Emma

A young girl sits in a darkly painted room, seated on a metal chair with various coloring pages and crayons littering the metal table top. When compared to the room the small child is like a beacon of light. Her skin is fair, still unkissed by the harsh sun, and her long hair falls in soft golden waves down her back. She radiates child-like innocence. A man is seated not far from her, his hair is dark and he wears a suit. His lips move as if he speaks to the child, but what he says cannot be heard. The child only shakes her head and picks up a crayon and begins to color.

The man watches her for a moment before he pushes back the chair and leaves the room through a door behind him. This man only travels a short distance before going through another door. He stops just inside the room as he closes the door behind him. He fixes his eyes on the back another man. This man is dressed like the other, but his hair is fair. He stares at the coloring child through thick one-way glass.

“Sir?” He asks.

The man doesn’t turn, he keeps his eyes on the child.

“Sir?”

“What did she say Simon?”

“Exactly what she said before. She won’t speak anymore until Colette is here.”

The man addressed as Sir sighs and rubs his temples before turning his back to the glass to look at Simon. “Alright, let’s listen to the tape again. Maybe we missed something.”

Simon nods and produces a small cassette recorder from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He pauses for a moment before Sir gives him a nod. An audible click is heard the moment Simon presses the play button.

For a moment only low static is heard as the tape plays, but then Simon’s voice cuts through the silence.

“Hi Emma, my name is Detective Morrison. I just wanted to ask you a few questions before we let you go home with your Grammy and Pop. Is that okay?”

The child doesn’t respond, more silence ensues. One can only assume that the child nodded to the Detective because he continues after a moment.

“Could you tell me about what you did today Emma?”

For a moment there is silence, then the child speaks. Her voice is soft and bell-like.

“Well… Colette woke me up this morning by opening the curtains and letting all the sunlight into my room. I told her it wasn’t very nice to wake people up, but she didn’t care any. She said it was Saturday and that meant we could play all day. Since I wasn’t sleepy anymore I got up and me and Colette got some cereal cause we were hungry.”

The child pauses.

“It’s okay Emma, you are doing great. What did you do next?”

“After we got done eating the Captain Crunch, Colette wanted to go play out in the backyard. I told her we had to ask Mommy first. Mommy was at the table with Daddy, so me and Colette went and asked if we could go play outside. Mommy told us to ask Daddy. I don’t know why, but Mommy always tells us to ask Daddy. Daddy always says yes, but he said to get dressed and brush our hair before we could. So me and Colette went back to my room and got our clothes on and I brushed Colette’s hair and she brushed mine. Then we went outside and played.”

“You didn’t go back inside at all?”

“No. Me and Colette stayed outside and played.”

“Didn’t you get hungry or thirsty?”

“No, we were playing.”

“When did you go back inside?”

“When it started to get dark outside, Mommy called and said that it was time to come in and get washed up for dinner.”

“What happened then?”

“We went in the house.”

“What did you do after that?”

“Well, me and Colette went upstairs and washed our hands. Since Mommy didn’t say it was time for dinner yet, we went to my room and played some more until Daddy called us. We went downstairs and then I called you.”

“When you called you said something was wrong with your Mom. Right?”

“Yeah.”

“What was wrong with her?”

“Mommy had a knife in her throat.”

“Where was your Dad?”

“Daddy was in his chair, he had a knife in his throat too. So did Tim and Aaron.”

“Who are they?”

“My brothers. Where is Colette?”

“I don’t know where Colette is Emma. I will see if we can have someone bring her here. You said you didn’t see anyone else in the house?”

It was silent for a moment.

“Emma?”

“I want to see Colette now.”

The static crackling took over the silence as the voices faded away. Another click was heard as Simon pressed the stop button.

“And that was when we found her and the family.”

“Yes Sir.”

"What was she doing when we got there."

"She was sitting at the table with the deceased. She was eating dinner."

A short knock sounds from the other side of the closed door before another man admits himself into the room. He, like the others, wears a clean cut suit. The look on his face gives way to his emotions, he looks confused and even slightly disturbed.

“What is it Andrews?” Asks the man in charge of the investigation. “Did you find out who the girl was?”

“That’s the thing Sir. The family only had one daughter, six year old Emma. Their other two children were boys. I searched all the local schools. There is no Colette.”

“Maybe she is home-schooled. Did you check the surrounding families?”

“ Yes Sir I did, nothing.” Andrews pauses for a moment as if hesitant. “There is one more thing Sir.”

“Well spit it out, we have a massacred family and an orphaned child to deal with.”

“Autopsy says that everyone in that house has been dead for twenty-four hours and the prints of on the knives match the kid’s. Sir I think-”

A giggle cuts through his speech. All at once the men turn their heads and stare at the one-way glass. The child, Emma, has abandoned her coloring and now sat Indiana style on the floor, engaged in a game on patty cake, her small hands meeting empty air. As if feeling the eyes of the men through the glass the child stopped mid-game and turned her head. She stared at the glass, a childish smile on her lips and her blue eyes now solid black. She giggled again.

Reviews

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what a great + nice + interesting + suspensive = unsettled story.....i loved it...when i was reading it ....i'd made an image in my mind like i'm seeing a pic. & i'd sit on my bed with a a readind book.....when i was reading it & reached at th mid portion ....i'd made my interest in ur story but then suddenly when i continue it ,i puzzled....then i'd thought that wht's happening here.....& at the i read out that she's giggling...then i thought where'e ending...........ok...i've not got it yet..........
i started my reading again(re-agian) .....then i've that there's a very awesome suspense........when i've got it...i was enjoying & chuckling......really "silent" u r a nice writer or story maker..........96/100...
hey...............but one thing i wanna ask u that if the family had already dead for last 24 hr's....then who killed them,.....i'm a bit of puzzled here....can u tell me...?
who is the killer...? & where is her brother's..........??

[Silent_S C R I P T]

Thank you, I wanted it to be kind of difficult to understand. As for your questions, the fact that the detective says her family has been dead for over 24 hours signifies that the child either made up or hallucinated the story she told them.
Where her brothers are is in the text:
“Daddy was in his chair, he had a knife in his throat too. So did Tim and Aaron.”
“Who are they?”
“My brothers. Where is Colette?”

As for who the killer is, I would rather not blatantly point it out.
Thank you very much for the review!

[Stan Thorkin]

I liked it. However, I was rather unsettled by the abrupt ending. There was rising action and suspense, then the story ended.

[Silent_S C R I P T]

Hmm, I thought it would be best to end it where it was for the sake of not prolonging the inevitable and the obvious. I will probably take a stab at re-writing it one time or another and see where it takes me. Thanks for the review!

[Stan Thorkin]

Thank you for the enjoyable writing.

[Rogue]

This is well written and somewhat haunting considering the main character. Nicely done!

[Silent_S C R I P T]

Thank you!