3 Their Demons

Emily took a deep breath and walked inside the house. Her room was full of webs. As soon as she entered, three big spiders came out of the room. She yelled and ran in full speed towards the other end of the house.

She closed her eyes and waited in anticipation. After a minute or two, she opened her eyes. She was here; in Phoenix. Gerald wasn't here. Her grandmother sat there on the outdoor trampoline bed and munched on the sunflower seeds.

She had to fight her own battles now. She stood up. Her eyes went to the broom lying in the corner. She picked it up and walked towards her room again.

Covering her luggage with a cloth, she started dusting her room. She knew she would fall sick, but she had to do this till the time she got another job and a new apartment. She did not want to go back to Murica City.

She dusted every corner of her room. She also changed the sheets, wall hangings and curtains.

Her study table was back to being how it used to be. She placed her laptop there. She needed to work on a few designs today. She left her phone to charge and went to shower.

She sat down and opened her laptop to check for important mails when she heard whispering voices.

She perked her ears up to listen. She loved eavesdropping on people. She convinced herself that eavesdropping was always useful. What if she had not eavesdropped on the conversation her uncle had with her aunt, would they have known her aunt was going to throw away her child in the nearby bin?

'Shh… Mom is nearby. Don't talk so loudly.'

'Fine. But, did she break up with that boy and she left her job too? Did she come to freeload off us? Listen, I ain't giving her a single penny. Tell her to move out as soon as she can.'

'Marcus, she is your daughter. This is her house too. I ain't telling her to move out and… lemme complete. No, you ain't telling her nothing.'

Emily saw one of the shadows coming closer. She turned her head and glued her eyes on the laptop's screen. It was as if the letters on the screen were very interesting.

"You didn't have any problem coming here, did you Em?"

"Oh no! Not a single one, Mom." Emily raised her head to look into her mother's eyes, who was trying to not hold her gaze further. Emily smiled and said, "What happened, Mom? You don't look too well. You should go and rest early."

Phoebe coughed and excused herself. She did not know how to face her daughter. What if she heard her father talking about all these? She did not understand these people. How were they unable to tolerate their own kids?

Phoebe buried herself under the covers and closed her eyes. If they wanted to eat, they would have to get it themselves. She was not going to serve those people who didn't have a single drop of sympathy for her or her child. Who was she living with all these years?

Emily closed her eyes and leaned against the headboard of her bed and closed her eyes. She never felt at home here. She should've known better. Nothing was going to change.

She did not want to dwell on today anymore. Tomorrow—a new day, a new beginning. And she was looking forward to it. She had to change her life and she would. With all the thoughts running through her mind, she fell asleep.

On the other hand, Gerald was having trouble sleeping. The Whitmore Towers was lively today. After all, their youngest son had returned after many years and naturally they were celebrating. It was almost 1 a.m., but no one wanted to leave. They were all partying downstairs.

Gerald covered his ears with the pillows and tried to sleep, but the darkness surrounding him choked him. Voices whispered in his ears, grabbing him, enticing him, luring him to go with them.

"Nooo," he shouted and woke up drenched in his own sweat. The room was dark; it reminded him of how she left her alone.

He was always alone. His parents prioritized their daughter over their son. Just because he could take care of himself didn't mean he didn't need anyone.

His elder sister, Ira, always blamed him for taking away their parents' attention. He sometimes wondered whether she was jealous of him. But she had everything he had and sometimes much more.

Gerald casted the covers aside and got up from his bed and went towards the window. He could see a part of the busy Murica City from there. Everyone was busy running somewhere, so fast that it didn't matter to them whether they were hurting someone on the way.

He grabbed a cigarette from the drawer and lit it. He took a puff from it and coughed vigorously. His eyes watered and he sneezed a few times, almost overturning the precious vase he made when he was 10 years old.

He patted his chest a few times and then tried to take another puff, albeit a little less this round.

He rubbed his head. The noise from downstairs mixed with the noise from the vehicles, somewhat numbing his feelings. He needed to go somewhere to drown his feelings and he knew exactly where.

"Hey Robin, come meet me at Excalibur. Yeah yeah, see you there in 10 minutes. Ok."

He made a series of calls after that. He went downstairs holding the keys of his favorite motorbike in one hand and the windbreaker in another. He ran down the stairs and came to a halt near the kitchen. He stood on his tiptoes not wanting to make any noise to alert the person inside.

"Where are you going at this hour?" A voice came from the kitchen. He turned his head to find his mother sitting at the kitchen counter rubbing her forehead. She patted the stool beside her and motioned him to sit.

Gerald sat down beside his mother Becky and said, "Mom, why are you not at the party?"

"The noise is killing me," she answered. She took a sip from the glass she was holding and said, "You didn't answer me."

"Well, since you already caught me, I'm going to Excalibur with my friends," Gerald lowered his head to look at his feet.

Becky did not say anything further. An awkward silence enveloped the kitchen, cocooning the minds of Becky and Gerald making it hard for him to breathe.

"Mom, when will Sis be back?"

Becky looked at her son in awe. This was the first time he asked about her on his own.

Seeing the hope in his mother's eyes, he said, "Mom, don't expect too much from me. I'm just wondering since I didn't see her at the party."

"She was supposed to come today, but her new boyfriend didn't let her come."