Lost Soul

Tragedy, no… worse. Devastation. Once upon a time hasn't always been there for everyone, especially Willow. Childhood stories were cut off for her because of one death, her best friend, Anna. Untold secrets fill Willow's mind with fogged thoughts.

"Willow!" Sara, Willow's mother yelled from the kitchen.

Stomping down the stairs, Willow speeds into the kitchen to eat breakfast before school starts. Sitting down, a plate full of food is placed down in front of her. Digging in, she thanks her mother with a wide smile.

"Slow down, sweetie! You don't want to choke now do you?"

Smiling awkwardly, she takes smaller bites to please her mother. "Mom, I have to go soon or I'll be late!"

Quickly shoveling food into her mouth, Willow stands up and heads towards the front door. Sara follows her to the door with a very confused expression.

"What's the rush?" Sara asks, watching as Willow slips on both of her shoes and grabs her bag.

Opening the door, she steps out while answering. "I just don't want to be late!"

Small taps are heard coming closer to Willow. Turning around, she's met with a small smiling face.

"Willow!" Anna said as she swung her arms around Willow's shoulders. Laughing, she hugs her friend back before backing up.

It's their first day of second grade and they both had on matching green dresses with white stripes going down. Anna was extremely excited considering she loved going to school way more than Willow.

"Are you ready?!" Willow says with an enthusiastic tone. Clasping hands, they start to skip to the bus stop with their parents not far behind them.

Stepping into school, Willow heads straight to her locker to see Ryan leaning against it on his phone. Walking up to him, she opens her locker which startles him, causing Ryan to jump slightly.

When seeing Willow, Ryan smiles while putting his phone in his back pocket. "Hey! You're here early."

Rolling her eyes, she grabs a book from her locker before shutting it. "Can't I ever just come to school on time without anyone questioning why?"

As they start walking, Ryan seems to be thinking very thoroughly before making a 'tsking' noise. "No, it's unusual for you."

"You're so mean!" She teases, which draws a laugh from Ryan.

Walking into their classroom, they sit in two seats next to each other in the middle row. Their science teacher is their favorite teacher since he allows them to sit wherever they want, as long as they're working.

Ding, ding, ding.

Going quiet, the class still talks, but it's quiet as the teacher walks in. Her outfit is very colorful, and all the kids love the cool colors. Standing at the front of the class, she writes her name on the board, 'Mrs. Helen.'

Turning around, Mrs. Helen claps her hands together to quiet down the little ones. "Hello class, I'm Mrs. Helen. I'm sorry I'm late, I just had to run a few errands, but now that I'm here, let's start some coloring pages!" Joyous cheers fill the room as Mrs. Helen grabs a few stacks of paper from her desk.

Going to each table, she gives every student three different pages to color. After handing them out, she lets them begin the coloring while taking attendance.

"Anna, look at my cow!" Willow happily turned her paper around so Anna could see. Two other kids at their table also looked with an amazed glint in their eyes.

"Wow, that's so good!" Exclaimed one of the kids, making Willow very happy but also a bit shy.

"Thank you." She says while trying to hide her smile. Anna and the other boy agree before they all go back to coloring and talking about their lunchboxes with their favorite movie characters on it.

"Willow." Hearing her name called, Willow raises her hand as Mr. Henderson scans the classroom.

Putting her hand down, she places a folded piece of paper onto Ryan's desk, that's connected to hers. Looking at Willow, then the paper, he grabs it and shamelessly unfolds it without caring if Mr. Henderson sees.

After school, my house -Willow

Nodding, Ryan crumbles up the paper and shoves it in the side pocket on his backpack that's currently laying under his chair. Facing the front of the classroom, he doesn't give any more attention to Willow.

***

Unlocking the front door, Willow walks in and places her back pack on the floor, along with her shoes. "Mom!" She yells loudly, while walking into the kitchen.

A sticky note is laying on the center island. Reading through it, Willow finds out her mom's grocery shopping.

Walking to her room, she hears the front door open. "Made it first!" She laughs as Ryan grunts to the stairs. He has a spare key to the house, they take separate buses so sometimes it's a challenge to see who makes it first. "Looks like someone's taking out the garbage!" They had made a rule if you lost: you take out the trash.

Rolling his eyes, he sighs before trudging back into the kitchen. Willow walks up the stairs laughing.

Opening her bedroom door, it makes a quiet squeak sound as she shuts it. Her phone starts to vibrate, so Willow grabs it from her back pocket to see her mom calling.

Picking up, Willow says, "Hello?"

"Oh sweetie, I'm back, can you help carry in the gro- Oh wait, nevermind. I'll just get Ryan to help." Sara brings the phone away from her ear so the last thing Willow hears is a barely audible 'Ryan!'

Walking into Willow's room, Anna looks around to see all the bright colored walls and toys scattered across the floor. Not minding how messy it is, she just walks around and looks through a few things, which Willow doesn't mind.

Picking up a small green necklace, Anna turns around while holding it up in the air. "This is so pretty!" She speaks cheerfully.

"Oh, I never wear it. Mommy said it was a family hair-loom, whatever that means. But you can have it!"

Her smile seems to widen, if that's possible, as she hugs Willow in a tight embrace before asking her to put it on her. Turning around, Anna holds up her hair while Willow helps put it on. The necklace is too big for her, but it still looks good.

"Wow, I never liked how it looked on me but it looks extra pretty on you!" Willow says with a memorized voice. Smiling shyly, Anna says thank you before saying it would look fine on Willow too.

"Do you have any markers and paper?" Anna asks, to which Willow nods and runs to one of her drawers to grab them.

Shutting the drawer, Willow sits down at her desk with her sketchbook and pencil. Beginning to sketch something out, she concentrates very hard before it's broken with the sound of the door opening.

Sighing, Ryan shuts the door slowly as if he'll be forced to do more chores if he doesn't. Flipping around, Willow gets back to sketching as she hears Ryan approach.

Leaning over her shoulder, Ryan takes a look at the drawing that's almost completely sketched out without any details. Squinting, he tries to see if he recognizes the person, but no one comes to mind. Sitting on the side of her bed, he silently watches her continue.

~~~

Finally, Willow does the last bit of shading before realizing three hours have past. It was a realistic portrait but it took less time than what you would think.

Ryan had sat next to her for three hours as she drew to watch how a portrait came together, and he enjoyed watching a simple out lining turn into a photographic looking piece.

It was a girl, a little girl. There was no coloring since it was fully done in pencil but the way she was shaded you could tell there was something beautiful about her. A big smile was on her face with small dimples on each cheek. Then, Ryan noticed what she was wearing. It was a necklace, a very familiar one at that. Looking at Willow, he saw the same necklace around her neck.

"Is this you?"

Looking at the picture, Willow shakes her head no before looking back at Ryan. "No, it's not me."

"They have the same necklace."

Smiling, Willow brushes her fingers against the green colored stone. Quickly putting her hand in her lap, her thoughts reach back to the last ones of Anna, the ones she wants to forget.

Shaking her head, Willow stands up with a loud yawn and stretches. "I think it's time for bed."

Checking the time on his phone, Ryan stares at it confused. "It's barely seven, why so early? We haven't even gone down for dinner yet."

"Well then, you can go eat dinner, I'll go to bed!" Grabbing his arm, she pulls him off her bed and shoves him out of her room before slamming the door shut. It's silent before a small 'goodnight' is heard from the other side of the door.

Sighing sadly, Willow sits down on the edge of her bed and looks at the picture one more time before switching off the lamp and laying down. Slowly, her eyes start to drift shut as Willow falls asleep.

A car comes straight towards them. Anna rushes in front of Willow as the cars collide together. All that's heard is faint screaming with the light sound of a horn blaring and tires screeching.

Willow's head pounds against her skull. Pain rakes over her small body and she can't seem to move. Opening her eyes slowly, she can feel herself laying down, with weight on top of her.

Everything hurts and tears prick at her eyes as they start to fall and don't stop. Moving her head as carefully as possible, she realizes the seats are above her.

Looking down, Willow sees Anna laying on top of her. One hand is behind Willow's head while the other one is under her back. Anna's dad is almost bent in half, while her mom is halfway out the windshield.

Trying to shake Anna, Willow barely moves enough to wake an ant. "Anna." Her voice is small and raspy, as if her voice was just missing and returning. "Anna, wake up."

Anna barely moves, it's slowly and only slightly. She's able to roll herself onto her back next to Willow and face her, but her eyes are barely cracked open. Willow looks at her beat up face with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Anna, we have to leave." Smiling sadly, Anna seems to try and laugh but her body only shakes in what looks more like pain than anything else.

"W-Willow." Willow could barely hear her voice, and almost started sobbing when hearing how awful it sounded. "Y-you have to leave."

Tears start to leave Willow's eyes faster as she even thinks about leaving Anna behind. "No, Anna, I'll drag you out."

Every limb in her body hurts but Willow somehow grabs Anna and crawls out carefully with her. When people see them, they gasp and run over to help but Willow stops them, there's too many people surrounding them.

Half their legs are laying in the car window still, but Willow couldn't move anymore and just lays on the stomach next to Anna while she lays on her back.

Quiet sirens are heard in the distance. "Anna, do you hear that? They're coming to save us."

Smiling, Anna slowly nods and faces up to the sky. "Willow, can you take your necklace back."

"What, wh- no, Anna, stop. W-we can make it." Willow's only ten and doesn't know what to do. Thoughts race around her hurting head as she tries to come up with a plan.

Loud sirens are all they can hear as people walk up to them and lay them on stretchers as others go to the cars. Willow tries to say she doesn't want to be separated from Anna, but nothing comes out.

***

Cries are all Willow could hear, families crying, her's and Anna's. Anna and her parents died, Anna's parents had died a month ago, during the crash. People had hoped Anna would survive, but after being in a coma for two weeks, her heart just stopped beating.

Willow didn't know how to react, so she just stood in the hallway with a blank expression as tears wouldn't stop spilling from her eyes. Everyone was already inside the room, but she couldn't do it, she just couldn't.

Sitting down in a chair, Willow just waits for hours before her mom comes out with tear stained cheeks.

"Let's go." Is the only thing she had said when seeing Willow never came in. On the car ride back home, no one talked, it was dead silent.

Weeks had gone by and Willow still cried every day for hours, she still couldn't go in a car without thinking about it. One night, Sara had come into her room and gave her an envelope saying,

"This was laying in the drawer in the bed side table next to Anna." Then she left her room. It took a month for Willow to get the courage to open it, and inside was the necklace, nothing else.

Grabbing the necklace hanging around her neck, Willow plays with the stone before letting it go. She was walking in the forest, a forest by Anna's old house.

Having the same dream of Anna's death, she finally decided to do as Anna said.

"Willow." Willow stops coloring and looks at Anna who had a serious expression on her face that only made Willow laugh since it was so unusual. "This will never happen, but mommy told me: 'if I ever die before you then go to our favorite restaurant.' I started thinking, because my teacher told me I do that a lot, I want to say the same thing to you! If I… what does die mean?"

Thinking through the question, Willow finally comes up with an answer. "Mommy said it was someone who took a long nap!"

"Oh, okay. When I die you have to go to…" Anna leans in closer and lowers her voice so she's whispering. "My secret place!"

"Secret place?"

Nodding, Anna looks around as if they weren't alone in her room. "I'll show you!" She stands up and holds out her hand towards Willow. "Just remember what I told you! I'm not talking about a small nap, I mean a big nap! If that's what die means." Willow smiles and nods while following Anna out from her room.

It's still here, the small shed. Inside Anna's dad had decorated it with a sofa and table so she could come and color or hang out inside whenever she wanted since it wasn't far from their house. Inside wouldn't look the same, but maybe it would bring back some good memories that Willow has forgotten.

Walking to the door, Willow slowly pushes it open as it makes a loud screeching sound. "Don't remember that from when we were younger!" Willow laughs as she fully pushes open the door.

Willow freezes in place. Someone's sitting down on a tall stool in the corner of the room just staring at her. She looked exactly like Anna, just older. Her hair was a light blonde, while her eyes were a sparkling green color.

"Uhm, hello?" Willow says as she steps into the shed.

This girl looks her up and down before smiling, she even had the same dimples as Anna. "Willow, it's me, Anna."

"What?" Willow laughs. "This isn't funny, that's just a cruel joke." The girl stands up and walks over to her before grabbing the necklace. Willow noticed how you could almost… see through her.

"I'm glad you still wear the necklace, I still can't believe you gave me a family heirloom!" Her laugh is light, and the same as Anna's. "I know you don't believe it's me, but at least listen please!" Willow thinks about how this person is probably crazy but she'll listen anyways. "You have to move on, I know we grew up together but now Ryan's there for you. I've been watching over you and I think if you just let me go you'll be able to find a bit more peace within yourself."

"W-what, how do you know Ryan?"

"Like I said; I've been watching over you. Just please listen to my words, I know you can do it, I mean you came here." Smiling just as brightly as Anna used to do, she seems to fade until there's nothing there.

Is Willow going crazy or has Anna just come back?