After I ended things with Lily, I thought I’d left everything behind—the strange whispers, the chilling stares, the unnerving feeling that Emily was always watching. I even moved to a new apartment on the other side of town, hoping distance would make me feel safe again.
For a while, it worked. Weeks passed without any strange occurrences. I was able to sleep through the night without waking up to eerie whispers. But then, one night, it all started again.
I was at home, getting ready for bed. The apartment was quiet, save for the soft hum of the refrigerator. As I climbed under the blankets and turned off the light, I felt something—a faint sensation, like a cold breeze brushing the back of my neck. I told myself it was just my imagination. But then, I heard it.
The giggle.
That same high-pitched, unsettling giggle I hadn’t heard since the last time I saw Emily.
I froze. My heart raced. Slowly, I turned on the bedside lamp and scanned the room. Nothing. It was empty. I tried to calm myself down, repeating over and over in my head, “It’s all in your mind. She’s not here.”
But then I saw it—a small piece of paper, lying on my nightstand. I hadn’t put it there. It was folded neatly, the edges torn, like it had been ripped from an old book. My hands shook as I picked it up and unfolded it. Scrawled in that same jagged, childlike handwriting were the words: “I still see you.”
Panic surged through me. I searched the entire apartment, checking every window, every door. All were locked. No one had entered. Yet the paper was real. She was real. Somehow, Emily had followed me, and I didn’t know how or why.
The next few days were unbearable. I’d find more notes, each one more terrifying than the last. “I’m closer than you think,” one read. Another said, “Don’t look behind you.” I barely slept, afraid that if I closed my eyes, she’d be standing over me when I woke up.
Then, one night, I received a phone call. The number was unknown, but I answered anyway. At first, there was only static. Then, slowly, a voice broke through—a voice that sounded disturbingly familiar.
“Did you miss me?” It was Emily.
I hung up, my heart pounding. How was she doing this? How could she reach me when I’d left everything behind?
The following night, I woke up at 3 AM, drenched in sweat. The air in the room felt thick, suffocating. I heard a faint sound—like the creak of a door slowly opening. My bedroom door.
I turned my head, terrified of what I might see. And there she was—Emily, standing at the foot of my bed, her long black hair hiding her face, her white nightgown glowing faintly in the darkness.
“You can’t leave me,” she whispered, her voice soft, almost sad. “I’m always with you.”
I couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. I just lay there, paralyzed with fear as she inched closer and closer. Then, just as her cold fingers grazed my foot, she vanished. Disappeared into thin air.
The next morning, I knew what I had to do. I went back to Lily’s house, despite every fiber of my being telling me not to. I needed answers.
When Lily opened the door, she looked surprised but not entirely shocked to see me. “I’ve been expecting you,” she said quietly.
I demanded to know what Emily was. Why she was still haunting me. Lily sighed and invited me in. As we sat in the living room, she told me the truth.
“Emily isn’t a person,” Lily began. “She’s a spirit… or at least, something like one. My family has been cursed for generations. Emily was once a real girl, but something terrible happened to her—a dark ritual, something my ancestors did long ago. Ever since, she’s been bound to our bloodline, never aging, never leaving.”
“But why is she following me?” I asked, my voice trembling.
Lily looked at me with sad eyes. “Because she’s lonely. She’s attached herself to you. She thinks you can give her what she’s been missing for centuries—connection. But the more she clings to you, the more dangerous she becomes.”
I didn’t know what to say. How could I free myself from something so ancient, so powerful?
“There’s only one way,” Lily said, her voice barely a whisper. “You have to confront her. You have to go to where it all began—where the ritual took place.”
She handed me an old, weathered map. “It’s in the woods, far from here. But be careful. Emily doesn’t like to be challenged.”
I left Lily’s house that day with the map in hand, knowing that my only chance to end this nightmare was to face Emily in her true form. But deep down, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this confrontation might be the last thing I ever do.