Chapter Four: Truth

Chapter Four: Truth

I distinctly remember the day I discovered the truth about Jack and Emma. I’d been there for around five months. It was a bitterly cold autumn day, just after the first hard frost. The ground was frozen solid. I was up very early, having been awakened by the sound of a shovel thunking into the dirt near Emma’s flowers. The scene that played out was life-altering.

Emma paced in front of a large sack on the ground. Jack stood waist deep in a hole, surrounded by a growing mound of earth. In one deft motion he stuck the shovel in the ground above him and swung his body out of the scar in the earth. He nodded to Emma, who grabbed one end of the sack and he grabbed the other. They appeared to be struggling a bit with the weight of the sack. Emma then stumbled and dropped her end, revealing an outstretched human arm.

All the facts (as I knew them), came rushing into place. The growing flower beds were not due to Emma’s love of gardening, they grew out of necessity. Every time a traveler had left, they had left this planet. Once they entered the Smith house, they ceased to be seen as human beings.They became prizes to be won. Nick’s sickness made sense now, and the scent of bitter almonds that constantly wafted through the house. What didn’t make sense, is why they hadn’t killed me too. I wish they had killed me.