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.He takes no notice of her.Emma’s heavy breathing begins to return normal as she begins to realize she is caught in one of her dreams.However, she does not understand why this one is so drastically different.All of her other dreams took place in the hallway beneath her house.Emma follows as best she can until she rounds a corner.She finds herself in a large room.An oak wooden writing desk sits in the center of the room atop a red carpet with an intricate black floral print upon it.A leather chair resides by the desk, a small golden lamp with a green top—like a banker’s lamp, sits atop the table along with a few silver pens.The room overlooks a magnificent garden.As Brian sits down upon the writing desk, Emma turns her attention outdoors.A woman is slumped over in a wheelchair in the sunlight just beyond the sliding glass door.“Ethan’s mother…?” Emma says aloud as she paces to the window and gazes outward.The woman looks lifeless—her skin is a deep red.The sight of the woman reminds Emma of that dead black crow in her driveway.Emma turns to look to Brian as he reaches into his pocket and unlocks a drawer.He pulls it open and in it he places the letters that he had stolen from Emma.He is completely oblivious to what has happened just outside.Emma’s attention is turned back to the door as it slides open.There, smiling a thin and evil little smile is Alexis.She is holding the sliver knife in her hand.Brian turns and lets out a sound that comes off as something between a choke and a scream.“Emma… How did you get here?”“It’s Alexis.”“You’re in the hospital…” Brian says robotically, he cannot make sense of how he is seeing her as he attempts to sink into his chair in fear.“You can’t be here.”“And yet here I am,” Alexis says enthusiastically as she spreads her arms wide and jumps toward Brian who recoils and raises his hands above him to protect himself from any attack that he feels will soon come.“You don’t understand—““I understand completely,” Alexis says as she inches forward.She playfully twirls the knife around in her hand.“I believe it is you that understands nothing—you know me right? I’m Alexis.I’m not Emma.”“You’re the same person…”“Can’t be though, can we?” Alexis says as she places the knife to her wrist and uses it to point out that there is no injury.“As I, as you can clearly see, am unharmed.”“How is this possible—are you a ghost?”“Are you implying that Emma is dead?”“No… I mean I had no intention of doing so.She was just getting to close…”“To the truth,” Alexis finished as she brought herself close to Brian.“What are you going to do to me?”“Nothing,” Alexis says as she tosses the knife into Brian’s lap.“Although I did wheel your wife out into the garden—it was a lovely day.We had a nice talk as we waited for you to get home…I may have left her in the sun a bit too long.”Brian looks out the window and finally spots his wife lying lifeless in her wheelchair.Brian begins to tremble in a mixture of horror and anger.“You murdered my wife?”“In a way she kind of did it to herself,” Alexis says as she turns her back to Brian and looks to the woman slumped over in the wheelchair.“I mean she just kind of sat there—it’s like she didn’t want to live anyway.”Brian grabs the knife in his lap and lunges at Alexis.“Stop…” Alexis says as Brian freezes a few inches from striking Alexis’s flesh with the blade.“Like I said,” Alexis begins as she forcibly pushes Brian back into his leather chair.She removes the knife from his hand and places one of the silver pens into it and squeezes his hand so he grips it tightly.“I’m not going to do anything to you—but you are going to do a few things for me.”“I never meant you any harm,” Brian protests as he shakes violently in attempt to free himself of whatever hold Alexis has upon him.“I did what I did to help protect you.”“So you only cut the wrists of the ones you care for…interesting way of showing affection.”“I protected—““Silence, please,” Alexis commands as she nods her head and pulls a piece of paper from the drawer and places it in front of Brian.Brian attempts say something, but he cannot manage any words past his muffled lips.He picks up the pen and places it to paper.“Write about how you were the one who cut Emma’s wrist—in order to hide your affair from your family,” Alexis says as she reaches over and places her hand upon the locked drawer.With one swift motion she breaks it open, sending letters scattering across the room.“Write about how you just can’t go on living with the guilt that you have amassed over all these long years—finally—write about where the body is.”“Where the body is?” Emma asks, although no one can neither hear nor see her.Did this mean that Brian killed her stepfather after all? Emma felt that she should somehow stop this.She was slowly beginning to realize that Alexis was forcing Brian to craft his own suicide letter.Brian hesitates with the last part.He attempts once more to break free.“Write it down,” Alexis says as she places her hand on Brian’s shoulder and squeezes firmly.Brian, without any other choice, does as he is told.Once finished, he sets the pen down and picks up the silver blade.“Don’t do this Alexis!” Emma shouts.“Ironic that you are going to kill yourself with the same knife you gifted to my mother…well, a little, isn’t it?” Alexis says as she gestures for Brian to continue.Emma attempts to reach out and to stop his hand, but finds that she is nothing more than a ghost in this world.She cannot interact—only watch as the events unfold before her.“Alexis…this is too far.If you can hear me at all, please stop.This… I don’t want any of this.”Brian places the blade sideways against his wrist.“You’ve been watching too many movies,” Alexis says as she grasps Brian’s hand and points the blade parallel to his wrist.“You cut up and down, not across…”“No!” Emma shouts once more as she attempts to grasp unsuccessfully at the knife.Brian begins to cut into his own flesh as tears stream down from his eyes.Blood rushes forth from the wound in a heavy spray.Alexis jumps atop the table and watches intently as the life slowly fades from Brian’s eyes.He slumps back in the chair as his eyes roll back in his head.Emma turns towards the red front door as it bursts open.Ethan’s voice can be heard down the hall [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]