Buried in Sunshine (19 page)

“I’m her therapist,” Dr. Riley says as she
pushes her way past the woman and places her hand in Emma’s. “You
can leave now.”

“If you need anything just press the
button.”

“Just go,” Dr. Riley says firmly as she pulls up
a chair and sits beside Emma. “Shut the door on your way out.”

The nurse does as she is told, although she
wears a sour look upon her face as she follows Dr. Riley’s
orders.

“Emma,” Dr. Riley comfortingly says as she
squeezes Emma’s hand. “What happened?”

Emma raises her head form the pillow—she is
comforted to see a face that is not her own. “Dr. Riley…”

“Yes hon,” Dr. Riley says as she nods. “Can you
tell me what happened?”

“I’m not suicidal,” Emma says as she attempts to
raise herself up a bit, but finds herself unable to do so due to
the restraints.

“Here, let me help you,” Dr. Riley says as she
presses a button on the bed and raises it up a bit. “It doesn’t
look good Emma—you dialed 911 and cut your wrist pretty badly. You
had lost a lot of blood by the time the ENT’s arrived. What
changed? They found a note that you had written, one that just said
‘
you’ve changed
.’ What does that mean?

“It was Brian Metcalfe…” Emma protest weakly as
she attempts to clear out her muddled head. “I confronted him about
my father…well stepfather—and he begged me not to tell his son, but
I… I said would do it. Then Elizabeth disappeared. I thought it was
Ethan but it wasn’t Ethan it was his father.”

“So you are saying that Brain Metcalfe—the one
that helped you…” Dr. Riley said somewhat skeptically as she
continued to hold onto Emma’s hand.

“He said no one would believe me over him
because I’m crazy,” Emma says as she begins to cry out of
frustration. “But he was there…he was the reason my stepfather
committed suicide.”

“Do you have any proof of this,” Dr. Riley says
as she attempts to calm Emma down. “Anything I can take to the
police—I do believe you Emma.”

“You don’t,” Emma says sadly as she shakes her
head. “I don’t blame you for it, but you don’t.”

“You do have to understand how this looks…” Dr.
Riley says as she covers her eyes. “I mean you were making such
progress, right? I’m not saying it’s not possible that you believe
that this event happened—but there is a chance that it might not
have.”

“He did it because I confronted him—because I
threatened to expose his affair.”

“I’ll do what I can do,” Dr. Riley says as she
lets out a heavy sigh. “I promise you, I will have the police look
into it.”

“He took the letters,” Emma adds.

“Maybe that is something that they can work off
of,” Dr Riley says as she gets to her feet. “Please just trust
me.”

“I do,” Emma says as she fights back tears. She
suspects that Dr. Riley does not believe her—hell; she would have a
hard time believing her own story given her history. She could not
just let Brian Metcalfe get away with this though. “What is going
to happen to me?”

“They’ll probably keep you here for a few days,”
Dr. Riley says as she folds her arms and looks down to the tiled
floor. “With your history…they will probably want to monitor you
for a time. I’ll do the best I can do to get you out of here
earlier—but, if this thing with Brian Metcalfe doesn’t work, or we
can’t prove that he was responsible…you can probably count on being
here for three, maybe four days.”

“I can’t be here that long…” Emma protests. She
only has four days left. “Please believe me—don’t let him get away
with it.”

“I’ll do my best, I promise. Just be patient—be
calm. Do not give them any more reasons to think that you aren’t
okay. Relax. I know it is hard right now. I’ll go to the police
now. You just rest.”

“You promise you will go to the police?”

“I will go right now.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise you, Emma.”

“Okay…” Emma says hesitantly as she looks Julie
Riley in the eyes. “I’ll be calm.”

“Just get better,” Dr. Riley adds. “I’ll see you
as soon as I can. Take care, Emma.”

“Thank you.”

As Dr. Riley leaves Emma begins to cry once
more. She is worried that Brian was right—no one is going to
believe someone who has attempted suicide before, and has had such
a rich history of mental illness. The thought of him getting away
with this act sickens her. If only she had gotten a hold of
Ethan.

The nurse returns into the room. She pushes some
medication into Emma’s I.V. “What is that?”

“Just something to keep you calm,” the nurse
replies.

“I’m calm…”

“Something to help you sleep…”

“I didn’t want it,” Emma says as her vision
begins to turn blurry.

“You’ll feel a lot better when you wake up in
the morning,” the nurse adds as she walks out of the room and turns
off the bright overhead lights.

“Fuck you to…” Emma murmurs, however the nurse
is out of earshot. The room feels like it is spinning. If this was
supposed to make her feel better—it definitely was not reaching its
intended effect. Emma felt nervous and shaky. However, her eyes
felt heavy. Sleep came shortly after; however it was very forceful
and unnatural. There was no calm lull, no drifting off into the
night—instead; there was only a heavy oppressive feeling of being
crammed into the realm of dreams.

Day 4

Chapter 5: Anger

Emma’s eyes adjust to the dim light as she comes
into consciousness upon a cold cut-stone floor. She is in a house
that is unfamiliar to her. It is lavishly decorated with abstract
paintings hung on deep brown walls. Emma gets to her feet, her body
is sore. She looks down to her bandaged wrist, it aches painfully
as she places her weight upon it.

Emma attempts to gain her bearings in this
strange house. She guides herself down a hallway, her hands pressed
against the brown walls for support. She feels weak and dizzy—she
feels drugged. A door opens behind her, flooding in hallway with
bright light that burns her exhausted eyes. Emma turns to see who
has entered the strange house. She takes a deep breath in and
attempts to run as she sees Brian Metcalfe enter the hallway. He
sets a briefcase down upon a marble table next to the door and
heads her way.

“Leave me alone…” Emma whimpers as she attempts
to flee, but finds running impossible. It is as though the floor is
made of sand and the hallway is tilted. Emma feels his warmth pass
through her—as he, shockingly, passes right through her. He takes
no notice of her. Emma’s heavy breathing begins to return normal as
she begins to realize she is caught in one of her dreams. However,
she does not understand why this one is so drastically different.
All of her other dreams took place in the hallway beneath her
house.

Emma follows as best she can until she rounds a
corner. She finds herself in a large room. An oak wooden writing
desk sits in the center of the room atop a red carpet with an
intricate black floral print upon it. A leather chair resides by
the desk, a small golden lamp with a green top—like a banker’s
lamp, sits atop the table along with a few silver pens. The room
overlooks a magnificent garden. As Brian sits down upon the writing
desk, Emma turns her attention outdoors. A woman is slumped over in
a wheelchair in the sunlight just beyond the sliding glass
door.

“Ethan’s mother…?” Emma says aloud as she paces
to the window and gazes outward. The woman looks lifeless—her skin
is a deep red. The sight of the woman reminds Emma of that dead
black crow in her driveway. Emma turns to look to Brian as he
reaches into his pocket and unlocks a drawer. He pulls it open and
in it he places the letters that he had stolen from Emma. He is
completely oblivious to what has happened just outside.

Emma’s attention is turned back to the door as
it slides open. There, smiling a thin and evil little smile is
Alexis. She is holding the sliver knife in her hand.

Brian turns and lets out a sound that comes off
as something between a choke and a scream. “Emma… How did you get
here?”

“It’s Alexis.”

“You’re in the hospital…” Brian says
robotically, he cannot make sense of how he is seeing her as he
attempts to sink into his chair in fear. “You can’t be here.”

“And yet here I am,” Alexis says
enthusiastically as she spreads her arms wide and jumps toward
Brian who recoils and raises his hands above him to protect himself
from any attack that he feels will soon come.

“You don’t understand—“

“I understand completely,” Alexis says as she
inches forward. She playfully twirls the knife around in her hand.
“I believe it is you that understands nothing—you know me right?
I’m Alexis. I’m not Emma.”

“You’re the same person…”

“Can’t be though, can we?” Alexis says as she
places the knife to her wrist and uses it to point out that there
is no injury. “As I, as you can clearly see, am unharmed.”

“How is this possible—are you a ghost?”

“Are you implying that Emma is dead?”

“No… I mean I had no intention of doing so. She
was just getting to close…”

“To the truth,” Alexis finished as she brought
herself close to Brian.

“What are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing,” Alexis says as she tosses the knife
into Brian’s lap. “Although I did wheel your wife out into the
garden—it was a lovely day. We had a nice talk as we waited for you
to get home…I may have left her in the sun a bit too long.”

Brian looks out the window and finally spots his
wife lying lifeless in her wheelchair. Brian begins to tremble in a
mixture of horror and anger. “You murdered my wife?”

“In a way she kind of did it to herself,” Alexis
says as she turns her back to Brian and looks to the woman slumped
over in the wheelchair. “I mean she just kind of sat there—it’s
like she didn’t want to live anyway.”

Brian grabs the knife in his lap and lunges at
Alexis.

“Stop…” Alexis says as Brian freezes a few
inches from striking Alexis’s flesh with the blade.

“Like I said,” Alexis begins as she forcibly
pushes Brian back into his leather chair. She removes the knife
from his hand and places one of the silver pens into it and
squeezes his hand so he grips it tightly. “I’m not going to do
anything to you—but you are going to do a few things for me.”

“I never meant you any harm,” Brian protests as
he shakes violently in attempt to free himself of whatever hold
Alexis has upon him. “I did what I did to help protect you.”

“So you only cut the wrists of the ones you care
for…interesting way of showing affection.”

“I protected—“

“Silence, please,” Alexis commands as she nods
her head and pulls a piece of paper from the drawer and places it
in front of Brian.

Brian attempts say something, but he cannot
manage any words past his muffled lips. He picks up the pen and
places it to paper.

“Write about how you were the one who cut Emma’s
wrist—in order to hide your affair from your family,” Alexis says
as she reaches over and places her hand upon the locked drawer.
With one swift motion she breaks it open, sending letters
scattering across the room. “Write about how you just can’t go on
living with the guilt that you have amassed over all these long
years—finally—write about where the body is.”

“Where the body is?” Emma asks, although no one
can neither hear nor see her. Did this mean that Brian killed her
stepfather after all? Emma felt that she should somehow stop this.
She was slowly beginning to realize that Alexis was forcing Brian
to craft his own suicide letter.

Brian hesitates with the last part. He attempts
once more to break free.

“Write it down,” Alexis says as she places her
hand on Brian’s shoulder and squeezes firmly.

Brian, without any other choice, does as he is
told. Once finished, he sets the pen down and picks up the silver
blade.

“Don’t do this Alexis!” Emma shouts.

“Ironic that you are going to kill yourself with
the same knife you gifted to my mother…well, a little, isn’t it?”
Alexis says as she gestures for Brian to continue.

Emma attempts to reach out and to stop his hand,
but finds that she is nothing more than a ghost in this world. She
cannot interact—only watch as the events unfold before her.
“Alexis…this is too far. If you can hear me at all, please stop.
This… I don’t want any of this.”

Brian places the blade sideways against his
wrist.

“You’ve been watching too many movies,” Alexis
says as she grasps Brian’s hand and points the blade parallel to
his wrist. “You cut up and down, not across…”

“No!” Emma shouts once more as she attempts to
grasp unsuccessfully at the knife.

Brian begins to cut into his own flesh as tears
stream down from his eyes. Blood rushes forth from the wound in a
heavy spray. Alexis jumps atop the table and watches intently as
the life slowly fades from Brian’s eyes. He slumps back in the
chair as his eyes roll back in his head.

Emma turns towards the red front door as it
bursts open. Ethan’s voice can be heard down the hall. “Dad…We’ve
got to get the hospital—they say that Emma—“

“Don’t hurt him,” Emma pleads.

“Sleep…” Alexis whispers as Ethan falls to the
floor, his head striking the stone surface. “Or knock yourself
out…either way works for me.”

“No…” Emma sobs as she begins to cry. She looks
at the gruesome scene and falls to her knees. Because of
her—because she refused to keep Brian’s secret she has wrought an
unimaginable pain upon Ethan.

Alexis smiles as she looks upon the chaos she
has caused. She then opens the backdoor and disappears into the
sunlight.

“The body,” Emma whispers as she wipes away the
tears from her eyes and attempts to get to her feet. “So… he did
murder my stepfather—where is the body…?”

Emma takes a step forward and the whole house
begins to shudder. The stone ground begins to crack beneath her
weight like a thin layer of ice on a frozen lake. Emma reaches her
hand out in an attempt to read Brian’s final letter—just before her
fingers come into contact, the entire floor beneath her shatters
away like fragile glass. Emma falls down into an endless darkness.
Her hand still outstretched as though she still holds onto the hope
that she could reach that letter. She feels herself all onto
something sharp. Broken pieces of concrete are lying around her
stained in blood. She attempts to move, but finds that her body is
broken. She takes a deep breath in and holds it as the pain sears
through her body.