An Ancestral Revenge

I won’t lie to you, I don’t get out much. So when my friends invited me on a road trip I was ecstatic. In my mind, I pictured a cute little cottage surrounded by a colorful field of flowers and a small stream nearby that we’d dip our bare feet into with our pants rolled halfway up our calves. I thought we’d spend the nights watching a silly romcom movie while eating warm, homemade cookies and popcorn, and maybe doing some arts and crafts like making bead bracelets. I guess I should’ve asked more questions before I said yes so quickly to tagging along. Instead, I now find myself crammed in the middle seat of an SUV between two other girls. I’m not complaining though, with everyone so close together it really does feel like we’re about to embark on a memorable adventure. There were five of us total; Sadi, the driver, Tara in the passenger seat, Nadia to my left, and Cassandra to my right, who was the only one of the girls that I didn’t know very well. Cassandra was one of Sadi’s newer friends. I had lost touch with the group for a few months because I got so busy at work. That’s no excuse though, I’ve always been a homebody but looking back I regret letting work take over my life so much that it entirely secluded me from having any social life. I think Sadi could tell I was starting to spiral, so she invited me on this trip to help get me out of that cycle.

There I was, holding my pillow on my lap and keeping my knees close together so as not to bump the girls on either side of me. I really had no clue where we were going, looking outside it seemed to be desert, though it was hard to tell since it was night. We came from Colorado so I was used to seeing more trees, I had always wanted to see one of those big cactuses though, I’ve only ever seen them in photos and I still can’t believe they’re real! I’ve heard they’re heavy enough to destroy cars if they fall over. It made me wonder how many phone calls insurance companies get about people's cars being crushed by a cactus, this thought was funny to me for some reason. Tara turned down the music a bit, “We’re almost there! I know it looks a bit sketchy but this Airbnb has great reviews and we made sure there was cell service out here.” Now that she mentioned it, it was sort of sketchy. There were no street lamps on the sides of the road, how long ago did there stop being street lamps? There were starting to be fewer and fewer cars too, but I guess that’s to be expected if you’re aiming for a more private cabin getaway. Sadi looked in the rear-view mirror at me, “You doing ok back there, Yasha?” Her saying my name made me realize I hadn’t spoken much, if at all since we left. “Yeah, thanks for inviting me!” I had hoped my being quiet didn't come off as not wanting to be here, I was so busy being in my own head that I didn’t even know what they had been talking about before that moment. I tried to be more present for the rest of the drive so I didn’t seem so awkward or outcasted. “Where exactly are we going” I asked Sadi. “I haven’t told you?? Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Girl, you could’ve asked sooner! We’re in Florence, Arizona!” To be honest, I had never even heard of that town. Wait, Arizona? How long have we been driving… it’s only felt like a few hours max. Now I really felt bad for not having said much the whole time. “We’re here!” Sadi said excitedly, though I’d be happy too after driving for that long.

We couldn’t see much, we only knew we were there because the GPS said we had arrived. Sadi slowly kept pulling forward until we could see the frame of a house start to emerge in the headlights. It was a small but cute place, and it looked to be on the newer side actually. I tend to assume all cabins are older than time itself, so this was a nice surprise since I had seen one too many horror movies about secluded, rundown cabins. Sadi put the car in park and everyone practically catapulted out of the car to stretch. “Ugh I can’t feel my legs”, Tara said as she reached her arms over her head. Once everyone shook off for a moment we all looked toward the house, Tara put her hands on her hips, “Welp, the sooner we get everything inside the better!” We all walked toward the back of the car as Sadi opened the trunk, and then we each started grabbing our bags and made our way to the front porch. Once Sadi locked the car the headlights shut off and it was pitch black, “Ohh wow ok, I can’t see anything”, a couple of the girls groaned. Nadia and Cassandra turned on their phone flashlights while Sadi and Tara fumbled with the lockbox to retrieve the key to the door. I looked out into the surrounding darkness for a moment… I couldn’t even see a few feet past the car, which practically had its bumper to the porch. Imagine getting lost out here, would there even be any hope that you could get found? Why am I having such scary thoughts? Everything has gone perfectly so far, there’s no point in making myself paranoid. The loud thump of Sadi jerking the door open scared me and I whipped my head back around to look at the group. “Yaaaay”, a couple of the girls said as we all piled into the house, dragging our bags in with us.

Tara swayed her phone light around to help Sadi find the light switch, “Click!” The room was illuminated. We all spread out a bit and looked at the main room; a gorgeous, modern open-concept with all practically brand-new utilities. The paper towels and hand soap by the kitchen sink were fully restocked, a dining table with fancy placemats had all the chairs pushed in, and a neatly folded fuzzy blanket lay over the back of the couch facing towards a huge 65” flatscreen TV. “Damn Sadi, what a steal this place was!” exclaimed Nadia. “Yeah, I guess since it’s so rural most people don’t want to make the drive out here, but it’s really nice”, Sadi replied. I put my bag on the white, marble countertop of the kitchen island, and the rest of the girls began to settle too, putting their bags on the dining table or couch and sighing from letting the weight of the bag down. For a moment I just stood there looking at the girls, awkwardly holding the strap of my bag even though I was no longer carrying it, unsure of what to do next. The length of the drive was finally starting to set in, I was tired but I didn’t want to say anything and be the buzzkill that goes to bed too early. I was relieved to hear Sadi felt the same way, “Well I’m pretty tired so I’m going to call it a night, what about you guys?” I responded first, “Yeah I think I’m done for the day, thanks for driving Sadi.” The rest of the girls spoke over each other in agreeance, “Yeah thanks Sadi!”

We all grabbed our bags again and headed down the hall where the bedrooms were. Sadi and Cassandra shared a bed in one room, Tara and Nadia stayed together in a room with bunk beds, and I somehow got a room to myself. “You sure guys? If any of you prefer having your own space I’m happy to bunk with someone, it doesn’t bother me at all” I said, wanting to make sure no one was upset that I didn’t have to share. “Naaaah, we’re only here for a couple of days so it’s no biggie!” Sadi replied. Everyone retreated into their rooms, I sat my bag down on the edge of the bed and started unpacking. I could hear the muffled conversations of the others across the hall and some faint laughing. I brushed my teeth and changed into my pajamas then fluffed my pillow and crawled under the covers. I rolled onto my side so I could look out the window, I guess without so many city lights you can see the night sky better. I don’t normally like sleeping with the blinds open but it was so beautiful I couldn’t bring myself to close them. Twinkling stars and an almost full moon that shone a silvery-blue hue into the room so bright I’d be able to walk around without needing the lights on. I closed my eyes and before I knew it I fell into a deep sleep, I had never fallen asleep so fast.

I woke up around 9 A.M., I had never slept that well in my life, you would’ve thought someone tranquilized me. It was a bit odd for me because I don’t normally sleep that well in new environments, but I brushed it off assuming it was because of the long drive. I got out of bed and headed to the kitchen in my pajamas. A few of the other girls were already there at the kitchen island. Tara was already dressed, leaning against the counter holding a hot cup of black coffee, and Sadi and Nadia were sitting in the high chairs talking to her. Tara took a sip of her coffee and saw me walking over, “Hey! How are you doing?” “To be honest I just had the best sleep I’ve ever had,” I said. Nadia joined in, “Yeah same here, I guess the drive wore us out more than we thought!” Tara and Sadi agreed that they too slept like a rock. Were we all really that tired? My thought was disrupted by everyone turning to look at Cassandra entering the room, “Hey!” Tara and Sadi said almost in unison. I looked over at her too, “My god she looks awful”, I thought, a bit taken aback. Her hair was a mess, but not the usual I-just-got-out-of-bed type of mess, it looked dirty and had a few small, stray leaves in it. She had bags under her eyes and an anxious look as she kept scanning the room around us like she was looking for something. No one else seemed to pay any attention to how disheveled she looked, was I just being judgemental? Had it been so long since I last had a sleepover with other girls that I didn't know what the average person looked like anymore right after waking up? To be fair, Tara was a morning person so she was ready to go out as is, and I at least went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my hair before I came out so maybe I was just being harsh. Cassandra shuffled closer to us, barely picking her feet up off the ground, “Hey guys… I had like the worst sleep ever, I just couldn’t relax at all.” So it wasn't just my imagination. “Oh no!” Sadi said. “Are you ok? Are you feeling sick at all? I’m sure we can find a doctor or something around here if we need to.” “No no… I don’t want to ruin our first day here by spending time with that, I just need to get better sleep tonight is all, I might take a nap later,” Cassandra replied, it seemed exhausting to just get the words out. Nadia chimed in, “Yeah you know, maybe you just need to get settled in! New environments can be stressful. What do we have planned today Tara?”

“Well we should first go to the town nearby to get some breakfast and pick up some food, not sure about you but my couple bags of chips didn’t last long. After that, I thought we’d go sightseeing on a nearby trail, Jeep tours are pretty popular out here.” “But if you’re not feeling up to the tour we can just let you rest here after breakfast, Cass,” Sadi said, clearly wanting to make Cassandra feel heard and cared for, she’s good at that. Cassandra was leaning on the counter, almost looking like she was going to fall over, “Yeah ok… getting some food in my stomach at least would be good, maybe I just need some fresh air.”

We all got ready to go, I brought a small bag with the essentials; lip balm, my credit card and a bit of cash, gum, a hair tie, a portable charger, a small tissue pack, and a pen. A pen might seem unusual to some people but the few times I’ve needed to write on something I really wish I would’ve had one. We all went outside and while Sadi locked the door I looked around, now that there was sunlight I could finally see the surrounding area. There was an almost perfectly circular clearing around the whole house where there were no big plants until about 30 feet out, except for one saguaro cactus that was only about 8 feet or so away from the kitchen window. It was a tall, slender plant with vertical pleats and spikes lining its entire body. A couple of arms stuck out on opposite sides and curved up towards the sky, it almost looked like the figure of a cartoonishly tall human standing super straight. Further out where the ring started were more cactuses, lots of them. More cactuses than trees or bushes, and my god were they huge. They towered over our little Airbnb, must’ve been at least 40 feet high, and had more of the thick arms growing out of them in just about any direction. They were all closer to each other than I would’ve thought, making it hard to see past them like a forest. I was starting to walk up to the cactus that was closest to the house so I could see just how big it was compared to me, but got stopped by the sound of Sadi’s voice, “Whew! I really suck at working these little lockbox things, they’re so finicky!”

We all got back into Sadi’s car in the same seats as last night, and luckily I didn’t feel like I was taking up as much space since I didn’t have my pillow this time. Nadia to my left put her earbuds in to listen to music during the drive and Tara used the AUX to play music for background noise while she and Sadi talked. Cassandra looked better than before but still had this look on her face that I just couldn’t quite place. She was looking out the window for a few minutes before I decided to say something, “Do you normally have trouble sleeping when you go to a new place? We could see if there's a convenient store in town for some sleep medicine.” Cassandra seemed almost confused by my caring, “Oh uhm, I don’t normally have trouble sleeping no… you know I did wake up last night though after only a couple hours of sleep and got up to go pee.” The way she said this made it sound like there was more to it. “Did something happen while you were up?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Well… I went to the kitchen afterward to get water and when I came back to my room I realized I left my phone charger in Sadi’s car, so I took the keys to go get it. On my way out I left my glass of water, still half full, on the kitchen counter underneath the window.” I didn’t understand this detail about the water, but didn’t want to cut her off to ask about it. She kept pausing as if she was seeing it all again right then and there. “My phone only had like 3% battery left but I didn’t want to take Sadi’s, so I used the flashlight and tried to be quick. I unlocked the car and grabbed my charger from the back where it must’ve fallen out of my bag, then closed the trunk and locked it.” I thought it was odd none of us woke up from the beep of the car locking since the car was parked pretty close to the house, but the rest of us did seem pretty out of it so I didn’t think much of it and let her continue. “I turned around to come back to the house and on my way up the porch steps, I saw a cactus arm peeking out on the side where the kitchen is and I just… didn’t remember seeing a cactus that close to the house before then.” Her voice drifted off at the end, I could tell she was starting to get embarrassed. I was confused by what any of this meant but I didn’t want to make her feel bad, “So what happened next? Did you just come back inside?” “Well no actually, I went around the side of the house and shined my light at the cactus to get a better look, and one of the arms was almost touching the window above the sink, literally just an inch away or so, like it was… reaching for it?” Her voice faded out and her body language became a bit more closed off. “I know it sounds dumb, but this morning that arm was facing out in a different direction.” She was right, that cactus was closer to the house than any of the others nearby, but none of its arms were that close window. There was easily enough space that you could walk between the cactus and the house without hitting either.

At this point, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t understand where this was headed but I could tell she regretted going into it. Since I didn’t know her that well I was determined to make a good impression and get to know her better. That’s when I noticed a bandaid on her ankle, this in and of itself wouldn’t have prompted me to ask anything because at this point I felt nosy enough, but I saw a small trail of blood, dripping down from it and became worried. “Is your ankle ok? It’s bleeding, here I have tissues to wipe it off.” I pulled out a tissue and leaned down to clean it off since she didn’t have room to do it herself with the seat in front of her. When I got closer I saw that along the edge of the bandaid where the blood was coming from there was a sort of green ooze. This made me even more worried. “Ah, thanks! Ugh yeah, it’s ok. My phone died while I was looking at the cactus so I couldn’t see my way to the porch very well. My clumsy self accidentally scraped one of those small cactuses that are low to the ground when I was walking back and I fell, it hasn’t stopped bleeding since last night. Which reminds me, I should get a disinfectant while we’re in town. The first-aid kit in the bathroom only had a few bandaids and some painkillers,” she replied. “Yeah let’s definitely get some supplies while we’re there”, I said concerned. We sat in silence for the rest of the ride.

Once we got to the diner we all ordered our food and paid for our own meals. Cassandra was starting to look pale and she ended up eating less than half of her food. Since some people just don’t have big appetites I didn’t say anything, and neither did anyone else. We asked the waiter where the closest drugstore was and then went outside. Sadi and Tara started walking in the direction of the drugstore with Cassandra but Nadia saw a bookstore across the street and pointed in excitement, “I love little one-off bookstores, they have the most unique selection! Is it ok if I go in there while you guys do that?” I decided to go with Nadia just so she wasn’t by herself and Sadi said they’d meet us there once they got what they needed. Upon entering the bookstore, a nostalgic scent of old paper wafted over me. It was a small but well-kept place that looked like something straight out of a movie. High ceilings, dark oak bookshelves, warm lighting, and a small lounge area near the front window where people could read or chat. A few other people were wandering around the shop and Nadia immediately started grazing the selection of books on the shelves. I followed behind her and observed each time she picked up a book, skimmed a few pages, then put it back and continued down the aisle. It was definitely a unique selection like Nadia said, a lot of titles and authors I had never heard of, and some of the books looked pretty old. Nadia stopped to examine a book about local folktales and urban legends. “This is so cool! You’d never find something like this back home. It’s perfect too because I have to write a paper for school about the cultural importance of urban legends, so I can use this as a reference”, she said as she closed the book and started walking towards the register where an old man stood with a gentle smile on his face.

“Find everything ok?” He asked as he reached out for the book to scan it. Nadia handed him the book and smiled back, “Yeah thank you! You have a very nice shop, sir. Say, are there any of these myths you believe in yourself?” He looked at the book, “Oo good choice young lady. Well you know, there is one that spooks me to this day…” he looked around and leaned in, clearly entertained and getting into telling a story. “Long ago the town experienced a terrible drought, so terrible that the residents had to start rationing water or leave the town altogether. People started drinking just the bare minimum water they needed to survive and became so dehydrated that even just standing in the hot sun for a few minutes would make people pass out on the streets from exhaustion. Did you know that a saguaro cactus can hold over a thousand gallons of water? Well, legend says that people started to slowly lose their minds, getting enraged and saying that it was the cactus' fault for absorbing all the water in the land, and even stealing the town's water supply by growing their roots into the pipes underground. So people started butchering the saguaros, slicing them open to obtain any form of hydration possible! When there were fewer and fewer cactuses left, people began wandering farther out to try and find more, but some never returned. Then someone was found face down on a pit of cacti, being impaled by its thousands of spikes. They probably had just accidentally passed out from heat exhaustion and then slowly bled to death, but the locals, already paranoid, said that the cacti were mad about being cut down and thus started to grow in ways that trapped and killed the locals. People began to claim that they saw the cacti moving and that they were being followed in the dark. And how does one fight against something that is dozens of feet tall and weighs thousands of pounds? Ultimately many saguaros were cut down and many people speculated that the cacti decided to stand still to regain their strength until they could once again take revenge.” He suddenly stood up straight and that gentle smile returned to his face, “But now saguaros are federally protected so they’ve started to grow back!” He said cheerfully.

I thought the story was tacky, but when I looked at Nadia she was practically beaming with excitement, she clearly loved getting an insider scoop on the town's lore. Nadia finished paying for the book and thanked the man for his help. The other girls still hadn’t met up with us yet so we decided to sit in the chairs by the front window so we could see when they were coming in. Nadia quickly opened the book to start reading through it and I went on my phone to fact-check what the man had said. Could a cactus really weigh thousands of pounds? I knew now just how tall they were but this thought was still crazy to me. Lo and behold he was right, they can weigh up to about 4,800 pounds, which is more than the average car, and can live to be over 200 years old. “Damn that’s old…” I couldn’t stop myself from mumbling aloud. This made Nadia look up from reading her book, “Hm?” I didn’t mean to break her concentration. “Oh nothing, I just read that a saguaro can be like hundreds of years old.” Nadia smiled, “Yeah isn’t it cool?? I also saw a diagram of how they absorb water on a poster on the wall over there,” She nodded her head toward the back of the store, ”apparently most of their roots only grow a few inches down since rainwater doesn't penetrate that deeply into the ground. Which for something of that height and weight is crazy to me!” I was about to respond when I got cut off by my phone buzzing, it was a text from Sadi saying that they couldn’t find Cassandra. I quickly got up and told Nadia that we had to go to the drugstore to help find her.

When we got inside we saw Sadi and Tara and all grouped up. “She said she wasn’t feeling well so I thought she went to the restrooms but when I went to go look she wasn’t there,” Tara explained panickedly. “Ok you all split up and keep checking around and I’ll ask the employees if they’ve seen her,” I said. Everyone agreed and split off, I went to an employee at the cash register near the front of the store who said they saw her go outside looking rather pale. I ran out and looked around in either direction, not knowing where to start until I saw a few drops of blood on the ground. I followed them around the side of the store where there was a narrow, unpaved alley that led to an open desert behind the buildings with small cactuses lining the edges of the buildings on either side of me. I found Cassandra with one hand on the wall and one on her stomach, leaning over vomiting on the sand. There was blood on her shoe coming from her ankle wound that seemed to be worse than before. I ran over and tried to pull her hair out of her face, “Cass are you okay?” I held her hair in one hand and pulled out my phone with the other to tell the others I found her. Cassandra coughed and gave a weak thumbs up, “Yeah I'm fine thanks, I think I just ate something funny at breakfast.” I heard Sadi and Tara running up the alleyway behind me, “Ugh so many cactuses in the way!” One of them said as they both hopped around the small, prickly mounds on the ground. In the way? Why would the cactuses be in the way I thought? They were along the walls of the building, leaving a path in the middle to easily walk down when I found her, yet when I looked over I saw all of the cactuses had shifted towards the center directly where I had walked to follow the trail of blood from Cassandra’s ankle wound. Sadi and Tara came over to Cass to comfort her as I slowly stood up and turned to look at the cactuses, analyzing if I had seen them wrong earlier. But how could that be? I didn’t have to jump around them at all, and how would Cass have made it all the way down here in her condition, she could barely stand upright. I couldn't stop a concerned look from appearing on my face, I had totally tuned out the girls until they walked past me holding Cassandra to help her on the way back. “Let’s get her some water and a place she can sit!” Tara said.

As we walked toward Nadia who had waited on the sidewalk trying to call for a local doctor, I kept looking down at the cactuses to make sure I didn’t step on them and noticed I couldn’t see the trail of blood anymore. I thought for a moment I misremembered what I saw earlier and that maybe Cassandra did have to make her way past them, but there was no blood near the walls or on top of any of the cactuses either. Were the cactuses… over the blood? No, how could they have moved and no one saw or heard anything… but I know what I saw, and I only found her because I saw blood. Regardless, I didn’t have time to think of it at that moment as Nadia frantically put down her phone, “There are no doctors on duty for the next couple of days since it's the weekend and the town is small enough it doesn’t have an emergency room. The next town over is about an hour's drive.” Cassandra stood up a bit and tried to smile at everyone, “Guys I'm ok, I just realized I accidentally ordered waffles this morning at breakfast but I’m gluten intolerant, it’s my own fault, I was so tired I forgot. I also haven’t had much water since we got here, so let’s just get some at the store and chill for a bit!” Everyone looked at each other for a moment, clearly worried, but with her seeming more chipper Sadi agreed that we all head to the store to buy a pack of water and then head back to the house. Forgot she’s gluten intolerant? No matter how sick someone is I’ve never heard of them flat-out forgetting about a health issue that affects their daily life. I looked back at the alleyway one more time, feeling uneasy about everything, then following the group away.

When we got back to the house we all did our own thing in the living room until it was time for the Jeep tour. Cassandra decided to stay at the house and although Sadi originally said she would stay with her, Cassandra insisted she go and that she was able to take care of herself since she was just going to be resting anyway. We left to meet up with the guide and other people going on the tour, everyone had their sunglasses and cameras ready and piled into the jeep. Off we went into the desert with the guide explaining the local wildlife and cracking jokes whenever he could. At one of the stops he showed us the gorgeous flowers that bloom from cactuses, but off to the side there was a dead rattlesnake. The tour guide stated that it was just the skin that snakes shed but the more I looked at it the more this showed to not be true. The snake was caught underneath a small cactus and looked deflated and dry like the life had been sucked out of it. It was so flat that you could see the dips between each of its ribs, and it had its mouth open like it was screaming when it died. I had never seen anything like it, the more I looked at it the odder it seemed but everyone else was focused on the tour guide and the flowers.

Once the tour was over we picked up pizza and headed back to the house to find Cassandra lying on the couch watching TV. For some reason, a part of me was relieved to see her ok, though I’m not sure what else I was expecting. We all grabbed blankets and plates, turned the lights off, and huddled on the couch to watch a movie. Tara and Nadia voted for a horror movie, I don’t like horror movies but I can put up with it if it makes the group happy. Anytime a scary scene came on I’d look out the window beside the couch to avoid watching it, which didn’t necessarily help since it was dark and creepy outside too. After everyone was thoroughly spooked, we turned the lights back on and put on a lighthearted sitcom for background noise while everyone chatted. Sadi passed around candy that we had picked up while we were in town earlier, Nadia threw a few pieces that Tara tried to catch in her mouth and everyone laughed each time she missed.

Another hour of talking went by and we all started to get tired so Sadi asked if everyone was ready to call it a night. Cassandra noticed that her ankle was still bleeding and went to the bathroom to change the bandage, she was looking more frail by the hour and her cheeks started to look sunken in. While she was gone we all heard a loud “whooshing” noise coming from outside that made the house slightly shake and the lights flickered. We all looked out the windows and saw that the wind was picking up. One by one everyone's phone went off with a weather alert saying that a duststorm was rolling into the area and to stay indoors. I felt uneasy by this but Sadi viewed it differently, “Well that’s convenient timing since we were going to bed anyway, now we can just wait it out! Good thing it didn’t happen while we were out in town earlier.” “Isn’t it worse that we were completely secluded?” I thought to myself. But there was nothing to do about it now. I looked up how long a typical duststorm lasted and it said a few minutes to an hour on the long end which was reassuring. When I got to my room I looked out the window and couldn’t see a thing, no stars, no moon, not even two feet away from the house. I closed the blinds this time. When I got into bed I thought the noise of the storm would keep me awake but just like the first night it was like a spell was put over me and before I knew it I fell into a deep sleep.

I opened my eyes and checked the time; 9 AM on the dot. The room was darker than when I had woke up yesterday because I had the blinds closed so I got up to open them and as soon as I did my face dropped. The dust storm was still going strong even though it had been over eight hours. The room was slightly more lit up but had this unsettling, bland brown hue that made it look as if the dust was in there with me. For some reason, I just stood there as if my body didn’t want to leave the room, but I slowly made my way out into the hall since I figured I had no reason to feel this way. I stepped out and looked toward the kitchen and stopped immediately. Cassandra was standing by the kitchen island looking directly at me, eyes wide and bloodshot, hair frazzled, and a puddle of blood beneath her foot from the ankle wound with the bandage being completely soaked through. Her face was drained of any color and she had extremely dark circles around her eyes that were sunken in. Her arms were hanging down by her sides limply and when she spoke it sounded dry, “I didn’t get any sleep… nothing I eat stays down…” I slowly reached for the handle back to my room because I had a fear come over me as if I was going to have to run, but my eyes felt glued to her. “Cass I think it’s time we take you to a doctor…” I didn’t know what else to say, I just wanted to leave. It was like she didn’t even hear me and just continued with what she was saying, “My body feels weak… I feel like I can’t breathe…” She started to turn around and swayed a bit every time she moved like she was about to collapse at any second. She hobbled towards the front door and loosely grabbed the handle before opening it and leaving. I panicked.

Was I supposed to go after her? Do I call an ambulance? Where was everyone else? Everyone else! I ran into Sadi’s room right across from mine, there she was sleeping as soundly as ever. I grabbed her shoulders and tried jerking her awake, “Sadi! Sadi! Wake up! Please, there's something wrong with Cassandra!” I was practically yelling right next to her and she kept snoring. Am I going crazy? I didn’t understand how someone could sleep through that and wasn’t sure what to do about it. I ran out and burst into Tara and Nadia’s room screaming at them to wake up. Nothing. I was on the verge of tears. I could see that the girls were breathing so I knew they weren’t dead but something clearly wasn’t right. I decided to try to find Cassandra so she didn’t get hurt, I yanked the front door open to be met with sand and dust violently blowing around me. I used my arms to shield my face and I had to squint so much that my eyes were practically closed, I tried to look around but could only see about 5 feet out or so. I went down the porch steps towards the car, assuming Cassandra must’ve decided to sit inside, but when I tried pulling on the handle the door was locked. I walked around trying every door until I came to the driver's seat last. It was all locked, and I didn’t see Cass carrying the keys when she left so I tried to peek into the window in case it was open when she came out and then locked herself inside, but I didn’t see her. I saw beneath me was a trail of blood, I turned around and tried to look out to where it was going before the dust covered it up. “Cass! Cass!!” I called out, but the wind was so loud I could barely hear my own voice. I started to walk away from the car, fighting the wind with every step.

It felt like I only walked a few feet before I came face to face with a group of saguaros huddled closely together. This couldn’t have been the surrounding ring of wildlife around the house because that should’ve been at least three times the distance I just walked I thought… I didn’t have time to process how this could be possible because I saw a space between a couple of cactuses that was just wide enough to walk through. I would’ve had no desire to pursue this path had I not seen blood dripping down from some of the cactus spikes at about shoulder level, forcing me to think that Cass went that direction and scraped herself on the way by. I slowly pushed forward through the narrow tunnel that was conveniently created and I could feel my heart rate increase by the second. I didn’t even think about looking down as I moved because I was more worried about walking face-first into a bunch of spikes, but then my foot hit something that blocked me from continuing. If I hadn’t been going so slowly I would’ve easily tripped. I was afraid to see what I had hit but I couldn’t leave without finding Cass. I slowly kneeled down to see that it was a shoe, still attached to a body that was lying face down on a pit of short, stubby cactuses. My gut knew it was Cassandra but my eyes could not confirm this. The ankles were so thin and wrinkly you would’ve mistaken them for those of an anemic 90-year-old, then I unwillingly looked up and the dust cleared for a split second just long enough for me to see what was supposed to be a face. It was pale and sunken in, and there was blood leaking down from the black holes that used to have eyes. The body looked as if it had been drained of all its water, and the clothes, Cassandra’s clothes, looked baggy on what was almost nothing more than a skeleton with leathery flesh put overtop. I wanted to scream but when I opened my mouth I felt choked by my own disbelief and sand hit the back of my throat. I stumbled back onto the ground and backed away, the body quickly became out of sight. I stood up and ran back toward the house, this time I had to turn to the side to squeeze past the cactuses at the end. I almost hit the car as I ran without being able to think of anything other than what I just saw.

I whipped the door open and saw Sadi just now coming out of her room. She rubbed her eyes, still waking up and blissfully unaware of everything. When she looked at me in front of the door she flinched in fear for a brief second. I was panting, my eyes were red and watering from the dust in them, and my hair was probably a mess. I tried to speak and nothing came out, what do I even say? Do I interrogate her on why she didn’t wake up despite all the noise? Do I try to explain what I saw? I looked over at the kitchen window that since I was gone had been broken with a big cactus arm reaching into the house, and a smaller appendage growing out of the arm that was inside Cassandra's water glass, which was now empty. I looked back at Sadi who looked at me with the same fear that I probably had on my face when I looked at Cass when she was standing where I was right now. Tara and Nadia came out and saw Sadi first and were confused by her expression but then looked over at me. Tara broke the silence, “Holy shit Yasha what the hell happened to you?? Are you okay?” Without hesitation, she and Nadia came up to me and upon coming out of the hallway saw the broken window and cactus arm. “Oh my god, Sadi the window! The storm must’ve broken it! The owner is going to be so mad what do we do?” Without waiting for an answer she turned back to me and grabbed the sides of my arms and I broke down crying, “She’s dead! She’s dead and it's the cactuses! I don’t know what's going on here but it's fucked up and we have to leave, we have to get help-” Nadia cut me off. “Woah, dead? Who’s dead? What’re you talking about with cactuses? And where’s Cassandra?” Why weren’t they connecting the dots, was I really being that incoherent? Was no one else getting weird vibes from this place? I tried again, “Cassandra, I saw her this morning and she wasn’t doing well and she left and I tried to go find her and she was lying dead over a bunch of cactuses and her body was like drained-” They now all started to look equally worried as they were confused. Sadi finally chimed in as she cautiously walked over, “Cassandra’s dead…? Like right now is outside dead?” I nodded and could feel the grittiness from the sand as I swallowed. “That can’t be right, how could she just suddenly be dead, show us!” Tara said. She sounded a mix of confused, scared, and angry all at the same time. “No please we have to go! You don't want to see, she doesn’t look like herself anymore, please just get your keys and let's get help!” I wasn’t sure how to explain that the cactuses were hunting us, even just saying it in my head for the first time made me feel insane. Everyone started to move towards the front door and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop them, a part of me didn’t even blame them. Of course, they’d want to confirm that their friend, who they saw just last night, was dead.

They opened the door and all moved down the porch next to the car, looking around. The dust was starting to clear away but it was still windy, I could now see out just far enough to see that the surrounding cactuses all did somehow shift closer to the house. Nadia pointed it out to the group, “Guys were the saguaros always that close?” “It’s probably just the dust creating a lower range of visibility and making it feel claustrophobic”, Tara replied. Tara turned to look at me standing on the porch, “Where did you see her?” I looked over and pointed to where I had gone before, but it was just out of visibility so everyone started walking in that direction. At this point, I was more afraid to be separated from the group and went with them but still stayed the farthest away from the saguaros. I was horrified to see that the cactuses had moved together, closing off the pathway from before. Looking around I saw that all the cactuses had gotten so close to one another that they almost formed a wall and you couldn’t get between any of them. Tara went right up against them, trying to see between the two looming figures. She turned to look at me again, so tunnel-visioned about finding Cassandra that she was completely unfazed by the change in the plants’ positioning, and started to raise her voice, “Yasha, what’s going on? Is this some sort of joke? You really don’t strike me as the type to pull something like th-” In one fell swoop a cactus arm swung down and crushed her between it and the main body, spraying blood on Nadia who had been closest to her.

I couldn’t believe it. The arm stayed there almost like it was hugging her. I had heard the expression of a head being crushed like a watermelon but I never thought I’d have to see it. Nadia screamed at the top of her lungs and Sadi’s eyes widened and she stood there paralyzed. Nadia ran away, trying to open a car door and leaving bloody handprints on the handle and window, then sprinting up the porch into the house. I… I knew it was them but it happened so fast and it was the first time I had actually seen them move in front of me that a part of me still couldn’t fully process it. Tara’s arms dropped down limply as blood quickly flowed out from just about every part of her. I didn’t want to lose sight of Nadia for too long, I grabbed Sadi and yanked her back to the house but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Tara. By the time we got back into the house, Nadia had already grabbed the keys, her phone, and her unpacked backpack. “Get your shit right now we’re leaving!” I let go of Sadi who then stood still in the living room looking at the front door as I ran to grab both of our phones and my purse. I wasn’t sure what else to get so I came back out and grabbed Sadi’s face, making her look at me. “Sadi I need you to snap out of it right now, ok? Nadia and I don’t know how to drive so we need you to be present with us right now!” Nadia aggressively opened Sadi’s hand to give her the keys then opened the door, ushering us out.

We all froze on the porch, there was a saguaro next to the door that Nadia got blood on and its spikes were already lodged into the side, scraping the paint. Nadia nervously fidgeted her hand against her thigh, “Ok, we’re going to run around to the other side to get in. Yasha you climb into the passenger seat through the driver's side and help Yasha navigate through the dust.” “Ok yeah…” we all waited another few seconds to see if the cactus would move and when it didn’t, without warning, Nadia sprinted off making a big circle around the car to the opposite side. Not wanting to be left behind I grabbed Sadi’s arm and pulled her to follow. Nadia got into the back and I hurriedly stumbled over the center console so Sadi could get in behind me. When we got in Sadi nervously fumbled the keys into the ignition and was breathing heavily, I thanked my lucky stars that the car started just fine. Nadia turned on her phone, “I’m going to see if there’s enough signal to get directio-” CRASH! The whole car shook and it was the most piercing noise I had ever heard, followed by Sadi and I screaming. We looked back, a cactus arm had broken off of the saguaro and punctured the roof of the car, stabbing through Nadia’s head. Sadi kept screaming but the car didn’t seem to be totaled despite the immense damage and the flickering of the lights on the dashboard, so I yelled at her to drive. She put the car in reverse and sped backward, grinding the metal against the cactus spikes which made the most awful screeching noise that made my whole body cringe. She turned around and started zooming down the dirt road that led to town.

There was still just enough dust to make it hard to see, especially at the speeds we were going at. “Sadi slow down a bit or we might hit one!” As if I had summoned it, a giant saguaro appeared in front of us and Sadi whipped the steering wheel around to dodge it. The car spun in a circle, hitting the back bumper against a tree off the side of the road. I could feel Nadia’s hair brush on my arm when we spun. Both Sadi and I had slammed our heads on the dashboard and had to collect ourselves for a moment. I looked up and saw the saguaro's arms reaching down and growing out towards us and I yelled at Sadi again, “DRIVE!” She jerked her head up and pressed on the gas. We kept following the path, seeing saguaros on either side of us, not sure if they were already there or if our paranoia convinced us they were now all moving closer. We finally got to the paved road and sped toward town, the dust storm started to be left behind us until it looked like just a normal sunny day. We were going at least 20 over the speed limit and passed a cop who swiftly turned on his lights and followed after us, announcing on the megaphone that we needed to pull over. Sadi didn’t stop.

We got all the way to town with the cop tailing us before Sadi stopped to get out and throw up from shock. The cop quickly pulled next to us and got out, holding a gun up, “Stop right there!” I turned to him and put my hands up, Sadi kept puking. “Sir we need help! Our friends are dead!” He looked at the car as he walked past it getting closer to us. Like in slow motion I could see the changes in his facial expressions as he saw the concaved roof, the cactus arm, and finally the mutilated girl underneath it all. He slowed down and unintentionally started drooping his hands down, trying to understand it all until he turned back to us and lifted the gun up, “Did you do this? Did you kill someone??” I replied quickly, “No!! No of course not! Do I look like I’d be able to move a cactus arm that big? Sir, we need HELP!” His expression turned more to worry as he realized Sadi and I were not capable of what he was looking at and pressed his walkie-talkie to call for backup. People started to gather around to look at the scene. He had Sadi and I sit down on the curb far enough away from the car so that we couldn’t get back in, but close enough so that he could make sure no one else got too close.

Eventually, more police arrived and taped off the scene, telling locals to step back. I then realized I wasn’t even sure what I was going to say once they started questioning us. I had to tell them the truth but if I mentioned Cassandra would it look more like murder? How would I even begin to explain that over the course of a couple of days, she was slowly being drained of all of her water and collapsed on a bed of cactuses all on her own? I started to panic, I wanted to go home but at this rate, we’d be taken to the police station to be questioned for who knows how long. They wouldn’t believe us, there’s no way. Something out of the corner of my eye made me look back at the way we had come. A saguaro, standing in the middle of the asphalt road, at the edge of town. It wasn’t moving, and everyone was too focused on us to notice it. I pointed toward it but noticed that Sadi’s attention was already on something else. I looked across the road where she was looking, spacing out and keeping my arm lifted to point. I hadn’t realized before now that we were right across the bookshop, and inside was the old man standing against the window with that same warm smile. He was looking right at us and flipped his store sign inside to show “Closed”, then backed away into the darkness of his shop. Feeling my arm get tired I looked back towards where I was pointing, the cops and locals had all started to turn to look but the cactus was no longer there.