Flesh (completed)

Chapter Nine

~Then~

"Are you crazy? We can't let her here alone!"

"She won't be alone, Marcus. She'll be with the babysitter." Amelia's heels clacked across the linoleum floor of the dining room and stopped in front of her husband. She placed a hand in his shoulder. "It will be fine."

"What if she goes into the basement? Or Lizzie gets hungry and the sitter tries to feed her something? Or, what if-"

"The door will be locked. She won't be able to go into the basement-"

"Lizzie unlocked it before."

Amelia's eyebrows drew together. "What? When?"

Marcus ran a hand over his face. "A few nights ago. She somehow found the key and unlocked the door."

"You sound like there's something more to that," Mrs. Lester observed.

"She has...abilities. The key to the basement was in the bottom drawer of my dresser. There's no way she could have known about it, let alone get to it from a locked room. " He stood and met his wife's eyes.

"What are you saying exactly?"

"I'm saying," he replied. "That our daughter knew where the key was. Someone told her."

Mrs. Lester rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be ridiculous. There's no way-"

"She was about to open the basement door after she had her ear against the door. She was listening. She could hear them."

"How? There's nobody-" Her lip quivered. "Alive."

Marcus swallowed. "We can communicate with the living because we are the living. Elizabeth is-"

Amelia slapped him hard across the face, the impact echoing off of the walls. Tears of fear and disbelief welled in her eyes. "You shut up. You don't know what you're saying. That woman brought her back! She's as alive as you or me."

Marcus gripped her shoulders. "Don't you remember the fire, Amelia?"

Amelia wiped her tears angrily and backed away. "She's our Lizzie and she's alive. There's nothing wrong with her."

"That's why we have to lock her in her room every night, right?" Marcus instantly regretted the words the minute they left his mouth. He saw the hurt that flashed across his wife's face. He wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry."

Amelia sniffled. "Do you still love her?"

"Of course I do. She's my daughter."