Chapter 4

EMILY WOKE UP SCREAMING the next morning. Claire came rushing inside the room and instantly sat beside Emily, gently but firmly grasping her shoulders to break her out of her reverie. As the remnants of the nightmare cleared from her mind, events that took place last night immediately filled its place. The nightmare only helped refresh those events in her memory. It again made her remember that everything that happened last was real and she had experience every bit of it. Her fear was real. Even if no one else believed her. She knew it wasn’t a dream nor was she hallucinating. She had definitely seen everything and no one could persuade her otherwise. The basement. That woman.

***

Hearing the sharp tapping sound behind her, Emily turned around to see — despite fear gnawing at her thoughts. As she turned around, Emily let out an ear piercing scream with her hands flying to cover her mouth. A frail woman dressed in a white gown was standing behind closed glass doors of the hallway entrance. Her long hair were open and tangled in messy knots. Under the moonlight, Emily could see that the woman’s face was covered in blood and so were her hands and clothes. The most horrifying thing was that she was tied in chains, which clinked against the glass doors as she tapped her bloodied hands on the door, leaving her handprints tainted with blood. Emily wasn’t sure if all of it was a figment of her imagination or if she was actually experiencing it all. Breaking out from her frozen state, she rushed towards the hallway door and twisted the door handles in an attempt to open it. But they were locked, and she didn’t have the keys. The woman kept banging her hands on the door in a state delirium. She kept speaking something in a frenzy but Emily wasn’t able to hear anything — the doors were apparently soundproof as well. Emily quickly turn to rush into her mother’s room to wake her and Mr. Stephan up — both of them seemingly managed to sleep through all the commotion downstairs — so that they can open the door and help the woman out. Emily had her fist up in front of her mother’s door and was about to knock, when the door opened.

“Emily?” Mr. Stephan appeared behind the door, “Are you okay? What are you doing at this hour of night? And what’s all this commoti –”

“Downstairs, woman. She’s hurt. I don’t know what’s happening.” Emily haphazardly spoke trying to overcome a wave of panic that hit her.

“Emily calm down first. Speak clearly, so that I understand.” Mr. Stephan firmly grasped Emily’s shoulder.

“There’s a woman outside who’s tied in chains and she’s bleeding,” Emily rasped out, “We need to help her out and call the police.”

“George? Emily? What’s going on? Is everything okay?” Claire groggily spoke getting out of the bed.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m going downstairs to check it out” Mr. Stephan grabbed the keys from the dresser.

“But tell me at least that what’s going on? What’s happening?”

“Please mom, just come with me downstairs for now. The woman, she’s really hurt and bleeding. We need to help her out. Please just help her out.” Emily pleaded grabbing her mother’s hand.

The three of them rushed downstairs with Emily leading them towards the door, where Emily had left the woman. “Here she –” Emily stopped mid-sentence, when she saw there was no one standing there. The woman had disappeared. And so had the blood stains. Emily turned around to see Mr. Stephan’s raised brows and her mother’s questioning stare.

“There’s no woman here.” Mr. Stephan said motioning towards the door, “Are you sure you weren’t mistaken?”

“Of course I’m sure!” Emily exasperatedly spoke, “I saw the woman with my own eyes, her face was bruised, she was bleeding and she was in chains for the love of God!

“Emily, honey, calm down,” Claire gently spoke, slowly approaching Emily, “It’s a new place for you and maybe with a lot of things happening and changing your life, it has taken a huge toll on you. Maybe you’re just seeing things because you’re mentally exhausted. Maybe it was just a dream that scared you.”

“I’m not crazy mom!” Emily said her pitch rising by every second, “I can differentiate between a dream and reality.”

“There was time when you couldn’t. And maybe it’s all coming back because you refuse to seek professional help.” Claire softly took Emily’s hand who regarded Claire with a look of disbelief and hurt, “I don’t mean to hurt you Emily, but you need to seek the help you need. I’m really worried about you and after today I can’t be at peace knowing that you are not okay.”

“You already hurt me mom. And this is not the first time. I know what I saw and you cannot tell me otherwise.” Emily said brushing the angry tears spilling from her eyes. Stupid tear ducts, she thought.

“I think it is really late and about time we should all go to bed.” Mr. Stephan grimly spoke, “We can talk about this tomorrow.” George guided Claire upstairs to their room with a gentle hand on her back. Claire gave Emily a last pleading look before she left.

And then she was left alone in the cold, dark hallway.

***

“Emily are you even listening to what am I saying?” Claire said shaking Emily’s shoulders bringing Emily out of her stupor. Emily looked at her mother for a minute before heaving out a long, tired sigh.

“Yeah, yeah I was listening to you”

“Then tell me what I was speaking about just now?”

“You asked me whether I was listening to you.” Emily sheepishly answered.

“Emily.” Claire gave her a pointing look.

“Okay fine, I wasn’t listening,” Emily tiredly sighed again, running a hand through her hair, “What were you saying mom?”

“You’re starting to make me worry more with each passing second Em. It has been a while since you last woke up screaming from a nightmare. And don’t even get me started on the incident last night. Something’s obviously bothering you sweetheart. Please tell me what it is. Tell me so that I can help you with it.”

“When I tell you something you don’t believe me and when I don’t say anything you force me to tell you what is bothering me — this cycle just goes on in an unbreakable loop. What exactly do you want me to do?” Emily said exasperatedly throwing her hands up in air.

“I do believe you Emily. If I didn’t believe you, I wouldn’t have followed you downstairs last night. But if the situation wasn’t what you’re telling me it was, what am I supposed to do?”

“You investigate the situation. You give your daughter a chance and trust her. You don’t always invalidate her reasoning and explanations because she mentally suffered due to a horrible situation she had to go through,” Emily breathed out, “That’s what you do.”

“I’m not invalidating anything you say Emily. I would investigate if I found anything abnormal or suspicious. How am I supposed to investigate when there was nothing to investigate?” Claire huffed rubbing her temples. It was then that it clicked in Emily’s head. The door leading to the basement. Her mother would believe if she saw that. She will believe when she sees that blood in the basement and that chair with ropes tied to it. She will have to believe then. Emily abruptly got out of bed, removing the covers off of her.

“What’s happening now? Where are you going all of a sudden?” Claire asked raising her brows also getting up. “You need something to investigate? I’ll give you that,” Emily firmly spoke opening the door and motioning outside, “Come with me.” Emily jogged down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, with Claire closely following behind.

“Can you at least let me know that where are we going?” Claire asked

“To show you the things I saw last night.” Emily answered reaching the corner where the secret basement door was. The rug was pulled back in its place whereas Emily remembered she hadn’t placed it back. When she pushed the rug, Emily saw that there was no longer any opening there. It was sealed shut. There were nails hammered in to seal that wooden patch.

“Care enough to tell me what are you doing?” Claire asked putting her hands on her hips.

“How is this possible?” Emily murmured underneath her breath. Someone had deliberately done this to hide their crime. “There was a secret opening here mom that lead to a basement. And in that basement there were several proofs that someone was being kept hostage in there.”

“Secret door? Hostage? Emily do you realize what kind of things you are even saying?” Claire asked aghast.

“I know what I’m saying mom. Forget this door, you need to follow me outside to the backyard”

Now what’s in the backyard? Emily please just drop all this nonsense.” Claire said getting ticked off by her daughter’s ridiculous claims. Emily just speed walked outside, ignoring her mother’s last demand. Claire threw her head back in exasperation and closed her eyes before following Emily out. As they reached towards the door in the backyard leading to the basement, Emily saw a big lock hanging from the handle. It wasn’t there last night. Someone is desperately trying to erase all the evidences. And she knew who that someone was. George Stephan. “Now what? This door is also locked.” Claire stared at Emily.

“It was open last night and it led to the same basement that the secret door did as well. Mom you have to believe me, there is some sort of a crime happening here.” Emily frustrating ran a hand through her tangled hair.

“Enough Emily. I’ve seen enough and I’ve heard enough. I explored this whole house just a day ago with George and this door has always been locked. The keys of this door is with a caretaker of this house who has been away for two weeks and there are no other keys except for those. I came here yesterday as well and it was locked then too. How am I supposed to believe that you’ve been inside a locked room when you don’t even have the keys to it?” Claire huffed.

“But mom –”

“Emily please. You complained I never trust you or listen to you. I did both of those and followed you here. But you and I both saw that there is nothing of the sort that you claimed to have seen. Emily if there’s anything bothering you, please tell me. I don’t want you to spiral back into that same depressed state. I know therapy was painful for you but we can always find a new therapist who can actually help you. We can seek help before anything worsens.” Claire softly said stroking the back of Emily’s hand with her thumb. “Please let me help you Em.”

“I don’t want any help, especially not from a therapist. You don’t believe me now mom, but later you will. I will make you believe me when I have proof.” Emily harshly removed Claire’s hands from her own and stalked off towards the entrance of the house. As she pushed open the glass doors to the hallway, she halted in her place. There it was. A tiny blood stain in a corner. Emily thought she was crazy for feeling happy to see that stain. But now she knew all of it was true. The basement and that woman. And no could tell her otherwise now.

Mom I will talk with proof next time and the culprit won’t be in the dark for long.

_______________________ .