Stepfather: Sins Of The Past

Chapter 4

EMILY WOKE UP SCREAMING the next morning. Claire came rushing inside the room and instantly sat beside Emily, gently but firmly grasping her shoulders to break her out of her reverie. As the remnants of the nightmare cleared from her mind, events that took place last night immediately filled its place. The nightmare only helped refresh those events in her memory. It again made her remember that everything that happened last was real and she had experience every bit of it. Her fear was real. Even if no one else believed her. She knew it wasn't a dream nor was she hallucinating. She had definitely seen everything and no one could persuade her otherwise. The basement. That woman.

Hearing the sharp tapping sound behind her, Emily turned around to see — despite fear gnawing at her thoughts. As she turned around, Emily let out an ear piercing scream with her hands flying to cover her mouth. A frail woman dressed in a white gown was standing behind closed glass doors of the hallway entrance. Her long hair were open and tangled in messy knots. Under the moonlight, Emily could see that the woman's face was covered in blood and so were her hands and clothes. The most horrifying thing was that she was tied in chains, which clinked against the glass doors as she tapped her bloodied hands on the door, leaving her handprints tainted with blood. Emily wasn't sure if all of it was a figment of her imagination or if she was actually experiencing it all. Breaking out from her frozen state, she rushed towards the hallway door and twisted the door handles in an attempt to open it. But they were locked, and she didn't have the keys. The woman kept banging her hands on the door in a state delirium. She kept speaking something in a frenzy but Emily wasn't able to hear anything — the doors were apparently soundproof as well. Emily quickly turn to rush into her mother's room to wake her and Mr. Stephan up — both of them seemingly managed to sleep through all the commotion downstairs — so that they can open the door and help the woman out. Emily had her fist up in front of her mother's door and was about to knock, when the door opened.

"Emily?" Mr. Stephan appeared behind the door, "Are you okay? What are you doing at this hour of night? And what's all this commoti –"
"Downstairs, woman. She's hurt. I don't know what's happening." Emily haphazardly spoke trying to overcome a wave of panic that hit her.
"Emily calm down first. Speak clearly, so that I understand." Mr. Stephan firmly grasped Emily's shoulder.
"There's a woman outside who's tied in chains and she's bleeding," Emily rasped out, "We need to help her out and call the police."
"George? Emily? What's going on? Is everything okay?" Claire groggily spoke getting out of the bed.
"Yeah, don't worry. I'm going downstairs to check it out" Mr. Stephan grabbed the keys from the dresser.
"But tell me at least that what's going on? What's happening?"
"Please mom, just come with me downstairs for now. The woman, she's really hurt and bleeding. We need to help her out. Please just help her out." Emily pleaded grabbing her mother's hand.

The three of them rushed downstairs with Emily leading them towards the door, where Emily had left the woman. "Here she –" Emily stopped mid-sentence, when she saw there was no one standing there. The woman had disappeared. And so had the blood stains. Emily turned around to see Mr. Stephan's raised brows and her mother's questioning stare.

"There's no woman here." Mr. Stephan said motioning towards the door, "Are you sure you weren't mistaken?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Emily exasperatedly spoke, "I saw the woman with my own eyes, her face was bruised, she was bleeding and she was in chains for the love of God!
"Emily, honey, calm down," Claire gently spoke, slowly approaching Emily, "It's a new place for you and maybe with a lot of things happening and changing your life, it has taken a huge toll on you. Maybe you're just seeing things because you're mentally exhausted. Maybe it was just a dream that scared you."
"I'm not crazy mom!" Emily said her pitch rising by every second, "I can differentiate between a dream and reality."
"There was time when you couldn't. And maybe it's all coming back because you refuse to seek professional help." Claire softly took Emily's hand who regarded Claire with a look of disbelief and hurt, "I don't mean to hurt you Emily, but you need to seek the help you need. I'm really worried about you and after today I can't be at peace knowing that you are not okay."
"You already hurt me mom. And this is not the first time. I know what I saw and you cannot tell me otherwise." Emily said brushing the angry tears spilling from her eyes. Stupid tear ducts, she thought.
"I think it is really late and about time we should all go to bed." Mr. Stephan grimly spoke, "We can talk about this tomorrow."