Don’t open your eyes

My sister Sarah and I were walking in the park, it was a beautiful day. Our small town was a great place, the crime rate was nearing zero. Everyone knew each other and we all were friends. That day the park was crowded with strollers, and I knew almost everyone. 

There was one strange woman sitting on a bench on the other side of the park, but she seemed harmless. She was just reading a book, so I forgot about her immediately. My sister and I loved to play a game called "Don’t open your eyes". One person closes his or her eyes, and the other one tries to persuade or force to open them in any way possible. Usually we tried to scare each other. 

We were sitting under a tree. It was my sister’s turn to open her eyes. I tried to tickle her, but it only amused her, then I decided to pretend that I was leaving. I tried to make every step really quietly and kept slowly lowering my voice to sound as if I was leaving. She believed it. Sarah opened her eyes, saw me, and sighed with relief. 

Then it was my turn, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Sarah laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh too. Suddenly she stopped laughing and it became quiet around us as if everything had disappeared from the park. "Sarah, are you here?" I wanted to open my eyes, but a voice in my head said, "don’t open them".  

"David, help me, please, help me!" Now I really wanted to open my eyes, but Sarah always used this strategy of panic to win. So I decided not to open my eyes despite her shouting. She screamed, and I couldn’t take it any longer, I wanted to open my eyes. Suddenly she stopped screaming, and someone whispered, "Don’t open your eyes". I did it in spite of what I heard and I saw my sister dead, hanging from a tree. 

I called the police and sat near her, stunned. Looking across, I saw the strange woman on the bench, she continued to read her book. I approached her and looked into her book. A note was written in dark red ink: "You opened your eyes against the will".