Our footsteps were lonesome and echoing in the suddenly silent house. Each one seemed empty and hollow, like an emotionless heartbeat. They were so quiet, yet something within the very footsteps themselves were screaming at an ear shattering volume. Screaming something I unfortunately could not understand.

My aunt led me around the corner and to the attic door. I stopped, and my aunt murmured under her breath without even looking into my eyes, “I just want to talk you where no one else can hear us.”

I slowly nodded. Maybe my aunt was going to tell me something she knew. Something she knew about the murders of my family.

She motioned for me to go up first, and I began my ascent up the steep, rotted staircase. As I reached the fifth step, I heard the door suddenly slam behind me. I whirled around and stared at it, then hesitantly attempted to open it. She had locked it from the outside.

“Aunt Bethany?”

I banged on the door a few times, then called out again, louder this time.

“AUNT BETH? AUNT BETH?”

“Cora. Come here.”

I turned my head over my shoulder to see my uncle at the top of the steps. He was kindly motioning for me to come up to him, so I slowly climbed the steps and met him at the top. He held out his hand, and with a confused glance, I took it and placed my feet on the floorboards of the attic.

“Over here.”

He gruffly said this as he
suddenly wrenched my hands behind me and began tying them together. My stomach knotted up in fear and I helplessly stumbled over to a clear space in the middle of the attic.

“W-what are you doing?”

My uncle didn’t answer me.

“Eric.”

My uncle called over his shoulder in the direction of the corner near the window. I heard slow footsteps, and then saw my cousin appear beside me. My uncle held out his hand, his eyes staring straight into mine, evidentially waiting for Eric to hand him something.

It all happened in the blink of an eye- he was on the floor within seconds, gasping for air and feebly reaching for his bleeding chest. I stared in mute horror, unable to scream. Eric chuckled under his breath and mercilessly kicked his father in the ribs. He turned to me with a smile flickering at the corners of his mouth.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. See, he wanted to kill you himself, but screw what he wants.”

I felt my knees growing weak under the now seemingly immense weight of my body, and my throat felt dry and small, as my breaths were coming quicker and shallower. That’s the plan. They wanted to kill me. That meant…

“So you killed me family.”

Eric laughed under his breath and positioned himself in front of me. His eyes burned into mine and his voice was low and steady.

“No, I did not murder your family. But he did.”

My cousin pointed at my uncle, who was now lying motionless on the floor, eyes wide open, staring emptily at the wooden beams above. I nodded silently.

“So why did he do it?”

Eric stood with his back to me.

“Because him and my mother thought you could take the place of their dead little girl.”

“That’s sick. That’s crazy and twisted and sick.”

“You think I don’t know that? I told them it would never work, but they insisted. Mother was so grieved inside about Lillian’s death, because she really never got over it you know, that she foolishly agreed. So she covered up father’s deed by lying and saying he was home that night. Any other questions before the fun begins?”

“Just a few. Is Jayson dead?”

“My word, you still thought it was just a dream? Yes, he’s dead. I killed him.”

I bit my lower lip to keep it from quivering and I fought the tears that threatened to well up in my eyes. The confirmation from Eric had suddenly made it seem so real; now I had no potential dream theory to grasp on to, only the cold, harsh reality.

“Why’d you do it?”

“He was getting in the way to much. He was supposed to have been taken care of along with the rest of the family, but when mother called that night before dinner, your mom said nothing about him going out.”

“So why’d Uncle Todd try to kill me too?”

“Because you got home earlier than he thought you would and he panicked. He thought if he left you alive he’d get caught. He would have, too, if Jayson had been left alive. He was onto us, that’s the main reason he had to be dealt with.”

“When’d he get here?”

“The day you went out shopping with mother. I told him I wanted to patch things up.”

“How could you just lie like
that?”

“You wouldn’t understand, don’t ask.”

“Okay, well, why are you getting rid of me then?”

“Because you didn’t work. And you know too much now, of course.”

Eric looked at me out of the corner of his eye, a devious smile working its way onto his lips. I opened my mouth to try to convince him I didn’t need to be killed, but I could think of nothing reasonable to propose.

“I’ll keep it all a secret. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

My cousin let out a loud, obnoxiously crazed laugh and got right up in my face. His breath hit my skin and his eyes searched mine.

“You’re smarter than that, Cora. So I am. We both know you’re lying.”

I mutely stared back at him, my breath helplessly caught in my tightened throat, refusing to come out. My hands were sweating, and beads of perspiration were beginning to form on my forehead. My stomach felt like a lead weight, the horrible fear of reality finally sinking in. Eric smiled.

“Any other questions? Or can we commence with the fun?”
He hissed the last words like a snake taunting its prey, and I managed a choked, barely understandable statement as my last hope.

“You won’t get away with this.”

Eric grinned, his teeth showing and his throat letting forth a low growl of excitement.

“I already know that.”

He shoved me to the ground,
my head hitting the corner of an old table. My vision blurred and I almost blacked out, but I fought it and let out an ear-piercing scream. No one would hear me; at least, no one who would help, but at least the scream helped me wake up a little.
I crawled under the table, Eric stooping down and grabbing my ankle, pulling as hard as he could. I frantically grabbed the table leg and used all my strength to fight back and pull myself in the other direction.
Thinking fast, I swung my other foot into Eric’s shin, causing him to yelp in pain and release his grip on my ankle. I got out from under the other side of the table and jumped over a mattress. Eric growled in frustration and swore loudly at me, swiftly jumping over the table and knocking me down on the other side of the mattress. I screamed again and felt him pin my arms above my head with one hand, using the other to grip the knife.

“You have to stop running; I don’t want to play tag. I want to play a different game.”

His eyes gleamed evilly and I began to sob. There was no escape this time; no convenient Savior to come and deliver me from my approaching imminent death. This was it. I was going to die.

I shut my eyes and braced myself for what was coming, unable to watch whatever was about to happen. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice cry out from the other side of the attic.

“STOP! DON’T HURT HER!”