“Katelyn, let’s go to Mr. Barns house, he always has the best candy!” I say excitedly. Katelyn and I are getting too old for Trick-or- Treating and mom said this is our last year; we need enough candy to last us as long as possible! We finish trick-or-treating on Summit Street and I wait on the corner for Katelyn while she makes more room in her pillow case for more candy.
Once she finishes that she starts walking to the corner where I have been waiting for her. When she reaches me I say, “Want to race?” and then I run into the street.
“Khloe! Stop!” I hear Katelyn yell! I stop in the middle of the street as she runs at me and pushes me backwards onto the ground. All the people around are looking at us and just then a car comes speeding around the corner and crashes right into my sister.
Katelyn is laying down on the street, her legs bent in ways that they shouldn’t bed and her face, along with most of her body, scraped and bloody. She is wincing in pain and I am in such a state of shock that I barely noticed that a crowd of people were gathered around and some adults on the phone calling for help.
When the ambulance gets here Katelyn has already blacked out and unable to move. They lift her body up and onto a gurney. One of the people in the crowd starts to walk over to where I am sitting watching as the EMT’s raise the gurney into the ambulance and hook my sister up to machines. “I called your parents and they are going to the hospital to meet you. They told me to drive you to the hospital.” The lady, who I recognize as our neighbor Ms. Owens, says sweetly.
“No. I want to stay with my sister.” I say quietly. She walks me over to the ambulance and tells them of my request. They agree and I hop into the ambulance staring at my sisters’ scratched and bloody face. Even when Katelyn is covered in blood and swollen she looks beautiful. How could this have happened to her? A tear makes its way down my cheek, then another one, and then another one. “How is she? Will she be ok?” I ask in a quiet and innocent voice.
“She is hurt badly,” a man says “but she will probably live. We need to further examine her injuries but don’t worry.” I don’t believe what he is saying. I see my sister lying motionless in front of me, the only indication that she is still alive is the heart rate machine beeping slowly.
Before I know it we are at the hospital and my parents run towards us. Worry masks their faces as they see the body of my bloody sister on the gurney being rushed into the doors of the hospital. My mom wraps her arms around me and starts crying and I can’t help crying too. Dad is hugging us too but he is not crying, but more in shock. After about five minutes of crying and hugging in the parking lot we walk inside and wait silently in the emergency room.
Two hours later a doctor comes to get my mom and dad, when they return they tell me to come with them. We walk into the room in which my sister sleeps. “She broke most of her ribs, her legs, her left arm, her spine, and her skull. She is paralyzed from the neck down. She won’t live.” We have a moment alone with her and then I ask my mom if I could have a moment alone with her.
My mom nods her head and then they both walk into the hallway and close the door behind them. My sister’s eyes flutter and are slightly open. I take Katelyn’s hand and tears slowly make way down my face. “I’m so sorry Katelyn,” I weep “this is all of my fault. Don’t die, please, please don’t die. This is all of my fault.”
I look at my sister. Tears form in her eyes and her mouth mouths “Khloe…” and then a single tear falls down her cheek and then the machine makes a long, single beep.
“I’m so sorry.” I whisper.
***
The date was October 31, 2011. That was the day my world was eclipsed in darkness; the rest of the world kept spinning while I stood still. It was that day that I wish I could turn the clock back two seconds so that I would be the one who got hit, but I will never get those two seconds back. I will never see her face ever again. I will never see her smile or hear her jokes. Sometimes I hear her voice or feel her presence but I can never find where it’s coming from. People tell me I need to move on from her death but when I feel her presence I know she isn’t gone from this world.
I was once head of the cheerleading squad and the most popular girl in school but after Katelyn’s death I started falling. At first people felt sorry for me. But about after a month they expected me to be back on my feet and have my life back to normal, but I knew that I could never get back to where I was. I slowly started to fade into the background. I sat alone at lunch in the corner of the lunchroom and I quit cheerleading because to cheer you had to be happy, I was not happy.
Almost a year has gone by since the incident. My life is a black hole without my sister, I can’t function without her. I know she is still in this world somewhere, and I know I can bring her back, I have to. I don’t have much time but this is the only chance I have to do this. This Halloween is the one time I can try to get her back, if I fail then she will be lost forever.
I’ve done my research and I know what I have to do. I have to take the last picture that she had taken before she died and put it next to three burning white candles along with one of her favorite items, finally I have to chant and ancient spell to call her spirit to me and then summon an angel to make it so her death never happened. I know this is going to work… it has to.
***
It’s 11:30, almost midnight. Mom and Dad are at a Halloween party so I have the house to myself. I place three giant white candles in my bedroom, the tallest one in the middle of two smaller candles on either side. Then, I take Katelyn’s school picture from two weeks before her death and I stand it up in front of the burning candles. Next, I walk over to the shelf above Katelyn’s bed and take her doll, which I place sitting up next to her picture. Now I wait until the clock says 11:55.
“Please let Katelyn’s soul come and go when she wishes. On this night of Halloween let my sister come back to me. As I wish it, so mote it be!” I chant. “Sister Spirit, we call to thee. Cross on over so we may see.”
The figure of a girl starts to appear. Slowly she becomes clearer and clearer. “Katelyn, is it you?” I ask.
She nods. “Khloe, why have you called me?”
“I, I called you to bring you back. You shouldn’t have died, so I am going to bring you back.” I say. “It was my fault that you died. It was my fault.”
“No, it was not your fault. Don’t punish yourself by thinking that!” Katelyn reassures.
“No, you’re wrong. It was my fault.” I say “And I am going to fix it!” I close my eyes and start to chant, “Here now the Power of Three…”
“No” Katelyn screams.
“Set all our troubles free…” I continue.
“Khloe, stop please!” Katelyn begs her sister. “Listen to me. Stop this right now!”
I look up at Katelyn, “Why don’t you want to come back?! Don’t you miss your life?”
“Of course I miss my life but I accept my death. And it is time for me to leave this world. I want to rest in peace but I can’t until you accept my death. Every day I stay bounded to earth I relive the pain of my death. Khloe, you need to accept what happened and set me free.” Katelyn explains, her voice filled with pain.
“I don’t know if I can let it go. You are my sister, my twin. I feel empty without you here.” I quietly say.
“I know Khloe, but you need to know that I will be watching over you and one day we will be together again.” Katelyn explains.
“But I could bring you back and you wouldn’t have to wait.” I say choking back my tears.
“I’m sorry but I don’t want to come back.” Katelyn responds.
“I know. I’m sorry for keeping you here. I’ll miss you.” I answer. Then the clock strikes midnight and she is gone, and for the first time I feel she is really gone. She is free. I smile knowing that this is what she wanted.
“Goodbye Katelyn.” I whisper as I blow out the candles.