Later that night, I woke up and went to get some fresh air. I heard voices at the side of the house, and quietly walked over.
“Is it over?” Rick asked.
“For now, she said she wouldn’t try to leave anymore.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Not sure yet. It’s not like she handed me the keys to prove to me she wouldn’t.”
“Well, I gotta hand it to you, Adam, you were right about all of it. I’m kind of impressed. From sleeping on the couch so she would ask you back into her bed, to telling her you couldn’t live without her. I never thought that your way would work.”
“Yeah, well, women are all the same, they like the feelings, and vulnerability in men. I will never understand why, but whatever works, right?”
“Yeah, but how do you do it?”
“What?”
“Make her believe you actually love her?”
“Women hear what they want to hear. Right now, Emily needed to believe that someone cared about her, so she was willing to accept that I did. Besides she is hot, it is very easy to pretend I love her, if I get sex out of it.” Rick laughed.
“So, you going to finish it when your kids are born?”
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
“Not really, unless you get someone to do it for you.”
“No, it should be me. After all, she did this to herself. If she wouldn’t have gone digging, maybe we could have spared her for a bit.”
“It is weird though, she found so much stuff out and yet, she still hasn’t figured out this ritual is never about them, the women always cave,” Rick said, Adam chuckled.
“Yeah they do. But at least in a few months, my part will be done when she is out of the way. Let’s just hope she has two boys instead of girls, since the girls never survive.” I couldn’t listen anymore. I carefully made my way back inside and sat on the edge of my bed.
So this ritual was never meant for the women, the women usually cave first. So the mothers were meant to sacrifice each time, the ritual was for blood, just like Adam said a while ago. The more the better. But if the men were to live, how was it that Adam’s sister was told about the ritual. Unless his mom did it to save them both, hoping. Maybe she didn’t know the end game that her daughter would die anyway. So, siblings sacrificing each other, husbands sacrificing their wives. Parents sacrificing their children. All for a house that craved blood, just to enjoy a few perks while they are still alive. Who the hell was this damn ritual for? I heard the door open downstairs; I laid down and pretended to be asleep. A few minutes later, I heard Adam come into the room and felt him lay down next to me. He draped an arm across my body as he curled up beside me. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to push him away, but I didn’t. I pretended to sleep. He played me this whole time, everything he said, everything he did, it was to get me to do exactly what he wanted me to do. Blaming me for killing Raylene, all those conversations I overheard with Rick, he probably knew I was listening. How though? Come on, Emily, think. How would he know about all of it before I even knew what I was going to do? Rick, maybe he was spying on me? The house? If it was the house, how did the house know? The house can’t read minds. Could it hear? See? Read body language?
Emily, calm down, he will notice you are awake. The spirits? No, the two that were here were trying to help me, they led me to the other journal. My mother’s grave, they were trying to tell me…Actually, thinking about it, I haven’t seen them lately. Not since Raylene was killed. Do they need two to show up, siblings who both know? I don’t know who the angry man was, but the woman who wrote the journal, her name. What was her name? Maggie. Maybe the man was killed by his sibling and was stuck here too. Does that mean Raylene? Would she be stuck here now too? I didn’t kill her, but if Adam did, I had to find out. I started to sniff quietly. I felt Adam’s arm tighten around me. Bringing my hand up to my eyes, I pretended to wipe tears away, but instead, poked myself in the eye. Might as well make the tears real.
“Emily?” he whispered, concerned.
“Yeah,” I said softly.
“Are you?”
“Oh, sorry,” I said, turning to him now that the tears were flowing, “I didn’t mean to wake you. I just had a dream about Ray.” He wiped the tears from my eyes. “Adam, I heard you telling Rick a while ago that I killed her, but I know it wasn’t me.”
“You heard?” I nodded.
“You told me the first time it was you. Was it really you? At the time, I thought you told me you did, so I wouldn’t blame myself after everything else that happened, and then, to Rick, you said I did it, so I got really confused. Adam, I won’t be mad or upset; I am over it. I just need to know so I am not constantly wondering what happened to her.” Wiping more tears from my eyes, he nodded.
“It wasn’t planned, I swear.”
“Maybe you can tell me what happened?”
“She came to see you that day, was going to tell you that she didn’t want to marry me ’cause she knew how you felt about me…” He paused. “Well, how you felt about me back then. I came to stop her. When we got here, you were up in your room, sleeping. She wanted to wake you up, and I was trying to stop her. When she wouldn’t listen, I decided to tie her up in the basement, at least till I could figure out what to do. I didn’t know how long you were going to be up there. But I knew that the longer I left her there, the more chance you had of waking up, so I went back down. I was going to try to get her into the car and get her moved back into town, so we could talk about it some more. I was cutting the rope from the legs of the chair to move her, when she slammed the chair into me, attacking me, and I fell. When I finally got her off me, I saw that the knife had slit her throat. I don’t know how, but it was in my hands and…anyway, you saw how she was.”
“Yeah.” More tears fell from my eyes.
“Emily, I’m sorry. I had hoped to move her before you saw, but you were moving around in your room and I didn’t get the chance.”
“Why did you tell Rick that I did it?”
“I was hoping it would get him to show you some compassion.”
“Really? A girl murdering her sister is supposed to get him to feel sorry for me.” I smiled, so did he.
“Okay, so in hindsight, maybe not the best thing to tell him.”
“Adam, thank you for telling me,” I said, and leaned in to give him a kiss. I would have preferred punching him or shoving him to the floor and stepping on him or kicking him, but not tonight. I was the sweet grieving wife who needs her husband to think he is in control and hopefully, I can form a plan to pay him back…somehow. I would not fall for any more of his lies. I would have to play his game, at least till I figured out how to get out of here. Maybe I could try leaving in the middle of the night when no one was awake. I went through the normal motions of the day, and sat at the table making more notes of what I was figuring out, details of the conversations that I heard from Rick and Adam. Also, since the journals were nowhere to be found, I tried to write down what I remembered. I hid the notes under the mattress in the spare bedroom, with the notes from before and then realized that if they were all in one spot, it would be easy to get rid of, so I split the notes up into different areas of the house.
At about two in the morning, I slipped out of bed and made my way downstairs. I grabbed the duffel bag I had hidden earlier that day and changed my clothes. I went to the music box and grabbed the car keys. So far so good. But as I tried to open the door, it wouldn’t. The door wasn’t locked, it just wouldn’t open. I went to the window and tried to open it; it wouldn’t budge.
“We’ve already gone over this, Emily. You can’t leave.” I turned around to see Adam standing at the bottom of the stairs. “So everything being cool with us was a lie?”
“Yeah, I guess it was, since I heard you and Rick talking last night.” He had a momentary look of shock, before a sinister smile appeared on his face.
“Damn, was hoping that you would never find out about that, was hoping for things to remain more marital,” he said with a smirk. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you can’t leave. This will just make things more uncomfortable for the next little while. Just don’t do anything stupid and this can be relatively painless for you the next few months.” So he was just playing nice for sex until he could kill me.
“All I have left is to do stupid things, Adam. And hope one of them works. Since I know you won’t kill me till the babies are born.” He widened his smile.
“It won’t work. Nothing works. Everything you can think of has been tried.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the original journal, the one passed down to the 12, details all the stupid things the women tried to do to stop this. Nothing has worked. The journals you have, my mom had. Those are nothing compared to the ones the men hand down.”
“How can you be so cold?”
“Training. Rick made sure I knew the stakes. Emily, girls like you are great to have fun with, but far too inquisitive. Rick knew, that is why he wanted me to go after your sister, and it almost would have worked. But go figure, your sister’s wild side and aloof attitude ended when I came to going through with it. I thought for sure, when I heard about her and James, it wouldn’t be an issue, but seeing you get hurt over and over made it too real for her.” By this time, he had made his way over to me.
“So not caring about anyone or anything is what you guys do. Use the women you marry to give you kids. Their feelings genuine, yours fake, until they decide to give up their lives. Have any of the women proved you wrong?”
“No, women care about the children too much. It is all part of the selection process to pick the caring, compassionate ones. My mom tried by telling my sister about the ritual first and hoping that it would end, but it didn’t last, as you can see. We just had to be patient. Emily, just so you know, I really have enjoyed our time together. And we can make the next few months enjoyable too.” Without thinking, I punched him, hard in the face. “I take it that is a no.” He smirked, recovering quickly, rubbing his jaw. I stormed up the stairs and into the farthest guest bedroom, locking the door. I went to check the window, it opened. Duffel bag and keys meant leaving, the door and window downstairs wouldn’t open. Second floor, no visible signs of leaving it open, or was it that there was something different about this room? I looked out the window, no ledges, nothing to climb down. I tore the sheets off the bed and tied them together. As I tried to throw it out the window, it slammed shut. So I couldn’t prep anything. It wouldn’t work. If I made it outside, it had to be with nothing. Come on, Emily, think. There had to be a way. I grabbed the chair by the desk and smashed the glass. The wood. It could only control the wood. I quickly threw the sheets out the window and making sure all the glass was out of the way, I started climbing down, only to have Adam’s arm reach through the window and grab me.
“Let me go,” I yelled, and struggled to pull my arm free from his grasp.
“Can’t do that, Emily.” I let go of the sheet and put my full weight on his arm, the sudden added weight caused him to scramble to hold onto the window frame. With his thoughts elsewhere, I lifted myself up and bit his hand. He released his grip just as I grabbed the sheet again and quickly lowered myself to the ground. I ran to the cover of the trees, knowing Adam would come looking for me. When I knew I was hidden, I tried to figure out a new plan. With Adam awake, it would be harder to get away and now that I was outside, if he caught me, he would make sure I couldn’t get out again. I couldn’t let him catch me. I heard footsteps; they were getting closer.
“You know, you keep surprising me, Emily. I wouldn’t have expected any of this out of you. It is very stupid, but still surprising.” Stupid. Why would it be stupid? I made it outside. I just needed to…I finally noticed. I couldn’t move. The tree had wrapped its roots around my legs. So it wasn’t just the house. It was the whole property. Anything of wood inside the property line was controlled by the ritual? By who? Emily, snap out of it, questions later, getting away now. I looked around for something to grab onto. There was a bush close by. I grabbed onto it and tried to pull myself free. Didn’t work. I balled my hands into fists and tried to break the roots. They were too strong. Then, out of nowhere, they just let me go. I stood up just as Adam grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder and carried me back into the house. I kicked, scratched, and screamed at him the whole way back. He locked me in the bathroom. On the other side of the door, I heard him on the phone.
“Yeah, you were right. I am going to need the stuff, bring it as soon as you can.” I checked the drawers and cupboards. The sleeping pills. I can give them to Adam and then get away. I saw a pair of scissors. I hesitated and decided not to right now. I just wanted to get away; I was not a murderer. Besides, the way my luck was going, I would probably stab myself with it. Wait, would that work? Threaten to kill myself before the kids are born if he didn’t let me go? No, he wouldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t believe it and I am the one thinking about it. I don’t know how long I was in there, maybe an hour, before I heard muffled sounds coming from outside the door. I heard strange sounds, like a chain dragging on the floor. After a few more minutes, the bathroom door opened. Adam grabbed me and restrained my arms behind my back. Rick followed him in with a shackle attached to a heavy chain. I tried to struggle to get free, but his grip tightened. I kicked Rick in the face, sending him reeling backward. But Adam’s grip wouldn’t lessen. I threw my head back, hitting him in the jaw. He scoffed.
“That only works once, Emily,” he said, not loosening his grip. He forced me down to the floor, still keeping hold of my arms. He pressed his knee into my back. Rick now recovered, grabbed the shackle again, and managed to get it around my ankle.
“Adam,” Rick said, and pointed to something. I turned my head just to see Adam pick up the bottle of pills. They must have fallen out of my pocket in the struggle.
“Well, you surprised me yet again, Emily. Too bad I can’t keep you. Life with you would be so much fun,” he said, releasing my other arm and standing up. “Word of warning, Emily—”
“Warning, my life is over as soon as the babies are born. There is no need to warn me about anything,” I said.
“Suit yourself. Rick.” Adam and Rick went outside. I exited the bathroom. Looks like I had enough chain to reach the kitchen, living room, and the first guest bedroom upstairs, not the second one. It would let me get a little way off the porch, but not a lot further than that. I sat down on the couch and brought my knees up to my chest while watching the fire in the fireplace. Adam came in a while later and watched me for a bit. His eyes were cold, empty. How could he have made such a fool out of me? Tears welled up in my eyes. I couldn’t believe what an idiot I’ve been. It happened with James and I forgave him. Adam, same thing. I keep acting so stupid around men. Why couldn’t I have met anyone decent, who actually cared about me? Tears started rolling down my cheeks. Adam started to move closer to me.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, glaring at him. He returned to his seat. For a brief moment, I thought I saw an emotion in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly. It could have been me imagining it, maybe hoping for a sliver of humanity, something to remind me of the Adam he was before. I laid down on the couch and pulled the blanket over me, continuing to watch the fire.
I woke up sometime during the night and realized I was hungry; I hadn’t eaten much today. I made my way to the kitchen, the chain dragging along the floor woke Adam from sleep in the chair. He followed me into the kitchen and watched as I made a sandwich.
“How many times have the women made you guys resort to this method?” I said, swinging my leg back and forth to make the chain move along the floor.
“Seven, including you,” he said.
“Let me guess, they all needed to be taken care of afterward too.” He looked at me.
“Yes.”
“So how do you plan to take care of me?” I said, looking him straight in the eyes, as I took a bite of my sandwich. There it was again, for a brief second, I saw. Was I getting to him?
“Any preference?” he said coldly.
“You’re giving me a choice?” he shrugged.
“Not really a choice, more like curious.”
“I asked you first. How would you have killed me if I wouldn’t have found out about it?”
“Probably overdose.”
“Coward,” I said boldly. He looked taken aback by my response.
“Why, it’s what you were going to do to me, isn’t it?” he said, pulling the pills out of his shirt pocket.
“No, I was going to put you to sleep so I could get away. I am not a killer.” I emphasized the last word so he knew that I would mean him.
“It was never meant to be this way, Emily.”
“I know the spirits messed up your plans. I’m surprised you haven’t done anything about them since they have caused you such an inconvenience.”
“We don’t know how. They showed up randomly and we never knew about the other journal.” I smirked and started to laugh. I got up and put my empty plate by the sink and grabbed a glass of water.
“Wow, you guys don’t know that part? All your years of studying for all these generations which, by the way, nice work telling everyone that these cabins are only a few generations old. When, in reality, they are a lot older.”
“What part?” he asked, ignoring the rest of what I said.
“Why the spirits only come out sometimes? Who the spirits are? It is not random,” I said, and made my way past him to the living room.
“Then why?” he said, trailing after me.
“Nope, you are getting nothing more out of me.” I laid back down on the couch and ignored his questions till he got frustrated and gave up.