Ten, nine, eight… 

She counts aloud. Eyes snapped shut with her face pressed against a wooden pillar. She pulls back a moment and flecks of white paint fall from her forehead. The spot itches and she scrubs the rest of the paint away with the palm of her hand. 

Seven, six…

Sneaking a peak over the railing, the front yard is visibly littered with things that don’t belong; an overturned couch, a television laying flat and busted, crates — they have already scavenged — strewn about, having fallen from the bed of a food truck who’s back tire has hopped the curb and since gone flat. Though, through the naivety of her sight she only notes the plethora of hiding places. The tried and true nooks that could be concealing her little sister. Nothing, in her eyes, appears amiss. 

Five…

Ready! Her sister proclaims in such an abrupt way that she jumps, not ready for the assault that disrupts her thoughts.

Ouch! Clare! Not so strong, that intensity hurts.” She says, instinctively scanning the littered yard for signs of her sister, and… others, always for others. With no one in sight, her shoulders drop, relief from the continued prospect of an uneventful day.

A morning breeze blows through the wooden railing and sweeps up her sweater. It catches air as if a ship’s sail and billows out behind her. The nights are still bitter with the chill, but the days have begun to grow warmer, and she admires momentarily the bulbs sprouting beneath a tree in the yard. She shrugs off her sweater, letting it slide from her shoulders so that she feels the sun on her exposed skin. 

This is the best spot ever! Claire pushes the thought towards her. Making sure she’s keeping her intensity down so as to not startle her older sister.

Closing her eyes she concentrates on that energy force that binds them. Stilling herself until she can feel it, the swirling aura of her sister's excitement. But there’s more, mixed amid this aura of elation there’s a tinge of determination, and she wonders at what Claire might be up to. 

Claire's sweet and gentle voice, sends another whisper of pride into the back of her mind. You’ll never think to find me here. She squeaks. 

She instantly drops her sweater and jumps from the porch at a run. “Not there, she wouldn’t…” she whispers to herself. She's yelling, not aloud, but in her head, projecting her fears through their shared channel. Claire No! Not in there! 

                                       *** 

She remembers, first, that she had laughed at the prospect of another game of hide ‘n seek. Thinking about all the times her sister’s idea of a good hiding place was with her body hanging out half exposed. 

The second thing she remembers, the memory that leaves her with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, is the sound of her sister's voice in the back of her head. “You won’t find me here.” 

…In here. The moment she heard those words she knew of only one place that she could mean. A place that made her skin crawl with just a thought. A place so infested she hadn’t dared scavenge it.

The third thing, the final straw that led her to where she sat now, was the childish challenge she gave her little sister at the start. “Give me a challenge this time, won’t you?” 

                                     ***

Claire, don’t go into the blue house! But it was too late. She shuddered at the assault, slamming her hand down over her ears as her sister's screams filled her inner mind. Help! Claire's voice rattles within her skull, for a moment her vision blurs and she goes deaf in her right ear. They found me!  

Willing herself forward she continues towards the house. Her vision tunneled and darkened at the edges, her mind on edge.

Get out! She pushed the thought toward her sister trying to overcome her sister’s screams. Get outside! I’m coming! 

Claire’s screams falter, as if someone turned a dial down on their connection until she could no longer hear her, even feel her. Their connection having been completely severed as she rounded the block, the blue house now in sight. 

The front door opened and she watched as Claire threw open the front doors and came barreling out into the yard. Two of them close behind with more fighting to push through the front doorway. She tried to reach her sister, tell her to keep running, that she was close, but nothing would get through. As if her sister had put up a wall cutting her out completely.

Her breath was heavy, her bare feet padded against the sidewalk. She was close, she thought, she would take the front one out giving her sister time to run. 

“What are you doing?” She screamed. As her sister stops and turns back suddenly, arms lifted, palms flat as she stomps the ground, solidifying her stance. 

“Wait, N—“ she barely got the words out before a ball of scorching white energy slams against her knocking her backwards into the nearest lawn and against a turned over loveseat. Her vision flashes with splotches darkened patches with flecks of light. She blinks at the pain and barely makes out the silhouette of her sister walking towards her, slumping onto her knees and sitting before her in the grass. 

I did it again. She spoke through their channel. Having lowered her shield and she sounded weak, her voice, barely even a whisper. Sorry. She said, before her eyes rolled back and she fell forward into the grass. 

The dark corners of her sight flooded in and she was consumed by darkness. 

                                     ***

She did not know how long had passed when she finally came too. Her sister still lay fast asleep in the grass before her, and she knew that Claire would be out for hours, if not days. The neighborhood around them had changed. The once decrepit blue house had taken the brunt of her power and had crumbled down into a massive burning heap. The nearby homes took significant damage with windows and whole walls blown in. 

She pushed herself up further, and flinched at the sudden pain In her side. They needed to find a place to rest. She knew she’d have to carry her sister somewhere soon. But for now, she sat, her mind spinning, and she remembered laughing this morning. At the prospect of another game of hide ‘n seek.