What Emma Left Behind Read online

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  "Claudia, are these two angles congruent?" Caera asked when she noticed that her sister had just completed the last problem of her math homework. As usual, Caera couldn't resist watching t.v. late on Wednesday night and had just sat down to begin working. The show was also one of Claudia's favorites, and she wasn't about to help Caera now when she'd missed it. Caera and Claudia would do practically anything for each other most of the time, short of murder, but not when one of them had suffered through an assignment while the other was having fun.

  "Well, I think you should..." Claudia began, then paused.

  Caera turned to her expectantly. She should have caught the mischievous sparkle in her sister's eye, but she was too tired to notice it.

  "Look it up!" Claudia finished slyly and laughed.

  "Claudia!" Caera whined, looking about for something to throw at her, like a wadded-up tissue, or an eraser. There was nothing on hand. Caera frowned, watching as Claudia tucked her assignment neatly into the first folder of her binder.

  "Some sister you are." Caera finally threw at her.

  Claudia just shrugged. Some days, Caera and Clauda sniped at each other all day long and kept a running tally of who was winning. Today was one of those days, and Caera was way out in front. However, that thought was of little consolation to Caera as she slowly looked up the answer she wanted in her book.

  "Goodnight." Claudia called in the meanwhile to their parents in the living room. Then she trudged upstairs to her bedroom door.

  Claudia was so tired that her muscles were aching. Her eyes got heavy and bleary and a perpetual yawn lingered in her throat. She brushed her teeth quickly as usual and went to her room. The room was dark and quiet, and since she hated absolute silence, she clambered onto the dusty window ledge to open the window for some outdoorsy sound. Then she put on her flannel pajamas and crawled into bed, but she kept looking at the stuffed unicorn on the floor that sat perfectly still, seemingly faceless behind its shadow.

  Why did it have to keep watching her like that?

  Claudia pulled the covers up tightly around her neck and fell asleep.

  She slept peacefully for several hours until she heard midnight chime loudly on the grandfather clock in the hall and almost woke up. As she settled back into her dream, she realized something had changed.

  She wasn't in Asheley's Ice Cream Shop anymore getting her favorite mint chocolate chip and heath bar crunch double-scoop ice cream cone. She was wandering in the fog across an ancient pier, listening to the nearby docking of a fishing boat.

  The night was cold, and a salty sea breeze sent goosebumps over her skin, which annoyed her, because she was always so careful to bring a sweater with her wherever she went. She felt a shadow come up from behind her, and without knowing why, she started to run. Why was she so afraid? She didn't know.

  After a moment, she found she couldn't go any faster, and the shadow was gaining on her. She screamed, screamed loudly, and was surrounded by the echo of her own voice. The dark and silent lighthouse loomed in front of her, but out of reach. She was alone.

  Then without warning icy hands clasped around her throat. She tried to scream but couldn't catch her breath. At the same time, a foghorn pierced the silent air. Its call was her cry, her scream, yet the sound masked her struggle. No one heard her struggling with the person attacking her. No one saw her in the fog. She was going to die out here, all alone, in that deafening blast...

  Wait a minute--she was able to break free of her terror. That's no foghorn, she thought.

  "BBBZZZZZ!!!! " Claudia woke up, leaned over, and picked up her alarm clock. She shut it off and then set it down again.

  "For once I don't hate you." She told it with a laugh. Then she knuckled her eyes, pushed back her covers, got up, and stretched her arms.

  The day was bright and warm.

  But when she looked in the bathroom mirror, there were purple-red welts around her neck.