Only Child

The house was old, it made all kinds of sounds at night, in the dark. Emily had hated the house at first and pleaded with her parents to move back to the city. It was an adjustment, something she would get used to, at least that is what her parents kept telling her. They assumed it was trepidation that played into their young daughter’s anxiety. They had left behind most of what she knew, like her school and friends. They understood it was scary, but they promised that she would come to love their new home and the school that she’d be attending in the fall.

“It’s so boring here...there’s nothing for miles around. No parks, no children….how am I supposed to make any friends?”

For a child, Emily made a valid point. Their new home sat on a parcel of land that backed right up to thick and dense forestry. While Emily’s parents found the property to be relaxing and freeing from the hustles of city life, Emily hated it. The trees would groan when the wind blew and the call of wild creatures always came at night, slipping through the walls and making the hairs on Emily’s arm stand on end.

On this night, however, it was not the sound of the groaning trees or wild animals that woke Emily, it was the creaking of her mattress strings. Her bed was old and made from an ornate metal frame, so it was not immune to squeaking at the slightest shift of the young girl’s weight, but Emily knew this was different. Her mother had left the room an hour or so ago after reading from a collection of fairy tales, a favorite for Emily...and her father was away at work. So who was there? The cat was not so rotund that the bed would shift so much.

Tentatively, Emily opened her eyes and peeked out into the darkness. It took her eyes a couple of moments to adjust thanks to the fact that she was much too brave for a night light, at least that is what she told her parents. There at the foot of her bed, she could make out a shape. The more her eyes began to adjust, the more she was able to make out. It was a boy! A little boy dressed in striped pajamas and he even had hair as red as Emily’s own.

Sitting up in bed slowly, Emily rubbed her eyes simply to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. She was not immune to childish nightmares, after all, she still had her mother checking under the bed at night for monsters. This boy didn’t look like a monster, he was smiling and staring at Emily, his little legs kicking in the air. He seemed amused. Emily swallowed, her throat felt impossibly dry and her mouth simply hung open as she tried to find the right words to say, but the boy seemed to beat her to it.

“I thought you’d sleep forever, I was starting to get bored!”

He sounded a year younger than Emily, friendly and perhaps a little impatient. Emily didn’t seem to realize that she had her blankets gripped tightly in her hands, half lifted like some kind of shield. All she could do was stare at the boy until the obvious questions started to slip from her lips.

“How did you get inside...are you lost?”

A peal of impish laughter erupted from the boy, his little arms wrapping around his middle as he rocked back and forth, still so perfectly balanced there at the foot of the bed. The laughter lasted so long that Emily expected her mother to come bursting into the room, but she did not hear the tell-tale sound of footsteps in the hall.

“Lost, I’m not lost silly, this is my home isn’t it?”

This immediately surprised Emily as no one had lived in this house for years, at least that is what her parents had said. They’d done lots of renovations to the house to make it liveable again, the house was barely recognizable when compared to its old photos. Emily canted her head to the side as if trying to make sense of what the boy had said.

“This isn’t your home...this is my home, my parents and I live here.”

Silence fell upon the room, the peal of laughter ending without so much as a warning, but the smile remained on the boy’s face as he shook his head back and forth. For a child, he looked rather pensive. Old beyond his years. His impossibly bright eyes looked back to Emily, his words sounding so sure, so final.

“This is my home, you and your parents belong to me, you always wanted a sibling didn’t you Emily?”

Cold prickling shivers danced down Emily’s spine, her eyes never looking away from the boy as she lifted those blankets a little higher until she pulled them over her head and fell back down against the pillows. This had to be a bad dream, it wasn’t real...it couldn’t be.

“Don’t hide from me Emily, that’s rude.”

There was a darkness in the boy’s voice now, replacing the puckish lilt that had been there before. There was shifting on the bed, it felt heavier than before, the boy was moving it seemed. A tugging could be felt upon the blankets that Emily now held like a vice, trying to keep them in place.

“I want to play! Play with me, Emily! I came from so far and waited so long!”

The tugging grew violent, this was not the strength of a child but of something else and Emily refused to let go, her eyes screwed shut so tight she thought she might never open them again. When the tugging stopped, there was for the briefest of moments relaxation in Emily’s grip and that is when the blankets were pulled across with lightning speed from the bed and hurled across the room.

As Emily dared to open her eyes, wide with panic, she looked around the room, trying to see the boy. He was no longer at the foot of the bed and she could not immediately see him in what little light the moon offered through the window. Emily didn’t even dare to move from the bed, rather she brought her knees up to her chest and sat there, her arms hugging around her legs and simply waited.

“Are you scared of me Emily?”

The question sounded like it was spoken right into her ear and it made Emily jump, scrambling to look around and suddenly taking up her pillow like it was some sword fit for slaying dragons. She still couldn’t see the boy, but Emily knew full well that he could likely see her.

“All I wanted was a family...a sister...why won’t you give me what I want?”

There was a sorrow in the voice that Emily couldn’t ignore, but she refused to answer. Moment after moment the silence grew heavy and painful, enough so that Emily finally brought herself look around, but no one was there. The house began to make its usual sounds and the trees outside groaned in the wind.

Tentatively, Emily made her way from the bed, she gathered up her blankets and returned to the bed to try and sleep. Much like before she pulled the blankets over her head in the hopes that they would keep her safe.

The rest of the night was filled with fitful and restless sleep, Emily found herself waking at every sound, but the boy didn’t make his return. Emily convinced herself that it had to have been a bad dream and nothing more. When sleep did finally take her, it was not long before the smell of frying bacon and sizzling hot cakes teased the girl from her slumber. It was a tradition on the weekends that Emily’s mother would make a big breakfast and they would spend the afternoon out of the house running errands.

Emily quickly got dressed, her pajamas haphazardly tossed into a hamper as she left her room and took the steps downstairs two at a time. She practically skidded around the corner into the kitchen, eager to find her place at the table.

“Good morning Emily.”

The sound of her mother’s voice was like a salve after such a horrid night. As the good morning started to form in Emily’s mouth, she swallowed it down, her eyes staring pointedly into the dining room. There at the table was the boy, sitting in those same striped pajamas and eating his fill on bacon and pancakes. He looked up from his meal and waved to Emily, who hadn’t dared to take a step closer. She felt a hand fall on her back, urging her into the dining room. It was her mother, who seemed perfectly at ease and was carrying a plate in her other hand.

“Come on Emily, you and your brother have a big day ahead….”