Notes
Emily was always something of a mystery to her family. Always very quiet and thoughtful, she never had the childhood exuberance an eleven year old should. In school, her natural reservedness made it very difficult for her to form any friendships with other children.
For the first couple of years, her parents thought it might just be a phase of natural shyness, but as the years went by, they started to worry about her social awkwardness. They tried enrolling her in different classes and getting her involved in sports. They sacrificed their time and precious savings doing what they could to help her make friends.
But she seemed happiest when she was alone, playing with her dolls.
None of the other children wanted to play with her because they thought she was weird.
And deep down, Emily's parents felt it too. There was a certain oddness to her, a mix of adult seriousness and emotional detachment. It didn't help that the few times that Emily spoke, it would be about events in the future. And they always seemed to come true.
They first noticed it when Emily was six and was taken doll shopping. She paused outside the door of the doll store, and refused to walk in. When asked why, she replied "it's hot mommy and all the faces are melted". Within that hour, an electrical fault had sparked which burned down the premises.
Emily knew when their pet dog would get hit by a car, and when they'd have to put him down.
She knew that the neighbor's tree would fall and collapse on their home during a fierce storm.
What worried her parents most though, was how certain Emily was that she'd be dead before she was twelve.
It broke her parents' hearts to watch her playing alone with her dolls. How she would talk with them about how she won't be around, and to not worry because mommy and daddy will look after them.
Sure enough, shortly before her twelfth birthday, Emily suffered a brain aneurysm that she never recovered from. She was in a coma for several days before dying in hospital with her weeping parents at her bedside.
It took several weeks for her parents to pull themselves back together enough to continue with their lives. When they entered Emily's room for the first time since her death, they noticed a handwritten note on the table for them. In Emily's large scrawl, it said simply: "Dear Mom and Dad - I love you. Thank you for everything. Love, Emily."
Over the next few months, they found more notes hidden throughout the house. Each would be written on different scraps of paper, but always in her familiar blue scrawl.
Under a dollhouse - "Dear Mom and Dad, Sorry I couldn't stay longer. Don't blame yourselves. It's not your fault. Love, Emily."
On the back wall of the closet - "Dear Mom, Tell Dad I miss his bedtime stories. Love, Emily."
Behind cereal boxes in the pantry - "Dear Dad, Mom loves you very much and worries about how hard you work. Spend more time with her. Love, Emily."
In an old briefcase - "Dear Mom and Dad, Sorry I didn't say I love you enough. I always have and always will. Love, Emily."
Knowing she was going to die, Emily had hidden dozens of messages for her parents to find over the years as reminders of her, saying all the things she couldn't seem to when she was alive. Each note her parents found was treasured and lovingly collected and stored in a heavy wooden box.
But there was one note they found that seemed out of place. While it seemed to be in her handwriting, unlike the others, it was unsigned and used a blood red ink. On it was simply written "UNCLE SCOTT".
Puzzled, they added it to box - at the exact moment Uncle Scott knocked on the door to check on them. They smiled and put it down to coincidence.
Until a few weeks later when they discovered a second note in the same red ink: "BAD MAN". Feeling uneasy, they double-checked the locks on their doors that night. In the morning, they found their backdoor lock broken - it was only the chain lock they had secured that stopped whatever intruder from getting in.
A few more weeks pass, and they uncover the next red-ink note behind a photo on the mantlepiece. On it was written "IN MY ROOM".
Curious, they went to Emily's room and searched. Since Emily's death, they had carefully cleaned and maintained it to be exactly the same as when Emily was alive. They thought they had checked every corner for notes.
They checked again under the bed, and found one in red ink stuck to the mattress: "BEHIND CLOSED DOORS".
Curious, they closed Emily's bedroom door. Stuck to that door was a poster of puppies that Emily had liked when they first got their dog.
The rattle from the door closing loosened and dropped the poster, revealing a chilling fifth note - "HE WILL SUFFER".
A wave of uneasiness hit Emily's parents, and they scrambled back out to the kitchen for a drink. At that moment, the door bell rang as Scott paid his regular visit. He asked why they seemed so rattled, and was told of the note behind the door. Scott asked to see it, and went into Emily's bedroom while her parents stood shaking in the kitchen.
The door to Emily's room suddenly slammed shut with so much force the house shook.
Scott's screams then filled the air, mixed with the sounds of crashing and banging. Emily's parent's rushed to the room, but nothing they could do would open the door.
The sound of Scott's screams became louder and more frightening, along with unearthly guttural noises like some wild beast was in there with him. After several minutes of trying to break into the room, everything suddenly became still.
Only Scott's quiet wailing could be heard as the door opened normally. He was lying in a fetal position, rocking backwards and forwards whilst repeating "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…".
Scott would never speak of what happened in that room, but he later confessed to having sexually abused Emily since she was five. He had threatened her to keep quiet, and Emily became withdrawn as a result. He was arrested and imprisoned for his reprehensible acts. On the day he was sentenced, Emily's parents opened their box of letters to remember what Scott had deprived them of.
It was then they noticed that all the red-inked letters were torn from the same complete sheet of paper -
"UNCLE SCOTT"
"BAD MAN"
"IN MY ROOM"
"BEHIND CLOSED DOORS"
"HE WILL SUFFER"
It's been several months since that day, and no more notes have shown up. Emily's parents found some level of comfort and closure to their grief.
Until a few days ago, when they found a new note, under a rug, in red ink:
"SEE YOU SOON"
