June 5th, 1996

Chapter One

June 5th, 1996

 

In a beautiful Sunday morning, Jenny and Rick woke up and raced towards their parent's bedroom. An eager Jenny pulled down her father's duvet, urging him to wake up and get ready to take them to the farm's pond. Every morning, at about 7 am, just before the sun set, Jenny and Rick would always wake up together and head to the lake,  so that they could see the sunrise. 

A distraught Stephen Hunter grunted and brushed the kids off. Rick jumped on top of the bed until Stephen had woken up. "Fine, fine I'm awake." He said. Not in a particularly eager tone. 

“Hurry! We need to watch the sun set!” Jenny said.

"Jennifer, hun, I've got a tonne of work that I need to be doing. Maybe next time." 

That didn't settle well with the both of them. Rick put up a puppy dog face, in an attempt to weaken his father just enough to get his approval. It worked. "I tell you what. You can go to the pond, but don't go to the woods okay. It's dangerous."

“Yay!” The kids jumped in excitement, and then kissed their dad on the cheeks before racing off.

“And don’t tell your mother!” He shouted.

The children sped through the farms, bumped on a few workers, and raced towards the pond. The Hunters lived on a farm, owned by Dixie Hunter, in Eden. Both Dixie and Stephen thought that it would be a peaceful, and more educational way of bringing up the twins. That way, the kids would learn the values of working hard and earning money, as well as being respectful and embracing nature. 

Both Jenny and Rick sat on the bench, besides the pond. For a brief moment, they were silent. They heard the birds singing, the trees whooshing, the frogs jumping up and down, and nature taking its toll and this was the best part of Jenny's day. The whole waking up in the morning to watch the sunrise, was all her idea. She was so in touch with the world that even her twin couldn't see it.     

She subtly stood up and went towards a small garden. A couple of years back, her dad grew a small garden, near the pond, for Jenny. She loved roses and lilies, and so the garden was filled with hundreds of lilies and roses. She picked one of each, smelt its freshness like a florist smelling its batch of flowers. She then stuck the rose behind her left ear and the lily on the other.    

She went back to the bench, and she brushed her white gown back and sat down. They waited and waited and finally the sun had risen. There was a perfect, and somehow, innocent smile on both of their faces.  

"It's so beautiful," Jenny said. 

“Yeah, it’s perfect.”

“Remember when we were at school, and they were teaching us about these dead guys?”

“Yeah?” Rick didn’t know where she was going with this, but he went along.

"I want you to make a pact with me." She swung her blonde half loop braided hair to the side, looked Rick in the eyes and continued, "Whatever happens to me. However old we may be, that you get a Rottweiler."   

Rick giggled, "Why would I do that?"

"Because, when I am not here to protect you, I need you to have someone that will. Dad is always busy working, mum is busy with the farm, and we haven't seen Grandpa in two years. I don't want you to be alone Rick. That way when you get a dog, I'll always be there."    

“Jenny.”

"Promise me, Richard." She never called him Richard. That's how he knew that she was serious. Her tone had changed from calm to a little more deeper. 

“I promise.”

She smiled and returned to watching the sun.

The twins thought that they would have some fun, and so they started playing a game of hiding and seek. At the first try, Rick got caught, and he moaned and screamed about it. He was telling Jenny how it was not fair, and that she cheated. But this time, it was Rick's turn to count. He shut his eyes and began to count up to ten. One...Two...Three...Four... Ten! He started moving slowly, producing a sinister laughter. He tiptoed across the pond, but there was no sign of Jenny.   

"Jenny?" He spoke quietly. If Jenny wasn't in the pond, then she was in the woods. Rather than tip-toeing to the forest, Rick sprinted as fast as he could, surpassing the forever ending trees. He was so deep in the woods that the way back seemed pretty unclear.       

"Found you!" Rick had stopped in the middle of the forest and saw Jenny have her back on him. "Jenny." He said. Gingerly he walked towards her, still managing to keep the tone of his voice somewhat calm and collected. "Jenny." He repeated. This time there was a crack in his voice. Still composed, but there was definitely a sign of shiver.     

Rick looked at the birds fly above him in different directions, butterflies pounding his face before running off. Jenny turned around, and said, “You cheated!”  

Rick’s voice resumed to normal, and his heart stopped shaking. He took a deep breath. “What are you doing here? Dad told us not to come here.”

“Sorry, didn’t want to make it easy for you.”

A moment later, the wind had gotten intense. Both Rick and Jenny had ignored it, but then it got even stronger. It was almost like a tornado had entered the woods. 

Before the twins could run back home, there was a sudden black cloud that had appeared behind them. They were left dumbfounded.   

Jenny screamed, "Run!"

They both began to run through the woods, trying to find their way back to the pond, but they couldn't. They were lost. But their first instinct was to keep on running, no matter what. Wherever they went, the black cloud had followed them.  

Jenny tripped on a log and fell into a pool of mud. Rick grabbed her hand, and they both hid behind the tree that was next to them, breathless.  

“What is that thing!” 

"I don't know," Jenny replied. 

"What do we do?"

Jenny looked to the ground and then looked back at her beloved brother, "There's only one thing that we CAN do Rick. I'll distract whatever that is, and you run away."

“NO! I am not leaving you.”

"You have to. You made a promise. I want you to live so that you can abide by that pledge." 

She was about to jump out of the tree, but Rick wrapped his tiny hands around her arm. It was so tight that, if he gripped her any tighter he would cut all blood circulations in that arm. “Don’t do this Jenny. Don’t.” There was a single tear drop in his eyes.

"I love you." She finally jumped out of the tree, while listening to her brother scream, trying to stop her. The black cloud suddenly unleashed a gush of the wind and sucked Jenny in. Rick also jumped out of the tree, and he sought to hold onto her sister's hand, but it was too late. It was too late.      

The cloud had disappeared, and Jenny was no longer elevating, and so she fell about ten feet from air, to the ground. Rick chased after her and dropped to his knees. He placed her head on his lap and cried. He had lost his best friend, his sister.   

And for the last time, with every breath that he had, Rick gave a soft and gentle whisper, “Jenny.”