Emily: A haunting and chilling horror (Evan's Girls Book 2)

I grew up with the perfect, loving, kind family. My every wish was fulfilled. I married the most wonderful man; always proud, hard-working, and in love with the family we created. Two beautiful boys, and a daughter; Erica. Life couldn’t have been better until the secrets of my past surfaced. From my earliest years, memories were foggy, but I always knew I was adopted. My parents never kept that from me. Piece by piece it all fell apart. Threatening incidents terrorized my family and livelihood. When our dog was murdered in our home, panic shot through me. We moved to the country in an effort to get rid of our stalker. Everything was peaceful again and returned to normal; then I got a knock on the door... The deadly secrets of my past rushed forward, as if they were never forgotten, as I looked into the dark eyes of the stranger. My name is Emily and this is my story.

From the Inside Flap

My breath caught and my heart did summersaults as I crawled with the pictures in hand towards the steps. Thump, thump, thump. My ears couldn't discern the difference between the steps and my heartbeat. Once down the steps, I folded the ladder and let it snap into place with a loud bang and ran to my room, slamming the door into place and pushing a chair in front of it.I dropped the pictures onto my dresser and buried myself under the covers, tightening into a ball. Each beat of my heart thumping in my ears.The footsteps stopped with the rain and car doors closed. They were home! I threw the covers off me and scooted the chair away from the door, using moonlight to scramble down the steps. My heartbeat returned to normal when I saw their faces. I wanted to jump into my father's arms for the safety they provided me as a child.My mom lit candles in the living room and we played cards with the light it provided until our yawns became contagious. I set a candle on the dresser beside the bed. Light spread in a circle and flickered on the ceiling and walls, lulling me to sleep.In the morning I packed my things, then remembered the pictures. The objects I wanted enough to climb into the attic to find. A place filled with unwanted memories. I flipped them over and stared again at the little girl. Moving that picture below the other, I stared at the faces of three children. Their eyes as hollow and as devastated as the blond girl,except for the largest boy. His stared into my soul. I wondered for a moment what he saw. When a dark film appeared to coat the blue of his eyes I dropped the picture as if it was glass that cut my hand. Then I remembered that's what happened the last time I looked at the picture -- as if his eyes were alive inside the two-dimensional picture.I blew out a breath, picking the picture up again, and ripped around the older boy then brought him to the flame still flickering on the candle. The edges turned black and ate a circle around his face and twisted it into a misshapen mess. Blackened holes ate his cheeks, working their way to his dark-shadowed eyes until they enveloped him.The heat of the flame suddenly burnt my finger and I dropped the ashes left of him on the candle holder and stepped away. I studied the faces of the other children. A small boy and little girl, her blond ringlets familiar, and deep blue sorrowful eyes. I knew her from somewhere. At that time my mind was not ready to accept who she was. I compared them to the little blond girl and noted the resemblances. They were related, had to be. I stared into the mirror. I held the pictures, one to each side of my face, and studied them. Curls stuck out like needles from my head like the girls', only theirs were brushed. The little girls' eyes were almost the same, as if they could be the same child reincarnated. The one in the picture with the boy had the same shade of blue as mine. The other picture was too old to tell, but I guessed she also had the same shade before the picture yellowed.I swallowed hard. Glimmers of recognition, blurs of the past,threatened to surface. I shuddered and placed the pictures face-down on the dresser then shuffled them into my hand and dropped them into the pocket of my suitcase.

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