Ready or Not

• Short story
• Fantasy

								
The sound of my heart beating in my ears would’ve been more soothing if it wasn’t for the Blue Deads squawking so loud. They were annoying creatures yet their presence felt comforting. Since I was little I believed they were spirits watching over the living. The thought made my body feel limp with a heart ache.  
The hill I sat on overlooked my family’s house and part of the village. From the hill, I could see the moon. It was white with red bleeding into it. The red color slowly seeped into its creases and crevices like paint dripping down a dry and cracked wall. It's almost time, I thought to myself. As I let my attention focus on the moon, my head started pounding and then I heard my name being called. 
	“Elora! I have to use your whole name now? How many times do I have to fucking call you!” It was my older sister Evangeline, Eve for short. I don’t know how long she had been calling me but if she used my whole name, that meant I was out of it for awhile. 
	I did that a little too often for my liking. And for my sister’s liking too.
	“What do you want?” I yelled back. 
	“Get down here, it’s almost time,” she turned to go back in the house and then yelled one more time, “Now Lora! Don’t make me repeat myself”. 
	I rushed to stand up too quickly, forgetting about my headache and felt dizzy. I stumbled back, nearly falling down the other side of the mountain into the moat that surrounded the village. Get it together Elora! 
	I stood up straight and took a deep breath. I can do this. I had no idea who I was trying to convince by saying that.

	“Took you long enough,” Eve was folding clothes and packing them into her suitcase in the living room. So were my other sisters, Edith and Eren. 
	“Are you going to stand there looking dumb or are you going to finish packing?” asked Eren. The way my sisters spoke to me didn’t hurt my feelings. We’re siblings after all and siblings don’t always show their love in nice ways, at least I know mine don’t. 
	“I finished last night. I may get lost in my head a couple times a day but at least I don’t leave anything till last minute,” I rolled my eyes, “anyways, where’s Emerie?”.
	Emerie was my second oldest sister, the one who always wiped my tears when I was sad or held my hand when I was scared. She’d reassure me if I was angry and always knew how to make me smile. She was my rock and I’d do anything to protect her. 
	“In her room,” Eren spoke but when I turned to go upstairs, she spoke again, “she’s ignoring everyone by the way”. Eren wasn’t exactly self-centered but she had a tendency to believe everyone was out to get her. I could understand sometimes but most days she just seemed insecure, and took things the wrong way.
	“You mean she’s ignoring you for hurting her feelings and you have your head so far up your ass, you can’t even acknowledge what you did?” I raised an eyebrow to her.
	“Whatever”. 
	She turned her body away from me and I headed upstairs. I never felt bad about putting Eren in her place because she never felt bad hurting people. Sometimes you can tell she doesn’t mean too but she also doesn’t like being wrong. I say that word a lot when it comes to her, sometimes.
	To get to Emerie’s room, I had to walk up two flights of stairs. Considering I’m pretty fit, I never get tired going up and down. It’s the reason my other sisters send me to get Emerie every now and again when they don’t feel like climbing the steps, which is basically all of the time.
Emerie’s room was the only one upstairs, besides our parent’s room. Our parents died a few years ago in The Great Escape. 
For centuries, us Sineaters have been hidden away in the lands of Accomar, thriving off cleansing the human realm, Earth. There was one particular time, my parents were summoned to cleanse a couple who lived in a place called Remming. A small town close to our Realm Entrance. My sisters told me our parents were kidnapped and tortured because their true self was discovered. They attempted to escape and did make it back to us but the injuries were far too great. 
They both died the same night they came back. That was when I started to become lost. Lost in my mind, consumed by my thoughts, always wondering why things are the way they are. We’ve locked the door to their room and vowed to never go in there again as long as we live. It hurts even looking at the door.
So I ignored it at the end of the hall as I finally got to Emerie’s room. I knocked.
“Come in Lora!” she always sounded excited to see me.
“How’d you know it was me?” I walked in and was immediately stunned by the mess everywhere. 
“You’re the only one who knocks,” she laughed, “also ignore the mess. I’m not done packing yet”.
I picked up a dress off the floor and threw it to her. I picked up a pair of shoes and threw them to her as well. 
“Hey, slow down! Why are you throwing stuff at-,” she caught the pair of pants I tossed at her, “me.”
“Because I don’t want to hear Eve’s mouth when she starts yelling at everyone to hurry up”. I pushed a pile of clothes off the bed to make space for me to sit. 
“Hey!”
“It was a mess with the clothes on the bed, you think it’s worse when it’s on the floor?” 
It was silent for a moment but then she let out a giggle. She folded and packed away the clothes I threw to her. When she finally finished packing and closed her suitcases, she looked at me. 
“No,” I said firmly.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” Her eyes widened.
“I’m not helping you clean. You made the mess, you clean it up,” she opened her mouth to say something else but I cut her off, “YOURSELF!”
“Alright, alright. No need to yell,” she chuckled. “Hurry downstairs, I’ll be there in a minute”. 

* * *
	Everyone was finally packed and ready to go but Evangeline called everyone back into the living room. She liked doing house meetings often, even when they weren’t necessary. But considering our circumstances, I was all for a meeting this time.
	Evangeline stood by a dark wooden table, only one big leg in the middle. It was circular with a silver rim. I had never seen it before so when she called us over to it, I hesitated. In the middle of the table sat a milk white orb. It looked as though the milk came straight from a cow. In the dim light of the room, the orb had a faint glow that could be seen at a certain angle. I tried leaning and bending every which way to catch the light but then I heard my name.
“How many times do I have to call your name?” It was Edith calling me this time. I didn’t hear her say anything at first and in my defense, the girl talked very quietly. “You need to pay attention”. She pointed towards Evangeline.
“Lora, do you know what this is?” Her dark brown eyes focused on me. She always spoke to me like I was a small, helpless child who knew nothing of the realms. 
“An orb?” I answered.
“Correct, but do you know what this orb does?” Her voice was still serious and her eyes never left mine. When she looked you in the eye, it was easy to feel locked in, like her eyes magically developed invisible hands that held you in place until she was satisfied with her questioning. 

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