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A Shortstory Contest Entry

This is for StarryBlueLeopard's writing contest. She asked for a sad short story, so here it is!

My Fault

I'll never forget the day that I became an only child. It was a day like any other day, where the sun was shining and the sky was a bright blue, my sister's favorite color. Where the birds sang in the trees and the flowers waved in the breeze.
It was a beautiful day, and as children often do, we went outside into the woods and we played in the trees, climbing them and looking for wildflowers. It was a day like any other day, but then it happened.
"I bet that I can climb higher then you can!" I shouted up at my younger sister who was on the branch above me, her 11-year-old eyes shining bright.
"No you can't!" She yelled back, laughing.
"Yes I can!" I shouted back, beginning to climb the tree, feeling the rough bark under my hands, the leaves brush my skin lightly like the wings of a butterfly.
As I climbed towards her she reached out a hand and I grabbed it. She pulled me up to the branch that she was on and we sat there together, watching the birds in the trees.
"I wonder how high you can go." My sister thought aloud.
"Higher than you can." I answered, grinning.
"I bet you can't." She teased, standing up beside me and putting a hand on the branch above her. She then began to climb, higher and higher, and I followed close behind.
Together we climbed the huge oak tree, passing each other once or twice. It was a race, nothing more, and it took us a long time to realize just how high we were.
When I looked down I froze. We were far higher than I had first realized.
"Ariana, we should go down!" I yelled up at my sister who was farther up the tree.
"No way!" She responded, climbing higher.
"I want to climb higher!" She said, reaching out for another branch.
"Alright!" I yelled back, following her, not wanting to lose our competition, knowing that Aruban would brag about it for the next week.
Then my worst nightmare happened.
We must have been 20 or 30 feet off of the ground, far higher than we had ever gone before, higher than we had ever dared to go.
Ariana looked down at me, at my scared face.
"What?" She asked me.
"Are you scared?"
Then she reached for another branch, reaching out on her tiptoes... and her hand closed on empty air. She tried to balance herself on the branch, to stop herself from falling, but failed.
I remember my own voice screaming "No!" as my one and only sister, the most important person in my life, fell to her death. I remember watching her body hit the ground, remember her not getting up, not moving, not saying a word, not even screaming in pain.
I remember that as I climbed down the tree hot tears blurred my vision, the grief welling up inside me, barely able to contain it.
But most of all I remember that this was my fault.
I had dared her to go higher, I had given her the idea of the challenge.
And as I ran through the woods this was all that I could think of.
It's my fault.
It's my fault.
It's all my fault.
When I burst through the door crying mom and dad asked what happened. I told them, barely able to contain my grief at what had happened.
Mom called 9-1-1 immediately while dad went four to the woods to get Arianna in hopes of saving her.
I remember him coming into the house carrying her broken body, her eyes closed. I held in my tears, fighting back the grief that I held inside as the paramedics rushed her to the hospital, the broken body of my only sister being taken away.
I cried uncontrollably that night, unable to shake the feeling that it was my fault. My mind wouldn't let go of it, constantly reminding me that it was me who had dared her to climb just one more branch.
It was you that injured her. It whispered.
My parents woke me that morning, saying that we could go see Arianna now. I got dressed, hoping beyond hope that she had somehow made it out alive.
The car ride over was agony, I resisted the urge to cry the whole way there, unable to surprise the overwhelming grief for my sister.
The hospital was busy, teeming with families and patients, but when we got to her room it was deathly quiet. She lay in a white hospital bed not moving, her eyes closed.
I went over to her bedside, tears sliding down my face and onto the bed sheets.
"I'm so sorry." I said through the tears, my voice a whisper.
"I'm so, so sorry..."
I squeezed her hand. I felt her squeeze faintly back. She opened her eyes and looked up at me, and she whispered something that I'll never forget.
"It wasn't your fault, it was mine."
I felt her hand go limp, her eyes close and then the heart rate monitor flatline, and I knew that she was dead.
"No." I whispered, not believing it at first.
"No no no no no. No!"
I whirled around, tears streaming down my face. My mother came in and wrapped her arms around me.
"She can't be dead... not Arianna... she can't be..."
I broke out of my mother's embrace and ran out of the hospital room. She called after me, but I didn't listen.
I ran out onto the grass outside the hospital and collapsed onto my knees, my head in my hands.
"No." I told myself again, rocking back and forth ever so slightly.
She can't be gone... not her...
My parents came out and found me outside and gently guided me to the car. I didn't speak even when they asked me questions, too shocked by what had happened to answer any questions. I didn't eat much either, and stuck mostly ro my room.
The funeral was the worst part. I cried the entire time, unable to hold it in. School wasn't great either. My grades started to slip and I wasn't talking to my friends, and they grew distant until I only had my best friend Adrien left. He comforted me, tried to make me feel better, but nothing could make me feel better, make me forget that it was my fault.
And here I am today, a grown adult, and it still haunts me today, the fact that my sister is gone because of me.
That it was all my fault.
But things can only get better from here, right? So I'll continue my life as normal, and try to ignore the pain, though it will resurface from time to time.