The Shrilla: Part 1

Hello, my name is Annette. My little sister’s name is Francesca. I’m eleven, and she’s seven. People say we look exactly alike, except Frannie’s shorter. Everyone calls us Annie and Frannie, the 7-11. That is, they called us that until last Halloween. Now, everyone knows the difference besides our height and age. Frannie’s gone insane. After what she did, I went to a psychiatrist for three months.1

You see, Frannie believes very strongly in equality and humaneness. She loves animals, and will do anything to make sure they’re treated the way she thinks they should be. Especially monkeys and apes, she always says “We should treat them with the highest respect because we evolved from apes so without them, we wouldn’t be here.” She also doesn’t believe in donating bodies to science, because she says “How would you like your dead carcass to be poked and prodded by medical students or gawked at in a museum? They are our fellow human beings, we shouldn’t do that to them.”2

Unfortunately, Frannie will do anything to uphold her beliefs.3

Last Halloween, Frannie and I had been searching through the Breakheart woods. We wandered off the trail and far into the deep parts that no one seemed to go into. I had been raining so we were practically the only ones there. Our parents had let us go off on our own, because my dad wanted to get inside the warm, dry lodge. Suddenly Frannie saw a glowing. Once we got closer, I noticed it too. It was faint and purplish-greenish and coming from beneath a large pile of leaves. Frannie started digging through the pile, and I soon joined her. It took us about two minutes to find it, and when we did, I picked it up first. It looked like a cross between a shrimp and Godzilla. When I held it, a feeling of negativity and vulnerability passed through me. Whatever this Godzilla-shrimp thing was, I didn’t like it. 4

However, Frannie told me she felt completely different about it. She informed me that when she held it, it made her feel more powerful and confident than she’d ever felt before. She said it in a tone I’d never heard her use before, and she’d said it with a malicious gleam in her eyes.5

“Frannie,” I tried to tell her calmly “We have no idea what this thing is. I think we should show this it to mom and dad so we can give it to scientists to study it or something. I mean, this thing, it seems otherworldly and . . . evil. I don’t think I’m comfortable with you or me being around it.”6

Frannie spun around “No, Annie. I don’t think we should. I’m keeping this, no matter what you think. I know you think it’s evil, But that means you just think it’s evil. I know that it’s not. Trust me about this, Annie. Just trust me.” Something in my gut said not to, that Frannie was lying. But a competing voice told me to trust her. Frannie was my little sister, after all. I’d known Frannie her whole life. I’d seen her grow up. I was fairly sure that I could trust her.7

“Since it looks like a cross between a shrimp and Godzilla, I think we should call it a Shrilla.” Frannie stated.8

“Sure,whatever.” I said quickly and quietly. Frannie had never acted like this before, so I was shocked and even a bit. . . scared. Maybe this whole thing would blow over. I’d wake up tomorrow and Frannie will be back to normal and have thrown away the Shrilla and everything will be the way it was before we found it.9

But then again, that’s what they always say in horror movies before the “horror” part of the movie happens.10

I’m probably just jumping to conclusions.11

But they say that in horror movies too.12

Oh no.13

* * *14

Things didn’t happen right away. They happened gradually, over a long period of time. It was probably about fourteen months after we found the Shrilla that everything really started heating up.15

At first it was just a few little differences here and there. Sometimes, objects would randomly fall. It was just a coincidence that a lamp that fell and broke had always been hated by Frannie, right? Everyone always said it was the breeze, but often no windows had been open at the time.16

Then things didn’t have to fall to get broken. An old report card of Frannie’s exploded on a Monday morning while we were eating breakfast, and one of my old teddy bears randomly combusted one evening when I was in bed. It was just a coincidence that Frannie had gotten two Ds on that report card, and that she had always been jealous of me for having that teddy bear, right?17

Then one day in church, right in the middle of a passage, I started to float up in the air. But no, it wasn’t only a few inches. In fact, I rose all the way to the inside part of the steeple. People stared and gasped. My family tried to pull me down, but I couldn’t stop the pull upwards. The priest said that it was something to do with demons or witchcraft or the devil or black magic or something. I’m not sure which one, maybe it was all of them. I wasn’t exactly concentrating on him. I was more so concentrating on the fact that Omigod,-I’m-Floating!-Why-Am-I-Floating?-Isn’t-Someone-Gonna-Get-Me-Down-From-Here-Instead-Of-Just-Gawking?18

After I finally got down from there, an exorcist came to our house a few days later. He covered my room in holy water and then dumped the rest on top of me (getting holy water dumped on you while you’re still wearing you clothes is NOT comfortable). He held up a cross and said some Latin words (at least I think they were Latin; I couldn’t understand a word of it). Then he did a few other things that I forget and said to my parents “You’re daughter has been exorcised.” 19

You know, I’ve never seen The Exorcist , but I’m pretty sure that isn’t how a real exorcism is supposed to go.20

Things quieted down a little, but about a month later, they started up again. At least twice a fire started somewhere in the house for no apparent reason. One time it was in the bathroom. While Frannie was taking a shower.21

Now, there were three things wrong with this:22

1.) 1.) How did a fire start if the electrical wiring was fine, Frannie was the only one in there and she was taking a shower so she couldn’t have done anything, and there wasn’t a lighter or any matches in there.23

2.) 2.) Why wasn’t there any damage from the fire? Seriously. No scorch marks, no ashes. Nothing. The only thing that showed there had been a fire was smoke.24

3.) 3.) What was with the look on Frannie’s face? I mean, she like, wasn’t even shocked or scared or weirded out, or what you would expect. If anything, the look on her face was of a little bit of confusion and intrigue, but mostly boredom and exasperated. What is WRONG with her?????25

The second time was when Frannie’s HAIR caught fire. I don’t know about you, but I can pretty much guarantee any NORMAL person’s hair caught fire they would be screaming their head off. But oh no, not Frannie. No, she just sighed and shook her head. Then she got up, got a wet towel, and put the towel around the fire.26

Note: Frannie’s hair, like, almost goes down to her butt. So that’s pretty long. Also, Her hair was, like, as far away from her body as it could be, so it’s not like her head was about to catch on fire. Strange how the fire was so slow moving, isn’t it? 27

This all happened within the course of about oh, 3 ½ months or so.28

Okay, so now things start going missing. I don’t mean missing like someone stole it, or you left it out of place right before spring cleaning. I mean really, really M-I-S-S-I-N-G. Like when you’re the only one in the house and you put something down, and then when you turn around 3 seconds later, it’s not there anymore.29