Christmas Night episode 2

Christmas Night
Episode 2 – Emily
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The rains were now pouring hærd with lightening ripping the dark sky and casting hideous shadows within
the mansion. Marie was now deep in slumber and falling into an abyss of nightmare….
 
“Emily…. Emily….” the chilly voice in her dreams whispered her daughters name down the stairs.
 
The dream looked so real and it was also raining like in real life as she could feel the goose bumps coat
her pink skin. In that dream she was all alone at home, and she got out of bed (still in the dream) and
followed the voice down the stairs. The stairway was pitch dark, but she kept walking ahead, trailing the
voice as if she was under a spell.
 
***Back in Emily’s room***
 
Just like in her mother’s dream, Emily could hear the voice too; but this time in real life. She heard the
first call of the creepy voice at the same time her mother fell into the nightmare. Emily stirred in bed and
turned to face the door
.
“Mummy?” she called “Is that you?”
 
There was no answer as the voice kept calling and the door slowly creaked open on it’s own. Emily in her
childish innocence had hoped it was her mum and stepped out of bed. She turned around to look for the
cat but he was no where to be found. Gently walking through the door, she headed into the lonely dark
corridor of the mansion.
 
***Meanwhile, Marie’s nightmare continues***
 
She was now down the first flight of stairs as the voice kept drawing backwards. It was as if each step
she took, the owner of the voice would step backwards too. She could hærdly see her way through while
she walked, but the continuous flash of lightening created a luminescence that kept her going .
 
It was certain that a part of her was unconscious of her actions, while the other part really wanted to
know the source of the silent whispers. And as she came down to the ground floor, there was another
flash of lightening and in that brief moment she thought she saw the hem of someone’s white night gown,
as the person swiftly walked into a room at the end of the corridor. Marie wanted to see who it was, so
she quickly strutted forward and came before the door to the room. Gradually she opened it (the room was
also pitch dark) and saw the figure of a little girl standing in the shadows with her back to her. With the
aid of the lightening, Marie noticed the little girl stood like Emily, but had a longer and darker hair than
that of Emily. And that got Marie confused if it was really her daughter, so she stepped forward into the
room….She was bound to find out.
 
“Emily… is that you?” Marie asked, but the figure remained motionless with her backside still facing the
door.
 
Marie now extended her hands carefully towards the figure, and immediately her hand fell on the shoulder
of the little figure, there was a bright flash of another lightening and the figure suddenly turned to face
Marie as she noticed the white popping eyes and bloodied face of the hideous being which made a loud
deafening scre-m……and Marie woke up swiftly from sleep, p-nting and sweating.
 
“What a nightmare”, she muttered.
 
She turned sideways to see her husband still snoring loudly, that was when she remembered her daughter
Emily. Quickly she jumped out of bed and headed into Emily’s room but she was not there. Then the
memory of the recent dream flashed in her mind and she feared that her daughter could be in danger.
 
“Oh my God! Emily!” she gasped clutching her br-asts and ran downstairs, almost skidding off the
staircase as she came rushing into the sitting room.
 
Though the sitting room was also dark, she could make out the white nightgown of her daughter as she
sat (crossed legged) on the floor facing the large 15th century painting on the wall.
 
“Emily, what’re you doing here?” she asked her daughter who turned to face her immediately.
 
“Mummy I heard my name downstairs” Emily said getting up and walking to hug her mum.”Was it you?”
 
“No baby” she pecked her daughter “You were probably dreaming”.
 
Something was definitely wrong Marie was beginning to notice. She had purposely told Emily it was all a
dream so as not to get her scared. That was when she (Marie) made up her mind to move the giant
painting down to the basement the next day while dusting the house.
 
“Come let’s go back to bed”, she said to Emily and they both climbed up the stairs without noticing a dark
figure zoom past the window outside.
 

 Pawning

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She was now walking down the lonely corridor, barefooted and quite sleepy. Something had woken Marie from her slumber in the middle of the night, but she couldn’t really tell what it was as she walked. Suddenly she stopped walking and heard it……the eerie giggles came once again down the corridor leading to the bathroom. It sounded like the giggles of children in play mood. Of course it can’t be her daughter Emily, she had just tucked Emily back in bed an hour ago. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest as the giggles kept sounding and accompanied by strange whispers. Marie looked down the corridor and thought she saw a shadow lurking in darkness as the chilly wind blew her blonde hair in billows. Summoning courage, she took a slow step forward.
 
She was now few metres away from the bathroom door and SWOOSH!!…she felt something zoom passed behind her. And she instinctively turned back but saw nothing. Her heart thumped louder….her spine felt chilly and her blood flowed rapidly through her veins. Now there was no going back for her. Whatever it was, was now right at her back. She could clearly hear the giggles coming from the bathroom, but the whispers were no more.. Carefully she stretched her hand towards the door, and on reaching it, she wound the knob as the door gently creaked open.
 
Marie stepped on the bathroom floor and felt water under her feet. That was when she heard the trickling sound of water which kept dropping slowly and continuously Plop! Plop!! Plop!!..breaking the eerie silence within. She had also noticed that the bathroom floor was all flooded with water as she took the bobbing lantern hanging on the wall. Who could have turned on the faucet? she wondered as she walked towards the bath tub which was already full and gradually over flowing with the trickles of water still dropping from the nuzzle of the faucet. It was now clear that someone had filled up the tub and turned off the faucet. Something strange was happening. Suddenly the bathroom door slammed close BAM! (startling her) and the whistling wind blew through the open window, flickering the flames of the lantern.
 
For a second she saw something move within the water in the tub and she bent over the tub bringing the lantern closer but saw only her reflection (on the water surfàce) which was distorted owing to the ripples. She was about standing er-ct when there was a loud shriek and suddenly her reflection stretched its hand, pulling her down into the water as she she struggled and gasped for air………Alas! she jerked awake from sleep….her heart beating within her ears, her forehead sweating. It had all been a nightmare.
 
Marie looked outside the window to see the twilight leaking into the room. It was already morning and here she was having a nightmare. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and clasped her face within her palms, puffing out air. How could she have two strange dreams all in one night, she wondered. This was the first time she was experiencing this and something told her it won’t be the last. Then she roamed her eyes all around the room. Could it be there was something strange going on within the mansion? She turned sideways to look at her husband and for the first time that morning she noticed that Nate was no longer in bed. So she called on him.
 
“Nate?” she called getting out of bed as the sweat dripped down her torso to her thighs. “Nate?” she called again, but there was no response.
 
Giddily she walked out of the room and met Emily playing with her new cat Winter on the floor at the corridor.
 
“Goodmorning mum” Emily greeted in her tender voice.
 
“Hey pumpkin, you’re awake so early” Marie said squatting to peck her daughter in the forehead. “Have you seen your dad?”
 
“Yes mummy. Dad brought a carriage man….said he was going to get some logs for the fireplace”
 
“Oh yeah that’s true. The snow is almost here” Marie nodded. “We need that fireplace you know. Dad is a good man”
 
“But why does he hit you mummy?” Emily asked stroking her cat.
 
“Erm…I think I have to go clean up the house now” Marie replied as she tried to avert her daughter’s question.
 
Marie didn’t want to give her daughter the impression that things were not going well between she and her father. She couldn’t deny the fact that Emily has noticed Nate’s aggressive nature of recent , but some things were best kept away from kids.
 
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Nate came came back home by noon, and before you knew it, the fireplace was already up and burning. They were very fortunate he had gone for the woods because the first snow for that year came flaking down from the grey winter skies not too long after he had left. It had been a delayed winter actually, but it was finally here and bringing the real feeling of Christmas alongside it. By the time Marie was through with cleaning the wh0le house, Nate was already mounting the Christmas tree which he had bought from an elm farm.
 
Just as she had decided earlier, Marie moved the 15th century painting down the stuffy basement. She had wanted to move the giant gargoyle mirror too, but had a second thought of leaving it in place. There were other old wares and artifacts she had recovered from the shelve and dinning while cleaning. To her, those stuffs made the sitting room crowdy and ancient, so she decided to pawn some of the artifacts. At least they were in dire need of money for the Christmas and pawning the items sounded like a good idea. Sliding on her winter coat, Marie gathered the items into a leather bag and left the house on her way to the nearest pawn shop.