text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  "AARHGIEJWHHWHSJWOAKDJDJ" screamed the frightened Elliot.
  
  Jessie stood in absolute shock. "What's wrong?"
  
  "Of course I'm dead. I'm just a ghost, silly." She chuckled.
  
  "A g-g-g-g-ghost?" All color left his cheeks.
  
  "Yes"
  
  It wasn't until Elliot started praying that his sister got visibly annoyed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just here to ask you why you haven't visited my grave in so long. It's been six years since you've come."
  
  The man was shocked. Had it really been that long? And more importantly, was this ghost going to kill him?
  
  "Are you going to kill me?" He asked.
  
  The ghost looked as if she was ready to slap Elliot if he didn't give it up. "Calm down. I just wanted to...don't you miss me? I sure missed you every day. Every day for the last six years, I've been waiting for you to come. Why don't you?"
  
  He didn't have words. He supposed after moving away, he never went back to see his sister. Truthfully, he never went back to see anyone. Elliot hadn't been home in six years. A pang of guilt passed through him, but he was still too afraid to feel its full effect.
  
  "A-a-are you h-h-here to k-k-kill me because y-you're mad that I-I-I haven't v-visited?"
  
  Jessie was so frustrated by her stupid brother that she let out a very loud, "AAAARRRRGGGGG!" She had never been patient while alive, and death didn't give her any extra virtues.
  
  The little girl's growl convinced Elliot that the ghost was going to kill him. He had two choices in order to escape death: run into the nearby cave or use the matches he had to try to set her on fire.
  
  > find a cave to sleep in
  Elliot spotted a wide opening on the side of the cliff. Luckily, the opening was just low enough for him to jump and grab the ledge with his hands and pull himself up. He entered the cave, wishing he had something for light. He silently prayed that no bear lived in the cave. He didn't go far in, just far enough for him to be protected from the elements and hopefully any supernatural beings presiding in the forest.
  
  The tired man placed his head on a smooth rock, using it as a pillow and let himself fall into a stressed sleep. He woke up not long after, warmer than he had been since summer. Not opening his eyes, he attempted to roll over and bask in the warmth but that was when he realized, he couldn't move. His eyes snapped open. He was tightly wrapped in a womb of feathers. He let out a bloodcurdling scream, thinking he'd been tar and feathered. Elliot had seen people being tar and feathered, and it was something he hoped he would never have to endure.
  
  A deep, raspy voice replied, "what's wrong with you, human?"
  
  "Huh? Who said that?! Who's there?!"
  
  "You don't know who I am?" The voice sounded offended.
  
  Suddenly, the feathers left the man and he saw what had been happening. He saw the most vile monster he'd ever seen in front of him. "You...you're a...you...you're...YOU'RE A GIANT DUCK" Elliot yelled at the beast.
  
  "I am no duck!" Said the giant duck, "I am a fire drake." The offended beast was a pure feathered mallard and was as big as a dragon.
  
  "Oh please, a fire drake is just an old timey name for a dragon and you my friend, are no dragon."
  
  "How dare you?! I am not a dragon, I am a fire drake. Those damn dragons have all but destroyed my beautiful image and memory."
  
  "What? I'm just," Elliot gasped for breath, "what do you want from me? Also, were you...sitting on me?"
  
  "How else was I supposed to keep you warm? I like my food nice and toasty before I eat it. I also like to play with my food before I eat it, but you're annoying."
  
  "Aren't ducks vegetarians?"
  
  "I already said I'm not a duck! I'm a fire drake!" The mallard roared, or uhh quacked.
  
  Elliot knew this was little more than a dream. His family all together, please, everyone in that room besides him was already dead. Even the strange woman was recognizable from photographs, she was his mother who died when he was two years old. "I suppose I'm just dreaming." He said to his long dead mother.
  
  Jessie looked up from her porridge and frowned. She was only eleven when she died. "I'll see you again someday." He told her. Even though he knew it was just a lucid dream, everything felt so real.
  
  His mother spoke again, "Goodbye, Elliot."
  
  Within the instant, the man opened his eyes. Looking around, he found himself laying on his back at the base of a tree. Judging from the blistering headache he was forming, he guessed he had fallen out while asleep. The location of the sun confirmed that it was early morning, the first rays of light were just beginning to shine. The man stood up, stretched his aching arms, and grabbed his compass out of his pocket, ready to start a new day hiking through the woods. He hiked all day, always heading North. When it was almost dusk, he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks.
  
  "Where have you been?" It was the voice of a young girl.
  
  When Elliot turned around, he was greeted by the site of a little girl with blonde pigtails tied up with bows. A simple green dress covered all the way to her ankles and forearms. There stood his little sister, Jessie, who had been dead for twelve years.
  
  > hug her
  Elliot didn't waste a second, he ran towards his little sister. There was no way he was going to let her go again. He embraced the girl in a bear hug and she mumbled something about not being able to breathe. After a while he released his hug and held her by the shoulders at arms length. "I've missed you so much."
  
  She gave a faint upturn of her lips, "I've missed you, too. Where have you been?"
  
  "What do you mean?"
  
  "You promised me when I was a little girl that you would always be there for me but, it's been six years. You haven't visited my grave in six years. You were always my only visitor and now there's nobody. I'm so lonely, Elliot."
  
  The man couldn't believe it. Had it really been six years since he visited his sister? Thinking back, he supposed it had been close to that long. How could he have neglected his sister like that? A wave of guilt washed over him.
  
  Then she spoke again, "it's okay, I forgive you. Without you, I wouldn't have made it this far. Thank you for protecting me all those years."
  
  It was true, he had always been Jessie's protector. He would've jumped in front of a sword aimed her way. Their father was a horrible, sadistic man who used Elliot as his own personal play thing. As a child, Elliot was beaten within an inch of his life regularly, and was constantly covered in new scars and bruises. Sometimes, the man showed love for his son, but it was in purely a physical and forceful manner.
  
  As for Jessie, he never laid a hand on her. He never had a chance. Elliot would have protected her to his dying breath. He almost did, at times. The boy took hundreds of beatings to save his sister and would often tell her to run to the woods outside the house. He didn't want her to have to see what their father did to him. Their father always wanted Jessie. He wanted to take from her what he had taken from his son years before. He wanted her untainted garden, but Elliot ensured she kept her innocence. He protected her for years, successfully able to sacrifice himself at every turn. However, not even her older brother could protect Jessie from Typhoid fever. She died young, but she died innocent; as pure as the snow she was buried in.
  
  The dead girl looked healthier than she had ever been. He loved his sister; she had once been the only joy in his life. The thought crossed Elliot's mind that perhaps he could just stay here with Jessie rather than continue on and out of the forest. He could stay here forever with Jessie and never have to make her lonely again. But then again, she's just a ghost. Jessie, the real Jessie, is dead and gone.
  
  > stay with Jessie...forever
  Elliot knew he couldn't leave her again, not after all they had been through. She used to be the only positive thing in his whole world. Without her, life had no more meaning. "How about I make it up to you," he said. "I'll stay here with you and neither of us will ever have to be lonely again. What do you say?"
  
  Jessie was taken aback. "You can't do that. You can't give up on everything for me. I'm just a ghost, not even alive."
  
  "Don't you get it? You ARE my life. I would do anything to stay with you."
  
  Jessie wanted to stop him, but deep down, she was almost happy as he pulled out his pocketknife. She could stop him, all it would take is a quick grab of the knife. But she didn't. The girl just stood there as still as a statue as her brother slit his wrists. She would never have to be lonely again.
  
  Legend has it, the brother and sister are still in that forest, doomed to wander it for all eternity. Unbeknownst to those who whisper the tale of Jessie and Elliot, they're both perfectly content, wandering the forest of past voices with their best and only friend as a companion.