The Curse by Kristin Ping

Author:Kristin Ping [Ping, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fire Quill Publishing

Seven

EMILY

Wind gusted around me. I blearily opened my eyes and sat up straight. I was in a forest, surrounded by trees and clean, fresh air.

“It’s about time you woke,” a girl said from behind me.

I jumped up and turned around.

She smiled at me. It was Sing. The girl I had seen on the street corner, staring right into my soul.

“What you are about to see… I’ve only shown it to a few others. They’ve never found a way to defeat him and I don’t know if he can be stopped.”

Him? I thought Mel said it was a woman.

“Just observe. You will see the first few visions through your own eyes, and the last through mine, so you can fully comprehend the severity of the situation. Do not be afraid. No harm will befall you here.”

I nodded uneasily. She took my hand, still smiling, though her eyes were filled with sorrow.

Together, we walked out from the cover of trees. My mouth gaped open when I saw we were standing on hill overlooking a large Native American reservation.

I was awestruck by its beauty.

“Let’s go,” she said and ran down the hill, pulling me behind her.

One side of the reservation housed a horse paddock, another housed cattle. Fields of vegetables were set apart from a cluster of longhouses—huts made of some kind of bark with curved roofs. People were harvesting the fields or milling about among the longhouses. Smoke curled into the sky from dozens of small cook fires. Kids and dogs cavorted near a river.

I couldn’t stop looking, but I had no time to appreciate everything, because we were now in Sing’s memories, and I had to stay close to her.

“That is my brother. His name is Stone.” She pointed at a boy sitting in the dirt outside one of the longhouses, playing with carved rocks.

“Stone, as in rock?”

She laughed. “I used to tease him about his name.” She spoke without taking her eyes off him. “We are like you. We shared my mother’s womb.”

“You and Stone are twins.”

“Twins. That is the word.” She nodded. “He was so brave. He took every opportunity to prove to my father that he didn’t need his seventh totem to become a man, that he was ready for the hunt. I loved him so much, and hated him at the same time.”

I frowned at her.

“Part of the reason the creature came was because of him, but it was partly my own fault as well. You see, I didn’t try to stop my brother. I went along with his plan.”

I looked at Stone. My sister was in a coma because of him?

“Come, let’s go.”

She took me to a longhouse. Slowly our surroundings changed. Stone was older. I peeked out of the tent and saw his younger self still sitting in the same spot, playing with rocks and chatting to his friends.

I followed her back. Sing’s mother was busy grooming Stone. The boy grumbled under his breath, clearly not enjoying it.

Sing laughed as she watched them. I could see her longing for her family in her eyes.

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