Smackdown Shorts

Gone

It was the morning after Halloween, 2012. I remember it clearly. My sister never came down from her bedroom.

The last time I saw her was the evening before Thalia disappeared. It wasn't exactly a good memory. At dinner, she had accidentally knocked over her juice. Our parents were furious. My father grabbed her by the arm and all but carried her out of the living room to punish her. I wish I could've helped her, could've made things better, so that my last memory of her wasn't so stained. But I was only eight. What could I possibly have done?

My parents were always furious with her. Never with me. As if I was the favourite child. Thalia always got the blame for everything. Even when I had been at fault.

Yet she never took that out on me. I don't remember a single time when she was angry with me. Thalia was my best friend. We used to do everything together. She would come to my room to play with me after school, I would sneak into hers at night so she could keep me safe from the monsters in our house, and I would cuddle with her when she was unwell or when she was hurt, to make her feel a little better.

And then she disappeared. All of a sudden. Without warning. As if she'd never even existed in the first place.

My parents told me she'd left. They told me she was a naughty girl and had decided to leave us all behind. She'd always been difficult. She'd always been getting herself into trouble. It wasn't that much of a stretch to think this might've simply been her next stunt.

The police looked for her, of course. My parents cried, telling everyone they'd do anything to get their daughter back. Telling everyone they'd take good care of her, give her all the help she needed, if someone would just bring her back to us.

I barely spoke at all. To anyone. I was heartbroken. My best friend. My big sister. Gone.

"Lucy! For God's sake, girl, fix your hair. And have you finished your homework yet?"

Lucy, who had just come downstairs to grab herself some breakfast, resisted the urge to glare or roll her eyes. She was 18 years old and in college. She didn't need her mother to chase her about studying. But her mother, who sat on the sofa and was painting her nails in some awful, bright red colour, liked being in control. There was no going against her if she was like this. Actually, there was no going against her, ever. "Yes, mother."

It had been the three of them for years; just Lucy, her mother and her father. She used to have a sister, a long time ago. Thalia. But after Thalia ran away, Lucy had waited fruitlessly, for years, for her to come back. She never did. Even ten years later, she still hadn't returned. Lucy had given up all hope by now. Thalia was gone. And she was never coming back.

Her parents were different since their daughter had left. It had changed them. They were a whole lot stricter with Lucy now. A whole lot less proud and enthusiastic when she did something right. A whole lot more angry and disappointed when she did something wrong. Almost as if she had taken her sister's place. As if it wasn't Thalia, but Lucy who had disappeared that day.

Before she had a chance to go to her room and grab her hairbrush, the phone rang. Old-fashioned as they were, her parents still had a landline, despite having the latest, most shiny mobile phones in their pockets as well. The landline didn't ring often, because people usually just called their cellphones nowadays, but it still worked.

"I'll get it!" said Lucy. It was probably some marketing person, anyway. She'd deal with that herself; she didn't need her mother in an even worse mood so early in the morning. "Hello?" But it wasn't a sales person. "Oh. Yeah, sure, she's right here. Mum, it's for you."