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.

I stopped for a moment to take a sip of water before I continued.

"When I had arrived home, I noticed some cotton stuffing on the porch. I went inside and found our Uncle sitting in the living room, watching TV. I asked him where Emily was, and asked him about the stuffing. He told me about the note Emily had brought home, and said that he had told Emily that she shouldn't of been taking the 'stupid toy' to school…he had tried to take it from her, and with the two of them fighting over it, the head ended up getting ripped from the body…he said Emily started crying and had run out of the house. When I asked him where she had gone, he said he didn't know…" I said, starting to feel the emotions kicking in.

Zak frowned as he watched me, and gently squeezed my hands.

"I was furious, so I left my book bag there and went back outside and started searching for Emily, calling out her name…" I said softly, the memory flooding back to me.

"Emily!" I yelled as I ran around the house to our backyard.

I noticed another small piece of stuffing on the ground near the gate that led from our backyard to a small wooded area, with a path leading to a nearby river.

The gate was open.

I went running into the trees, following the path toward the river.

"Emily! Where are you?!" I called out.

Still no response, only the sound of the rain falling.

As I came to the end of the path and looked down along the edge of the river, I finally spotted her.

She was jumping from one rock to another, across the water, clearly trying to get to something.

"Emily! Get off those rocks! You'll fall in!" I called, as I started running down toward her.

She stopped on one rock and turned to look at me, the headless, stuffed monkey under one arm, tears falling down her face.

"I dropped Bongo's head and it rolled into the river! It's just over there!" She pointed back behind her.

I didn't look, I didn't care about Bongo's damn head at the moment.

"I'll get it! But please come back to the edge before you slip!" I called, finally reaching the spot where she most likely had started jumping from.

"But I'm almost there!" She called back, and started to turn to jump to the next rock.

But her foot slipped on the wet surface of the rock, and she tumbled into the water, screaming as she fell.

"Emily!" I yelled, starting to rush along the river's edge, keeping my eyes on her but also looking for someway to get to her.

That was when I saw a fairly large, old, fallen tree hanging over part of the river.

"Ali! Help!" Emily cried, frantically trying to keep her head above the water.

Because it had been raining all day, the river was overflowed and running faster than it normal.

"Swim toward the tree!" I yelled, running as fast as I could along the water's edge.

As I ran, I saw Emily making headway through the river's current toward the tree.

When I finally reached the tree, I quickly climbed on top of it, and as quickly as I could, crawled along it to the very end.

I did my best to secure a grip on a branch of the tree that was sticking upward, and leaned down with my other arm to prepare to grab Emily.

"Grab my hand!" I yelled, as I saw her being swept toward me.

I saw her hold up one arm, and just as she was about to pass under me, I managed to grab her arm.

But both of our hands and arms were wet and slippery, and I knew if I tried to grab onto her with my other hand, I would have no way to hold onto the tree.

It was then I noticed she was still holding that damn monkey!

"Emily, grab on with both hands!" I yelled.

"I can't! I'll lose Bongo!" Emily cried.

I felt her hand starting to slip from mine.

I struggled to tighten my grip.

"Emily, please! You're slipping!" I cried, panic starting to set in.

After a few seconds, she let go of the stuffed monkey and reached up with her now free, second hand.

But it was too late.

"Ali!" Emily screamed, as our hands slipped apart and she was swept under me.

"Emily!" I cried, quickly turning to look over the other side of the tree.

I saw her get swept beneath the surface of the water, never to surface again.

I was crying now, I couldn't stop it no matter how hard I tried.

"That was the last time I saw her alive…" I said, my voice cracking before I began sobbing.

I felt Zak let go of my hands and pull me toward him in a hug.

"Oh god…I'm so sorry Ali…" Zak said softly, pain in his voice.

I clutched onto the front of his shirt with one hand as I rested my head against his chest, and sobbed, hard.

"It's all my fault! If only I had paid more attention and noticed she was being bullied…or if I had gotten home sooner…or if I had made our Uncle come with me to find her…or if I had just reached down with my other hand…" I cried.

I felt Zak rub my back and rock me back and forth a bit.

"You were only fourteen…you shouldn't of had to of been so responsible for your baby sister…and if you had reached down with your other hand…" Zak trailed off, but then quietly said, "You probably wouldn't of survived either…"

I heard the pain in Zak's voice, but I could only focus on blaming myself.

"Emily's dead…she's dead because of me…" I cried, clutching his shirt tighter in my hand.

Oh God. Make the pain stop.

"Ali," Zak said, using one hand to lift my head and forced me to look at him. "It is not your fault," Zak said firmly.

I looked at him in shock.

"You don't blame me…?" I asked quietly.

Zak shook his head.

"Blame you? Hell no, it was a tragic accident, and you can't go on questioning yourself that it may have turned out differently if things had happened differently…it'll eat you alive…" Zak said, worry in his eyes.

"It's all I've done since that day…I question myself every day, that maybe if I had just done one thing different, she'd still be alive…" I said quietly, crying still.

"Do you think that's what Emily would want? Do you think she would be showing up and warning us of things if she didn't want you to live your life?" Zak asked.

I had never thought of it that way before.

"I guess-" I started, but then looked confused.

"'Us'?" I questioned quietly.

Zak kept quiet for a moment before he answered.

"I think she spoke to me tonight…" Zak said.

My eyes widened in shock, my crying temporarily stopped.

"What…?" I asked.

I watched as Zak took a digital recorder out from his pocket.

One exactly like we used during lockdowns.

"I was using the Structured Light Camera tonight, and at one point, it mapped in a figure on screen. And not just a stick figure, it had a blue mass around it, that took shape of what looked like a young girl," Zak started.

I watched him in shocked silence.

"A short time after that, Debby and Aaron heard a voice say my name. Debby rewound the recorder, and this is what we captured…" Zak said, and hit the play button on the recorder.

I looked at the recorder as static emitted from it, and then, suddenly, as clear as day, a voice.

Emily's voice.

"Zak…she needs you…"

I looked at the recorder in shock.

All these years, I had randomly seen and heard Emily plenty of times. But it was always just me that had the encounter.

We had captured what we assumed was Emily's voice at the "Goldfield Hotel", but that EVP wasn't as clear as this one was, and regardless, it was me she had been talking to at the time.

But this time, I wasn't even there.

She had talked to Zak.

And she had told Zak that I needed him.

I felt my eyes watering again.

"Ashley called me almost immediately after we played that back…" Zak said softly.

I looked up at him and then threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly, crying again.

Emily knew how badly I had been hurting tonight, and she had told Zak, the one person I wanted the most, that I needed him.

She doesn't hate me.