The Empty Room

Chapter 6

{From the perspective of Edgar Jones, the oldest sibling}

It was a cold night and I woke with a start when my father began kicking me. He had a few tears in his eyes, but he looked absolutely and utterly terrified.

"Get up. I think you have something to explain kid, and why are you outside? It was freezing last night. Also, where did that blanket come from?"

"I-." I looked at him confused but shook it off quickly when he interrupted with, "You know what, I don't care, son. Just get up and follow me." He opened the door and walked inside impatiently, hiding his face as he went. I followed him to his bedroom with caution, as I didn't want to aggravate him once again. He already seemed angry so I didn't want to make this situation worse. Before we walked in he stopped at the door frame and said "There's no need to tell Tristan, he already knows." Completely confused, I gave my dad a serious and puzzled look.

"What are you talking about?"

"See for yourself." I walked into the room, with my dad following behind me. The first thing I saw was blood smear all across the wall. I gasped when I realized where all the blood came from.

My stomach lurched and I felt nauseous. It looked so unpleasant, so disturbing, and not right. Mom... I felt a stream of tears pouring from my eyes and desperation spreading quickly.

"Dad, please tell me this is some joke. This is not very funny. This is a joke though right? Please!" He looked at me dead serious.

"Son, if you think this is some kind of joke, you need to wake up from your fantasy world. This is reality. If you know anything about what happened, you tell me right now. Otherwise, I will find out who did this at all costs."

For the first time in 3 years, I saw my dad shed real tears. He looked scared. Never has he ever been afraid or worrisome of anything. I began to wonder...could it be?

Sobbing, I asked in between hiccups, "D-Dad, what all do you remember happened la-last n-night?"

"We were eating a family dinner and Taylor just suddenly showed up. I guess she decided to come back, but she took a glance at me, shrieked, and ran off. Then you followed her outside and did not come back in, so we decided to leave you be. But this morning I woke up and found your mom like this, I thought I should come outside to get you."

I looked at him terrified. He saw the disbelief on my face and frowned.

"What's with the face?"

I replied, wiping my tears, "You really don't remember anything, do you?"

"I just told you what happened! Stop questioning me! I have a headache and your jabbering is only going to make it worse."

"Dad, I can't believe it. You are sober for once, but everything you said never happened. You were drunk last night and when I gave you a note from Taylor, you said it was some game. Then you sent me outside and I fell asleep. I didn't even see Taylor. Dad, you could have killed mom but you don't even remember because you were drunk."

"I would never do that! How dare you accuse me! For all I know, I heard someone creeping around the house! And furthermore, I heard someone go up into Tristan's room!" I stared at him.

"Dad," I looked at him concerned, "Why did you not stop them? I don't even know if I can believe you. You were so drunk, that you could have been seeing things! You are supposed to protect this family and they could have hurt him! Whoever that was, it wasn't me. I was locked outside, there was no way in. You even had the keys."

At the sound of my words, my father slowed down his breathing and looked at wearisome. "Oh, Opal.." He whispered and cried again. "I need you here so much..."