Angel of Light (A Zak Bagans Story)

Chapter 47: Emily

Chapter 47: Emily

I quietly took a deep breath before I began.

"After my parents died, our Uncle Seth - our father's brother - offered to take us in. He lived in town, but was willing to move into our house, which was more rural," I started.

"Didn't have his own family?" Zak asked.

I shook my head.

"He was always...different. Kind of a loner I think. We never saw him much, even though we lived only 15 to 20 minutes away," I replied.

Zak nodded.

"So he moved into our house, using the guest room as his room. Things went well at first...he was attentive, always there for us when Emily or I had bad moments with our grief. He basically became a second dad...but then..." I trailed off, trying to think of the right words.

Zak looked slightly concerned.

"I guess it was a little after the first anniversary of our parents death...he just seemed to change. He wasn't as attentive, he'd ignore us at times, he'd get annoyed or angry with us often..." I started.

"He never hurt you...did he?" Zak asked hesitantly, but looked ready to go and find the guy and kill him if I said yes.

"No, not physically anyway...as time went on, he'd say some emotionally hurtful things at times. It would bother me more than Emily...she was always the tougher one," I replied.

"That doesn't mean you're not strong," Zak said softly, gently stroking the tops of my hands.

I smiled slightly and nodded.

"Anyway...Emily and I adjusted, we learned how to deal with it. We knew if he was in a mood to avoid him, etc. We were still only kids really...we didn't think to reach out to any of our other relatives," I said.

Zak nodded in understanding.

"Makes sense," Zak replied.

I nodded and then stayed silent for a minute, looking down at our hands.

"It was a few weeks before school was about to end for the summer, May 23, a Friday...it had been raining...she would have been graduating from grade 6, which would have been her last year of elementary school. I was in grade 8, junior high, so I was going to a different school than her at the time," I started.

Zak watched me intently and continued stroking my hands.

"I had been stressed over exams...so I hadn't been paying as much attention to her as I normally would have. Apparently, for the past two weeks prior, she had been having issues with a bully at school. Even though she was twelve, she carried around the last toy she had gotten from our parents, a stuffed monkey...she loved monkey's..." I said somewhat sadly, but also smiling a bit at the memory.

I saw Zak smile a bit too.

"Anyway...this bully was teasing her for taking the monkey with her to school everyday, and Emily usually just ignored anyone who teased her, never let it bother her. But I guess because this was a bit more personal, this one day, she lashed out and punched the guy in the face," I said.

"Go Emily..." Zak said softly, somewhat jokingly, probably trying to make me laugh.

Which I did, at least a little bit.

"Emily was given a note from her teacher that she had to bring home to get our Uncle to sign, acknowledging he was aware of the situation, and bring it back. Because I was in junior high, I had to stay in school a half an hour longer than Emily did each day, so I wasn't home when Emily gave the note to our Uncle," I said.