A Piece of Past Caught in My Throat

It’s been several years since my sister, Hallie, and her friends unknowingly summoned a devil and went missing. I don’t know what happened to them. No one does. But it’s been long enough that I don’t think they’ll ever be found.

Well, it isn’t entirely true that I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t involved initially, but one of her friends showed me a video, then took me into the woods one night. She told me to “sacrifice something I love,” and it appeared. I don’t remember what happened after that; the last thing I remember was waking up in the hospital, somehow knowing that my sister was gone. We looked for her, of course, me, our parents, the police. We never found any signs of where she might have gone, any signs of what happened.

I would still see the creature, every once in a while, particularly on foggy days. It would always stand completely still at the edge of the forest, just watching me. I couldn’t figure out if it was waiting for the opportunity to attack me, trying to lead me back into the forest, or simply trying to intimidate me. Every time, I would do my best to ignore it, to get it out of my head, and go about my day. This went on for years, until I couldn’t take it anymore, and I had to leave.