* * * * *
Saturday morning arrived, wetter and chillier than any of them had expected. After her bout of pneumonia, Caera didn't especially feel like spending the day walking in the rain, but she and Claudia donned their raincoats and galoshes and conned their father out of ten bucks between them for lunch. And yet, it wasn't so much the weather that was bothering Caera.
Just what were they supposed to be looking for? She voiced the question as she and Claudia met Ana at the defunct railway station. Ana took this question literally and assumed she meant "Which house are we looking for first?", and whatever Caera had been trying to say, Ana took it as her cue to produce the guide book.
At least ten different places were circled on the title page. Claudia asked to hold it and squealed with delight, although Caera didn't see why she should be excited about trudging all over town for an untold number of hours. She wondered if they were going about everything in the wrong way. Claudia and Ana, however, seemed totally confident that something would present itself, and off they went toward the old General Store.
The search proved difficult. Only the outside of the general store remained, and two other old houses had been turned into department stores; every time they started looking in those, the shop attendant watched on with wary eyes. Others were museums whose rooms were made inaccessible by maroon velvet ropes and still more were private houses.
By six o' clock they hadn't seen all of the houses on Ana's list, but for all they had seen, there was no sign of anything that might lead them to Emma's diary, and no sign of her ghost. The situation was starting to look hopeless, and they parted ways with Claudia suggesting that they might put off the search for a while and see what happened.
Yet, though none of them admitted it, they had each privately decided to give up on the search altogether. What they didn't suspect was that the ghost of Emma Campbell wasn't about to let them.
Emma
On December nights the wind always seemed harsh, the rain biting. With each day the sun disappeared sooner, and the sky, cast over with clouds, was a frosty void as dark and scary as nothingness.
This night was no different. A thunderstorm was brewing outside, and the wind which blew over the house made it creak with forceful blasts. Then it subsided for a moment, retreating with a whistle only to swell again and lash out at the house, which had defied the storms for over two centuries.
Claudia snuggled deep under the covers and listened to the rain that had started to fall and was echoing in a way that sounded like the rush of a waterfall. A flash of light lit up her room, and a few seconds later, thunder bellowed out from the heavens. Sleep pulled at her now, beckoning her to another world, and it seemed she could hear someone calling...
"Help! Help me!" The voice appeared to come from behind the walls, from outside, from under the bed, and it resounded until she heard it all around her. Claudia was lying frozen now. A breathing sound sounded from somewhere near, almost in time with her but late enough for her to hear its echo as she held her breath. Suddenly very awake, Claudia felt afraid to close her eyes, and for what seemed like an eternity, her heart thudded in her ears.
The calling started again—"Help! Help me!"—but this time Claudia heard it sound in her mind. She wanted to scream, to run to Caera and wake her up, to call for her parents, to be safe at school during the daytime, because it was so dark...
Softly, in the midst of her terror, the sweet tones of a piano played a song she'd only heard in her dreams of Emma Campbell, and a laughter of all her joyous days sounded out, vulnerable against the roar that erupted in the night. The sounds seemed real enough to touch with her hand...
In an instant Claudia saw hands emerge from the darkness and move rapidly towards her face. As they grew nearer, she found that they glowed with a pale light, and cuffed sleeves fluttered like gossamers around the wrists. As they clasped around her throat, she glimpsed the twisted face of their owner for one final time.
The hands constricted around her throat, one sharp stone of a ring gouging into her neck.
Claudia screamed, but her scream was cut off. She couldn't breathe, and the hands were strong as vices.
They were strangling her.
She tried to gasp. No air came.
But this time, she feared she wasn't dreaming. The ghost hands had her, and they were going to kill her.
Suddenly the bedroom door burst open.
"Claudia!" Caera called, staring wide-eyed at the ghost hands that had locked around her sister's throat. Without a thought, she raced toward her sister and grasped her, pulling her from the bed.
The ghost hands fought to hold on, then let go. Claudia scrambled to her feet, fully awake now. The twins stared as the ghost hands disappeared.
"Claudia, did you see that?!" Caera cried in fear.
"Yes," Claudia said. "He--he almost strangled me!"
"Claudia--listen!" Caera said, trying not to breathe too loudly.
They heard a sound echoing from the window outside and went to look outside.
"Let's go look and see what it is," Caera suggested, attempting a show of bravery.
"Are you crazy?" Claudia demanded, for once content not to be reckless.
"Claudia, something just tried to kill you. Don't you want to see what it is?"
Claudia thought a moment, then nodded reluctantly. After all, if they didn’t do something, there was a chance the hands would come back, she told herself.
"All right," Claudia said. "Let's get a flashlight and check it out."
With that, Claudia slipped on her slippers and reached for the flashlight she'd kept under her bed since the lights went out in October. Then she followed Caera downstairs and outside onto the ice-cold lawn.
"What are we looking for?" Claudia wondered.
"Whatever made that sound," Caera said, as though the answer were obvious.
"What if it's the ghost of Emma's murderer?" Claudia asked fearfully. Caera stared at her, then gave her a quick hug.
"We'll be okay if we stick together," Caera said, wishing she was as certain as she sounded. "I think the dreams only have power over us when we're asleep."
"Caera!" Claudia blurted suddenly. Caera turned to look at the back lawn where Claudia was pointing.
A faint luminous form appeared in the air before them. It was the ghost of a young girl in a Colonial dress, and she was staring at them.
Caera and Claudia felt the hair rising on the back of their necks as they came to an abrupt halt. They held their breath, both of them too terrified to make any kind of movement.
"Emma?" Claudia ventured softly. "Are you Emma Campbell?"
The ghost didn't speak at first.
Then, with a horrific little wail that sent shivers down the twins’ spines, she cried, "Save me! He's after me, after me..."
"What is she seeing?" Caera asked now, with growing alarm, as she felt a chill bite descending in the air around them.
"I don't know!" Claudia cried, feeling the same creeping cold of the supernatural presence in their midst. "Maybe she sees her killer coming!" She and Caera instinctively grasped each other and held the other tightly.
"Who is it, Emma? Who's after you?" Caera dared to ask as the twins watched the ghost of Emma Campbell moving inch by inch nearer.
Instead of answering Caera, the ghost of Emma just gasped. And then she gave a desperate little cry. her luminous form abruptly jerked to the side. Caera and Claudia watched, horrified, as she twisted and writhed as though she were being strangled. Then the ghost fell to the ground and lay quiet. The luminous form faded, and Emma Campbell disappeared.
After a moment, Caera and Claudia remembered how to breathe.
"Is it safe to move, do you think?" Caera whispered.
Claudia nodded weakly.
"Claudia, did we just see what I think we saw?"
"If we both saw it, it had to be real this time." Claudia whispered back.
"Emma's ghos
t!" they both exclaimed.
"What if she comes back?" Claudia wondered. "What should we do?"
"Tell Mom and Dad?" Caera suggested.
"They'll never believe us," Claudia replied. "Grown-ups don't believe in ghosts."
"I guess," Caera nodded. "Claudia, I'm afraid."
"Me, too."
"Claudia, you don't think Emma wants to hurt us, do you?"
"I hope not."
"Maybe she's angry at us for giving up on the search for her diary." Caera suggested.
"Maybe." Claudia agreed.
"We promise we'll start looking again, Emma," Caera suddenly cried out into the night. Just be patient with us," she added. "We're doing our best."
Then they both listened for a sign from Emma that she had heard Caera, but there was no answer in the silence of the evening.
"You think she heard us?" Caera whispered.
"I guess we'll know soon enough," Claudia replied.
What Emma Left Behind Page 41
