Lily was a frequent walker of this trail. It was her favorite with tall trees for shade and signs telling what flowers grew around here. She was a few feet behind her little sister, Emily,  who was bouncing along the trail. Her blonde ponytail followed suit and her pink sweater blared against the greenery. “Don’t go too far, ok?” Lily told her sister. All she got in response was a nod as Emily continued to skip further ahead. Lily looked up at the sky and watched birds flutter from tree to tree, smiling at their little calls to each other. She had walked this path so many times she didn’t worry about tripping over anything. Her feet followed the same route they always do. One, two, one two, she counted to herself. 

Then suddenly her ankle twisted and she tumbled over, face hitting the dirt. She sucked in her breath as pain shot up her leg. “What just happened?” she mumbled as she pushed herself up from the ground. She sat, dusting herself off, and looked in front of her. What should’ve been a straight path was now diverged into two. The left path was closed with boards and signs warning not to trespass. The right was open but with branches hanging loomingly and dead. “Emily?” Lily called out. Fear dripped through her body and landed in an icy pool in her stomach. The pink sweater was nowhere in sight. “Emily?” She called louder. Her heart started racing as she picked herself up. 

A million thoughts were racing through her head as she started down the right path. Lily’s eyes darted around the trees praying to see something, anything, that could lead her to her sister. Tears pricked at her eyes as she tried to be reasonable. “Maybe she’s playing hide and seek, kids do that right?” The more she walked along the trail the more confused she became. This wasn’t a part of the trail and she would’ve been on this at one time or another. She had explored every offbeat path at least three times. It wound behind a thicket and Lily couldn’t see unless she walked around it. 

But as she started to inch near it, her legs stopped. This unexplainable feeling began worming its around her stomach and grasped her lungs in its hands. She tried silencing her breath because she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was waiting for her behind the mass of brush and trees. “E-Emily?” she whispered. Nothing moved. Nothing dared to breathe. Suddenly, a small creature shot out from the thicket and jumped across the trail. Lily let out a shriek and stumbled back. When she finally saw what it was she let out a small, uneasy laugh. “It’s just a fox.” The creature glanced back with worried eyes before darting away. 

She walked around the thicket and came face to face with the end of the trail. It spilled into the open mouth of the cave. This had to be where Emily ran off to. A shaky breath rattled Lily’s lungs as she psyched herself up to start in. Placing one foot in front of the other with harrowing concentration, she found herself walking deeper and deeper into the unknown. The cold gripped her arms and the air felt dead. “Emily?” her voice echoed. Her sister’s name bounced off the walls of the cave. “Please, Em, you have to call back. I’m just trying to look for you.” Desperation clinged to each word.

A small laugh echoed back at her. Lily froze in her tracks. The laugh was small and girlish, it had to be her sister. “Emily? Are you ok? Seriously, where are you?” She called out. She looked into the darkness in front of her and waited for her sister to appear. 

“You have to find me!” Emily shrieked. At once the warmth came back to Lily and relief spilled throughout her body. She was extremely happy her sister wasn’t dead, but now extremely pissed that her sister scared her like that. 

“Ok, when I find you you’re dead!” Lily yelled. She started again with new determination powering her steps. She still couldn’t see but imagined that if she could hear Emily then she must be close. She yanked out her cell phone and turned on the flashlight. Scanning the rocks she searched for that stupid blonde ponytail and annoyingly pink sweater. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of movement. 

It darted behind this side wall which Lily felt she should’ve noticed by now. As she neared with the flashlight she could see the glow of Emily’s sweater. Then, she stopped. She stopped and her heart dropped. Not just to her stomach but to the ground and maybe even past that. Wrapped around her sister’s sweater was a...hand? No, no hand was too humane of a word. It was long and spindly and clutched the sweater with anger and hunger. The nails were long and sharp, almost like a bird’s talons. Lily back up slowly, silently. Her breath became ragged and her heart pounded in her ears. Don’t come out, please, don’t even peek around the corner. She prayed to herself. She looked up and down as she backed up. She could see part of a head, lowered against the cave ceiling. She could see what looked like part of legs that were bent. The skin looked like paper and the color was gray. The ribs shook as the creature quietly said, “Come and get me,” Her mind twisted at the way it talked. Its voice sounded like Emily, but that thing wasn’t Emily. As Lily got further from that thing and closer to the cave mouth her legs began moving faster. Too fast. She scraped her foot against a rock and the sound echoed. 

Her breath hitched as everything unfolded before her. A blood curdling shriek rang out from the monster as it dove down to all fours and lunged from behind the cave wall. Suddenly, Lily could see it in its entirety. It resembled a walking skeleton with paper skin. It looked like it used to be human but was now taken over with sharp teeth and elongated limbs. Lily booked it from the cave screaming Emily’s name. 

She ran back the way she came and only dared to look back once or twice. To her horror, the thing was running on all fours towards her and seemed to be picking up speed each time she looked back. “EMILY!” She screamed, praying to God that the creature hadn’t gotten her sister. As she rounded the thicket and approached the fork in the road she saw a flash of blonde. Her sister Emily, cut and bruised and obviously crying, was standing at the end of the trail. “EMILY RUN!” Lily screamed at her sister. Emily’s head shot in her direction as she tried to register that her older sister had found her. “GO!” Lily screamed again. This time the words seemed to register in the young girl’s head as she started sprinting back the way they came. 

Lily’s breath stabbed her lungs with each movement but nothing would stop her from getting away. Adrenaline shot through her veins as her sister and her neared the entrance to the forest. She glanced behind herself once more, and saw the creature suddenly halt in its place and let out a frustrated screech, sweater clutched in its hand. 

They didn’t stop running, not until they reached the surprisingly empty street. Lily let out a sob of relief as she grabbed her sister and held her close. She pushed her out to look her up and down. “Jesus, are you ok? Oh my god, what happened?” Lily asked her grabbing her face in her hands, wiping the tears away with her thumbs. 

“I-I don’t know,” Emily sobbed, “I-I saw t-the boards and climbed under t-them. And that, that thing tried to grab me!” Emily pushed herself against her older sister, clinging for dear life. 

“Ok, ok. It’s ok.” Lily whispered as she rubbed her sister’s back. “Let’s go home, yeah?” A nod from Emily. They began walking home with Lily checking behind them every five minutes. Their parents weren’t home when they got there so they tucked together on the couch and mindlessly watched TV. But neither of them were truly watching. Their minds were stuck in the forest, stuck in the cave, stuck running. 

They sat until their parents got home. Of course, their parents didn’t believe what they had to say and worried they were chased by a bear. They asked them not to go walking alone again, which they happily obliged. As the days went on, the fear quieted but never fully went away. The trail that used to be safe and happy was now poisoned and ruined. A trail never to be used again by the two sisters.