Twisted

It was a beautiful summer day. Nichole gently twirled a strand of her shiny black hair around her fingers; her light blue dress matched the flowers she way lying in. Her green eyes stared up at the sky, looking for clouds with interesting shapes. She saw one that looked like a fish, and one that looked like a dragon, breathing white fire. She even saw one that looked like her father’s top hat.

Nichole’s bother, Seth, was looking around at the apple trees which surrounded their backyard. He reached up to a low branch, and picked two, luscious red apples. He rubbed one on his navy blue sweater to remove a small spot. He scanned the surrounding area for his sister. At eleven, she was younger than him by one year. “Nichole!” he called.

Nichole sat up. “Hm?” she said, looking around her until she spotted her older brother. She gave him a questioning look, and he tossed something to her. She caught it, and then realized it was an apple. “Thanks,” she smiled, and took a bite.

Seth took a bite of his apple, as he walked toward Nichole. He sat beside her, and followed her gaze to the sky. “What do you see?” he asked her. “Well,” she began as her brother followed where she pointed. “There’s a dragon over there, and a rose over that way, and… a rabbit!”

“Nichole, I don’t see a rabbit up there, but I do see father’s favorite hat…” Seth looked at his sister, and realized she was no longer looking at the sky. Instead, her gaze was directed near the base of one of the apple trees, which had a rather large hole in it.

“Hm… I’ve never noticed that hole before…” muttered Seth. However, it was not the hole his sister was looking at, but the tiny purple animal scratching its ear beside the hole.

“I’ve never seen a purple rabbit before… Have you, Seth?” asked Nichole. Seth shook his head.

All of a sudden, the rabbit looked at them, and then rushed into the hole in the tree. Nichole jumped up, the core of her eaten apple falling to the ground, and ran to the tree. She looked inside the hole. “Mister Rabbit?” she called. She got on her hands and knees, and began crawling into the hole.

“Nichole, get back here!” yelled Seth, rushing to follow his sister. He knelt by the hole, hoping to grab his sister and pull her back out, but she was too far in. He crawled in behind Nichole, trying to catch up to her.

Then he realized something. They were in a tree, and the tree certainly didn’t look this big from the outside. He would have given this strange occurrence a little more thought, but he was instantly pulled away from his thoughts by his sister screaming.

“Nichole!” he yelled. No answer. He sped up slightly, though it was a little difficult to crawl quickly, especially since the light was diminishing, blocked by his own body. Just as Seth thought he was about to catch up to his sister, he ran out of ground to crawl on. The floor beneath him vanished, and he began to fall.