timemachine25
Olivia went to the library after school. It was a place to be other than home. Home with the sadness that all the family seemed to feel. Instead she was here in the library where she could feel whatever she wanted. She could go on a quest or fall in love or learn magic. Or she could even kill. But she didn't need a book to do that.
Olivia remembered the last hearing. She remembered writing everything down so she could look at it better later. She used to always do that, writing in shorthand abbreviations so she could keep up. She didn't do that now. It was too dangerous. She hadn't realized what her sister had said until she had written it down. That's when she knew that it was a mistake to have told her. That's when she knew she had to do what she had done.
It was lunch. Olivia had made it through the entire morning. No one knew. No one knew at all. That gave Olivia a sort of sick pride. She sat down with the other cheerleaders, who didn't even give her a second look. She tasted her sandwich. It was peanut butter. Only her sister liked peanut butter, and her sister was dead now. Olivia pulled out the napkin from the green and blue lunch bag. Written in her stepmom's long loopy cursive were only two words, but they made Olivia's heart beat just a tad bit faster. All it said was I KNOW.
Olivia remembered the hearing, a day before. Before the accident. Her sister had sat there on the sidelines, watching Olivia. It was her day to be a witness, but she almost told the secret. Almost. Olivia had to stop that from happening. Hearings. There would be more of them, this Olivia knew. There always were.
Separation was always hard, and repetition didn't make it any easier. Olivia stood staring up at the big brown door of her school, a school for troubled kids. Was Olivia troubled? Well, after last week there was almost no question about that. Last week, when the latest separation had occurred.
Olivia almost always got creeped out at the graveyard. To some it might be a holy, hallowed spot, but to her it was dreaded and avoided at all costs. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her mother had died when she was 5, not to mention her brother when she was 10, and now, at the age of 14, her sister. Her beautiful older sister, who was the only person who understood and the only person who knew Olivia's secret. Olivia undid the bun on top of her hair, letting it fall in loose red waves around her face. Maybe it was better this way. Her secret had gone to the grave with her sister, even if only for a while. But all the while, Olivia knew she must always live with the guilt, for it was her fault that her sister was dead. A light misty rain began to pour down as Olivia turned and left the graveyard.