Page 104 of The Unknown

“I’m hoping we can find out together.” Mrs. Semple held up the book she’d brought with her. “Would you like to compare journals?”

I pushed her away, suddenly more horrified. She knew what I’d done and said nothing! Instead, she wrote it all down in her own journal while I filled mine with lies. Which meant she had been working with the Darkness all this time!

“You’re lying,” I said. “I didn’t kill them. I’d never hurt anyone.”

Mrs. Semple raised a brow. “Are you certain of that?”

“Yes! I—”

Suddenly, I wasn’t certain at all. More memories began to flood in. Ones from before coming to New Avalon, before being taken to the boardinghouse. Ones of Daddy.

Mrs. Semple knew what I was thinking and said, “Again, I don’t blame you. Your father was a cruel man. Drunk. Abusive. You’re remembering now, aren’t you? How he’d beat you. How, at night, he’d climb into your—”

“Stop!” I cried. “None of that happened!”

“It did, my child,” Mrs. Semple said quietly. “I’m so sorry that’s the case, but it did happen. And continued to happen. Until, one night, you—”

“I didn’t!” I screamed. “You’re lying!”

When she stepped toward me again, I spotted the knife from the kitchenthat I’d used to carve my daisy wheel. It was still in the cottage, right where I’d left it. I lunged for it, wrapped my fingers around the handle, and, closing my eyes, thrust it out in front of me.

Mrs. Semple let out a cry before the sound of her voice was replaced by the sickening squish of the knife entering her body. As it was happening, I was overcome by a thousand memories.

Of Daddy drunk.

Screaming.

Throwing an empty bottle at my head and then crawling into my bed whispering apologies, his beard like sandpaper on my skin.

The last memory was of me, knife in hand, shoving the blade deeper and deeper into Daddy’s gut until he gasped out his last word.

My name.

Mrs. Semple did the same right before she hit the floor with a thump, dead by my hand.

I wept by her body for an hour, too overcome with guilt to do anything else. I didn’t mean to kill her. I swear on Mommy’s grave that I didn’t. I was just trying to defend myself and get away. But lying next to her body, I knew Mrs. Semple had been right. With or without the Darkness, I was a killer.

Now she’s buried. It was the least I could do. Unlike the others, there was a body left behind, something to commit to the earth. And when I put her there, weeping and racked with guilt, I pretended that the others were being laid to rest as well.

I suppose that’s why I went to the main house, took a dress from Mrs. Semple’s armoire, and placed it in the smoke-scarred branches of the oak. Another memorial for someone who didn’t have one.

Then I slipped out of my own dress and did the same.

It hangs there now, joining the others in a fitting tribute.

For in a few minutes, I also will be gone.

The Darkness will soon take over. Before it does, I know what I must do.

Now here we are—at the end of my story.

I want whoever reads this to know I’m not scared or sad. I take comfortin knowing I’ll be joining Mommy soon. Perhaps I’ll even encounter Mrs. Semple, Jonquil, Mrs. Minafer, and Katrina as well, and I can seek forgiveness for what the Darkness made me do.

Good-bye, New Avalon.

Good-bye, Daisy.

Before the Darkness consumes me completely, I will head for the light.