Baneful Best-Friend Birthdays

• Demah Farhan, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

The heat bathed our skin as a warm breeze brushed against our flushed cheeks, sweeping flyaway strands of hair delicately across the picnic blanket. Discarded litter sprinkled the long stalks of grass around us. I still smell the scent of popcorn lingering in the air mingled with a touch of blueberry muffins. A bird was singing softly, dreamily. My eyes were closed, veiling me away from the troublesome world. Our shoes were kicked off and our ankles crossed.
My forgotten homework and worries dawdled away in my mind.
I’ve got nothing to worry about…
My best friend, Anna, lay beside me and murmured.
“What?” I said lazily, stifling a yawn. My throat was dry like sandpaper. I shifted on my side to face her.
“I said we should go in for a swim! Our clothes will dry later.” Anna’s lips were coated with sugar from a Turkish delight. She wiped it away with her tongue.
My gaze drifted to the lake in front of us. Blossoms floated slowly onto the cool water, dusting the surface with pink. Anna waded into the water fully clothed.
“Oh, it’s so cold, Ebony! Come on!” she ambled in further and further. I slid in after her, the coolness hitting me and seeping into my clothes. Anna dunked her head in and emerged sputtering and laughing her tinkling laugh that sent warmth up my spine. My pale hand looked spindly with the nails painted black, pushing the blossoms away to make a path. A wave of water hit my face and dark hair clung to my neck and shoulders loosely. The heat had dissolved away, restored by a grim cold. Everything felt wrong. My heart jolted, enveloping me in panic. Anna’s laughter started echoing in my head, her long golden curls trailing behind her with blossoms plastered onto her summer dress. A coil of uneasiness wrapped itself around my chest tightly.
“Anna! Get out now!”
She turned to me with a teasing smile and swam a few more metres away. Then Anna gasped and started kicking feebly.
“Ebonyyy! Bonnnnniiiieee!”
I swam as fast as I could towards her. But something was tearing me apart from the inside of my belly like a vicious beast, escaping its cage. I couldn’t breathe.
“Something has my ankle!”
I stopped and gawked. Perhaps it was the darkness fooling me but when I ducked my head under the water I swear I could see a clawed green hand grabbing Annabelle’s ankle, the long nails digging into her skin and leaving marks.
Black veins were erupting and creeping all over her neck as she struggled.
I was frozen. My arms are too heavy to lift.
Blood bloomed slowly around her, staining her dress crimson.
“Anna! Annabelle!” I shrieked repeatedly.
I coughed water and reached out one arm in a desperate attempt to grab her.
Anna stopped flailing while something dragged her into the murky depths. Despair broke through me.
In a blink of the eye she was gone forever.