Chapter 15
A Mother's Resolve
Sally's fear hardens into determination. She will not let Selly take her daughter. She must find a way to fight back and protect Emily, no matter the cost.
Sally’s fear, a cold knot that had been tightening in her stomach for weeks, finally solidified into something hard and unyielding: resolve. She looked at Emily, her sweet, innocent Emily, whose eyes, once bright with childish wonder, now held a flicker of something ancient and terrified. Selly. The name itself sent a shiver down Sally’s spine, a name that had started as a playful whisper and had grown into a monstrous roar in the quiet corners of their home.
It wasn't just the shadows anymore. It wasn't just the way Emily would drift towards the darkest room, her small hand reaching out as if to embrace the gloom. It was the gifts. The strange, unsettling gifts that Selly, through Emily, had begun to bestow. A perfectly smooth, black stone that felt unnervingly warm to the touch, found nestled in Emily’s pillow. A single, impossibly vibrant red feather, lying on the kitchen counter one morning, though no bird had been seen near the house. Each gift had come with a hushed request from Emily, a whispered desire that, when it came true, brought a chilling satisfaction to Selly’s unseen presence.
But the gifts had stopped being benign. The last one, a small, intricately carved wooden doll resembling Emily, had been found with its eyes gouged out, lying beside Emily’s bed. Emily had been inconsolable, not from sadness, but from a primal fear that had made Sally’s blood run cold. Emily, her own daughter, had spoken of Selly’s anger, of Selly’s displeasure. And now, Emily’s mirroring of Selly’s behavior was no longer subtle. She would stand by the window for hours, her small face pressed against the glass, her gaze fixed on nothing Sally could see, just as Selly had done. She’d whisper to the darkness, her voice a low, guttural imitation of Selly’s unsettling tones.
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