Chapter 18

"How did he die?" Emilia asked breaking the unbearable silence as they drove to her childhood home. Emilia stared down at their intertwined hands and thought to herself that she needed to define this relationship. Were they friends? Very close friends? Emilia knew that she was only lying to herself. Friends, no matter how close, didn't sleep im the same bed and kiss themselves silly.

"His femoral vein was slit." Archer said and Emilia simply nodded. Archer knew that Emilia was pretending to not care for her father but Archer, speaking from experience, knew that the loss of a parent no matter how bad and cruel they were brought pain because that didn't stop you from loving them and most of all, that didn't stop them from being your parent.

They continued the rest of the drive in silence, their hands still intertwined over the console, a silent show of unity and support. While Archer drove on, Emilia's mind continued to remove the layers surrounding her cryptic dream last night. The dream that had compelled her to leave Archer's comfortable arms so that she could get space to think.

The car jerked to a stop arousing Emilia from her thoughts. Emilia helped herself out of the car and walked the remaining distance to her childhood home since once again, the media had barricaded the road with their flamboyant media vehicles. Emilia personally felt like setting them ablaze.

Archer walked by her side in silence as the media roared various questions at them but Emilia was not paying attention to them, all that was spinning around in her mind were the words that had jolted her awake that morning in a voice she recognized so well. Victoria's voice.

Please let her go, take me instead

So Victoria had found out where she had been stashed and had come to save her eight years ago? What had happened to her? Had Evan killed her? Emilia was developing a splitting headache by over thinking the matter.

"What happened to Victoria?" Emilia asked as they yet again shimmied past tight bodies of news reporters.

Archer gave her a weird look as he considered his answer, "The entire family perished in a fatal road accident last year." They continued walking untill they reached their destination.

The Barker house –the remnants of it anyway, were a stark reminder of her past. The yellow paint that used to cover the exterior walls was faded and peeling in most places. The yard had not been tended to in forever and the tall grass stretched across parts of the house. The walls were smeared with moss, the tiled red roof sagged and the once mahogany brown door was slightly ajar.

A wavy brown haired man poked his head out and gave Emilia a sad smile when he saw her.

"Sorry for your loss, Emilia." Khristopher Brown, Amanda Brown's husband said as he walked out to the van out front. Khris worked as a crime scene tech and he was the best in the business. He went by the nickname Khris Brown in most social circles. They had become friends through Amanda who had insisted that they met. He picked a bottle of water from the van and gulped half of it down.

Emilia simply nodded. She was not here for small talk. She was here on a mission. To end the reign of a blood thirsty psychopath. A psychopath that wanted her blood and was not going to stop until he got it.

They walked in and the smell assaulted their nostrils almost immediately. Emilia gagged at the smell while Archer remained impassive. This was not his first rodeo. He had probably seen worse.

The house was filthy. Beer cans were scattered across the floor of what used to be a living room. The lone brown couch was worn and torn. The once blue walls of the house were almost white now and Emilia couldn't help but feel pity for it's occupants.

The hardcore mess began in the kitchen. Semi-dried blood stained the floor and there were a few vegetables on the marble countertop and the floor that were in the process of being diced. The kitchen sink was cordoned off with ply wood and a bucket had been put in place to serve as a sink. Emilia couldn't believe that she had once lived here. This whole house felt alien to her. She waited to feel something like grief or even concern for her parents but she felt nothing. Was she heartless for feeling this way?

Amanda walked in from the backyard wearing a blindingly white lab coat, gloves and a face mask. Her brown hair was tighed up into a messy ponytail and her purple-framed spectacles were askew on her almond shaped face. She gave her the same practiced look that her husband, Khristopher had given her and Emilia wanted to disappear into the uninviting floors of her own childhood home. Something brown ran over her leg and Emilia covered her mouth to stop what would have been a blood curdling scream.

Amanda talked to Archer in hushed tones. Emilia strained her ears to hear in vain. They had clearly done this before because they were really good at it.

"Can I go into the kitchen?" Emilia asked and they all turned their worried eyes towards her. Emilia couldn't blame them. Her father was dead, her mother was missing and all she was worried about was getting into the kitchen.

Amanda made her qualms known on the matter, "Um Emilia you should–"

"Amanda please." Emilia raised a hand to stop Amanda. She didn't want to get into a fight with one of the few friends she had in the entire health sector.

Taking the hint, Amanda replied, "There are shoe-booties and gloves in the bucket out front. Wear them and you can go in."

Emilia nodded and went out. She came in a few minutes later all geared up and found herself all alone in the house, alone with her memories of this house and the thoughts aroused by her eye opening dream.

Emilia was having an out of body experience, like her soul was floating in space. She watched herself walk into the kitchen, completely unshaken by the blood on the floor and go straight to the sink. She continued to watch as her body inspected the bucket that served as a make-shift sink and then she was removing the plywood that covered the original sink. A broken tap was the only item in the sink. Emilia bent down and immediately realized that the drainage pipe that she had crudely fixed into place many years ago was still doing it's service to the family.

Emilia pulled at the pipe but it didn't budge. She added in some elbow grease and pulled yet again. The drainage pipe came apart with a hiss and she struggled to maintain her balance. A well folded white paper fell out of the pipe. Emilia's fingers were shaking as she picked it off the floor, unfolded it and read. His big rounded and looping handwriting had not changed all these years later. The note read,

It all ends where it all began

Her stomach began to reject the macaroons she had prepared that morning and a shrill scream penetrated her ears. Emilia did not realize that she was the source of that scream. She pushed passed Archer who had dashed down the creaking stairs when he had heard her scream.

Emilia ran out of the house and hurled her breakfast onto the poorly maintained lawn, not caring about the media snapping their cameras furiously, a few metres away. Emilia knew that she would once again make the news headlines but that wasn't one of her priorities at the moment.

Emilia was so engrossed in emptying her stomach that she didn't notice the person who watched her from the house across the road.