Chapter 1 – Chap 1

I’ve got a sister,well… I HAD a sister. Normally, when a family loses a loved one, their memory is kept alive in the form of filling the house with pictures of said person, talking about them, visiting their grave at the graveyard… But in my case, if the people close to me hadn’t told me about my sister, I would’ve never known she existed. You see, if you go to my house, you’ll find absolutely no trace of her existence, no pictures, no clothes, no toys, no nothing, anywhere. Not even in my room, wich is odd if you consider it used to be hers. All I really knew about her is that she died two years before I was born and that she apparently looked a lot like me (or I guess I’m the one who looks like her…) Aside from that, she was a complete stranger to me, I didn’t even know her name. When I was little, I asked my parents about her a few times, but whenever that happened, they’d simply said”She’s gone, and that makes us sad, but now we have you, sweetie, and that makes us less sad. You’re… perfect, Jessica.” then they’d give me a kiss, leave and act as if that conversation had never happened, so I soon stopped trying and moved on.

One morning, a saturday morning, to be exact, I was eating my breakfast, as usual, when my mother came to the kitchen.

“Both me and your father have to go to work today, so you’ll come to the office with me,dear”

“Why? I’m old enough to stay home alone, mom!”

“I know, but there’s no food home today, we’ll go buy food when we get out of the office, so you can stay tomorrow.”

So I acompanied my mother to work, once we got there, she began to work on her computer while I sat next to her playing on my handheld videogames console. After a while, my mother had to go deliver some documents upstairs.

” I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t get out of the office.”

The way she said that almost creeped me out, so cold and serious, she must had noticed, though, as she immediately followed in a much more frendlier way:

“I don’t want you to distract my co-workers,honey. You understand, don’t you? You can get out if you need to go to the bathroom, but please don’t bother my colleagues.”

“I won’t”

I stayed inside for a short while, but then, the urge of having to go to the bathroom came to me, so I went there, trying to draw as less attention as possible in the process. However, when exiting the restroom, I came across a woman.

“Why, what brings you here, missy?”

“I’m… I’m Vanessa’s daughter.”

“Vanessa’s daughter? J-Jessica? I… I thought you… I thought that accident had…”

Why did she sound so shocked? Accident, what accident? I responded with the first thing that came to my mind.

“Yes… I’m her… second daughter.”

She then became more calm.

“Oh, forgive me, I didn’t know she had another one, I’ve mistaken you for sister.”

We then parted ways. I was blown away by the conversation I’d just had. That person had unknowingly revealed to me information about my sister my parents had kept a secret to me for years. It turns out not only did I look like my sister, I also shared her name! And apparently, she died due to an accident, but what kind of accident? Why did my parents want me not to know that?What were they hiding? That mystery haunted me throught the entire day, to the point I had a nightmare that night. I dreamed I was my sister’s ghost, and that my parents had sumoned me because they refused to live a life without me. That would explain my looks and my name… No, that’s completely ridiculous, It’s just a stupid dream.

I woke up, it was finally sunday. I was home alone, the enigma of my sister still lurking inside my mind, now was the time to finally solve it. I had a quick breakfast and got to work. I searched everywhere, closets, drawers, documents, books… nothing, just as I expected. I had searched the entire house, well, almost. It was time for plan B, it was time to go to the only part of the house I wasn’t familiar with, the part I had only gone to once before: the basement. I grabbed a flashlight and descended to the depths of the building in search for answers, but there were only boxes full of random objects that weren’t related to the mystery. I was about to give up when I heard something behind me, it was a mouse, gross… but useless. However, something behind the mouse caught my attention, a wierd stack of boxes, oddly placed against a wall isolated from the other boxes in a rectangular shape. I pulled out a box, then another, and another… I couldn’t belive it, a hidden door, I tried to open it, but it was locked. I open each box in search for the key, it was my lucky day, the last box had it. I slowly opened the door, I was a bit scared, but my curiosity and excitement bested my fear.

I couldn’t belive what was in front of me, a maze, a maze of corridors,each filled with tons rooms full of objects scattered all over: pieces of paper, books, chairs, broken glass, pills, syringes… What was this place? Did my parents build this or was it already there when they moved in? Whatever it was, it was clear this wasn’t just a mere extention of the basement, the light blue walls and floor contrasted with the basement’s usual grey color scheme, this wasn’t normal, but what was it?

I began exploring the place, its old ,empty and gloomy halls creeped me out and fascinated me equally, anyone could tell it hadn’t been used for years, it was pretty cold too… But that wouldn’t stop me, I HAD to find out the thruth. I didn’t know what that place was yet, but it was my best bet, it just SCREAMED dark family secret. As I was investigating one of the rooms, I heard what sounded like a roar in the distance. I went outside the hall to check, someone bumped into me. I screamed, whoever had bumped into me screamed right after, I shined my light at them, only to see…a little girl? She seemed to be arround 7 or 8 years old,right away, I noticed her dirty and torn clothes, she had no shoes, only a part of torn apart socks.

“Who are you?” we both asked to one another in unison.

Neither of us responded, what followed what an akward period of us staring at each other, that gave me time to find out what her face looked like. She had both eye-sockets, but only one eye, it was brown, just like my eyes,however, her hair was black as coal, unlike mine, wich is blonde.

“Are you with Primal?” she asked.

“What? Who’s Primal? Who are you? What are you doing under my house?”

I heard that roar again, this time it sounded louder and closer to me.

“No, Primal’s coming! Quick, before she finds us!”

Still with no idea about who she, Primal or that place were, I reluctantly followed her to a nearby room and we hid under a table.