Cursed Sibling

As she walked to her workplace, Eliana felt stupid, it was hot and tiring and all the hardships would have been overcome if she drove there herself but she just didn't feel comfortable anymore in a car.

Since the accident, she couldn't muster up courage to drive again, driving was too big a deal for her, she couldn't even think of sitting in a car again!

She found her fears to be very irrational, everyone said that she and her sister, Erina, were lucky to have escaped with minor injuries even though the car had hit a tree, they had the timely airbags to thank for that!

But it was something they had never experienced before, she couldn't bring herself to describe both of them as traumatized but even though she was reluctant to admit it, she knew they were not like how they were before, and the thought they were never going to be like before again kept haunting her.

If the walk to the workplace wasn't distressing enough, she was met with another more distressing piece of information from Amy, Amy heard a rumor going around that Erina had shared with her friends that she hated Eliana and thought she was a curse on her.

She felt taken aback with what she heard, she had never felt in any way that Eri hated her, they weren't the best of siblings but they did get along fine, they had their fights but resolved it too, she never let Eri feel she was the younger sister and as the older sibling she had more power on her, then why?

She could not find an answer to her question, no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't come up with anything that could be the reason for something as big as hatred, Amy was even more clueless, she couldn't even recall exactly where she had heard it but it had deeply disturbed her when she heard it.

Deeply disturbed is exactly how she defined her mental state when she reached home, she wanted to question Eri, but she knew she couldn't bother her over something as trivial as a rumor, part of her was afraid that maybe it was true but she felt the probablity of not getting any answer was higher.

Eri had been holed up inside her room since she came back from the hospital, and refused to go out anywhere out of the house, it was like her world had been limited to the walls of their house.

Their mother was worried about them both but Eri's behaviour distressed her more, she would occasionally forget about Eri when she saw Eliana deciding to walk to work or trying to not even go anywhere near the car, Eri was on the verge of quitting her job and she wasn't hopeful that Eliana would continue much longer.

She couldn't eat her dinner properly, the thought Eri thought of her as some sort of curse kept troubling her, was she really a curse?, she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she was a little bit more beautiful than Eri and she was always ahead of Eri in academics but she couldn't recall ever imposing her will on Eri or comparing herself to her.

She made it her goal to track down the source of the rumor, if she couldn't ask Eri, she would ask the person whom Eri shared it with!

Her search led her to Linda, their mutual friend, she had heard the rumor too and she wasn't sure though whether she was the one who told Amy or not, she thought maybe it was Gemma who spread the rumor, she was the office's gossip queen and maybe she just made it up to trouble Eri because she hated her.

She knew she had to question Gemma, if she made it up, it was really insensitive of her, if Eri came back to the office and heard it, it will only end up troubling her further, maybe she would hole herself up in her room for the rest of her life!

She shook her head at the thought, she had to clear it up, but questioning Gemma put her in a dilemma she found hard to solve. Gemma herself had heard the rumor but wasn't sure who she heard it from and she denied making it up.

Although she wanted to believe that Gemma had made it up, something in her did not let her believe that was the case, what if there was a possibility that Eri really hated it and went as far as blaming her for the accident, she was behind the wheel but it's not like she intentionally caused the accident!

She was restless the whole night, her thoughts did not let her sleep, she couldn't recall being mean to Eri, she always gave her privacy unlike other older sisters, if Eri thought of her that way, she was just being ungrateful, some people do not appreciate whatever you do for them, if that was the case she couldn't do much about it!

She skipped work the next day and the day after that, and like that before she knew it she had skipped a whole week!, did she want to get fired?, maybe, she just didn't want to go back to that workplace again, she was better off finding another job, she was sure she had enough experience and talent for that, or maybe she could try out freelancing?, that was way better than going out!

She was suddenly gripped with anxiety, what if she was slowly becoming like Eri?, no way!, she still went out and didn't mind going out. She made up her mind to quit her job and take a month's break before deciding on what to do.

What she had thought of as freedom turned out to be something else, staying at home made her notice things more, she noticed that someone had gone through her things as if they were searching for something, was it Eri?

On a closer look she found her diary that she had maintained when she was a child was missing, it wasn't something she would have noticed if she hadn't felt something was missing, when was the last time she had bothered to even look at the diary?, maybe an year back.

As she slept, she was woken up by a noise in the hallway, she rushed to check who it was only to find that Eri's lights were on and her door half open, which she quickly shut when she notice Eliana was watching.

It was 2 in the night, what was Eri doing in the hallway anyways?, did she take her diary when she didn't notice?, what had she exactly written in the diary that Eri so badly wanted to read?, how could she be sure that it was Eri who had taken it?, maybe she just misplaced it!

She realized something that made her gasp, she remembered writing that Eri was inferior to her and will always stay that way when she was eleven, they had a fight and she was angry, she didn't remember what they had fought on, but she felt stupid for not cutting it out of her diary, what if Eri had read it?, what would she think?

She was gripped by a fear she couldn't explain but it was like her instincts were guiding her, she locked the door every night before sleeping and made sure to switch the lamp on the whole night, it troubled her as she was not used to sleeping with light on, even very little light like that of the lamp was enough to make her cover herself in her blanket and sleep.

She felt she couldn't take it anymore when she found it difficult to stay awake during the day, she felt tired all the time and so she resolved to not lock her door at night nor switch on the lamp, it was silly and she felt she would go insane if she didn't stop it.

That night she felt she could sleep better but she kept waking up, it was like her instincts didn't allow her to sleep, what were they warning her of?, she didn't have an answer to that, as she turned to the other side she saw a figure enter her room with something sharp, as it gleamed in the moonlight she realized it was a knife, she immediately threw her blanket at the figure, causing it to tumble and fall backwards.

She grabbed at the knife, as the figure winced and tried to get up, she recognized it was Eri!

"So you did say you thought of me as a curse?"

"It's all just a misunderstanding sis, I thought there was thief in the house so I got up to check, I was scared so I brought a knife in case they were armed"

Something didn't add up and she had a gut feeling her sister was trying to kill her, she felt she shouldn't let her guard down and her anger told her to thrust the knife in Eri's heart!

But she calmed herself down, she shouldn't let a silly rumor get to her, she choose to believe her sister but didn't let go of the knife, she walked over to her phone.

"I am going to call the police, if there is a thief it's not safe-

She felt something tighten around her neck making her drop the knife, as she clutched at it to remove it from her neck, she realized to her horror that it was her scarf!

She wanted to plead to be let go but she found it difficult to say a word, the only sound she could make were gasps, she couldn't believe what was happening!

Her head began to throb, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't remove it from her neck, everything started to go blurry and she found it even more difficult to breathe every second, her regrets began to pile up in her mind, as she stopped clutching and everything went blank, she regretted not killing Eri when she had the chance.