Page 6 of Junie
Chapter Six
When Minnie and Junie were girls, Muh told them they were born to be sunflowers, stretching higher and higher toward the sun with arms stretched wide to take in the burn; they couldn’t resist the urge to bend in front of each other to steal the other’s light. Junie never understood this comparison; she’d never once grown to eclipse her sister’s place in the light. But now she sees Muh’s meaning.
The apparition has the same arched brows, same dainty nose, same full lips. Her hair, always worn up and hidden in a bonnet in life, now flows like a thousand burning rose vines down her back as she rises to stand on the water’s surface, her glow a flicker that burns the eyes like midday.
In the depths of the new moon’s darkness, Minnie has become her own sun.
“Minnie?” Junie whispers.
Junie’s feet seem to mingle with the forest roots. It’s her; the sister she lost, the sister she mourns, the sister she killed. Maybe all the pain can be undone, patched like one of Muh’s sewn dresses until what is created is even more beautiful than what was destroyed. Junie stretches her hand forward, her fingers trembling. The glow expands as the air gets colder. The ghost walks around the tree until she is standing so close that Junie is certain she would feel the spirit’s breath if she had one.
Minnie smiles, teeth rotted and blackened with soil.
This isn’t the living Minnie. This is something else. And every nerve in Junie’s body tells her to run before she finds out what.
So she listens.
She bolts into total darkness. Moss forms nets while oak branches swing down to catch her. The farther she runs, the darker the night becomes. A tree root’s knobby bark grinds into the top of her foot. She hits the forest floor in a crunch of leaves and panicked gasps.
The air chills around her.
There is no time to stop. She needs to escape.
The cabin can’t be far now, even if she still can’t make out the end of the tree line. She will get home, crawl into her pallet, and never come back as long as she lives. She detangles her foot from the root and winces as she pushes herself up. Then the air is snatched from her lungs.
The ground is turning gold.
Junie looks back. Minnie looms a few yards behind, hunting for Junie with her black orb eyes. Minnie stands still, revealing her naked form, an undulating blaze of gold, orange, and red. She approaches Junie, tentatively at first, then with a confident step that does not disturb the ground beneath her.
Minnie’s flickering hand is outstretched, ready to grab.
Junie flings herself onto the tree, catching a branch in the darkness and hauling her body up until she dangles above Minnie’s head. The frigid wind swirls up the tree’s trunk. The ghost watches, sockets devoid of emotion. Snot and salty tears run into Junie’s open mouth. Her breath scrapes her throat. She begs the sky, begs whoever is listening, to keep the ghost on the ground.
The ghost steps back. Junie’s chest sags in relief. She is safe here for now. She can wait out the ghost all night if she has to. She can close her eyes and pretend this is just another nightmare, another tortured imagining she’ll wake up from in the morning.
“Down.”
The voice is a whisper, but it cuts through Junie like a scythe. Ice pierces her chest. The locket is freezing in her pocket, the ripples of cold radiating down her arms. She is a fool for going after this necklace. She is cursed for disturbing the grave. If she gives it back, will this end?
Junie pulls the chain from the pocket and dangles it below her. The cold metal makes her wrist ache.
“Take it, please. You can have it back,” Junie begs.
“Down.”
“I…I shouldn’t have. Just take it, take it!”
“Please.” The ghost’s voice cracks, pleading.
Junie turns to look down. The ghost is sitting again, curled into herself. Tears like liquid-burning coals roll down her cheeks. What if Minnie’s spirit is hurt, or lost? Does she owe it her obedience, this spirit of a sister she killed?
“Please,” Minnie whispers. “Please.”
Junie’s body quakes. This spirit is weak, less a fire than an ember.
The branch cracks beneath her. It won’t be long until it collapses.
Junie reaches for the trunk, steadying her trembling body against the tree. When her feet touch the dirt on the other side, the air around her swirls with an icy sting.
Junie extends her hand, necklace hanging from around her fingers.
“It’s yours. I shouldn’t have taken it—”
Minnie pushes her hand away, touching her outstretched fingers. Junie jolts at the icy sensation. The ghost smiles.
“You want me to keep it?”
The ghost nods.
Junie tilts her head at her sister, gazing into the darkness that once held Minnie’s eyes. She looks beyond, imagining the traces of warm brown that lurk beneath. The weight of Junie’s grief falls like dead leaves.
“I’ve missed you, Minnie.”
She is doing it again, daydreaming while the world crumbles.
“Missed you.”
Her voice is clearer, less a scrape and more a song. Still, Minnie sags her shoulders as though the words tire her.
“Why are you here?” Junie whispers.
The ghost reaches for Junie’s left hand. She grazes the locket in Junie’s palm.
“The necklace? The necklace called you…back?”
Minnie nods.
“Couldn’t finish,” she says with labored breath. “Need you.”
“You need me ?”
“Finish…what I start. Full moons.”
“You need me to finish what you started? By the full moon?”
Minnie nods.
“But how?”
Minnie runs her fingers over Junie’s wrist.
“I’m…sorry,” the ghost whispers.
She steps closer, the edge of her hand grazing Junie’s cheek.
“Sorry for what?”
Minnie seizes her left wrist. Pain stabs through Junie’s arm until the world around her fades into darkness and stars. As she feels the last of the world slip away, Minnie lets go, and the forest comes back into view. Too terrified to scream, Junie tosses the necklace on the forest floor and runs.
She hears the faint calls: Back, back, come…back . She doesn’t listen.
She runs from the haunting, from her memories, from her sister.