The Secret Diary of Emily Carlton

Chapter 7 and 8

“Ok, what’s the address?” I ask Lisa. 

“The paper says 15 Evergreen Street, so it should be there.” 

“Well, it’s not,” I say. We’re on Evergreen Street looking at the houses. 

“Well, let’s go back, maybe we missed it,” Lisa suggests and I nod. We continue walking on Evergreen Street. 

“Ok, 13, 14, and 15,” I say pointing at the house. “How did we miss it?” The house is black and the windows are boarded up and it makes the falling red, orange and yellow leaves around it look like it’s not fall, my favorite season of the year. 

“Should we knock?” Lisa asks. 

“Yes, at least I think we should,” I say debating it in my mind. 

“Wow you’re being impulsive. I never thought you would say that,” Lisa says and takes my forearm pulling me up to the walkway. 

“No!” I shout and pull my arm away from her. “What if he’s there?” 

“So what? I beat him up, what’s the big deal?” She asks. 

“Li, you’re too nice to beat anyone up, you can’t do that.” 

“You’re right, but we have to knock. I want to know who he is and why he’s following us.” 

“Ok, fine.” I say and walk up the walkway and Lisa follows behind me. 

As I approach the door, the porch creaks underneath my feet. 

“This house reminds me of that movie we saw with Em, what was the name?” 

“Monster House?” Lisa asks me. 

“Yea, that one,” I say and slowly knock on the door. It opens. 

“What?” Lisa asks peering in. “Why did you open it?” 

“I didn’t it was open,” I say. “Should we go in?” 

“Wouldn’t that be breaking and entering?” Li asks. 

“It would technically be entering because the door was already open, what am I saying?” I ask in a rush. Lisa shrugs. 

I step into the house one foot after another. It seems I’m walking into the foyer. 

“Wow. This is creepy,” Lisa says. 

“Yea, you’re telling me.” 

I walk into the kitchen and there’s a half-eaten sandwich on the table, forming a little mold on the edges, “Eww!” 

“What?” Lisa asks walking in. 

“I don’t think anyone’s eaten in here since, a long time ago,” I reply pointing to the mold. 

“Eww! That’s nasty,” Lisa says touching it. 

“No! Don’t touch it!” 

“Shut up Pipe,” she says smiling. 

I stick my tongue out at her and walk into a room that’s connected to the kitchen. 

“Look at this Li,” I say looking at the walls in the room. 

All over the walls are pictures of Emily, Lisa and I. Ranging from when we were 3 to the current day. I turn to my left and see pictures and magazine clippings of Emily’s car crash. Headlines say: Teen Dies in Car Crash and Child Prodigy, Emily Carlton, Dies. She was known by everyone and only a news article now. My eyes tear up. 

“What the heck?” Lisa asks coming in. 

“He’s obsessed,” I point to the walls with our pictures and Em’s news articles. 

“Piper, look,” Li points to two new photos that just printed out. 

One is of me and Lisa outside knocking on the door and the other one is Lisa and I in the kitchen looking at the sandwich. A loud creak comes from the door opening. 

“He’s here.” 

I stop breathing. Beside me, Piper stiffens, her eyes locked on the door. I'm the first to snap out of the trance like state. I grab Piper's wrist and start to run, pulling her with me. 

"We have to get out of here before he sees us." I say, panicked. We run through several rooms, trying to find another way out. I hear footsteps pass by the room we stop in. Then something dawns on me. "The pictures!" I say. 

"If he sees those, he's going to know we're here. What are we going to do, Li?" Piper says, snapping out of her trance. We look at each other. 

"I think we need to get those pictures before he sees them." 

"And how do you suggest we do that?" 

"I don't know." We sit there for a minute, trying to think. "I think we need a distraction." 

"Okay, just let me leave and then I'll act like I'm selling magazines." Piper says, extremely sarcastically. 

"I'm serious. Maybe there is something in here we can use." We look around the room and see that it's filled with boxes. 

"Well this should be easy." Piper says, opening the closest box. 

"You don't need to be so sarcastic." I walk over to another box and open it too. Inside is even more photos. These ones are still of all three of us, but Em is obviously the one he was focusing on. I move to the next box. This one mainly had article clippings. Everything that ever even mentioned Em's name was in here. From homeroom listings, to honor roll, to the time she won an essay contest. 

"Li, you've gotta see this." Piper says to me from behind a stack of boxes. I walk over and see piles of envelopes surrounding her. I pick one up and see it's addressed to a "Mr. Blake Walters". "Looks like our stalker's got a name. Blake Walters, fitting, somehow." But I've stopped listening to her, because I had picked up another letter. This one was addressed to Em. 

"Pipe, did you see this?" I show her the letter. 

"No, what's it say?" I'm about to open it, but I hear the floor creaking from another room. 

"Looks like we'll have to find out later." I say, shoving it into my backpack. "Come on, I think it's time to leave." 

We run back into the kitchen. Only to find the pictures are gone. The door opens behind us and I scream, involuntarily. Then Blake falls to the ground, and I see Piper standing behind him, holding a rolling pin. 

"Oh God, what did I just do? Is he dead? Should we call 911? What do we do?" Piper says, hysterically. 

"Relax, he's still breathing. I think. And you just saved our lives, now let's get out of here while we still can." I say, stepping around him. 

We run out the of the house and don't stop running until we're at mine. I ask my mom if Piper can sleep over. She, of course, says yes. Piper calls her mom to get the okay. Soon, we're camped out in my room, trying to get over what happened tonight. I remember the letter and grab it. I tear it open and begin to read it out loud. 

"Dearest Emily, 

You might not know who I am, but I know exactly who you are. You are extremely talented, in ways you don't yet know. Or, maybe you do know, but you don't understand. I'd like to explain these things to you. Emily, I'd love to meet you, in person. Please give me a chance. There are some things I'd like to talk to you about. Things that you should know, but no one's ever told you. I would like to tell you the truth Emily. 

Sincerely, 

Blake Walters 

P.S. Ask your parents about me sometime, you might be surprised what they tell you." 

"What do you think that means?" Piper askes, looking at the letter. Suddenly there's a tapping outside the window. I go over to look and scream. 

"I don't know. But I think we're about to find out." I say, pointing to my window. 

There in the oak tree outside my window is Blake.