The night at Norūnai Lake

 Around a year ago at the end of May, a teenager from a Southern Lithuanian town named Alytus decided to go camping near Norūnai Lake where her sister, Agilė had gone missing a year ago and was never found. Rasita hoped to find some sort of closure about what happened to her sister, as the police investigation led nowhere. Everyone had lost hope to find her... It made the student very despondent.

As the fourteen-year-old literature club president arrived at the campsite, the surroundings looked just as haunting as the memory of her angry sister wearing a beautiful white dress and leaving the campsite a year ago before vanishing. The woods were thick, and the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind sounded ominous and sad. While setting up her green small tent, the sad teenager got a call from her girlfriend Elena.

"Hello,"  Rasita answered.

"Hi, Where are you? Your mother just called. She told me that you were planning to spend the weekend with me. Did you go to Norūnai Lake?"

"Sorry, I came here to learn what had happened to my sister." the sad student replied.

"I do support your grieving process, But you need to move on… Your older sister is in a better place. Sorry, but she won't come back. It was not your fault. Maybe therapy could help you."

"Agilė would never give up on me!" angry Rasita shouted "I know my sister is alive. Our bond is as strong as always. She’s somewhere out here. I will find her!"

A furious club president turned her phone off and started to cry… 

 As the night set in, Rasita started to feel uneasy. The schoolgirl had a strange feeling that she wasn't alone. She tried to push the thought out of her mind, closed her drowsy eyes and went to sleep. But she was soon awakened by steps near her tent. The fearless teen looked outside, but there was no one there.

In the morning, the girl found a dirty phone in front of her tent and turned it on. It was her sister’s mobile. She started to receive all the messages everyone sent her throughout the year. Happy Rasita looked around her small camp.

"Agilė!" she screamed "Where are you? Please show yourself! Don’t be afraid! We aren’t angry! We just want to know that you are safe! Please show yourself!"

Nobody answered the hopeful teenager. But the excited youngster was happy because she learnt that her missing sister was still alive. She must have tricked everyone and just ran away. She was just angry about whatever was said to her. She forgave and now wants to come back. Who else would have left her phone here?

Around midnight the exhausted girl drifted off to sleep. Half asleep Rasita heard a rustling sound outside her tent again. She was too tired to care and assumed it was just an animal wandering past her campsite. However, the sound persisted, and eventually, the teen heard a soft whisper calling her name.

"Rasita," the faint voice said. It was Agilė standing next to the girl.

"Sis!" the delighted student shouted in excitement "I cannot believe you are here! I’m so sorry I made you leave our camp!"

The leader of the literature club stood, embraced her older sister with a hug and started to cry. Agilė looked tired and was very cold. The teenager didn’t care because she found her missing sister who forgave her. Finally, the schoolgirl felt complete.

"Why did you come? You shouldn’t have come here" the sixteen-year-old missing adolescent said.

"What are you speaking about?" the confused teen asked "I came here to find you. I found you."

As they were sitting together and looking at each other’s happy blue eyes, siblings heard children laughing and running outside the tent. At that moment, Rasita came back to reality.

"Who are they?" the younger sibling asked her sister "What’s happening?"

Agilė didn’t replay or showed any emotions. She just silently stared at her confused younger sister. 

Rasita took her new phone, turned the torch on, unzipped her doors and went outside. They heard old rustling trees above & many small figures reminding kids running around the green tent. The Moon was hidden behind dense clouds. It was very dark outside. A strong frosty wind blew straight at Rasita. 

Suddenly, through the small space in between heavy dark clouds, the full Moon appeared… A bright light shined at the clearing around them. The fourteen-year-old schoolgirl screamed in terror because those small pale creatures weren't humans. 

Those beings stopped running and turned their weirdly shaped heads towards the girl. Their piercing black eyes gazed straight at the petrified teen who smelt rotting death all around her.

The fearful student turned towards her dear sister. Moonlight shined at Agilė through the unzipped entrance. The missing teen didn’t move and her decomposing face was distorted in agony. Her empty grey eyes were wide open. They didn’t blink or move just stared at her.

"Run!" the deceased sister screamed and fell to the ground. Her decomposing body broke into pieces. Smiling Kaukas spirits surrounding them vanished into thin air.

Shocked Rasita looked at her sister's lifeless rotting remains wearing a blood-soaked dirty dress. The schoolgirl couldn't scream or move. She just stood there all alone in the black and scary forest as a freezing strong wind blew at her. A few minutes later, the teenager’s smartphone dropped down. She also fell to the frozen wet ground and started to cry in the all-consuming dark lonely despair...

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry... I'm so sorry I lied that I had slept with your boyfriend. I didn't mean for you to get angry and leave. I need you my dearest sister. Please, I beg you. Please, come back. I don't want to be alone. My life doesn't make sense without you."

In the morning, people found Rasita’s dead body near Norūnai Lake. She cut her wrist with a knife. There was a note written in blood left next to the dead literature club president. She wrote “Together forever…” before being embraced by nothingness.