placid ↦ luke hemmings {au}

twenty-five: gone

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

| emma’s pov |

I placed the storybooks of Tabitha on my bed, prepared to read them all by tonight. I was surprised my mother wasn’t home yet. It was almost nine o’clock.

Nonetheless, I opened all of the books to the first page. I knew that from these stories, I would know more about the two of them. I would know what happened to her. 

“Park,” I commented, pointing at all of the drawings. That must have been where they met.

I proceeded to look at her footnotes, which was obviously written with a marker. The thickness was the same as the one that flew on my foot, confirming my suspicions. 

"I met him when I least expected it."

I moved onto the next few pages, where Vicky said things changed. And it did.

"He told me we were friends. And that was all we were."

There was blood all over her drawings; it managed to scare me. But if there was one thing common within her books and in real life, it was all the bruises. The way she killed everyone in her way. The way she hurt Luke.

I turned to the next pages, and it was all just purely words.

“I kept him safe; I did everything I can to protect him,” one book said.

“But he chose not to see that,” another showed.

“He’s going to be mine,” for the third.

“Even if it’s the last thing I do,” that was the fourth.

“Death won’t keep us apart.” And that was the last.

I got up from the bed, terror-stricken. “The sixth book, where’s the sixth book?” I looked under the covers for it, and under my bed, but it wasn’t there.

The unanticipated rustling of paper surprised me. One paper dropped, out of nowhere. And another, and another, and another. Each of the pages had a word on it, making my heart beat erratically.

“You’re up next, Emma.”

“E-Emma, he-he’s gone. He’s gone!” My mother burst into my room, taking no heed of the mess I made.

She pulled me up and made me walk with her downstairs. Her words scared me; I was almost afraid to find out.

“Wh-who’s gone, mom?” There was a tremble in my voice.

She fell to the floor, losing her grip on me. The tears in her eyes were uncontrollable. 

“Y-your dad.”