Chapter 8 (Emily)
It was five p.m. when dinner started and that I noticed a new member in our group. She called herself Zoey, and she was eighteen years old. She did not remember how she had died but all she knew was that her parents had stayed up crying for hours becasue of her death. She would talk about how she missed them and her little brother and would talk about how she wished she could have lived just one more day with them. Just to have one more day to tell them good-bye. Instead, she was taken with out a blink of an eye, never to see them again. She had no good-bye she had no hello. It was just a story that never really began in the first place.
We had seen each other a bit before everyone else so I had the chance to talk to her even before Alex had.
Our conversation then was something like this, "Hello Zoey,"
"Hello Emily," Zoey said with a smile, "It's nice to meet you, how long have you been here?"
"Only a couple of weeks," I told her with a smile.
She nodded, "Oh well thats cool. Anything I should know about?"
"Alex is someone you should worry about," I said. It was the first thing I could actually think of. Of course it was true about. She did have to worry about him.
"Why is that?" She asked.
"He is not who he seems to be," I said, "Just think about that as you live here."
"No one is who they seem to be though," Zoey said, then added, "I can tell you are not who you seem pretend to be."
"Yes but I am not evil either."
"Nor is he." She said with a small smile.
I sighed, "If he was not evil then why am I here?" I said this knowing I would not get an answer, or rather knowing I would not get the answer I wanted.
"Evil is Evil. Alex is not Evil, he is a follower, and only fears his master. Just like you fear your master."
"That made no sence." I told her.
"Look all I am saying is that sometimes people put on a fake face to hide who they really are. Just like you are doing here in this place. You do not belong and yet you are here. Alex knows he does not belong in this place, or rather he knows that what he is doing is wrong, and yet he does it anyways."
"Why?" I asked.
"I would not know since I am new here, but I am thinking fear has something to do with it," Zoey said, "Everyone has fear, and if you can find the one thing that can change him then he may just go back."
"Would you help us find it?" I asked, "I can not do that on my own since I have to work every day."
"How about I help you in two ways, I can help clean and help you find Alex's weakness to getting him to become good," She said, "And while that is going on you can tell me about yourself, and what you are doing here since I know you are not one of the dead."
"I like that idea," I said with a smile, "So we should get to work then, cleaning the rest of the rooms, then we can meet up with everyone else at about seven and have dinner."
"Okay good idea."
For the rest of the night until about seven-thirty P.M., Zoey and I cleaned the other fourteen bedrooms then we went to have dinner.Amy had saved us some food on the side so we would not go hungry, and we ended up talking for about two hours while we ate. We talked about everything from Alex to how I came to be here to who Angel was and who Evil was. I never thought someone so new could have so many questions about just one person.
At eight we met up with everyone else and talked. They even finally got to meet Zoey and find out about how she had gotten here. She told them about her life, and what had happened to her while she was living. Bri asked her if she remembered anything about how she had died and she told them that she did not remember anything. Bri said it was normal and that none of them really rememebred much about how they had died. All they ever got was flash backs and those were never good.
At about nine we played some board games to pass time, and by ten everyone wanted to go to bed. Everyone picked to sleep in Bri's room that night.
One reason is becasue they wanted to protect me, another was because everyone was way to tired to actually go ot their own room. So we just bunked in Bri's with some blankets and pellows that Amy and given us for the night.
. . . (Jason; talking to Joey a few days before)
It had been five weeks since I had taken the job that Emily William's parents had offered to me in hope of finding their daughter. I had talked to Joey about four days before that day as well. Joey said that he did not know much about Emily after they stopped talking but he did remember everything that she had told him about her gift when they were younger.
He said that when she heard them it was like death and it scared her. She even said that sometimes at night they would hurt her.
I asked them how they had hurt her, and he answered by saying that they bruised her or cut her. It was always the same person though that hurt her. She did not know his name but she said he looked horrible. He had dark brown eyes and she could see skulls in them. He even said that hearing her say what she had made him fearful for her life and his own.
I asked him what he had meant by that, and he answered as followed, "After a while of her telling me everything that these creatures had done to her I felt as if someone was watching my every move. I got scared and started to treat her wrongly. I know it was wrong of me but I was scared for my life. I did not know that because I was not there for her something like this would happen."
"So you cared about her, and yet you were one of the many who picked on her and called her a witch because you feared for your life?" I asked him.
"Yea," Joey said, "I know that sounds really selfish of me. I mean really. Emily had been with me through everything. When my father left my mother she was there for me, and when my oldest brother was killed in a gun robbery she was the only one there for me, but the one time that she needed me I chickened out and ran away out of fear," He sighed then went on, "Sometimes I wonder what our lives would be like now, but I know she would never forgive me if I tried to help her."
"Well you were the one that left her," I told him, "And the one who made fun of her, and I hear you are also the one who starts rumors about her."
Joey nodded, "Yea I am, and I hate myself everyday for the way I treated her. She trusted me with her secret and I betrayed her and told everyone."
"Yea you did, but look you can still help her," I said and Joey jumped, "In order to help though I need to know everything about her. Everything she ever told you and everything that you know about these people. I think they might have kidnapped her."
"Okay," Joey said, "I'll help. I just want to know that she is okay, and if you find her tell her that I am sorry. I have a feeling I won't be here much longer after this."
"I will," I told him with a smile, and the questions began.
First I asked him about the people. He answered by telling me that Emily said there were four of them. Three boys and one girl. He said that Emily talked about how the girl was cut in half and murdered, and when he heard about what happened he decided to look her up and found out that her name was Bri and that she had been rapped and murdered. They never found her murderer.
Next he talked about the twin boys. She had told him that the twin boys were in a car accident, and that they had an older sister who had lived. The boys did not survive. The twins names were Nick and Jeff.
The oldest person she did not know, but she talked about how he was the one who hurt her every night and about what he looked like. She had told him that he had short black hair and evil brown eyes and that every time she looked at him she seen skulls. She feared him she would tell him.
"Okay, thanks," I said after I had finally wrote down everything he said about the ghosts that were involved. "Can you tell me anything else?"
"I don't remember a bunch sadly," Joey said, "I remember how she would show me her scars at night or in school hidden away from everyone. Some teachers thought her parents were abusing her but she always said that it was not her parents."
"What did they look like?" I asked, "The scars I mean."
"They were horrible," Joey admitted with sorrow. "She would have black and blues all over her back, neck, and chest. Sometimes even her eyes would be black and blue. She would cover those with make-up hoping that no one would notice. Though the teacher's did. They pulled her aside a bunch of times asking her if her parents had done those things to her. She would always give them the same story and then cry to me with the truth."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I kept them a secret for the longest time, I knew it bothered her and I wanted to comfort her all I could. We were best friends and when I slept over she would some how get the chance to show me every scare on her body. Each night they got worse . I told her a bunch of times that she should tell someone but she always said that if she did she would regret it more. I even asked her why she was telling me then, and she just said 'because you are my best friend and I trust you,' now, I see that she shouldn't have trusted me. I just betrayed all her secrets to save myself and to become popular."
"Did they try and hurt you?" I asked him suddenly saying what was bugging me. I did not mean to be rude but it did kind of come out that way.
"Yea, they did." Joey said, "Thats one of the reasons why I stopped being friends with her. I'm a self centered person I know."
"What did they do?"
"This," Joey said as he pulled up his sleeves showing the scars that have been inbeded into his body forever. "I was five like she was. I guess that was the only time I ever got to feel what she had felt though I could not see them, and she could. It hurt me though, and I left her for that and because of my parents. My mother thought she was the reason to the scars, they thought I was depressed and sent me to get help, they told me I couldn't be friends with her anymore either, though I loved her so much. I had fallen for her and was told I couldn't even be her friend anymore. Thats pretty much why I became who I was. A self centered slut who would date anyone just to fill my heart with what she never could."
"But you did as you were told because of your parents and fear." I said, "In a way I understand what you are saying."
"Yea."
"Is there anything else you want to say?" I asked.
"No, not really."
"Okay," I said with a nod, "Then I guess I should get going, and Joey, thank you for helping."
"No problem, I'd do anything for Emily, even though it seems that I never cared."
I nodded, and began to leave, "Take care." I said.
"You too Jason."