A Night at the Peterson's

 

            Flames were rapidly engulfing the tiny bedroom, suffocating the young lungs and blinding his eyesight with soot and sparks. The child assumed 304 Copper Avenue was blazing to the ruins, and the grip on his red ball became stronger at the thought. His tiny bedroom was sealed off because of the roaring fire, and the doorknob was smothered in scalding heat. Try as they might, his parents could not break through, but help would soon be on the way. Unfortunately, the flames were quickly overtaking the boy’s frail body, and soon would not be soon enough. By the time help arrived, the neighbors could only stand in front of the smoking house, watching a fate burn and disintegrate into the very floorboards of the home, where it would stay for years to come.

As she slowly rolled up to the house and parked, the sharp, stinging tears Jade Sanders was battling so fiercely to keep back were boiling over her eyelids, drowning out all sense of vision. She finally just surrendered to the pain burning her eyes, and the swelling sensation of a balloon forming somewhere in the hollow of her chest. The tears flowed down her cheeks like small rivers parting from the mouth of an ocean, and all her emotions and hate towards her boyfriend Ethan at that moment came pouring out of her along with it. After a moment, and with a deep breath, she recollected herself and emerged from her truck into the cold, rainy night.

The Peterson’s home, 304 Copper Ave, truly seemed like it was ripped right out of a wrinkled, age-worn and sunlight stained photograph, and pasted right in the middle of the street. The house had a dark brick face with a stained glass front door, along with a small front porch and over hang. Little light was flooding from the few windows and spilling onto the glistening wet pavement outside where Jade had reached the front door. But what most intrigued Jade, was that the house had survived a fatal fire 80 years previous, and did not look like it had suffered so much as a scratch from the outside.

“Hello! You must be Jade Sanders! Please, come in dear!” Meredith Peterson greeted the seventeen-year-old. The inside of the home was just as Jade had pictured it; the entrance hall had dark wood floors, and the walls were all off white, worn a faint yellow from the years of prolonged existence. A tall man with hair almost as dark as Jade’s long, black, wavy locks was standing by the staircase parallel the door, slipping into a grey traveler’s coat. “This is my husband, George,” Meredith continued, making her own way to the coat stand as he nodded with a crinkled smile. “We’re both so very thankful you could baby-sit for us tonight. It’s been so long since we’ve gone out. Our daughter, Lucy, has been quite the…handful these days.”

            “Oh it’s no problem Mrs. Peterson. I’m sure Lucy and I will get along great.” Jade threw on her tightest grin to assure Mrs. Peterson of this statement, yet the mother’s chocolate brown eyes, which could have been replicas of Jade’s large brown orbs, seemed hopeful, but not entirely convinced.

            “Yes well,” Mrs. Peterson began hesitantly, throwing on a black knee length coat. “You know how three year olds can be… I think she’s going through a stage at the moment…you know… with imaginary friends?”

Jade hadn’t babysat in a while, but this didn’t intimidate her. Meredith Peterson then informed Jade of the basics she would need to know for the night, and with that, the couple whisked themselves out the door. Wishing the couple a fun night, Jade made her way through the entrance hall and into the living room, where the faint hum of a television could be heard.

            Entering the room, she could see the back of a little girl with snow white hair, sitting cross-legged on the rug before the entertainment system; oblivious to the fact a total stranger had entered her home. Jade quietly sat down on the floor next to her and tried introducing herself. “Hello Lucy. My name’s Jade. I’m going to be your babysitter for the night.”

            But Lucy didn’t really seem to care who Jade was, or what the teenaged girl was doing in her home. Her faint, marble like eyes were locked on the television screen so intently, she didn’t even take the time to blink. Jade gave a small laugh and tried again. “So what show are you watching, Lucy?”

            Once again, she remained frozen— almost trance-like, seemingly hypnotized by the flashing of shapes and colors of the characters on screen. Her tiny little frame didn’t even seem to be moving enough to breathe. Jade decided to make one last effort.

            “Is there anything you’d like to do tonight sweetie?” She asked kindly. Still, there was no response. Pursing her lips tightly together in wonder, Jade brought herself to her feet again and left the room, making her way to the dim lit kitchen.

Still trying to settle the aching in her stomach Ethan had deserted her with, she stood filling a glass of water at the sink. Just as she took a sip, she was startled by a noise clearly not coming from the television in the next room. Instead it brought her attention to the dark doorway at the end of the kitchen. She darted her gaze up to see a red ball about the size of a cantaloupe bouncing towards her out of the still darkness. The duration of the bounces grew shorter and shorter, until the rhythmic pattern died and it laggardly began rolling across the aged, moss colored linoleum floor towards her, coming to a halt once it grazed the tips of her toes.

            She repeatedly stared at the ball back to the pitch black door way in confusion. “Lucy? Is that you?”    Setting her glass down and picking the ball up off the floor, she began to make her way across the kitchen towards the door way, cloaked in a mask of silk night sky. Just as she faced the blackness, groping for a light switch, she heard the small pitter patter of footsteps enter the kitchen behind her. Jade instantly spun around to see little Lucy standing solidly before her, her face a blank canvas of pale white marble, and her entrancing eyes locked heavily on Jade’s face like it had been on the television.

            “Why, hello there!” Jade said, bending down to her level. “Have you decided to talk to me now?”    Without saying a word, Lucy’s marble eyes trickled down from Jade’s chocolate ones and landed on the red ball gripped in her hands, where the girl’s gaze rested intently for several moments. “Is this your ball? Do you want to play with it?” Hesitantly, the three-year-old came forward and took the ball from Jade’s outstretched hands. Once the ball was safely in Lucy’s possession, she took off past Jade like a twittering fairy, through the dark door way and out of sight. A piece of paper fell from the refrigerator door and glided to the linoleum in her wake. Bending down to retrieve it, Jade realized it was artwork Lucy scribbled herself. Jade’s dark eyebrows stitched together as she examined the piece. It looked like the small stick figure of a little girl, with bright yellow marker hair and blue eyes—she recognized this to be Lucy. In the picture, Lucy was standing in a blank white space, but next to her was something incomprehensible. It appeared to be a stick figure of a young boy with brown hair, surrounded by black scribbles all around his frame. Jade noticed where his right hand should have been, there was a thick red circle. Also, he had a prominent scowl upon his face. That’s when Jade noticed Lucy had drawn herself with eyes and a nose, but without a mouth. 

Still clinging to the drawing, Jade turned on the spot and reached for the light switch. She flicked it up, and flicked it back down, but the room remained dark as night without any hint of lamination. “Lucy? Sweetie, are you in here?” Instead of hearing a response, she heard the pitter patter of footsteps scurrying up the stairs in the entrance hall. Jade raced into the entranceway, but Lucy was no where to be found. However, she had definitely left her mark. The living room walls were covered everywhere with scattered red scribbles and various sized red circles.

            Jade’s jaw dropped open. How had she managed time to do this? I didn’t even notice she had red marker in her hands! Upon looking closer, that’s when she realized. The mural wasn’t made of marker. The crimson marks were crawling down the walls slowly, like the slow rolling of sap seeping from a pine tree. It was blood.

   Clasping a trembling hand to her mouth, Jade spun around in horror. A million thoughts raced through her mind at that moment, but two forced themselves to the very front: she needed to find Lucy that instant and she needed to get a hold of the parents.   Feeling extremely foolish and irresponsible for letting such a thing occur, Jade diligently retrieved her phone from her back pocket and began punching in the numbers for Mrs. Peterson’s cell. Simultaneously, she began her ascent up the dark wood staircase to a shadowy landing. The phone continued ringing patiently in Jade’s ear, despite the very impatient beat of her heart and the quickly rising lump in her throat. But after a few more rings, Meredith’s answering machine picked up. Cursing under her ragged breath, she punched in the first speed dial she could think of, knowing that her parents were not home for the night either, and waited as the phone started ringing.

            She peered around the deserted hall until she noticed a closed door with the puffy, pastel name ‘Lucy’ on the front of it, just as she was left with yet another answering machine. Jade’s lean, quaking legs proceeded automatically towards the impassive door, as she left a brief message in a shaking voice.

“Ethan. Please, I’m at the house, and something’s happening. If you ever cared about me, if you ever meant any of the promises you made to me, now’s your time to prove it. I need you.”  And then she threw open the door without a single knock.

            The room was dim, and would have been as opaque as the hallway if not for an orange tinted nightlight glowing from just beneath the windowsill, opposite where Jade stood. And there stood Lucy; her back was facing Jade once again as she stood rigidly by her little bed, staring transfixed at a blank wall.

            “Lucy. Look at me!” Jade shrieked, her nerves overtaking her steady temper, and the hair on the back of her neck rising to a stand still. Something was not right here…something was not right at all.

            However, somehow, her shriek managed to break the spell binding Lucy’s marble eyes to the wall, and she spun around with faint interest in who had called her name. Rushing to her side, Jade kneeled down and grabbed Lucy’s baby doll hand, pushing the sleeves of her yellow jacket back. In terror, her worst fears were confirmed. The baby’s left tiny wrist and palms were cut, and blood was only now in half commitment escaping from the wounds. In her right hand was a jagged piece of broken plastic from some toy object. Her pretty little face remained expressionless.

            “Oh my goodness,” Jade gasped, becoming slightly light headed. “Lucy! How did you do this? Why did you smear your cut on the wall?” Lucy’s eyes were piercing Jade’s, as if she was trying to speak through her irises. Jade gave the toddler’s tiny frame a small shake. “Speak! Why did you do this?”

            Their eyes remained locked for a fraction of time, and then Lucy’s tiny pink lips parted. “Emmett made me do it.”

            Her voice was small and pixie-ish, but her eyes remained intense as though she screamed the words right back in Jade’s paling face. Jade’s eyes moved back and forth between each of Lucy’s. “Eh-eh-Emmett? Who… who’s Emmett?”

            There was another short pause before she answered, “The little boy…he talks to me…he plays with me sometimes.”

            Then it dawned on Jade…Lucy’s imaginary friend. It was the boy from her picture. It was all in her imagination…

            “Emmett is your imaginary friend?” Jade questioned calmly. “If he’s your friend, why does he tell you to hurt yourself like this?” Lucy showed the first sign of emotion all night, in the form of confusion. She tilted her head slowly to the side, and responded with “If I listen to him, he plays games with me.” She lifted her frail little arm and pointed to the corner of the room, where the red ball sat motionlessly.

 “Lucy, Emmett isn’t real. He’s in your imagination. You’re hurting yourself and you need to stop.” Lucy began urgently shaking her head in disagreement before Jade could finish her sentence.

            “But Emmett’s right here.”

            That’s when Jade noticed her grip on Lucy’s shoulders was weakening, and her arms were trembling as if it were -2 degrees in the tiny bedroom. Jade then saw the red ball start rolling out from the corner of the room, heading straight towards where the two were positioned. And it rolled until it came to a stand still right before Jade’s feet. In horror, she looked up at Lucy.

            “What’s the matter Jade, don’t you want to play with Emmett?”

            At that second, the nightlight began to flicker, and after a short battle, everything went black.

            Choking back a terrified scream, Jade wrapped her arms around Lucy’s tiny body and ran for the door, nearly tripping over the red ball as she fled. The dark wood door slammed shut just after Jade’s back foot crossed over the threshold.

            She took off down the stairs as fast as her shaking legs could carry her weight plus that of Lucy’s. Lucy appeared unaffected by her wounds, and also uninterested in the fact that not only had her nightlight died, but the lights all throughout the first floor of the house were flickering on and off at that moment, and a sound similar to that of a raging, crackling fire suddenly was surrounding them. Jade set Lucy down and threw herself against the front door, then grabbed and twisted on the handle—it wouldn’t budge. She yanked again and again, but still her attempts were futile. “Please! Open! Please let us go!” She shrieked at the top of her voice until it felt as though it might crack from the sharp pitched intensity. Suddenly, the handle Jade was struggling against became scalding hot, as if a fire was squeezing through the cracks just outside the home. Jumping backwards with another shriek, Jade realized her hand was burnt and blistering. In frantic terror and confusion, she bent down to pick up the little toddler again.

            But Lucy was not sitting at Jade’s feet any longer. She was slowly making her way to the kitchen, even though the lights were flickering on and off in a foreboding fashion. And that’s when Jade noticed the dark clouded shadow slinking from the back of the kitchen, trying to lure Lucy away from her guardian. Without hesitation, Jade randomly made a grab for the wooden coat rack beside the door, and with a few forceful, frantic blows, the stained glass window exploded from the door frame. It shattered with a piercing echo, ripping and clawing at her skin, which was numb from fear as though she had been wearing leather.

            “Lucy DON’T!” Jade screeched over the crackling sound of the invisible fire now swarming the room, as Lucy slowly made her way closer and closer to the figure. Jade threw the coat rack aside and stumbled over to snatch Lucy up once again. “LEAVE US ALONE!” she roared at the unyielding, black cloud figure before her.

            Jade’s heart was threatening to explode into a million tiny pieces as she whipped herself around to face her new escape route. Just as she was about to lunge through the door, Lucy went from clenching her tiny fists around two handfuls of Jade’s black and white argyle sweater to wriggling and twisting defiantly in her babysitter’s arms, as if she wanted down.

            Struggling against Lucy’s silent but violent squirms, Jade’s hands, glistening with the throbbing blisters, could no longer handle the discomfort, and Lucy managed to twist herself out of Jade’s embrace.

            “Lucy!” Jade cried in disbelief, turning on the spot to see the little girl standing vaguely before the dense black cloud, which resembled a human body just about a foot or two shorter than Jade. And the cloud had seemingly appeared to be levitating the coat rack before Jade’s presence. She did not even have time to brace herself before the long wooden object was swung with full force, making contact with her face. Jade heard the crunch of bones breaking before she felt the faucet of blood erupt from her nostrils and the searing, agonizing pain that accompanied it. Before she could comprehend what was happening, her body was tumbling backwards, through the shattered stained glass, and tumbling like a rag doll down the wet grassy hill.

            Lying in a crippled, broken heap by the bottom of the muddy hill, Jade watched the house drown in the blazing orange and furious red fire. She couldn’t hear the sound of rain pelleting like cannon balls all around her, or even the crackling of the dancing flames, as the steady sound of blood pumped deafeningly in her ears.

            Suddenly, she heard the low hum of his voice calling her name. “Jade? Jade? Is that you?” His shiny blonde hair and bright blue eyes came into view just before her own, and a rush of adrenaline raced through her veins. He had come to rescue her, he had actually done it.

            “Ethan! You’re here! You’re—” Just as Jade stretched her trembling hands out to grab his face, his figure faded into a smeared blur, and then vanished on the spot. In confusion, Jade lifted her battered head up to search for him, but he had disappeared. 

Looking back at the home she had just tumbled from, she realized it was not on fire at all. But looking closer, she could see little Lucy standing before the broken stained glass door frame, and Emmett’s figure standing right behind her, hands on each of her small shoulders and a prominent scowl upon his grey face.

Jade fell helplessly back against the earth. She would not be able to stay conscious in time to hear the distant sirens, which were called upon by the startled neighbors who would be swarming the house in confusion within a matter of minutes. When Jade would gain consciousness, she would find herself bruised and aching, yet safe in a hospital cot. She would be filled with questions about the misery and sorrow of the boy Emmett, who spent too long alone in his torture, and was aspiring to share it with a few other defenseless souls.

It all suddenly became clear, with the rain enclosing her broken body and eroding the caked blood from around her tattered face. Just like Emmett’s parents failed to save him from the fire years ago, her boyfriend Ethan had never come to rescue her. He never came to save her and protect her in his strong embrace, and he never would. And apparently, she had only imagined the house being swallowed in flames just seconds ago, yet she certainly had a raw collection of biting blisters smothering her hands. 

Starring in defeat at Emmett’s cold, hard, vile face and singeing black coal eyes, Jade knew.   The pain he suffered 80 years ago was still alive and real, and with the assistance of his new friend Lucy, he’d make certain no one forgot it. Of all things, Emmett alone was not a figment of Jade’s imagination.

             

Reviews

[Sean M. Addams]

i like the storyline in this alot... Character development was really good too... overall nice job!!! ending was great..

Very good story, derivative for sure, but well written. I found myself racing to the end of the story, and was pretty satisfied when I got there.