"Come on Emily let's go play." A young boy said brightly, his face reddened to his sister.
"Let me go. I want to be alone."
"Just play with me."
"No. I said you should let me go and I just want to be alone."
"You always avoid me and you don't want to play with me anymore." He said pouting.
"A lot of things happen for different reasons we may never understand." She said walking away from him.
He stretched his hands grabbing on her hair brooch.
"Hey! Give it back."
"No, I want you to play with me."
"You can have it. I don't want it anymore."
He resumed playing. Occasionally making sounds and little noises with his mouth.
Sounds of footsteps sounded. He looked up and saw Emmett, his older brother.
"Emmett! Come play with me."
"I'm all right. We have lessons now. Where's Emily? Mother is calling for us all."
"Oh, I know where she is. I saw her going upstairs probably to the outdoor balcony and I'm with her hairpin., I'll call her."
He ran to the balcony where his sister was. He finally reached the balcony seeing his sister settling down on the window edge.
"Emily, why are you so close to the edge? You know what mother always says."
"What are you doing here? She said quietly.
"I came to call you. Mother said we should come down for our lessons."
"This would be the last time I would partake in such."
"What do you mean, Emily?"
She turned, looking at him with red pupils and tears streaming down her face.
"Why're you crying, Emily?" He said walking close to her.
"Don't come close to me." She shouted.
He paused in his tracks looking at her confusedly.
"The only thing this house has brought me is suffering, sorrows, and pains. I hate every one of you so much, especially you. What's so good about anything here?"
"Emily…"
"Don't say my name. You disgust me." She said to him, her eyes full of spite.
"Why do you hate me so much?" He shouted to her.
"You should know."
"Come down from there, Emily."
"Maybe when I'm gone. Everyone can finally be happy and have their picture-perfect family and I'll be finally free and happy."
"Please! Don't." He said walking close to the window.
He came close enough dragging into the hem of her dress as she stood on the edge.
"Let go of me."
"No." He said firmly.
"I said let go of me."
After a few pulls, Emily jumped down from the edge, letting out a shriek as she fell to her death.
He watched in confusion as he saw his sister's body plummet to the ground. Her lifeless eyes, he could feel them staring into his soul.
"Y-you killed her," Emmett said shakily.
"What? No, I-" He began to speak as his parents rushed into the room.
"What happened? Who had that scream? And where's Emily?" His mother asked.
"Mother. He pushed Emily down the window and then s-she…" Emmett said hiccupping.
His father walked to the window, seeing a sight he never imagined to see. His only daughter's lifeless eyes staring at him.
He took hold of his arm, holding him tightly.
"Did you do this? You killed your blood? You're a whole monster." He said, looking at him with shame and disgust.
Mother fell to her knees whispering to Emily over and over again.
"I didn't push her down. She jumped on her own. I tried to stop her from-" A sound of a slap echoed around the room.
"Killer!" His mother shrieked over and over again relentlessly.
"I didn't."
He looked around the room, looking at all their faces full of undisguised hatred and disgust.
His eyes brimmed with tears. He turned to look at Emmett pleading helplessly.
"Emmett, tell them what you saw. I was going to call Emily for classes. You asked me to."
"And you started arguing here and she got angry and pushed her from the windowsill."
"No! That's not what happened. You have to believe me."
"I never want to see him again in my life Mother. He killed my sister." Emmett said going to his mother's side.
"That's right. I do not want this freak anywhere near me or my child again.
"Mother…"
"Do not call me that! I am not your mother."
His heart broke terribly as hers those words from the woman who had cared for him all these years.
"We need to send him out of the house immediately. I feel unsafe. What if he tries to kill me or Emmett next?" She said, not minding the fact he was right there.
"He's dangerous," one of his brothers whispered.
"We can't trust him." "We should have seen the signs," his mother added, her voice breaking. "He's always been... different."
He didn't argue anymore. What was the point? They had already decided he was guilty. He watched as Emmett closed the door of the dark room, the lock clicking into place with a finality that echoed through the room.
The days blurred together, marked only by the meager meals slid through the door and the occasional sounds of life outside his room. The isolation weighed heavily on him, feeding the dark thoughts that crept in at the edges of his consciousness.
He would always have recurring nightmares of the day Emily killed herself. Of how his family turned their backs on him and labeled him a killer for something he didn't commit.
Days later, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the hall. He tensed, expecting another round of accusations or cold indifference. But the door opened slowly, revealing his grandfather.
"I had to come," his grandfather said, his voice shaky with age but firm with conviction. "I had to hear your side of the story."
He felt a rush of relief so powerful it brought him to tears.
"I didn't kill her, Grandpa." He whispered.
"I know lad. I believe you."