Why

Chapter 21

"Emma!" Someone shouts from so far away. Maybe they are in another house. Another world? The voice sounds so familiar that I think about it for a little while before it starts to hurt my head even more.

I try to stand up but cant. I try to open my eyes but they stay sealed shut no matter how hard I try to will them to snap open.

Then I feel someone's hands on my shoulder. They quickly turn me over on my back. Then my eyes do snap open, only I didn't do it.

I feel panic start to rise in me as I sit with foggy eyesight at the faces I remember, but I don't move toward them. Instead I sit up sharply from my spot on the ground and push Cecelia off of me. A confused look crosses her face. For some reason the look makes me sick. I don't want her to look at me in any way at all.

I sit and do nothing as my hand raises and slaps her as hard as it can. I feel the sting of my hand colliding with her face, but I can't control the movement. Then I remember, she went into me. I'm possessed.

The faces across from all register my movement before I go in for another attack, this time on Penelope. My nails claw at her skin, digging deep enough to cause bleeding. She screams as I'm ripped off of her small body. I growl in protest. The sound is foreign to my mouth. Barbaric.

I turn towards the person holding onto me and kick him in the gut. I waste no time on climbing on top of Carson and wrapping my fingers around his throat. He struggles against me as I plead for him to shake me off, but for some reason my body is stronger now with Clarisse in charge.

Tears begin to pour from my eyes as my mouth smiles. I don't want this. He gags against my grip and grabs onto my wrists, but it's no use.

Then I feel my body being pushed to the side by Luke. "Stop!" He shouts. The tears begin to pour louder. He climbs on top of me and straddles me in between his legs. Clarisse goes into a rampage as she tries to escape his grasp. He looks over his shoulder with a wild expression. "Knock her out!" He screams at no one in particular.

"We can't!" Cecelia shouts back. "Her head is already injured. We could kill her!" Clarisse is finally able to get up. She punches Luke in the face with my hand that sends a searing pain through my bones that she must not be able to feel.

"Leave her alone!" Cecelia pleads. I feel a laugh escape my lips. A cruel laugh that doesn't belong to me. 

Then someone else shout, "Grab her!" Luke and Carson each grab an arm and pull me towards a chair that Melany has brought out from the dining room. My soar body is thrown into the hard wood and I hiss in pain on the inside. Rope is presented and tied around my waist and legs to each chair leg. My body protests by kicking and screaming, and managing to hit Carson hard enough to give him a bloody nose. 

Once I'm secured down I hear Melany run back into the large entryway. "Everyone except Luke come with me now." They all nod right away, except for Luke who’s eyes widen in fear.

Penelope lingers by the doorway with a scared unsure look. I feel guilty for bringing sweet innocent Penelope into this, but then she runs with the others.

I watch her with my eyes as my body struggles against the binds. I see Luke staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Emma?" He asks carefully. "Emma are you in there?"

I feel my head shake no. "Sorry but Emma is no longer in charge." My lips curl into a smile as his eyes turn into a hard glare.

"Go to Hell." He growls.

She laughs. "I'm already in it." And then I feel something tugging around my neck extremely lightly as if it could be a feather. Then all at once it grabs my neck with enough force to rip me off of the ground. For the moment I seem to be in control of my own movements somehow. I try to rip at whatever is dragging me up, but my arms are tightly secured down.

"Holy shit." I hear Luke whisper as I'm slowly raised off the ground. I begin to choke as my air is blocked off.

"Cecelia!" Luke shouts. "She's being hung!" What? There isn't any rope around my neck though. It's just a searing pain that is causing black spots in my vision. I struggle against it even harder but with no luck. How is this even happening?

Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash of white and a grin. Then the sound of running feet. "She's trying to kill Emma to make her daughter in full control." I hear Cecelia say quickly as my chair is pulled to the ground and my neck feels like it snaps.

"She was floating!" Penelope exclaims. "From her neck!" She looks like she is going to be sick and quickly leaves the room.

Melany quickly starts to draw a white circle around my chair. "Stay on the outside of the salt line. This will keep the girl inside the circle." She says quickly and forcefully. 

"Don't we want her out?" Carson asks.

"We don't know what the hell we want ot be honest." Cecelia says to herself. 

I feel my head fall to the side in a sudden tiredness that I didn't know was possible to have without being dead. I feel alone at the moment, but then I also feel like she is just lying dormant in me. I shiver at the thought.

Cecelia and Melany go to the side as Carson goes after Penelope. Luke runs his fingers through his hair and down his face. He stands on the very edge of the circle and stares at me. "You got to fight it." He whispers low enough for only me to hear. "Please fight it." He says even lower. My eyes begin to droop.

"Luke." I whisper. His head shoots up. He waits for me to say something else, but I don't. I can't.

Then I see Myrna standing behind him. Her glare hardens on me. She stares distastefully at the line of salt. She walks around Luke as he sits down with his head in his hands. 

She leans in close to me and whispers something, but I can't hear it. To me it just sounds like some sort of animal noise or someone talking underwater. Why can't I hear her?

And then I feel her come to back to life in me. "I can't leave." She whispers with my mouth. My head nods towards the salt. Luke stares at me as I talk and motions over Carson and Cecelia. She says something me again in a more forceful way with the horrible noise that she makes. "She is almost dead. I don't want to kill her!" She yells back in protest. This stops Myrna from saying anything else. She slowly rises with a shocked/ angry face.

Her skirt whips around her as she moves swiftly to the wall. She goes through it and within seconds is back with a knife in her hands. No one notices the knife, but if they did I'm sure they would just see a floating knife.

She says something in her noise once more before I feel myself start to struggle even harder against the binds. What did she say? Panic starts to rise in me. "Untie me!" She shouts but no one listens to the request.

From behind the chair where no one can see the knife I see her start to dig into the salt line until just the smallest line is made into it, but apparently that is all it takes for her to cross over. She stands behind me and raises the knife. "No!" My voice shouts. Everyone looks at me as the knife is stabbed into my stomach.

A shock rushes through me. I can't feel anything at all. All I see is the faces of people screaming, but their voices keep getting more and more distant. "No." I whisper slightly by myself. No.

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