Cursed Object: Hair Tie (Ea)

Donte was in the bathroom getting ready to go for a jog, like he did every morning. He had just finished brushing his teeth and brushing out his long hair. Now all he needed was a hair tie to put his long hair up and keep it out of his face.

He usually has a box of normal black ones that he uses, but he tends to break them or lose them all the time, so now his box was completely empty, and he couldn't find the one he had used yesterday. He looked all over before giving up and going to ask his mother if she had one.

Unfortunately, she didn’t since she kept her hair quite short. Donte was bummed out and was going to skip his jog today and go buy some, but his mother told him she knew where he could find something he could use. She then led him to his sister's room and opened the door.

She went inside like it was nothing while Donte stood there looking into the room that he hadn’t looked at, never mind stepped inside for the last three years. What he could see was exactly the same as the last time he saw it.

A girl's room with cute plushies, the color pink and tons of posters of boys—basically everything you’d expect a teenage girl to have in her room. Donte hadn’t gone in there since the day his sister April passed away suddenly.

They had been best friends before that, and he spent so much time hanging out in there with her. After she was gone, there was just a void inside him, and thinking about how she wasn’t here just filled him with grief.

So he just tried not to think about her, tried not to go near her room, and did anything he could to avoid the pain. His mother, though, was so much stronger than him. Donte knew his mother missed her as well, but she always found ways to celebrate April and keep her memory alive.

She did try to get Donte to do the same, but when she realized Donte wasn’t ready yet, she did her best not to make him feel worse and instead tried to avoid bringing up April if he was around, but today for some reason she stopped.

She brought him to her room and went right in, and while he stood there, she rummaged through April’s things and then came out holding a blue frilly hair tie. She placed it in Donte’s hand and told him to use this.

He looked at it and then looked at her. Before he could say anything, his mother put her hand on his head. She told him it was okay to feel sad that she was gone, but it was also okay to think about her and the happy times they had together.

She then said he didn’t have to use it, but considering he started growing his hair after she passed, she had a feeling he was doing that in his own little way to remember that. So if it was a little way he wanted to remember her, then this was perfect.

Donte looked back now at the hair tie and closed his eyes, keeping himself from crying. Once that passed, he looked up at his mother and thanked her. He then put it in his hair in front of her. Once it was in, Donte saw his mother smile before walking off.

Donte then turned towards his April's door, which his mother had left open, which she never did. Donte reached his hand up to the doorknob and was about to close it, but he suddenly stopped. He realized she was right. Perhaps it was best to leave the door open, literally and metaphorically.

Donte let go of the door and made his way outside. He then began his jog, running through the neighborhood. Normally jogging cleared his head, but today his thoughts were filled with his sister. Every time he ran by something reflective and saw himself wearing her hair tie, a memory appeared.

From the time she first took him to the park when they were kids and pushed him on the swings, to when she brought him to buy ice cream when she started her first summer job and got a paycheck, to even random moments where they sat in her room listening to music as they did homework.

Almost every moment they were together was happy, every moment but one. The day they went to the hospital. That day had started out like normal; they both woke up and playfully fought for use of the bathroom before going to hang out in her games and listen to music and play games.

She had randomly gotten up and started dancing, and Donte just sat back and watched her move around like a goofball. After doing that for a bit, she suddenly stopped and said she didn’t feel so good.

She then passed out, falling to the ground. Donte panicked and ran over to check on her, then he tried to wake her up, but he couldn’t. He then started screaming for help from their mother, who came running in not long after.

Their mother quickly ran to grab her phone and call emergency services. Donte then just stood there frozen as he watched his mother frantically try the things emergency services told her to try while waiting for help to arrive.

None of it worked, and when they finally arrived, they carried April out and put her in an ambulance. She was gone before they reached the hospital and the doctors had no explanation for what happened.

In an instant she was gone, and he never even got the chance to say goodbye. Donte suddenly stopped jogging and held his face. Tears were pouring down his face, and he found himself talking to his sister.

He apologized to her for not being able to help her, for trying to avoid thinking about her because of how much it hurt, and for not being as good of a little brother to her as she was a big sister to him. He then said he wished it was him and not her.

As Donte tried desperately to wipe the tears from her face, she suddenly heard April's voice, and it asked her what she was talking about and why she was crying. Donte looked up towards the sound of the voice and was shocked to see her sister standing in front of her.

Donte’s tears kept coming as she reached her hand up. She asked April if she was really there, which made her really confused. April looked down at herself, then messed with her sports bra and then looked back, saying she seemed to be.

Donte couldn’t believe it and without thinking about it, she jumped forward and hugged April. Donte continued to cry and say she was so happy to see her alive and well. April had no idea what was going on but went with it and patted her little sister on the head.

She then told Donte it was alright; she was here and not going anywhere. After a few minutes of crying, Donte settled down and let go of her. April asked her if she was okay and ready to finish their jog.

Donte smiled and said she was not caring one bit that this made no sense. April was here with her, and even if it was a dream, she was going to embrace it. The two continued their jog together, chatting like nothing had ever happened, and taking the same route Donte normally took.

Once they got back home, Donte pulled April into the kitchen to show her off to their mother. Their mother had heard Donte come in and turned around. She had been holding a plate of food she prepared, but as soon as she saw Donte and April standing there, she dropped the plate.

Their mother gasped as she looked at them, and then, much like Donte did, she ran over and hugged April while tears flowed down her face. April let out an awkward laugh as she asked what was going on. She then made a joke that everyone was acting like she had died.

That got Donte and their mother to go silent. Their mother let go of April and then looked at Donte and asked her who she was. Donte got confused hearing that, and April got even more confused than she already was.

April told their mother that Donte was Dantea, her youngest child. Their mother raised an eyebrow and said that Dante was a boy. Dantea, standing there confused, said she was a boy. Which got April and their mother to look at her weirdly.

Dantea, realizing something was up, looked down at herself, and sure enough, she was a girl now. She was even wearing a pink sports bra and a cute white skirt with running tights underneath, instead of her normal tank top and shorts.

Dantea let out a nervous laugh as she said she had somehow turned into a girl. April, still having no idea what was going on but clearly understanding everyone else knew something was going on, asked them to explain.

Dantea looked at her mother and they both shared a look that showed they agreed that it was best to explain everything. So they all sat down at the kitchen table and explained everything, from how April had died to how Dantea was a boy just this morning.

Their mother said that the only explanation for how Dantea turned into a girl and why April was just magically alive again had to be because of a cursed object. Their mother was then about to explain what cursed items were since April had passed before they became well known and common.

However, April already knew about them and a lot of other up-to-date things, which didn’t make sense if she just randomly came back to life. April then told them that was what confused her, as she had full memories of their lives up until now.

That also included a lifetime with her little sister, who was never a boy in her memories. Dantea thought that was crazy, but just looking around the kitchen, she noticed things were slightly different. Dantea said she wanted to check something and got up.

She went to April’s bedroom and looked inside, and it had changed quite a bit, no longer looking like a teenage girl’s room but instead a young adult’s. Dantea then went to her room and gulped; it was now the one that was bright pink, filled with plushies and everything you’d expect in a girl’s room.

Dantea let out an awkward laugh as she walked inside. Moments after she did, April and their mother made their way in as well. Their mother was just as amazed by Dantea’s sudden room change as she was, but April didn’t notice anything different.

Dantea asked her mother if the cursed object did this as well. Her mother looked puzzled for a moment and then muttered something about rumors of reality-changing objects appearing, but there’s never any hard proof after it happens.

She then told Dantea and April to relax in their rooms while she called her boss and the investigators and told them what happened. April and Dantea agree and then sit on Dantea’s bed in silence, at least until April broke the silence.

She asked Dantea if this was why she randomly said those things earlier. Dantea looked a bit embarrassed and nodded. Dantea then explained how helpless she felt when she watched April pass and how lonely life was after that.

April looked down for a moment but then scooted closer to Dantea and pulled her in for a hug. She told Dantea that was no longer what happened, that in this new reality, Dantea had actually managed to save her that day.

Dantea started crying again, as she couldn’t believe it. April pulled her in tighter and said that day ended up being pretty fun, as they ate a ton of ice cream at the hospital together. Dantea let out a laugh and said that sounded exactly like them.

The two of them then sat there together for a few more minutes before April broke the silence again. She randomly asked Dantea if she was okay with being a girl. Dantea sat up and looked down at herself and let out an awkward laugh.

She said that it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice, but given what she was getting out of it, giving up being a boy was well worth it. April smiled and pulled Dantea back in close and hugged her tight, then she thanked Dantea for her sacrifice.

April then jumped up and said that since Dantea had no idea how to be a girl and that they had a lot of missed time to catch up on, starting now, as the big sister, she was going to teach her little sister everything she needed to know.

She then grabbed Dantea’s hand and pulled her before she had the chance to respond. April pulled Dantea into her bedroom and sat her down in front of her makeup table and started showing her how to do all kinds of things with makeup and hair products. Dantea was embarrassed the whole time but didn’t say anything, because she loved it; she loved having her sister back and getting to make new happy memories with her.