Storymania - Discovering Truth by Kristy Rose

Discovering Truth
Kristy Rose

Emily tried to stop the tears from clouding her vision. She violently scrubbed her eyes before turning to face her sister.
“You are such a little brat Em!” her sister shouted. “I can’t believe you told dad what I was doing last night. You’re just jealous. It’s not my fault that you’re so ugly and such a loser.” With a flip of her blond hair Rachel turned and walked out of the room. Emily balled her hands into fists and started pounding the couch. “I HATE HER!” she shouted into the empty room. Her stepmother immediately ran into the living room to see what was going on.
“What’s the matter?” her stepmother asked worriedly.
“I hate Rachel. She deserves to die!” Emily whispered harshly. Her stepmother looked shocked. She grabbed Emily’s shoulders and turned her face upward.
“Emily, how could you say such a thing? I know you two have your disagreements, but that is no reason to say such a thing!”
Emily gave her stepmother an evil look before retorting, “You wouldn’t understand. You don’t know what it’s like to be me.” Emily turned and dashed out of the room. When she reached her bedroom, she slammed her door and blasted the radio. “I hate her,” she whispered to herself.
An hour later she silently crept out of her room to use the bathroom. The hallway was pitch black so she could faintly make out the sliver of light under Rachel’s door. As she approached the bathroom she heard a soft moaning noise coming from her sister’s room. She walked to the door and put her ear up against it. She could just barely make out the words “help me.” Emily pushed open the door and gasped when she saw what was going on. A man with brown hair and pale skin was standing by the window. He threw a backwards glance at Rachel, and Emily felt chilled when she saw his piercing gray eyes. He jumped out of the window and escaped into the night. She turned to find Rachel lying on her bed clutching her stomach.
“Emily,” she whispered. “Help me!” Emily ran over to her sister’s side and was shocked to find her sister’s shirt soaked with blood. Her sister pointed to an object lying on the floor. Emily bent down to retrieve it. It was a butcher knife. Just then her stepmother walked into her sister’s room.
“Rachel you have a phone call…” Her voice trailed off when she saw Emily standing over Rachel’s bed with a knife in her hand. Her stepmother gasped and brought her hand to her mouth before backing out of the room. Emily realized what her stepmother must be thinking and tried to explain what was going on.
“I…I just walked in and there was this man. I mean, I didn’t…” Emily stammered.
“Just stay there!” her stepmother called out. “I am going to call the police.”
Emily started shaking and she dropped the knife that she had been clutching tightly in her hand. She watched as her stepmother dialed the number for the police. She collapsed on the chair next to her sister’s bed and her head started spinning.
Before she knew what was going on there were police cars and an ambulance outside of the house. Emily observed as the paramedics took Rachel’s pulse before proclaiming her dead. They then covered her with a sheet and carried her away. Emily shrunk into the corner as a policeman approached her. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties and he had a grim look on his face.
“I have a few questions that I need to ask you,” he said.
“I didn’t do it!” Emily said forcefully.
“I’m not saying that you did or that you didn’t. I just need to know a few things so we can find out what really happened here,” he assured her.
“I saw a guy,” Emily told him.
“What did he look like?”
“He had brown hair. His eyes were gray. He had really fair skin.”
“Was there anything distinctive about him that you can tell me about? Any facial hair? Any tattoos or piercings that you saw?”
“No…I didn’t get a very good look at him. He just looked at Rachel before he jumped out of the window and escaped.”
The man skimmed over some notes he had written on his pad before continuing. “We have already talked to your stepmother and she says that she found you standing over Rachel’s bed with the knife in your hands. Is this true?” he asked.
“No! Well, yes but--” Emily replied.
“Yes or no?” he asked calmly.
“Yes. My stepmother found me like that but I didn’t stab Rachel. Rachel had pointed to the knife while she was still alive on the bed. I picked it up when she walked in.”
The policeman read over his notes again and frowned before saying, “Your stepmother also told us that before going upstairs you specifically said ‘I hate Rachel. She deserves to die.’”
“I was angry,” Emily said quietly. She realized how unlikely her story seemed. She hoped that they would believe that she didn’t do it. The policeman finished writing down what she had said before turning his attention back to her.
“Thank you for cooperating. We would ask that you remain in town so we can contact you if anything comes up.” Emily nodded and watched as the policeman joined his stepmother. “This is like a bad dream,” Emily thought to herself.
As soon as the police had left Emily returned to her room. She laid on her bed but she couldn’t fall asleep. Then she began to cry. She cried for her sister for losing her life. She cried for her parents for losing a child. But most of all, she cried for herself for what she was about to endure.

Emily stayed out of school for a few days but was eventually forced to return. She kind of looked forward to school because it would take her mind off of everything that was going on. The funeral had taken a lot out of her family. But as soon as she entered the building, she knew that it was not going to be a good day. Some people gave her dirty looks and others turned around when they saw her coming. Even her friends made an effort to avoid her. “What is going on?” Emily wondered. She found out at lunch.
A boy she recognized from her gym class approached her in the cafeteria.
“Is it true that you were standing over your sister’s torn and rotting corpse with a butcher knife?” He didn’t wait for her to reply. “I heard that your stepmother had to hold you back because you wouldn’t stop stabbing her. Then you--” Emily threw her tray at him before turning and running out of the cafeteria. She ran into the bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls.
About ten minutes later she heard two girls enter. She peered at them through a crack on the side of the stall and watched them as they applied fresh coats of makeup.
“Did you hear about that girl, Emily Keller, that killed her sister?” one of the girls asked casually.
“I thought they didn’t know for sure if she did it,” the other one remarked.
“Of course she did. It’s your typical jealous sister maniac story.”
“Then why isn’t she in jail. I heard she’s back in school.”
“They’ll catch her soon enough,” the first girl assured. “Didn’t you hear about how she went berserk on some guy during lunch? Oh they’ll catch her all right.” Emily heard them exit the bathroom and she slowly exited the bathroom. “Everyone thinks I did it,” she thought. She felt dizzy and then everything went black.

When she woke up she was in her bed and she had a bandage on her head. She crawled out of bed and searched for her father. When she reached her parents bedroom, she saw that the door was ajar and her stepmother was talking on the phone.
“What do you mean you left it here? Are you an idiot? Yes, I’m coming right away. I’ll see you there. Bye.” Her stepmother smashed the phone back into the cradle before storming out the door. Emily didn’t have time to move so her stepmother walked right into her. Her stepmother screamed but composed herself when she saw that it was just Emily.
“I see that you are up now,” her stepmother said.
“I’m looking for dad,” Emily replied.
“Your father is at an important meeting right now. He told me that he doesn’t want any calls to disturb him.”
“Who were you talking with on the phone then?” Emily asked suspiciously.
“I was talking to your father. He just told me that he was going to the meeting but he forgot his briefcase. Silly man.” Emily stepped aside and let her stepmother past.
Fifteen minutes after she had left, the phone rang. Emily picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Is this Emily?” a raspy voice asked.
“Yeah. Why?” Emily asked.
“I think I might have some information about your sister’s murder.” Emily gasped and pulled the receiver closer to her ear.
“I’m listening,” Emily assured him.
“I was good friends with your sister. I knew that she was dating some jerk that treated her like garbage. They broke up about a week ago and I was there when he made some threats against your sister. He is about 5’9 with dark brown hair and hazel eyes.”
“It can’t be him,” Emily countered. “The killer had gray eyes.”
“Could have been contacts.”
He gave her some more information before hanging up. Emily sat down and tried to think it all out rationally. Then she came up with a good idea. She walked to her sister’s bedroom and slowly opened the door. The entire room had been searched for evidence and now the room looked desolate. Emily flipped on the light switch and began to search for her sister’s diary. She finally found it under the mattress. She skimmed over the pages until she reached the last entry.

November 3

I am free of Jonathan O’Brien forever! I met this great guy on the football team and we hit it off immediately. Jon didn’t take it so well, but he’ll eventually get over it. In other news, I had another fight with my sister. I have been trying very hard to be nice to her, but it never seems to work. Sometimes I wish we had a close relationship where we could share clothes and makeup. But I know that it is never going to happen. I’ll keep trying.

Rachel

Emily reread the entry and tried to put all the pieces together. She knew where she should start. She found the school directory and looked up Jonathan O’Brien. He was a senior, like Rachel had been. Emily found his phone number and decided to give him a call. A female answered the phone.
“Hello. May I speak to Jonathan?” Emily asked. She felt her heart racing as she tried to figure out what she could say to him.
“Speak,” a deep male voice answered.
“This is Emily Keller. I believe that you used to date my sister.”
“Yeah, so what?” he automatically interjected.
“So I was just wondering if maybe we could talk about a couple things.”
“Sure, whatever. I have nothing to hide. I’ll pick you up at three tomorrow.” Emily started to protest, but he had already hung up the phone. She heard a door open downstairs and she immediately ran downstairs to see who it was. It turned out to be her father. He looked worn out.
“Hello princess,” he said as soon as he saw her. Emily observed the bags under his eyes. The gray hairs that had been slowly coming in seemed more noticeable. Emily ran over and hugged her father. She inhaled the sweet scent of his cologne and hoped that he, if no one else, believed that she was innocent.
“You don’t think I killed her do you daddy?” Emily whispered.
Her father hesitated before answering. “Of course not. But it seems anything is possible at this point.” Her father led her into the living room and pulled out a couple photo albums. He opened up to the first page to reveal Rachel and Emily covered in soap and laughing in the bathtub. He continued flipping and revealed several different poses with the two girls together.
“You two used to be so close,” her father told her reflectively. “But after your mother left…” he trailed off. Her fathers eyes seemed cloudy as he stared at a portrait of the family. “She was so beautiful” Emily thought. Her mother had the same auburn hair that Emily was so proud of. But as she aged, Emily was not blessed with the same pretty features. Her mother also had a contagious smile. Her smile could light up a room. Emily remembered the day that her mother had left them. She was nine at the time. “I can’t take it anymore. You love your work more than you love me. You expect me to stay here all day with the children. Well I have a life too. Goodbye Thomas.” Her mother has hugged them all in turn and told Emily to be strong. That was the last time she had seen her.

Emily looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. She only had thirty minutes before Jonathan was supposed to pick her up. She had searched her entire wardrobe and come up with nothing flattering. She decided to look though her sister’s wardrobe. She remembered reading about how her sister had wanted them to share clothes. She silently crept into her sister’s room and opened her closet. The closet was full of the latest fashions. “Why didn’t we ever do this before?” Emily wondered. She quickly found a long sleeved shirt she liked and a vest to go over it. She grabbed a pair of jeans and ran back to her own room.
After she had put on the outfit, Emily couldn’t help but smile. The outfit had done wonders for her and she looked good. It was a change from her usual baggy, loose-fitting outfits. She threw on some lip gloss and ran downstairs to wait for Jonathan. She walked into the kitchen but she was too nervous to eat anything. She paced around the living room until she heard a horn outside.
When she exited the house she saw a black convertible waiting for her in the driveway. “Leave it to Rachel to find the rich guys,” Emily thought. She opened the passenger door and hopped inside. Jonathan was very attractive. He had shaggy brown hair and tanned skin. Emily tried to imagine him with gray eyes and pale skin. She couldn’t judge if it had been him in Rachel’s room.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Jonathan asked.
“Why did Rachel dump you?” Emily asked suddenly.
His eyes narrowed and he frowned. “I guess it’s my fault. I was overprotective and I sometimes let my anger get out of control. But I want to make it up to her, which is why I agreed to meet with you.” They continued to drive in silence until they pulled into a Starbucks. Jonathan bought her a hot chocolate and they chose a quiet corner where they could talk. Emily looked into his eyes and decided to tell him the truth.
“I got a phone call,” she admitted. “They said that I should suspect you.”
She could see Jonathan’s temper start to flare up. “Who in the--”
“I don’t know who called. I just wanted to meet you to make sure,” Emily told him nervously.
“To make sure what?” he asked angrily. “To make sure that I’m not a murderer? Well what if I am? That would pretty stupid of you to leave the house with a suspected killer. I bet you didn’t even tell your parents.” Emily felt her face turn red as she began to panic. Jonathan laughed when he saw the look on her face.
“Calm down. I’m not really going to hurt you.” Emily was reluctant to get back into the car with him, but she realized that she had no other way to get home. As they were driving Jonathan said, “You know, you don’t look or act anything like your sister.” Emily didn’t know what to say so she remained silent. “It must be hard for you living in a house with a sister like Rachel.” Emily felt her own temper flare up.
“Don’t try to accuse me,” Emily retorted. “I’m the only one who seems to care enough to find Rachel’s murderer. The police sure aren’t doing anything.”
“Calm down,” Jonathan said automatically. “Although you are pretty cute when you are mad,” he joked. When they pulled up to her house, Emily said goodbye and then flew up the stairs and into the safety of her home. “Could Jonathan have killed her during one of his temper tantrums?” she wondered. Before she could contemplate this further, she saw her stepmother walk into the living room.
She took one look at Emily and said, “Those are Rachel’s clothes. Why are you wearing her clothes?” Emily looked down and remembered that she had borrowed them from Rachel’s closet. She didn’t want to tell her stepmother that she had read through Rachel’s diary and received her approval first. So she just stood there silently.
“I can’t believe this!” her stepmother shouted. “Instead of grieving the loss of your sister you are parading around in her clothing. Wait until your father hears about this.” With that said she left and slammed the door behind her.

Around seven o’clock her father came home. He hung up his jacket and then joined Emily on the couch.
“Sorry I’m late, princess,” he said. “I was at a meeting today,” he added.
“Again?” Emily asked.
“What do you mean again, silly? You know I only have one per month.” Emily gave him a confused look.
“But Evelyn said that you were at an important meeting two days ago.” Her father had already diverted his attention to the evening news. “That’s odd,” Emily thought. They watched the news for a little while until her father got up to answer the phone. All of a sudden, something clicked in her head. She replayed the night that her sister was killed and remembered that her stepmother had come into the room with a phone call for Rachel. “The phone never rang,” Emily thought. “And then she dialed the police without hanging up.” Emily tried to figure out what this meant, but she was interrupted when her father rejoined her. She tried to focus on what her father was talking about, but her mind continued to wander on something that just wasn’t quite right.

A week passed by and Emily was not able to come up with any solid evidence against her stepmother. She spent her spare time trying to put the pieces together, but nothing seemed to fit.
Emily was home alone watching TV when she heard a knock on the door. It was Jonathan. She was shocked, but she let him in.
“Hey Emily,” he said as soon as he was inside. “I was wondering if you wanted to hang out. Ever since I met you, I couldn’t get you out of my mind.” Emily was surprised, but she agreed. “Perhaps he will give something away,” she thought. She put in a movie and they watched it together. Emily felt awkward at first, but in a way it was nice. She pretended that she was just a normal teenager hanging out with her boyfriend. When the movie ended, Jonathan looked at her and started to say something, but then stopped.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I have something to tell you,” he began. “I didn’t just come here to see you. Before we broke up, I gave Rachel my class ring. And I was wondering if I could get it back.” Emily felt disappointed. “So it had all been an act,” she thought sadly. Jonathan saw the look on her face and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.
“I meant what I said earlier though. I had a lot of fun.” Emily didn’t know whether to believe him, but she decided to take him upstairs. He searched through Rachel’s jewelry and came up with nothing. I pretended not to be shocked when he found it under the radiator below the window. He smiled as he dusted it off and shoved it into his pocket. “What am I supposed to do?” Emily thought frantically.
Jonathan put his arm around her and led her downstairs. He convinced Emily that he wanted to stay and she put in another movie. About halfway through the movie her stepmother walked into the room. When she saw them on the couch, Emily noticed that she had a strange look on her face.
“I see you have a friend over,” her stepmother said cruelly. She tried to smile but she failed miserably. I think that it’s time for you to go now.” Jonathan immediately obeyed.
“I’ll see you around Emily,” he said. “Bye Evelyn.” He waved one more time before walking out of the room. My stepmother watched as he got into his car and drove away. “He called her Evelyn,” I thought. When he was finally gone, she turned to face me.
“What an interesting boy,” she told me.
“He called you Evelyn,” I said.
“Yes, I suppose he did,” she said before she left the room.

The next day Emily found Jonathan’s address in the directory and decided to take a ride over to his house. He lived about twenty five minutes from her house. The houses were very large and extravagant. Jonathan lived in a beautiful white mansion. Emily rang the doorbell and waited a few minutes until a little girl answered the door.
“Hi, I’m a friend of Jonathan’s,” Emily told her. “Can I go up and see him?” she questioned.
“How should I know? I’m not his keeper,” the little girl said snottily. She stepped aside and she took that as my cue to enter. She followed her upstairs and the little girl pointed to his room. Emily thanked her and pushed the door open. The room was empty. She turned to see if his sister had followed her, but she hadn’t. She decided to take a quick look around. She looked through his desk drawers but she didn’t find anything. Then she opened his first dresser drawer. She pushed the clothes aside to reveal a strange array of objects. They was a small wad of money, a deodorant spray, and face paint. Emily knew what was coming before she even opened the jar. White face paint. She shoved it back into the dresser and fled out of the room.

Emily’s father was out of town for the long weekend. Emily remained in her room for the entire day, trying to catch up with her schoolwork. She had planned to go to her friend’s house for the night, but her friend had called saying that her parents were upset at her for trashing the house and she couldn‘t have anyone over. She decided to go downstairs and grab something to eat. While she was walking down the stairs she heard her stepmother talking to someone.
“Are you sure it’s safe to talk here?” she heard Jonathan ask. She had to cover her mouth in order to keep the gasp from escaping from her mouth.
“Of course. Did you get rid of all the evidence?” There was a brief pause.
“I shoved the stuff in one of my drawers. I planned to throw it out eventually.”
“Are you an idiot?” her stepmother shrieked. “We can’t have any clues leading to us. Thanks to me no one suspected a thing. Everyone believed that it was her jealous little sister but they couldn’t come up with any proof. Too bad. I wouldn’t mind seeing that envious little brat behind bars. Don‘t give me that look. You wanted Rachel to pay as much as I did. She dropped you faster than a pile of burning charcoal when she met that other boy. I however, am just in it for the inheritance. One down, one to go--” Emily gathered up her courage and charged into the room.
“I knew you were behind this!” I shouted. Her stepmother was shocked but she quickly regained her composure.
“I knew it would eventually come to this,” her stepmother said as soon as she realized that Emily had heard the whole conversation.
“Come to what?” I asked worriedly.
“I can’t let you tell our little secret!” Her stepmother informed her. The tone of her voice was very calm and cruel. Emily tried not to panic.
“Think of it this way. Little sister becomes very guilty over what she has done to her popular older sister. She realizes that her sister was the one that everyone loved and she made a mistake by killing her. In order to ease this pain, she decides to put an end to her own misery.”
“NO!” Emily shouted. She tried to turn and run, but Jonathan was already upon her and he held her arms behind her back. Evelyn went to the garage and returned with a couple pieces of rope and a tank of gasoline. She had Jonathan tie up Emily’s hands and feet before spilling the tank of gasoline all over the floor.
“I never liked this house anyway,” Evelyn remarked. “I want something bigger.” Evelyn walked over to Emily and pulled a cloth over her head. Emily struggled to breathe but she was bound by the rope. As her oxygen supply decreased, she stopped moving and succumbed to the arriving darkness.

Emily awoke to a roaring sound unmatched by any other sound she had ever heard before. She looked around and saw that she was surrounded by flames. She pulled as hard as she could against the rope, but she couldn’t break free. She eventually pulled one hand lose and inspected the raw skin that had been badly brush burned. Then she used her hands to untie her feet. The heat was closing in on her and the smoke was chocking her lungs. Emily got down on the floor and started crawling toward the back door. She felt her hair being singed, but she continued to battle her way through the fire.
After what seemed like hours, she finally reached the back door. The metal knob was scalding hot so she had to pull off her shirt in order to open it. As soon as the door swung open, she laid on the crisp green grass and inhaled the fresh air of the outdoors. After a few moments she got up and snuck to the front. She hid behind a bush in order to see what was going on. She saw her father comforting her stepmother, who was crying hysterically. Jonathan was nowhere in sight.
“My daughter’s in there!” Evelyn cried out. Emily almost puked. She steadied herself and charged toward her father.
“Don’t believe a word she says!” Emily shouted. She knew what a sight she must look like with parts of her hair singed off and half of her clothes missing. Her stepmother froze when she saw Emily.
“Don’t believe her!” Emily repeated.
“Whatever is the matter dear?” her stepmother asked in a falsely sweet voice.
Emily raised a raw finger to her stepmother. “She helped kill Rachel!” Emily shouted. Her father looked shocked.
“All that smoke must have gone to her head,” Evelyn said nervously.
“I know you did it!” Emily shouted.
“Then prove it,” she sneered.
“You said you wanted me dead too. You want my father’s money!” Emily screamed over the noise of the fire that was devouring her house.
“You liar!” Evelyn shouted back.
“Is this true?” Emily’s father asked her.
“Yes!” Emily shouted at the same time that Evelyn shouted “No!”
“Fine,” Emily said. “Then sign an agreement saying that you will not touch a penny of my father’s money in the event that something happens to me,” she demanded.
“Can you believe this Thomas?” Evelyn asked.
“Actually, I think that’s pretty reasonable,” her father said. Evelyn’s anger flared up and she ran over to Emily.
“I’m not going to have my plans ruined by this little brat!“ she screamed wildly. “If I go down, she goes down with me!“ She pressed the knife up against Emily’s chest and Emily felt the cold steel piercing her flesh. She felt the blood as it started to drip down her stomach. Then Evelyn pulled the knife out and plunged it deep into her own chest. Emily clutched her chest in order to stop the immense pain.
The rest of the day was a blur. She vaguely remembered being rushed to the hospital and drifting in and out of consciousness. Sometimes her father was standing by her bedside and other times the room was deathly quiet. Her side ached and her body was covered in minor burns.
When she finally fully regained consciousness, her father told her that Evelyn had been proclaimed dead at the site. He also informed her that they had arrested Jonathan for the murder of Rachel. He apologized for not realizing what was going on earlier. He promised that they were going to get away and start fresh as soon as she recovered.

A month later, Emily moved to Florida with her father. She made lots of new friends and enjoyed her last year of high school. The day before going off to college, Emily stood on the beach with the wind whipping through her auburn hair. She smiled and realized that she was going to make it after all. She took one last look at her home and then prepared to start her new life.