sort of trick, no way would she be this happy about me just visiting her sister. They never had the best relationship. Aunt Graceapple used to visit us all the time with her boyfriend. His name was Joe and I always thought that they were soulmates. But that was before they broke up. Since then, we’d never seen her again.

         After finishing up on the best meal since forever, I went into my room and packed a couple extra things before getting ready for bed. That night I couldn’t sleep at all, the excitement of knowing I may be able to see my sister again was all I could think about. The sounds of cheering and popping of champagne bottles also made it hard to fall asleep, but after a good 30 minutes, I was sleeping soundly, ready for the exciting day ahead of me.

         I opened my eyes. Here it was! I would embark on my journey to find my sister! I knew she had to be somewhere in Chicago, I had a feeling. I put on my favorite cashmere sweater before zipping up my luggage, sealing my fate with my aunt. My mom met me at the door, a wide smile plastered across her face as she opened the door.

         “Are you excited? I know I am!” she cried as she showed me to a car.

         “Wait, I’m taking an uber? I thought you were going to drive me!” I asked suspiciously. My mom shook her head, saying

         “Oh no, of course not. An hour in a car with you would be the most dreadful thing, even more dreadful than your sister dead,” she replied. The mean, heartless mom was back. I wanted to say that I knew that Trixie was alive, but I didn’t want to waste my breath. At that point, it didn’t even seem like my mom was sad about the kidnapping of my sister, it just seemed like she wanted an excuse to blame me for all the horrible things that happened that day. She shoved me into the car without saying goodbye before waltzing back into the house, her skinny arms raised up into the air in victory.

         The car ride there wasn’t that bad. I texted my aunt, making sure she didn’t forget about my arrival. She texted back reassuring me that she was prepared for me to be with her and added a little rude comment about my mother. I was looking forward to this trip more and more. I accidentally fell asleep in the car. A loud bag of the trunk woke me up. I was at my aunt’s house! I’d never been there before. It was HUGE, the bright yellow paint greeted me as the red door begged me to come inside. After thanking the uber driver, I took a deep breath before making my way up the stairs toward the 3 story mansion, the small shrubbery bowing down to me as I took the marble staircase one step at a time.

         I knocked on the door, 10 locks unlatched before I was welcomed by my aunt.

         “Misty!! It’s so good to see you! Look at you! You’re all grown up!” she exclaimed as she wrapped me into a warm embrace. After letting go, I took a good look at her. Her previously blonde hair was now brown with bleached highlights and pulled back into a tight bun. The last time I saw her, she was in sweats and a baggy T-shirt. No wonder why her boyfriend broke up with her, I thought to myself. She had really cleaned herself up! She wore a lululemon tank top along with black hotty hot shorts.

         “OMG! I’ve missed you so much! You look so different!” I shrieked as I wrapped her into another warm hug. She thanked me before placing my luggage aside.

         “Here! Let me show you around the house!”  I was elated to spend time with my aunt but I knew I had to figure out some business so after the long wonderous tour, I popped the big question.

         “So, Aunt Graceapple, I know my sister is alive, she’s gotta be! Do you think you could help me figure out where she is being held hostage since I know you are a professional detective?” I asked, hoping for an answer that would give me hope.

         “Oh, sweetie, you know she’s dead right? There is no way that she is alive. As sad as it is to say that, but that’s the truth,” she answered, before giving me a tight hug and a sympathetic smile.

         “No! You’re wrong! I know she’s alive, I-i feel her! She’s alive!” I screamed back at her. She was wrong, I know there wasn’t a single clue stating whether she was alive or not but I knew she was alive. She had to be. I stormed into my bedroom. I didn’t talk to my aunt for the rest of the day.

         That night I got a call regarding my sister. The person had called me, telling me that my sister was found dead in the woods where she was last seen. I didn’t say anything, I listened to their voice, repeating the information over and over again in my head. She’s dead. She’s dead. She couldn’t be. I searched those woods everyday since that day. I found nothing, just ash spread around the wood. She wasn’t dead. I never saw anything. There was nothing to prove she was dead. Not even my parents knew yet. How come they contacted me when the information on the milk carton was my mother’s? Something was not adding up and I knew this was fake. No way would someone who got the information from the carton call me instead of my mother.

         In my room I cleaned around, I found a receipt for a pair of lululemon leggings. It was size 0. Although my aunt was skinny, there was no way that she could fit into a size 0. Maybe this was a long time ago, she was skinny back when she was with her boyfriend. However, after digging out the receipt from the trash I looked at the date. She bought these leggings a couple days ago. I thought this could mean anything, she could’ve just bought these for a friend, or her neighbor. I didn’t mean it was for her. But then I thought again, my aunt was a detective, she could’ve easily covered up the fact that she was hiding something. My sister was 13 years old now, she would be wearing size 0 leggings, assuming she was still skinny. Of course she was skinny, she weighed 6 pounds when she was born. My aunt sold the fact that my sister was dead, and a couple hours later I got a call stating she was dead with no proof or anything. I dialed the number again, a couple seconds later I heard a ringing downstairs.

         My aunt kidnapped my sister.

         There’s no way, she’s the nicest person on Earth! I tried to convince myself. My aunt was nice but she’d always been jealous of my mom for having children. She would always make remarks about if she had the opportunity to kidnap one of us she would take it so that she could have a daughter. I always thought she was joking, but I should’ve known, my aunt never jokes, when her heart was set on something, she would make sure she got it. It all came back to me, my mom had called her the day before my sister’s day at the park, asking if she wanted to travel down and visit us. My aunt declined saying she was too distraught from losing her boyfriend. After that day, my aunt never visited us again, not because she was depressed, but because she knew she couldn’t give any clues away that she had my sister.

         But why would she accept the offer to let me stay here from my mother? I ran downstairs and grabbed her phone while she worked on her computer. I scrolled through her texts to find her conversation with my mother. Between the texts with my mom about me staying with her, I read something that wasn’t on my mom’s phone. My aunt was arguing saying how she wasn’t sure if she could handle seeing me after what happened to my sister. Mom was persistent, they were the same, they got what they wanted when their hearts were set on it. My mom must’ve deleted the texts with my aunt. She never liked reliving their bickering and fights.

         My sister was somewhere in this house. I knew it. But this house was huge, there was no way she would be somewhere easy to find. However, if Aunt Graceapple wanted Trixie to herself, she wouldn’t be tortuous to her, she would treat her nicely. I wondered how my sister reacted to this. Then I remembered something, during the tour with my aunt, she’d said that one room was off-limits. I thought there was just old stuff in there but when I passed it in the hallway, the lights were on and the door was freshly painted, like someone wanted to take care of it.

         She was in there. I didn’t know how to get to her without my aunt knowing, but she was here. And she was alive. That night when I was sure my aunt was asleep I snuck into the room. Carefully twisting the knob before fully opening the door. My heart was pounding, my hands were shaking, I would finally see my sister after waiting 9 years. On the bed, there was a figure, a small teenage looking figure. It was Trixie.

         I didn’t want to wake her up, but I knew she must’ve known there was company so she would be too shocked to see me. She looked different, her hair was grown out as she wore a baggy T-shirt and pajama pants. I gently nudged her before she opened her eyes. I finally saw those beautiful brown eyes after so many years. The last time I saw those eyes, they were wide with terror. They were soft this time.

         “Hi! I’m Trixie!” she whispered to me. My heart was pounding. She was here. This was her.

         “I know… I’m Misty,” I replied. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She looked like she was about to scream but I reassured her everything was ok.

         “Wait, my sister Misty?” she questioned me before I nodded. She threw her arms around me and cried.

         “I thought I’d never see you again! I’ve missed you so much!”

         I wanted to stay there forever, but I knew I needed to bring her back home. We quickly got our stuff together before I called another uber to bring us back to my parents. I couldn’t believe my aunt would ever do such a thing. Finally, the uber arrived. My sister was reluctant to leave but I needed her to realize what had happened. I told her I would explain on our way home. After we set off in the car, I called the cops. I needed to make sure my aunt wouldn’t come after us. She could’ve probably killed us if she wanted to. I was going home. And this time, not alone. I was with my sister.

         The whole car ride there I talked with my sister and told her all the horrible things our mother had done to me. She said that her stay with Aunt Graceapple wasn’t actually that bad. At 5 years old, it was hard for her to know what was going on. I tried asking about what happened that day, but she said that her memory was too foggy to remember.

         After an hour's drive, we made it home. I thanked the Uber driver and brought my sister to the front door. I held her hand as she knocked on the door. A couple seconds later my mom opened the front door.

         “What is it? It’s 12 am, why are you knocking on my front door?” she said groggily. She saw me as her shoulders slumped, but it wasn’t until she shifted her gaze towards my sister when her eyebrows crinkled.

         “Hi, Mom,” my sister exclaimed, her voice quivering in fear.

         “Mom, I brought home Trixie!” I cried. My mom gasped before grabbing me and my sister into the house. Tears were streaming down her face as we all sobbed together. It wasn’t until my dad woke up until we were all reunited. That night no one slept, we all caught up with one another, tears running down our cheeks as we hugged one another tightly, we would never let go of each other again.