magicalxmemories·:
Beth’s wide-eyedlook did nothing to dissuade the fear coursing through Willow, if anything itonly intensified it. If her sister had seemed unfazed, then Willow could makebelieve that everything was perfectly fine – that the situation was simplycreepy and not treacherous. Noticing the stranger move once more, Willow’s griptightened on Beth’s hand, quickly surveying their surroundings, trying todeduce the quickest way for them to get the hell away from the situation.Glancing back just in time to see the lopsided smile on the stranger’s face,the anger within her intensified once more, as she grew irrationally angry thatwhoever the stranger was, looked as though they were playing a game with thetwo of them. A game that the twins were definitely losing. Part of her wantedto snap that now was not the time not to know something, but she quickly bitdown on her tongue to stop the words coming out. They could bicker oversemantics later, for now, they had bigger issues to deal with.
Under normalcircumstances, Willow would have rolled her eyes and shoved Beth behind her,but they couldn’t focus their attention on each other – not at that moment.Luckily, they’d been blessed with ‘twin powers’ as Willow liked to call them,and they’d always been able to easily read each other, whether they liked it ornot, which meant she could place how Beth was feeling and what her next movewas, without them ever having to vocalise it. “Yeah, see?” She scoffed,flashing her phone towards the stranger too quickly for them to notice that nonumber was dialled in to the phone. Keeping her eyes on the stranger, she unlockedher phone and belatedly dialled 9-1-1 finger hovering over the call button justin case. Glancing down to make certain she’d put the right number in, herattention was brought back to Beth as her sister spoke once again.
“What the actualfuck is the general feeling yes.” She replied, her tone more confused thananything else – before her sister asked if she noticed where the stranger went.Finally letting her eyes drift over to where the stranger was and noting theirabsence, her head snapped around, knowing that they should still have been ableto see the stranger, unless they could vanish into thin air. Although given thefact they’d also seemed to appear out of thin air, she couldn’t brush away theidea like she normally would.
Once she wascertain that the coast was clear, she stepped back and brushed her hand overher outfit, as if trying to brush off the entire situation. “What werethinking?” She sighed, not having it in her to sound as angry as she wanted to.From the sudden appearance of the stranger, to the entire confrontation, to thestranger disappearing – it seemed as though her mind was incapable ofprocessing anything in that moment. She may have been grateful to her sisterfor showing up when she did, she was just simultaneously pissed about it. Ifsomething happened to her, she’d find a way to get over it – she was Willowfreaking Waltermire, and nothing got past her hard exterior. What she couldn’tdeal was something happening to Beth.
She could still rememberin vivid detail when they were in kindergarten and someone had pushed her over,and she got up and skipped over to her friends – cut to a few minutes later andthe person who had pushed her decided to shove Beth next. Of course Willow hadno other choice but to storm up to their classmate, place two hands on theirchest and shove with every inch of strength she could. Then she’d obviously hadno choice but to lie and say he’d simply fallen over when he complained totheir teacher – she wasn’t about to get in trouble because some idiot messedwith Beth. Or the time last month when one of their male classmates had made a derogatorycomment about Beth in her earshot, so she retaliated by a well placed knee tosomething sensitive and a comment about how he wished Beth would look his way. It wasn’t her finest moment, but itwas easier to hide than punching him in the face, which had been her firstinstinct.
“That person wassuch a creep, they showed up out of nowhere and… well you seen what happened.But I had it handled, you didn’t have to run over.”
Well after it became apparent that the stranger had disappeared, completely, Beth was still desperately searching for them. It was absurd, the speed with which they’d fled. She knew she had just seen them there, and no amount of rationalizing could properly convince her otherwise. Her eyebrows furrowed as she took another step forward and rocked onto her tip-toes. Nope, they weren’t hiding behind the well-trimmed bushes of the house they’d been standing in front of. Beth turned to the other side of the road, but in both directions, the sidewalk was blissfully empty. Creepily empty, actually, was a better descriptor. It was four in the freaking afternoon, on a Friday, and no one was taking to the suburbs for a walk? No students were making their way home, backpack in tow? It didn’t make sense. Given the circumstances they’d just found themselves in, it was an odd detail to latch onto, but Beth latched nonetheless. Something was still wrong. She felt it, although she wouldn’t know how to describe the feeling. It felt like the tensest moment in a horror movie. Although their surroundings were completely calm, she felt inexplicably on edge.
That feeling did not subside when Willow spoke, although the very sound of her voice made Beth’s heart skip. She’d nearly forgotten that her sister was there, experiencing this alongside her. She blinked. “What was I thinking?” She repeated, incredulously. She wasn’t surprised that Willow would be hard-headed about this, but considering the number of novel feelings coursing through Beth, she was annoyed that this was what Willow chose to focus on. “What were you thinking, Will? I mean, were you going to just stand there and scare them off with your iPhone? You should have called for help, run, anything. You could have been hurt. Whoever that was, they meant business.” And that business is not over, she wanted to add, although she wasn’t sure why. A voice in her head - which sounded a lot like her voice - had simply provided the follow-up. But Beth bit her tongue. As intrigued as she was, Willow was her priority right now. Willow had been in trouble; and if something had happened, or if Beth had not shown up... it wasn’t an option.
She sighed and forced herself to ignore the creeping feeling of danger. Her eyes softened on her sister. “You didn’t have it handled, and I did have to run over,” she said, and though the words had an inherent edge, her tone was kind. She felt she didn’t need to state the obvious: you would have done the same for me. And it was true. And, in that reversed situation, Beth would have been angry with Willow in the aftermath, too. This was just something they shared, as sisters, something that would never change. “It doesn’t matter, anyway, because apparently you’ve been lifting and they learned their lesson. Were you going out, or can we go home?” Beth was exhilarated, but also more than a little rattled. Although she wouldn’t come out and say it, she wanted nothing more than to turn on their heels and walk home for a cheesy movie and popcorn. She silently willed her sister to accept, even if she had intended to meet a friend somewhere. It had been too long since they spent a Friday night just the two of them, anyway. Beth thought a nice horror movie would hit the spot.
But then, it felt like they were in a horror movie of their own, especially as Beth noticed, far behind Willow but advancing at an inhuman pace, the stranger. They were too far to properly identify but Beth knew it was them, just as she had known, somehow, they would return. Her smile faded and her eyes widened in the same beat as she grabbed Willow by the shoulders and yelled, “look out!” With a twist, she sent herself and Willow barreling into the grass between the sidewalk and the road. She squinted and awaited impact, but was instead met by a fast breeze that stirred the hair on her head. They’d missed. But they’re coming back. Beth did not have time to think. She grabbed Willow again and picked her up, stumbling, her arms behind her and folded over the girl’s frame in a defensive stance. “Whoever you are, stay the fuck back,” Beth yelled. She didn’t care who heard them. In fact, she’d become idly convinced that no one could hear them; it was as though the entire neighborhood had taken a vacation. No one was coming to save them. It was just her and Willow and them. Beth instinctively lowered her hand and placed it into Willow’s, her fingers shaking. The stranger ignored her veiled warning and walked purposefully in their direction. Without thinking, Beth flung her free hand forward in a universal sign of “stop” - but after a moment, for reasons she didn’t understand, she curled her fingers slightly, as though she was attempting to channel something, as people always did in the movies.
