The Waterfall Sisters

Two immortal sisters play cat and mouse over the centuries, but a mortal enemy discovers their secrets.

Photo by Colin Horn on Unsplash

Leah was sixteen when she was first killed. Her sister, Kali, stabbed her with a flint knife after Leah stole her backgammon set. Kali dragged her body to the base of the little waterfall in their cave and there Leah lay, preserved for ten years, until she gasped for air once more.

It took her two years to hunt down Kali. She crept up behind her sister and choked her until she stopped struggling. She threw the corpse onto a horse-drawn cart and rode back to where they had lived. There she lay her sister beside the life-giving waterfall, then went out into the world until her sister rose a decade later.

No one told them they were immune to true death, but over the years they realised nothing could truly kill them. Sometimes they were killed by disease, or accident, or even suicide, but as long as the other found their body and returned them to the waterfall, they survived. With each death, their bond grew stronger. Their family had died before Leah’s first death, and any friends they made seemed to live and die in the blink of an eye. After a millennium, the names of their parents were washed away, their minds too full of new memories - new friends, new inventions, new lands. 

Killing each other became a game, the only thing worth living for. They played cat and mouse across continents, laying breadcrumbs for the other to find. Famine and war raged around them, empires rose and fell, and throughout it all they hunted one another. Flint knives became iron became muskets became handguns. 

They made many enemies over the centuries, and one of them discovered their secret. A young man called James watched their comings and goings for years. After he saw Leah lay her sister to rest by the waterfall, he bashed her head in and lay her to rest too. In the ten years before they next drew breath, he bought up the land.

Then the tourists came. The cave and waterfall were cordoned off, only accessible to those who paid up. The sisters became part of the attraction, treated as artefacts from a bygone era. Through experimentation on both the sisters and the waterfall, James had shortened their resurrection period to six months, and allowed visitors to kill them in exchange for a hefty donation.

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I’ve been very tempted to switch to 100 stories in a year instead… Not sure I can actually sustain this.

What are your thoughts on The Waterfall Sisters? I’d love to hear what you think works and what doesn’t, or how it could be improved. Couldn’t work out how to end this one, so I’ve left it fragmented. Too damn tired right now.