August 30th, the school year just started. I was 16 she was barley even 13. Honestly we were cursed from the beginning being born to parent who couldn't care less about us. I grew attached to my sister very quickly after she was born considering my parent thought that constantly arguing and hitting each other was more important than taking care of a newborn. Sometime over the years our parents grew tired of taking all their anger out on each other and started taking it out on us. They named me Elijah and her Galina. My sister and I grew up with bruises and cuts, the only thing we were good at was staying quiet and keeping our mouths shut. I didn't want my sister to get hurt so I took all the hits for her.
Galina is sitting in her room looking through a sketchbook she drew while I am in the bathroom getting ready for school. She comes into the bathroom as I am washing my face. "Hey Eli" she says standing behind me. "Yeah Gal?" I reply, I look at her through the mirror and see her smiling. "Are we going to the lake after school?" she asks. I turn around to face her and lean against the sink. "Sure we can go to the lake after school." I say, she smiles and hugs me. I smile and hug her back. I pull away from her and walk out of the bathroom. "Eli where are you going?" she asks following behind me. "I'm going to school now." I say, I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulder. "You're leaving right now?" she asks. I nod my head yes and turn around to face her. "I'll be home by 5, do you want me to get anything?" I ask her, she shakes her head no and I smile. "Alright, well I love you and I'll see you when I get back." I say and kiss her forehead, she smiles and nods her head. "Ok bye Eli." she says, "Bye Gal." I say back to her.
I walk out the door and to the bus stop which is only a couple houses down from my house. When I get on the bus I sit next to one of my friends, he is a tall, scrawny, pale white boy who wears a lot of black. His name is Daniel. "Hey man." he says to me as I sit down. "Hey." I reply. "So are you still coming over to my house later today?" he asks. "Yeah man, but I can only stay for a little bit after school I have to be home by five." I reply. He nods his head. "That's fine." he says.
When the bus arrives at the school I get off with Daniel, and we walk to the front of the school to meet up with our other friends. We don't do anything really we just talk and hang out, nothing too crazy. About 5 minutes before class starts we go inside. There's only a few minutes left so we all sit in our seats and wait for the bell to ring.
Classes start and go by really fast, I only have to worry about a few classes, my other classes aren't that important. At lunch I meet up with my friends again and we talk about random shit until lunch is over, and then we head to our last class of the day which is English. It's not that hard of a class just a lot of boring lectures. The bell rings and we head out the door, Daniel and I walk together to the bus and then we go to his house.
We play video games for a little bit and then I realize that it's getting pretty late so I have to leave. "I gotta go man I'll see you tomorrow." I say to him, I stand up and grab my backpack and put it over my shoulder. He looks up at me and nods his head. "Alright I'll see you tomorrow." he says back to me. I walk out of his house and start walking back home.
The walk to my house isn't that long, but it can be tiring when you're tired. When I get home I walk through the door and see Galina sitting on the couch drawing in her sketchbook. She looks up at me when I walk in and smiles. "Hey Eli!" she says happily. "Hi Gal." I say back. "How was your day?" she asks me, she sets her sketchbook on the couch and gets up to walk towards me. "It was fine, how was yours?" I ask her, she shrugs her shoulders. "It was ok." she says. "That's good." I say to her. "What time are we going to the lake?" she asks. "Right now." I reply, she smiles. "Ok I'll go get ready." she says excitedly, she runs upstairs and goes to her room.
I wait downstairs until Galina comes back down. When she does she's wearing a black tank top and blue shorts, along with some black and white vans. "Ready?" she asks. "Yup." I say, I walk outside to my car that my aunt bought for my 16th birthday and Galina follows behind me. We drive to the lake together, there's a lot of trees on our way there, we drive though the dark dirt path. It takes us about 10 minutes to get there, when we arrive at the lake we walk to the shore. I sit down on the sand and Galina sits next to me, she brings her knees to her chest and rests her chin on her knees. I sit cross legged on the sand and look over at her. "Are you alright?" I ask her, she looks at me and nods her head. "Yeah, I'm just thinking about stuff." she says. "What stuff?" I ask her. She shrugs her shoulders. "Just stuff." she says, she looks away from me and stares at the lake. "Are you sure you're ok?" I ask her, she nods her head yes and smiles. "I'm fine Eli." she says, I nod my head and smile. "Ok." I say, I look out at the lake and watch the water, it's calm and peaceful. I hear Galina sigh next to me, I look over at her and see that she's staring at the lake too. "Do you want to swim?" I ask her. She looks at me and shakes her head no. "I'm just going to sit here for a little bit." she says, I nod my head. "Ok." I say, I stand up and take my shirt off, and then I walk into the water.
The water is cold and feels nice on my skin. I dive underneath the water and come back up, I wipe the water off my face and turn around to look at Galina. She's still sitting in the same spot. "You're not gonna come in?" I ask her. She looks at me and shakes her head no. "I'm just gonna stay here." she says. "Alright." I say, I swim away from the shore a little bit and float on my back. I look up at the sky and watch the clouds move slowly across it. The sun is starting to set, the sky is turning a bright orange. "Hey Eli!" I hear Galina yell, I look towards the shore and see her standing there with her arms crossed. "Come here! I found something!" she yells, I get up from the water and walk towards her. "What did you find?" I ask her. "Look!" she says, she points towards the trees, I look at where she's pointing and see a small creature standing in between the trees. "What is that?" I ask her. "It's a deer!" she says excitedly, she runs over to the deer and tries to pet it. The deer runs away into the trees. Galina pouts and crosses her arms. "Come on, let's go home." she says, I nod my head. "Ok." I say, I grab my shirt off the sand and put it on, and then I walk back to the car with Galina.
I start the car as Galina puts on her seat belt we continue our drive on the dirt path. As we drive I can tell that Galina is upset, I look over at her and see that she's staring out the window. "Hey what's wrong?" I ask her. "Nothing, I'm just tired." she says. "Do you want to go to sleep?" I ask her, she nods her head yes. "Ok, we'll be home soon." I say to her. We drive in silence for a few more minutes, but then I hear a loud bang. I look up at the rearview mirror and see another car following close behind us. It looks like they're trying to get our attention. "What are they doing?" Galina asks, she turns around in her seat and looks at the car. "I don't know." I say. I speed up my car and try to ignore the other car. It keeps following us, then it starts driving dangerously close to us. I keep trying to get away from them, but they keep coming closer and closer. "Elijah watch out!" Galina screams, I look forward and see a tree in front of us. I slam on my breaks, but it's too late. The car hits the tree and spins around. I get thrown forward and hit my head on the steering wheel, everything goes black.