The Sixth Kind Chapter 01

The Sixth Kind Chapter 01

April 12, 2016. A Saturday.

My sister’s twelfth birthday.

In the small town where we grew up, twelve is a big deal——it means you’re not a little kid anymore. You’re officially a teenager.

But my sister’s life stopped cold that day.

I was in college in the city back then. I came home special for her birthday.

That day, her sixth-grade class had a field trip to Raven Ridge to see the cliff fireweed.

My mom didn’t really want her to go. But my sister had been dying to see those flowers.

So we pushed her birthday dinner to the evening.

Mom packed her a sun shirt, a hat, her canteen, some snacks. She told her to come home early.

“Don’t you dare eat my birthday cake without me!” my sister warned us. “Wait till I get back to light the candles!”

“Hey sis, I heard Raven Ridge has those really pretty fireweed blooms. I’ll bring some back and make you a bookmark, okay?” She shot me a sideways look, a little tentative.

The night before, she’d accidentally deleted my biochem term paper while playing some stupid game on my laptop.

And that class? The one I hated most. The bane of my existence.

I was grinding away, rewriting the whole damn thing, and I snapped: “Fine. But don’t you dare come back without them.”

Truth is? I didn’t really care about some lousy flower bookmark.

I was just pissed. I wanted to make her squirm.

What none of us knew——the cliff fireweed on Raven Ridge? Gorgeous, sure——

But it only grows on the sheerest cliffs.

“She went over the edge trying to get that fireweed for me. I didn’t find out till after she was gone that those flowers only grow on the cliffs.”

“For years afterward, all I could think was——if I hadn’t said ‘don’t come back without them,’ would she still be alive?”

Ten years later, I said those words to my criminal psychology PhD advisor, Edmund Stone.

Even after all that time, I broke down crying.

“When did they find your sister?” Edmund handed me a tissue.

“Three days later.”

“I remember it like yesterday. Early morning. Sunlight falling on her little shriveled face. So warm.”

“My mom collapsed on the spot. My dad had a heart attack.”

“Just me left. Standing there with her. Quiet.”

The coffee maker gave a soft gurgle in the background. Loud as hell in that quiet office.

“Look, finding a body at all when someone goes missing up in those hills? That’s something.” Edmund poured himself a cup, slid the warm mug toward me.

“Back then, hundreds of people searched those woods. Cops, my parents, relatives, friends, my dad’s students…… even locals. Came out in droves.”

“The police set up a perimeter around where she went missing. Checked every camera. Knocked on doors for ten miles in every direction.”

When they found her body, my mom lunged at me, tearing at my clothes, screaming:

“You knew it was her birthday! You cursed her! What kind of monster are you?!”

My dad, a high school teacher, was shaking with rage. Got right in my face:

“I’ve spent my whole life teaching kids. How did I raise such a cold, selfish animal? Why couldn’t it have been you?!”

Right then and there, he disowned me.

Everyone stared. Judged. I didn’t run. Didn’t defend myself. Just stood there and took it.

Because even I believed I’d killed my own sister.

I deserved it all. Worse, even.

I swallowed the fire in my throat and kept going:

“At first, everyone figured it was an accident——till the autopsy came back.”

“Nobody could make sense of it. Not hypothermia. Not a wild animal. Not a fall.”

Edmund stopped stirring his coffee.

“Then what got her?”

“Thirst.”

“Dehydration in the wilderness? Happens all the time, right?” Edmund tapped his cup.

“Her canteen was full.” I said it slow. One word at a time.

“You think someone took her water before she went over, then put it back after——covering their tracks?”

I shook my head. “Three people found her. My dad, one of his students, and a search and rescue volunteer. No footprints at the scene except theirs.”

“What about her classmates? Teachers? Any drama at school?”

“She was a good student. Easygoing. Nobody had a beef with her. No bullying, no drama.”

“The water in the canteen——clean?”

I nodded.

Edmund’s face went dark.

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