Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 29

He turned, eyes wide with disbelief.

He looked out into the shadows where Emily
slept peacefully next to an open box.
***

“Daddy where is it?” Emily asked quietly.
Christopher did not look up from his newspaper.

“Where’s what, baby?”

“My box. My box is gone.”

“I’m sure you just forgot where you put it. It
will turn up.”

“NO.”

The cry was deep and guttural, such a
departure from his sweet Emily’s normal voice that
he dropped the paper in shock. Emily stood in front
of him, fists clenched and skin pale. Her face was
contorted in fury, her face alien.

“NO,” she cried again. “NO. NO. NO. NO.
NO.”

“Emily!”

“YOU STOLE IT.”

“EMILY!”

The girl paused as if in a daze. She blinked,
eyes wide, then began to cry. Christopher pulled her
towards him and held her close.

“You... you stole it... ” she sniffed, burying her
head in his shoulder. Christopher winced.

“I’ll find it. I promise. I’ll take a look in a
moment, I just– ”

Emily pulled away from him, rubbing her
eyes with her sleeve and scowling. She looked up at

Christopher, opened her mouth to say something more,
and then smiled. She leaned over to him and at first
Christopher thought she was going to kiss him. But
she went around, towards the small kitchen table at his
side. As she pulled away his skin prickled.

Emily rocked the small wooden box lovingly,
and gave the lid a kiss.

“Uncle Jack found me,” she said, dreamily, and
skipped off out of the room.

Christopher felt a bead of sweat travel beneath
his collar and trail down his spine.

The box had been locked in the shed.

He had put it there himself last night.

He had been in the kitchen all morning.

The box had not been there.

“What the hell is going on?”
Though Christopher watched her carefully,
Emily had no further outbursts that morning. She
seemed completely back to normal, and Christopher
was even beginning to doubt what he had seen. He
had been waking up early the past couple of mornings,
could lack of sleep explain the opened box? Had he
dreamed locking it away?

He thought back to Emily’s twisted face and
shuddered.

“Daddy,” she said as she sat cross-legged
on the floor in front of a pile of paper and coloured
pencils, “do we have scissors?”

“What do you want them for baby? Your
picture?”

Emily grinned wide and Christopher felt a
weight leave him, warmth spreading back to his body
at the sight of her usual mischief.

29