Shining among Darkness

By
WingzemonX

Chapter 11
Bye-bye, Emily

Emily Jenkins did not have a happy childhood. Her mother was a woman with problems; serious problems, to which she used to drag her daughter, conscious or unconsciously. Personality disorders, chronic depression, abuse of inappropriate substances, hormonal imbalances, and many other terms. People wanted to justify her behavior with a thousand and one different reasons, but none was enough to forgive all the damage she done. Even in those moments, close to her forties, every time Emily looked back, she could only feel anger and resentment for that woman, repeating herself that she was much better away from her. She could see it already with her mature and forged mind based on experiences. But, at that time, her perception was far from clear.

Before reaching adolescence, she was removed from that environment and entered to the system. She remembered herself crying every night of the following weeks, longing to return with her beloved mommy. How far a mother have to hurt a child before it stopped seeing her with adoration that almost touched the devotion? Even after so many years, Emily didn't have a clear answer to that.

She moved from one temporary and adoptive home to another, without any being as she wished. When she reached the age of majority and could become independent, she told herself that she would do everything possible to prevent other children from going through the same situation as her, and that was what led her to dedicate to social work; work that at times could become painful and distressing, but had carried out for almost twenty years with pride and enthusiasm... until that little girl came into her life.

Everything started in such a casual way, with Wayne, her supervisor, placing a file on her desk, even after she telling him that she had other thirty-eight open cases. It was the case of a little ten-year-old girl named Lilith Sullivan aka Lily. Her teachers had reported she often slept in the classroom, her grades had dropped, and she was more withdrawn in class and on breaks. After her long, and nothing desirable, experience in family cases, Emily had learned very well that all these things were clear signs of problems at home; and when she visited the Sullivan's for the first time, she was pretty sure about that.

A dense air of fear and anger covered the house. Her parents, especially the mother, looked like two zombies, with lost expressions that hid a dark ocean behind them. And Lily… she was such a beautiful girl, so radiant, and yet so delicate in appearance. She looked like a little doll with a sad face, which could break at the slightest touch.

Emily always felt a special appreciation for every boy or girl she met. However, Lily had something special. As soon as she saw her, she felt a great empathy that had never felt before, and an intense need to protect her from whatever was happening in that horrible house.

And all her suspicions and fears came true that horrible night. The news circulated throughout Oregon, and perhaps throughout the country. Her parents tried to kill her, and in the cruelest way: sleeping her and burning her alive in the oven.

What twisted minds could do such atrocity to another human being? Especially to their daughter. If it wasn't for Emily herself and her police friend, Detective Mike Barron, who knows what would have happened. But they managed to save her, and send the parents to a mental sanitarium where they could never see the light of day again.

But the important thing now was Lily, her safety and her well-being. That prevailing need of Emily to protect her became even more acute after what happened. When she had to leave her in that orphanage where she would wait for some adoptive home to be found, if they were able to find any, she saw herself; alone in that place, crying for her mother despite what she had done.

Why did this happen to her? Why was she feeling this so deep for a girl she had just met? What was unique about her compared to all her previous cases? Emily had no idea, nor did she question it much. Despite a small initial resistance, she decided to do something she would never have done with any of her other cases: serve as a temporary home for Lily.

Emily never considered having children. She always used her work as an excuse, but she knew that there was much more involved; much more than she was willing to talk, even with her friend Doug Ames, a child psychologist who worked in Family Affairs treating children with problems, and that almost always was not entirely subtle in their intentions that they were more than friends; however, Emily still rejected him, every time.

That life was not for her; her mother had taken care to show it. But with Lily was different. She thought that both could keep company each other, and could even heal the wounds. And if everything went well, if she could do this and end up compliant... well, who knows? The possibilities were many. Maybe it wasn't too late for her.

When she informed Lily about it, the kid's face lit up like the sun. Emily had never candidly perceived the joy of a child as at that time. She took her to house, prepared a room for her, and little by little they adapted to each other.

Everything was going great. Lily was an extraordinary girl, and every day, Emily convinced herself that her actions had been correct. But time would be in charge of showing her that she had never made such a massive mistake in her entire life.

It took time to realize, but once the signals began to appear, they did not stop. One strange fact after another, a suspicious look, a distant whisper, and a dreadful death...

That girl wasn't even remotely what she looked like: she was a monster. And not figuratively, but rather literally; something nonhuman, something scary, creeping and disgusting was inside her. A demon with innocent girl's look, who had dragged her parents to the absolute madness, leaving them in a state in which they could not do anything beyond drug her, sleep her, put her in the oven and cook her until incinerated live. And although at that time, Emily had placed on the side of those who branded them as lunatics, deranged and sicks, now she shared the same anguish and knew that she would have done the same.

First, another child in her care and one of Doug's therapy groups murdered his parents in the middle of the night, for no reason, and horrifyingly and violently. And somehow, that in those days it was still difficult to understand, Lily was behind it.

Something weird was happening around her, and Doug noticed it too. After talking face to face with her one night, the psychologist told it to her directly: he was afraid of Lily. There was something about her that frightened him, as she had never seen. Doug didn't say much more, except he would call an expert who could help them. After that, he disappeared behind the elevator doors, and it would be the last time Emily would see him alive. They would find him a day later, dead in his bathroom, alone...

"An accident," everyone said. "He must have slipped and rotated his neck when he hit the toilet," added others. "What a horrible way to die," would rumble as the final closure. But Emily knew it, at the bottom of her heart, she began to see it: Lily had done it. She didn't know how, but she knew the girl was behind all that in one way or another. But nobody believed her, and nobody listened to her. It was crazy, and many times it looked like that to herself too. How could such a sweet girl have done something like that? But it wasn't a girl, and it wasn't anything sweet in her. It took time to digest that idea entirely, but in the end, she succeeded.

Emily saw the tapes of the interviews that the doctors were doing to the parents in the mental sanitarium and spoke in person with Mr. Sullivan. He told her what she feared so much to say out loud: Lily was a demon, a monster that fed on fear and other people's misfortunes. A beast hid behind the face of a girl, to move freely and devour them. These sounded like the strange delusions of an unbalanced man, but Emily knew that what he was saying had to be true. She began to live it in her flesh.

She didn't know how she did it, but somehow the girl could get into your head, manipulate your thoughts and emotions, and make you see your worst nightmare materializing before you. She didn't even have to be in the same room, or even in the same building. Somehow that demon managed to reach you, make you distrust even your own senses, and shore you to the madness. That was how had come to Diego, Doug, and her father. Still locked in the sanitarium, Lily found a way to get to him and make him die in a fight in the dining room, just a few days after talking with Emily. Was it revenge for talking to her? Emily didn't know what to think anymore. Everything was too unreal, too difficult to process.

And now, everything was about to get worse. Nancy, her partner from Adoptions, had just told her that she had gotten an adoptive family for Lily; kind and noble people, willing to open their hearts and their house to the little Lilith. Mr. Sullivan had told her that she fed on the pain and fear of others and enjoyed taking good and pure beings to submerge them in absolute darkness slowly. Emily did not know if he said this with any basis or was merely his own perception. But whatever it was, she couldn't allow it; she couldn't let her do that to anyone else.

Her friend, Detective Mike Barron, did not believe her suspects at first, but in the end, he had to accept that something happened with Lily when he was directly subtly threatened by her. He did not say it openly, but she could feel that fear had taken hold of him, a fear so deep and painful, that had undoubtedly pushed him to help her with the horrible but inevitable task they had to do: kill Lily, before someone else get hurt.

Mike would bring a gun from the evidence warehouse, confiscated from some frustrated assault. For her part, she went to her doctor that same morning and told him she couldn't sleep, hoping he could prescribe something, and it worked. Also, she got a gallon of gasoline. The complete plan was to sleep Lily with the pills, shoot once unconscious, and then set fire to the body to disappear it. Sounded horrible, and every time she repeated it in her head, it became even worse. She, who had sworn to dedicate her life to children, to protect and keep them safe, was going to be part of an act that could only be classified as a brutal murder?

But she didn't care anymore. She was desperate.

Emily left work early, claiming not to feel well at all, and headed home. She sat for a while in her vehicle, contemplating the wooden construction from outside, trying to imagine where would be that thing in those moments. The mere idea of returning there with her made her nauseous and pressed her chest. But she must be strong, just a little more. If he could hold on a little longer, it would all end.

She got out of the car and entered through the front door. The lights were on, but everything was silent.

"Lily?" She exclaimed loudly so her voice could be heard, but she received no response. Everything remained silent.

She removed her coat and hung it on her coat rack. Left her bag on the furniture of the hall, and moved to the living room. However, as soon as she turned in the main hall, she spotted something on the floor. At first, she did not know what it was, but when she approached, she realized. They were her files, from all her cases, past and present, watered throughout the corridor, creating a perfect path. Emily didn't know how to react, and a part of her strongly suggested that she must turn around and leave that place immediately. However, she ignored it, and instead began to advance along the path of papers, which led her directly to Lily's room. When she stood in the doorway, she saw something on the floor that stirred her stomach. There were about eight photographs of several children of cases she had had, part of the files that now lay on the floor. The most were of marks of blows on the bodies of children, purple eyes, scratches, bruises, broken lips... all those atrocities, exposed side by side, like a sickly mural.

What the hell was Lily doing with them? Was it causing her some morbid pleasure to see that? Was it what she enjoyed? The pain and suffering of people even if is only in photographs?

But there were more photos that at first glance did not fit the rest. Emily crouched beside them so he could see them better. There was a picture of Diego, the boy who had murdered his parents. He was smiling happily and without any worries. There was also a picture of Doug, in a mood similar to Diego's. And finally, one of Mike and she, taken by Mike's wife on a barbecue at his house.

The presence of that photo among all the others made her lose her breath...

"Mike," she thought almost horrified. Why had Lily put a picture of two of them along with the others? Why had she put them there, so that she could see them easily? What kind of message or warning, did want to convey? And most importantly: Where was she?

Suddenly, Emily heard a sound, just under her mattress. She approached cautiously and lifted the mattress. Under it, on the base of the bed, was a telephone, her lost telephone, ringing in vibrator mode. As if it were something radioactive, Emily nervously reached her hand toward to take it. An unknown number was displayed on the screen. Even more nervous, she answered the call and brought it to her ear. On the other side, there was only a lot of static.

"Who is this?" She murmured scared.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then:

"Emily, it's me, Wayne," she heard her supervisor's recognizable voice ring through the static, and that calmed her slightly, allowing her to breathe.

"Wayne? Is everything ok?"

"No," he replied slowly, slamming away all the tranquility that had come to her. "I just got a call a few minutes ago. It's about Mike. Emily... he is dead."

That last words resonated with great force in her head and was repeated so many times until these totally lost their sense.

"What? No, he is..."

She was unable to say much more.

"I don't know the details," Wayne continued on the phone, "but they say he shot himself in the headquarters parking lot."

Did he shot himself? Did Mike kill himself? No, it was impossible, of course, he hadn't. He would never do it, especially when he was about to help her with such a horrible task. It had been her; she had done it as she did with Doug, Edward Sullivan, and so many more before them.

"Emily? Em?" Wayne repeated on the phone, but she no longer listened. "Emily, are you alright?" There was no answer. Emily pushed her phone from her ear and began to lower it little by little. "Emily, there is something else. I don't know if it's related or not, but a few hours ago someone..."

She no longer heard the rest of his words.

But suddenly, she heard the clear sound of the microwave in the kitchen, indicating that it had just finished a cycle, and shortly after the distant sound of steps and movement.

It was her...

"Emily? Emily, are you ok...?"

She dropped the phone to the floor, not caring what else Wayne wanted to tell her. She went from confusion to denial, from this to sadness, to quickly get rid of all this and keep only one thing: an absolute rage.

In a hurry, she stood up and walked swiftly and determinedly to the living room. Before arriving at her destination, she heard how the television was turned on, and the loud melody of a music video broke such absolute silence. And there she was, sitting quietly on the couch in front of the television, and a large bowl of popcorns on her legs. There was Lily Sullivan, with her calm face, and her gray eyes fixed on the screen, while she popped the popcorns one at a time into her mouth. She wore his long dark brown hair, perfectly straight, loose and falling on her shoulders. She looked so innocent, so calm... so fake.

Without the slightest doubt, Emily took the screen placed on the living room furniture, and threw it hard on the floor, causing it to drop flashes when falling, accompanied by a painful crunch. The house was silent again. Lily watched the television on the floor, unchanging. She took another popcorn and brought it to her mouth.

"Didn't your mother teach you to take better care of your things?" Lily whispered in a sarcastic and mocking tone.

Emily was breathing agitated. To see her sitting there with her face of false innocence as if nothing happened as if it were remotely something similar to a human being. She raised her hand slowly, pointing toward the door decisively. Her anger was such that she was barely able to structure words.

"Get out... of my... home..." She exclaimed as she could, almost choking on every word. Lily, on her side, looked at her for a second and then continued eating as if she hadn't heard.

"Do we have butter?" The kid asked quietly, ignoring her desperate request.

Emily approached her violently, and with a swipe, she threw the popcorn bowl to one side, watering them all over the chair and the floor.

"Get out of my house, damn monster!" She yelled at her now with much more strength and security, pointing back to the door.

Lily looked at her sideways, still serene. Delicately, she began to shake the popcorn from the armchair and her jeans, as if cleaning simple dust.

"I think there's a confusion here," Lily murmured unchanging as she kept cleaning. Then she stopped suddenly and stared at her with a look that completely broke all that innocent and calm expression she had had all that time. "You... no... Yell at me!"

The voice that came out of her didn't look anything like hers. It was severe and resonated in her head like a hammer clash. In fact, it sounded like several voices talking at once with violence, with hate, with a feeling so aggressive that it paralyzed Emily. There was no way that a human being could even emit those sounds.

Lily began to move toward her slowly, and Emily instinctively backed away, panicked. Lily's face gradually began to deform, to transmute into something grotesque, gray skin, and wide, deep and dark eyes.

"You don't give me orders," she continued in the same voice. With each step she took, Emily seemed to perceive that the entire stage around her was warping and contracting with each other, shuddering at the tone of the words she heard coming from Lily. "You don't tell me what to do, you can't scold me when I haven't done anything, and you don't plan on stabbing me in the back while I don't see you!"

That mad voice grew suddenly, and Emily felt as if all the walls were cracking and contracting on her.

"It's not real... it's not real..." She repeated herself, unable to believe it.

When she got her legs to respond as she wished, she turned and began to dash down the hall, feeling like a harmless prey escaping from its predator. She reached her room, and immediately locked herself in it, not only with insurance but also with the pins she had installed days before, precisely to keep that thing out. But in those moments, all this seemed insufficient. She pushed her dresser in a hurry until she placed it in front of the door, and followed her bed a little later, creating a complete barricade. But what then? What would she do after that? Now she was trapped in her own room.

She looked around altered, looking for a way out, a hiding place, a weapon or whatever. Her feet suddenly rolled a long screwdriver that was on the ground, which had perhaps remained there since she was putting the pins. It was practically nothing, but she still took it in her hands and held it close to her as a weapon.

Lily's bony knuckles knocked loudly on the door, breaking the silence.

"Emily, I'm sorry," she heard suddenly, again that fake sweet voice, uttering from the other side of the door. The social worker immediately became defensive, taking the screwdriver in front of her. "I didn't mean to. Can I come in so we can talk and work it out?" Emily didn't answer anything, so she knocked harder. "Emily?"

"Stay away from me!" The social worker shouted desperately.

"Don't be mad. I said I was sorry. Come on; I'll brush your hair for you."

"Stay away from me!"

Once the echo of his last shout dissipated from her ears, everything was silent. But not by much. After a few seconds, before Emily could react or think of something else, the loud sound of the wood creaking shook her. The door of the room began to bend and tear as if a colossal animal violently pushed it in with great force. Emily took a couple of steps back, her fingers clinging to the screwdriver until they turned pale.

"It's not real," she said again in a small voice. "It is not real. It is not real!"

She threw the screwdriver and dashed toward the barricade, pushing it with her whole body. However, the blows from outside were stronger. The door finally gave way, breaking apart, and her bed and dresser were pushed back, as well as herself. She fell on the floor and managed to see how the door flew out, ripped from its hinges. Emily immediately crawled down the floor under the bed, hiding under it, in the darkest corner of that area. She clung to herself, covering her face with both arms, and sticking her knees against her chest.

That was a nightmare; it was the only thing that made sense. It was all a horrible nightmare in which she would wake up at any moment. Doug and Mike would be there, and nothing that happened those weeks would be real. She tried to hold that idea, but that deformed voice sounding like several at once pulled her back to the undeniable reality.

"Emily?" Lily said while she entered the room. Emily lifted her face slightly from the hiding place of her arms and could see her bare feet, moving along the floor to the side of the bed. "We need to learn healthier ways of resolving conflicts. Most families don't even know they have a problem... until it's too late..."

As she followed the walk of her feet with her eyes, Emily noticed that the screwdriver was right next to the bed. Lily's thin right hand went down to take the screwdriver and then stuck it hard on the floor. It made Emily let out a little cry of fear.

Lily bent down and put her face below to the bottom of the bed. She looked at Emily with her blue-gray eyes and smiled at her broadly, with the same joy with which she had greeted that day when Emily told her she would go home with her.

"What are you doing there, you silly pumpkinhead?" Lily inquired in a cheerful, playful tone. Emily could only laugh nervously in panic. "You don't want me to come under there and get you, do you?"

"No, no…"

"I'm going to count to three. One... two..." While Lily was counting, Emily muttered inaudible pleas; the terror was such that she was no longer able to think with even a minimum of clarity. "Two and a half... two and three quarters... three! Here I come…"

Lily began to crawl on the floor toward her, like a snake stalking.

"No!" Emily shouted, terrified, and dragged her body back until it was against the wall; now, she was cornered. "What do you want from me?!"

Lily stopped right in front of her, having her face at the same height. The kid looked at her carefully in that position, and then her expression became something serious, and sad.

"I want the same thing you wanted from your mother. I want you to love me..."

Love her? Who could love a being like her? Who could feel anything more than terror and hate against someone who uses, manipulates, and destroys how many people cross her path? Did she at least understand its meaning?

"It's ok..." Emily murmured, dragging the words a little. "Yes... I will; I will; I will..."

Lily smiled happily. She leaned toward her, and Emily's immediate reflection was to close her eyes in fright and only felt how she gave her a simple kiss on her forehead. Then she heard the girl crawl back out of bed.

"Come to tuck me in," heard her say once she was outside.

Emily stayed petrified in her place for a long time, and when she opened her eyes, there was no trace of Lily. However, something else was not right. Slowly, she came out from under the bed and stood on her feet. She looked around dumbfounded, unable to believe the shocking image she saw: everything was the same as it was a few minutes ago. The door was still in place, the dresser and the bed, under which she had just left, were still against the door. Even the screwdriver was on the floor at her feet, and not stuck in the wood. There was no sign of Lily or yet a sign that she had entered at some point.

What had happened? Had she played with her mind again? Had it all been a mere illusion? But it was so real. She felt the blow that threw her back, the feel of her lips on her forehead, even the scent of her shampoo. She was there... or not? Emily took her head, feeling that the whole world was spinning. The walls, the doors, the barricades, nothing could stop her. Just by thinking it, she could enter wherever she wanted and do whatever she wished. There was no way to contain her either.

Emily left her room and headed to the kitchen automatically as if she were some robot without consciousness. She began to prepare chamomile tea, prompted perhaps by her own habit since she frequently made one for Lily before bedtime. Emily stood for a long time, admiring the kettle on the stove, waiting for it to sound. And it was at that moment that a fleeting thought came to her, a second before the hiss of boiling water became present. She turned slowly toward the entrance, where she had left her bag.

"The pills," she thought to herself. The sleeping pills that the doctor had given her. She could still use them as she had planned, put them in the tea to sleep her, and... And then what? What would she do next? She didn't question it much and just did it. She sneaked up to the entrance, begging God or anyone who was listening to her not to cross Lily halfway. There was no sign of her, and Emily even heard her singing in her room, surely while brushing her hair in front of the dressing table mirror as she used to do. Emily took four pills out of the bag and carried them hidden in her fist to the kitchen. Once there, she ground them with a spoon to make them into powder and threw it into the porcelain cup, followed by the tea bag, and then the hot water. It stirred the water very well, until making sure that there was no visible trace of the presence of the pills, and only the opaque color of the tea was distinguished. She also added enough sugar, hoping that it would disguise the taste a bit. She considered to taste it herself to make sure, but she couldn't risk it; the least she could do in those moments was to fall asleep.

Emily took the cup, with a small dish of the same game, to Lily's room. There she found her sitting on her bed, changed to sleep, and with the cover on her legs. When Lily saw her at the door, she smiled with all the false innocence she had transmitted from the beginning. Emily approached the bed and handed the cup, which Lily took gladly. She blew a little to calm the heat of the liquid, and once she was sure brought it to her lips. But before taking the first sip, she lowered it again.

"Maybe you should have it," the kid said softly and turned to see her again. "You look stressed."

Emily had a little moment of doubt but managed to maintain apparent tranquility.

"I'll have one later, don't worry."

Lily nodded and began to drink tea slowly. Emily expected that she told it tasted weird, or maybe too sweet and then began to suspect. But no, Lily kept taking it easy. For that little moment, Emily felt triumphant.

"I'm really sorry that I let things get like this," Emily commented, more calmly. "We'll do better from now on."

"We have to," the little girl replied after taking the last sip, and put the cup back on the small plate, and then passed it back to Emily. "Or someone could get hurt."

Emily only smiled at such a disguised threat. "And that someone could be you," she thought to herself.

"What should we do tomorrow?" Emily questioned.

Lily thought a little, but in the end, she shrugged.

"Surprise me."

"I'm not so good at surprises."

"You're getting better."

Emily's confident smile almost broke apart. What did she mean with that? Because of the way she said it... No, she couldn't keep letting it get that way in her head. She kept smiling, calm. She placed the cup and plate on the desk for a moment and tucked Lily under the cover. Once she was ready, went to the door to leave, but halfway, she heard the girl speaking with a playful tone, but at the same time quite threatening.

"You forgot my goodnight kiss."

Emily took a deep breath, still turning her back, and then turned back, approached and gave her a little kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight, pretty."

— — — —

Author's Notes:

—Chapter 11 is too long. So, I decided to divide the translation into two parts. I will publish Part 2 soon.

—This whole chapter was a summary of the film Case 39 of 2009, adding some personal interpretations and addition that modifies the original ending. For the purposes of this story, that film was happening parallel to the rest narrated so far (as Doug's call in Chapter 07 implied). The following chapters will continue from this point, so these could be considered as a direct sequel of the film, and several references about what happened in it will appear.

—Emily and Lily are the original protagonists of Case 39, without any change in their appearance, age, or personality.