Ghosts of Christmas Past

Chapter Four

She frowned and was about to get up when she heard it again—footsteps in the hall. Immediately, she froze and listened. She was definitely wide awake now. And there was definitely someone else in the house. She stood, careful not to make a sound and tiptoed to the door. She peeked through the gap into the hallway, prepared to slam the door and lock herself in to call 911 as soon as she saw someone.

But no one was there.

She carefully, quietly opened the door and stepped out into the hall. No one. Also no one in the spare bedroom, or the bathroom, or the living room, or kitchen. And all the doors were locked. Was she crazy? She'd definitely heard footsteps. But how could there be footsteps when no one was here?

She was crazy. That was the only explanation. She had been stressed out over working so much because of the holidays, not sleeping well, eating worse. And then Jake and Mika sent her over the edge. So now she was hearing things.

There were no footsteps now. Nothing out of place. She turned around slowly, taking in the entire empty house. Everything was fine. Except her, of course. She went back to the bedroom to put some clothes on. She told herself that was just because it was cold walking around in a t-shirt and not because she wanted to be able to bolt from the house as soon as she heard footsteps again.

She dressed quickly, even finding some thick socks that would've been nice to have had last night when she was trying to cover her whole body with her coat. She pulled those on quickly and dug through the bags for a sweater. She was specifically looking for her long grey cardigan with the pockets. That was her go-to comfort sweater.

What she found was Mika's grey sweater.

Emily held it a moment, trying to process. How would she have gotten Mika's sweater in her things? When she'd gone to the house yesterday morning, she'd just started pulling her clothes from the closet and shoving them into trash bags. She'd emptied the dresser drawer and picked up the clothes from the chair in the bedroom.

That's how.

She'd picked up the clothes from the chair in the bedroom. Mika's sweater was somewhere on that chair, maybe under her own clothes. Which meant she'd been in the bedroom before, taking off her sweater and throwing it on the chair beside the bed. What nerve.

Emily clutched the sweater tightly, as if squeezing it could somehow squeeze her anger and betrayal into Mika. Then, she turned and marched to the front door and flung it open. The rain had stopped sometime in the night, but the sun had still refused to shine. Instead, it was a grey, gloomy world outside. Just like her heart.

She took the sweater to the garbage can, flung back the lid, and tossed it in in one motion. She slammed the lid down and hissed, "Garbage!"

Then she noticed the front door had somehow shut behind her and a cold panic formed in her stomach. She ran to the door and twisted the knob, even though she already knew, deep down, that it was locked.

"No!" She pounded the door with her fist. Then she kicked it for good measure. "No!"

She glanced over at the neighbors' house again and wondered if she should knock on their door again. Even if they just called the police again, at least the police would call Leo to come let her in.

She rubbed her arms to warm herself. It was even colder than last night. The rain that had turned the yard into a muddy swamp had frozen. She could see her iced-over skid marks from last night in the lawn. She frowned. She was going to have to go to the neighbors' house again.

With that thought, Leo's truck appeared on the street. She stood and watched as he pulled into the driveway.

He got out of the vehicle and started toward her with a large, brown paper bag in his hand and a quizzical look on his face. "What're you doing out here without a coat?"