𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒.
Somewhere far, far away from home. Not what it was. Not a normal afternoon with nothing to do.
And still we fight.
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THE FIRST TIME it happened, she was seven years old.
It's hard to forget when that first shred of innocence dies. When the world hunts down what light a child has held on to and pierces it without mercy. Even when it feels like life boils down to one trauma after another, that first one remains the open wound that created a gateway for nightmares to form. For Ellie-Marie, that moment was when her little hand clutched the phone in 2011 and whispered a soft hello.
She'd trusted the world unflinchingly back then. Everything outside of Woodsboro was still new and inviting, every new person a chance for friendship. Ghosts were for stories and pain would be fixed with a band-aid paired with a glass of chocolate milk. So when Charlie Walker used that voice modulator to ask what her favorite scary movie was, she didn't think back to how her parents sometimes needed her in their room rather than the other way around. She didn't think of how Daddy's eyes got wet when she'd laugh a certain way, didn't think of how Momma showed her the best hiding spots in a way far too serious for their game of hide-and-seek or how auntie Abi would always hold her hand when the phone rang. To her, the question was silly. Daddy says I'm too little for scary movies.
The next question was paired with a chuckle. She was trembling then, standing in her rainbow pajamas with her teddy still clutched in one arm. Maddie, her babysitter, wouldn't scare her like this. Maddie would be annoyed at the silly questions and weird voice. Maddie would have made it go away, but Ellie couldn't.
