'' They always say that family is the most important thing in life; they say it is about protecting each other from any harm. However, once you hurt what you swore you loved, you bring about your downfall.'' - An Unknown Author.
The year was 1652, in the city of London, England.
It all began in the middle of one cold November day, the dark and menacing grayish clouds loomed over the old city, casting a shadow over the bustling streets below. Thunder and bolts of lightning rumbled ominously in the distance, heralding the arrival of an impending storm.
The middle aged filthy man walked down the muddy, cold street and road on the way to the local Inn, after a tiring job at the Marksman shop, feeling dreadful and tired as if he hadn't slept for ages, as he walked he couldn't stop feeling the drips of the rain from top to bottom.
He moved the door as he went Inside the Inn, walked to the front, and sat down while waiting for the bartender to bring him his favorite old drink.
"Hey there mate, what can I get you for today's drink?" Said the bartender.
"One cold rum please," said the man, looking down at the table, unable to look at the bartender's face.
''Sure Thing,'' The bartender said as he worked on the man's order. As he did, he couldn't stop looking at him, all the while, noticing the man's rough and dirty look. "Slept well lately mate?" The bartender asked.
Daniel slowly looked at him and his eyes were dead, as if he saw something he hadn't seen in years. But then in a calm and rough voice, he stated "You don't want to know..." and then looked down again.
"Well, that's a shame but understandable." He says as he finishes the man's order and places it directly in front of him.
The man drank his drink, paid the man for his service, and went into his room. And that was his casual routine for over a year.
After his wife and daughter's demise due to the consequences of his misconduct, the man had stood stranded in his life's ruins, trying to find his ''salvation'', but nothing good came.
It was one of these days when Daniel Stewart's eyes felt as empty and cold as the chilly breezes of an uncanny night, blank and expressionless.
As time passed, he didn't think twice about regretting his plan to abandon them.
There was a time in his younger years when he was a young and confident man, he felt some happiness with his wife Emilia, but as the years went on, the faith of his Puritan soul and his personality changed him drastically to the point of turning him into a heartless man.
He stood on the cold dirt and watched with dead eyes and a small smile, as his wife had fallen into the pit of snakes, and his children being roasted alive to a crisp by the engulfing fire inside their house.
As it happened, He ran away all the way to the ship, sailing to London.
Even so, he regardless kept carrying the belief that his family was nothing more than a sin and immoral life, that his wife Emilia was a heretic and a witch, and that his daughter, Sophie was the daughter of a demon.
During the early months of his arrival to London, he had tried returning to his "normal" life, to move on from the events of his past life in order to start his new Job as a marksman in the city, in the hopes of rebuilding his "legacy".
But things for him slowly went from bad to worse. Each every night, Nightmares and hallucinations plagued his mind. Nightmares where he returned to Salem, where Hell itself had gone loose constantly in his mind.
He watched over and over what he had done and even yet, he still didn't lament it or apologize.
''They're Dead... they're bloody dead, just stop thinking about them, it has been two years, just thank the lord you're even alive and be grateful for his grace, Amen."
Daniel said to himself. But all of that was nothing more but lies and false reassurance.
But that particular night, however, was nothing like the rest.
On that very cloudy night, like most of his days, Daniel had returned from his job as regular, and he sat down on the mushy leather couch, in his filthy brownish decaying room, living the last 2 years in this old Inn, with a bottle in hand he grabbed from his cabinet.
All the while time itself did not do him a favor, his reddish brown hair was a mess, his brown eyes were bloodshot and tired, and his entire clothes were dirty as if he ran and fell down upon pig mud.
Daniel was nothing more, but a shadow of his former self over these last years. Just a fragment of someone who could've had something, but selfishly, he crushed it.
He couldn't even think to himself while consuming more of the intoxicant liquor, to ease his constant worries.
And his vision began to get a bit distorted but as it did so... They appeared: The spirits of his daughter Sophie, and his wife Emilia, standing right in front of him.
Daniel's eyes grew wider from their sight and out of shock, he fell backward against the wall, gasping for air, and with no other way to go.
Sophie's skin was pale as ash, her dirty darkened green dress was a bit burnt, as well some of her skin was terribly scarred with burn marks on her arms, body, and face. Her eyes were bluish and soulless.
As for Emilia, Her skin was covered with marks of dirt, at the same time exposing bits of her skull along with decomposing flesh, and a few ominous snakes had been crawling all around her body.
The two of them glared down at him, the very same man who was vile and unfaithful and condemned both of them to death for his actions.
"Hello, Father," Sophie said with a cold and chilling, raspy voice, piercing inside the man's ears.
Daniel wrapped his ears with his arms upon hearing her voice once again like he had done each night of his life since their deaths.
''Leave me alone damn it, just GODDAMN LEAVE ME already!" Cried the cowering-looking man, screaming at the spirits, who continued to stare at him.
"You two are nothing but damn dying memories, just here to torment me. Every time I look in the mirror you two are there, whenever I look at someone's face, I see YOUR faces on them."
He looked at them a bit, trying to regain some confidence, to hide his cowardice.
"I FELT TRAPPED OKAY?!" He shouted, "This all happened because I grew tired of my life with this family, AND IT WASN'T REAL, NOTHING BUT A LIE''
But then he looked down at the floor again in fear and distress.
All he did was simply sit there shaking and moving back and forth, all the while he sensed the cold wind; the chill coming from the open windows, and the fear of glimpsing at their apparitions.
"You had left us to die, Father," Sophie said as she stared at her father. "You lied to them, made them believe we are monsters.''
Daniel tried not to show his face, not only because of his fear of facing them again, but because he tried to hold onto his arrogance, and what he had believed.
"We were your family Daniel, YOUR FAMILY", Emilia said as she was enraged by his words, her voice echoed and was felt across the room. "You, in your disgusting desperation, have decided to bring another woman into our bed.''
''You stood there smiling, as you let them kill me and your daughter and son, to throw me into the snakes and burn YOUR CHILDREN ALIVE.''
''YOU WERE THE ONE, who brought all of this upon your own family, upon those you were supposed to love. You will never change the fact that you're a selfish and miserable man."
''I just wanted you to love me Father'' Sophie said, a bit of sadness could be heard coming from her voice but then returned into a rage. ''But you only gave me your anger and hate.''
Daniel tried to muster up his courage and gain control of the situation, as he did once back when they were alive.
"I DID WHAT I FELT WAS RIGHT IN MY HEART AND FAITH, AND BY THE LOVE OF THE LORD."
"T-THIS FAMILY WAS NOTHING BUT A MISTAKE, AND I JUST WANTED MORE THAN THIS, I WANTED SOMETHING THAT IS WORTH.''
"A-AND YOU TWO WERE HERETICS SENT BY THE DE-" Daniel was about to scream his lungs out before the two of them cut him off sentence.
"YOU ARE A MURDERER, A SELFISH COWARDLY MANUPLATIVE MAN" Their rage was felt firmly across the room, causing some of the furniture to break and fall, as well as destroying the room itself.
"You don't know what love is, you never loved us or anyone besides yourself, you only wanted to do what you desired for your "so-called legacy", said Emilia and Sophie, as their voices combined as one.
"You have always hidden your true self behind your faith, behind a mask of righteousness and grace, but that's who you really are, so no more lies."
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE," Daniel said, as he tried to throw his drink at them but before he could do anything his arm felt numb falling to the floor, and couldn't move it.
A look of fear on his face appeared before the spirits.
"You'll never be alone, you'll live like this until the end of your miserable life, and those who had supported and helped with your lies and betrayal, will perish and endure the same consequences as you.''
''If Fear and Disgust is what led you to this... Then Let It be Fear.''
These were the last words Daniel heard for the night, and before the room was quiet as it was at the start, He took a final glimpse at the spirits, and what he saw, would forever be carved Into his mind:
Sophie, no longer the half-burnt child as she appeared before, now but a standing burnt carcass still in flames of what was his daughter.
As for Emilia, she became more of a skeleton look-alike than before with snakes coming off of her arms and neck, staring down at him, as their mouths were stretched into disturbing and horrifying grins.
And then they vanished like the wind into the night.
That was one of the many dreadful nights Daniel had and would experience, with their spirits not leaving him alone, not even once...
And despite everything, he still didn't feel any remorse nor asked for their forgiveness, because he was a stubborn coward and a vile human.
For the next 2 years, Sophie and Emilia continued to haunt him day and night, never to be stopped, forevermore to see the apparitions of his dead family.
And the smoking flames-like nightmares that felt too real.
Then it changed in the year 1654, in the middle of September, 4 years after the deaths of Sophie and Emilia, Daniel was found dead in the Evening of that day.
According to a few remaining reports by pedestrians, he fell down from the balcony of the Inn he was residing in, his neck was snapped in the fall, and allegedly, his corpse was lying there in the form of a broken cross.
And even to this very day, his bizarre death was shrouded by mystery and unnatural theories, never to be explained.
Nobody knew at the time if what happened was either a suicide case or something, way more sinister to be believed in.
As time went on, The Stewarts' Story had become more of a rumor or the stuff of legends. While some evidence was found leading back to the story of the Family, even still, it all has been debated for its authenticity.
But even today, as we speak, the stories about Sophie and Emilia's deaths still haunt and fright the many townsfolk in the Northern side of Salem, and they're still roaming the area.
As you are sitting in your chair, reading these words right now, they stand right next to you, staring down at you with their blue pale soulless eyes, with their wide opened smiles.
You may feel the serpents crawling around your whole body, feeling the poison from their bite seeping into your veins.
At the same time, when looking in the mirror, you see the standing burned corpse, of a little girl, smiling.
⊱══════⊹⊱≼The End≽⊰⊹══════⊰
( A Writer's Note: Hello There! My name Is Adir Aka CreepsSpaghett.)
I would really like to thank the people who took the time to read my very FIRST creepypasta short story, something I had in the works for A LONG TIME. I created the characters of Sophie and Emilia since the year 2019, and they have become more than just characters and something very personal project.
but more than anything, I really would like to thank my friends on Instagram, thanks to them Sophie has become who she is today, and I am more than grateful for their love and support.
Also, I wanna give a huge thanks to my good friend @paxarsenal / incisor.issues, and everyone's criticism for their huge contribution in the draft, they deserve the credit. )
I know this story may not be as perfect and may contain some grammatical errors, but this is something I am more than proud of and I am very happy with the results of this story. And I hope you have enjoyed it! THANKS FOR READING ❤❤❤❤ )