Frostbite

Chapter Eight - Grief

I look to Stephanie, a bit surprised by how she never said a work about a sister in this entire time of knowing each other. She was not obligated to tell me of course, but I honestly would have expected her to come up in conversation at least once.

"You have a sister?" I asked gently. I pretended like I had no idea about the portrait I saw in the hallway. Stephanie's gaze seemed to go from positive to a look filled with sorrow. Stephanie got herself a plate of papa and quietly returned to sitting next to me at the dark oak table.

"I had a sister, yes, she was the sweetest little girl ever. I miss her dearly." Stephanie said softly, playing with the food on her plate. I listened to Stephanie talk, she seemed so distraught about her sister. Stephanie didn't seem to have the chance to mourn from what I could tell.

I offer a consoling look to Stephanie as if asking for her to continue. "My... sister was taken when we moved here," Stephanie said gently, looking at me quietly, as if she had never told anyone this before.

"We had moved here from a different province of Tawrion so we could get a better education," Stephanie said. "Along with the fact that there were some strange dangers of living in the rural sides of Tawrion."

Stephanie continued. "There's a lot of dangerous creatures about watching farms in the fields. Strange and creepy instances." She began. "Whispers in the corn fields, missing potatoes with large bite marks not matching any reasonable creatures," Stephanie said gently

"My sister loved animals. She would find ways to mend any injured animals that would show up. I remember one instance where she found a large bird, made a tub for it, and fixed the bird's wing after it was broken." Stephanie chuckled softly, reminiscing on the old memory of hers."However, one night, she was walking with my father out to the farm to help tend to some of the cows we used to have. She was always excited to help my father tend to the animals we had." She took a drink from the water glass next to her plate, before continuing to speak.

"It was late that night, my father had a child leash attached to my sister on his belt. He always was nervous about taking her outside at night. He was the same with me when I was younger. It was colder outside than most nights were, my father turned on his flashlight and went to do a usual route of tending to crops and making sure the animals were okay."

I listen to her tell the story, taking a drink of my water. "My father was walking with my sister around the farm when they soon began to hear some of the crops rustle. Like someone was walking through them to find a loose corn stalk or something. My father told me that he remembered my sister being concerned and nervous, walking close to him." Stephanie recounted.

"The footsteps were pronounced, and harsh, knocking some of the cornstalks down. Like it belonged to some large human or creature that could snap them down with no knife or problem. My sister was extremely stressed, which made my father concerned, so he went to turn back towards the farmhouse."

I glanced over at Mr. Valor who was still on the phone with my father, I noticed some old cut scars on his arms that were scabbed and scarred over with age. I looked back at Stephanie and let her continue to talk. "There was some whistling, like a sing-song whistling in the cornstalks, coming from where my father heard the footsteps."