Cove Woods hated her sister.
Well, hated may be a bit of a strong word, especially considering her sister was most likely dead. No, Cove didn't exactly hate her sister, more resented her. You see, all throughout their childhood Sage had been the golden child, perfect in every way possible, the child that could do no wrong. Cove was fine with it being that way. Nothing was really expected of her, because her parents already had their daughter that was perfect.
As soon as Sage had disappeared Cove's parents fell apart, barely paying attention to their other daughter unless she did something that Sage had once done. Cove had begun to become the carbon copy of her sister, because it was the only way to get attention from her parents.
That day Cove was walking around the library with her best friend, Oliver. The two were practically attached at the hip. It was rare to see one without the other.
"What are you doing tonight?" Oliver asked
"Besides watching scary movies and handing out candy to kids?" Cove rolled
"Cove, it's Halloween and we're seventeen now. We should do something exciting!"
"Like what? Are we going to light a candle and summing dead witches back from the dead? Or find a strange circle of doors-" Cove laughed
"Okay! I get it, no fun stuff." Olive said, rolling his eyes
"Or maybe we could totally play with an old Ouija Board we find in the attic?"
"God, you're such a party pooper."
"What are we, twelve?" Cove raised her eyebrows.
The two kept walking over to the history section to find books on the origins of Halloween for an essay. Their history teacher was annoyingly old fashioned, and refused to accept any information from online sources.
As they were walking, Cover heard a thump from behind her. She looked back to see a book laying on the floor, open to a large illustration.
"Weird." she remarked as she walked over, and put the book back. "Anyway, Halloween."
A few hours later, the two friends were walking out of the library when the librarian stopped Cove.
"I think you dropped this dear." she said, passing Cove a book.
"Oh, I don't think so, thanks though." Cove smiled at the elderly woman.
"No, I really think you dropped this sweetie."
"Okay then.." Cove shrugged, looking at Oliver with questions in her eyes. She took the book, and they left.
"That was strange." She said, flipping through the book.
"What is it?" Oliver asked, trying to read over her shoulder.
"A book on some demon thing… one of those weird paranormal challenges I guess."
"Huh, doesn't seem like something you'd read."
"No, not really, wonder why she thought you dropped it." Oliver said, looking at an illustration of a red eyed shadow.
"I don't know." Cove shrugged, slipping the book in her bag.
Fall leaves crunched under their feet as they walked, the air just cold enough to wear hats and mittens, which made Cove incredibly happy, since she had a minor obsession with berets and leather gloves.
"Well, this is my stop." Cove joked as they reached her house. She waved goodbye to Oliver, and unlocked the door. Cove had always loved her old Victorian house. It had been in the family for generations, and although she resented her family to an extent she still loved the house. She yelled for her parents, but like she expected, they were at their Halloween office party. They would just get a hotel room because their office was three hours away.
Later that night, after most of the trick or treaters were gone, and Cove had exhausted her For You page she looked over at her bag slung across the chair at the entryway. It wouldn't hurt to just skim over the book, would it?