The Ghost of Sister's Past
Written by Jordan Chapman
Janie Stevens used to be a normal high school senior, until the fateful day when she decided to listen to her dead sister. Even though it was ruled an accident, Janie believes that someone has a dark secret that has the answers surrounding her twin's mysterious death. Janie teams up with her sister,Addie, to find the clues….or die trying.
In middle school, my twin sister, Addie, and I were inseparable, but while I was at summer camp the summer before our freshman year, she met the popular crowd in our school. In school, she became the beautiful, popular cheerleader with the superstar boyfriend and I became the straight-A, band geek. Addie had the seemingly perfect life until that one fateful day in the July before my sophomore year. Two years ago, Addie, and her boyfriend, Jack, were in the backyard swimming in the river behind our house. I was in the living room reading Wuthering Heights and listening to my iPod. Suddenly, Jack ran inside yelling that Addie was drowning because her hair got caught on a rock and was holding her underwater. I ran outside and swam out to the middle and tried to pull her out. My parents waded out and together we kept her above water and got her out. She was still breathing a little and Jack had already called 911. By the time they got her to the hospital, they deemed her dead and we all went home. Since Addie was always the popular twin, but I had the drivers' license, we went everywhere she wanted to go and after she drowned all of her friends left me so fast I thought my head would spin. I spent my entire sophomore year alone in the cafeteria with sympathetic smiles from the teachers and evil sneers from Addie's former friends. A few people finally softened towards me in the beginning of junior year. Two years after the accident, I still could feel that something was completely wrong. If there would have been any evidence, it would have been washed away in the river. Since the police couldn't find any evidence, they let the case go cold. Her presence still haunted our whole family like a ghost that refused to move on. She knew something was wrong and she was trying to tell me. When I told my parents about my feelings, they thought I was crazy and sent me to a child psychologist called Dr. Smiles. After the each session, he would always tell me with his cheery smile, "Janie, ghosts do not exist. I know you and Addie were very close, but ghosts do not contact from the afterlife," as he slipped behind the door. After a while I started to ignore the strange notes or pictures on my wall or desk and pretended they never existed.