Writers 
She Left Before the Rain
The morning Clara disappeared, the sky was perfectly clear.
There wasn't a single cloud above the town.
The streets were bright, the birds were singing, and the bakery across from Clara's house had just opened.
Yet Clara left a note on her kitchen table.
By the time it rains, I will be gone.
Her younger sister, Lily, found it at 7:14 that morning.
At first, she thought it was a joke.
Clara loved strange little mysteries. She had always teased Lily about disappearing one day and becoming someone nobody could find.
But then Lily noticed something.
Clara's bedroom was empty.
Her suitcase was gone.
Her phone was still charging beside her bed.
And on the mirror, written in lipstick, were four words:
Don't look for me.
Lily immediately called her.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then someone answered.
There was silence.
"Clara?"
Nothing.
"Clara, where are you?"
A man's voice finally came through.
"You shouldn't have called this number."
Lily froze.
"Who are you?"
The call ended.
She stared at the phone.
Then she noticed another piece of paper beneath Clara's pillow.
This one had only an address written on it.
17 Willow Lane.
Lily knew the place.
Everyone in town did.
It was an abandoned house at the edge of the forest.
No one had lived there for more than ten years.
She grabbed her jacket and ran outside.
By noon, clouds had begun gathering over the town.
The weather had changed suddenly.
Rain was coming.
Lily reached Willow Lane just as the first drops began falling.
The house looked exactly as she remembered it.
Old.
Silent.
Forgotten.
She pushed the front door open.
"Clara?"
No answer.
The floor creaked beneath her feet.
She walked deeper into the house.
Then she heard something.
A soft tapping.
Coming from upstairs.
Lily climbed the staircase.
At the end of the hallway was a bedroom with its door slightly open.
She pushed it.
Inside, there was a wooden chair, an old mirror, and dozens of photographs scattered across the floor.
Lily picked one up.
Her hands went cold.
It was a photograph of Clara.
But Clara looked much younger.
She couldn't have been more than ten.
Lily picked up another photograph.
This one showed their mother.
Then another.
Their father.
Then one that made Lily drop everything.
It showed all three of them standing outside Willow Lane.
But Lily wasn't in the photograph.
She had been born three years after it was taken.
Behind the photographs was a handwritten journal.
Lily opened it.
The first page contained a sentence that made her heart pound.
Clara was never supposed to remember this house.
Thunder shook the windows.
Lily turned the page.
The next sentence was worse.
If Clara comes back, it means she has remembered everything.
Lily heard footsteps behind her.
She turned quickly.
Clara stood in the doorway.
Her clothes were soaked from the rain.
Her face was pale.
"Clara!"
Lily rushed toward her.
But Clara stepped backward.
"Don't come closer."
"What happened?"
Clara looked at the journal in Lily's hands.
"You found it."
"What is this place?"
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
"The place where our family secret began."
Before Lily could answer, the lights went out.
A voice came from downstairs.
"Clara."
She froze.
Lily whispered, "Who is that?"
Clara looked terrified.
Then she said something Lily would never forget.
"He's the reason I left before the rain."
Outside, lightning flashed across the sky.
And for the first time, Lily realized that Clara hadn't disappeared.
She had been running from someone.
