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From THE WORLD WITHIN: A NOVEL OF EMILY BRONTE"Emileee." Someone is calling her. She climbs out of bed and patters along the landing to the old nursery. She pushes open the door and stops dead. The room is bright and there, sitting on the floor, are Maria and Elizabeth!A warm feeling floods Emily's heart. Maria has a book open on her lap. She holds it up so Emily can read the title: Aesop's Fables. Elizabeth pats the floor beside her and as Emily sits down, nestling close to her big sister, Maria begins to read. It's the story of the fox and the crow, one of Emily's favorites. She loves the way the wily fox flatters the crow and she laughs out loud when the crow drops the cheese and the fox gobbles it up. "Do you want to hear another?" Elizabeth asks, smiling down at her.She does, but she's wondering where Charlotte and Branwell and Anne are. She's bothered that they're missing the fun. Jumping up, she says, "I'm just going to fetch the others."She runs downstairs, but there's no one in the parlor or Papa's study. She goes into the kitchen to ask Tabby, but she isn't there.Emily begins to feel uneasy. "Hello?" she calls. No one answers. For the first time she notices how dark it is.She slowly begins to climb the stairs.How high they are. It's such a long way between the step she's on and the next one. Her legs are getting tired.When she reaches the landing halfway up, the pale face of the grandfather clock Papa winds every night looms out of the shadows. She's passed it hundreds of times, but she's never noticed how tall it is, how loudly it ticks.Emily shivers. She wants to curl up again with Charlotte under the warm blankets, but when she looks in their room, Charlotte isn't there. She tries Papa's and Aunt's rooms. No one in there either.That only leaves the nursery. She opens the door, her heart beating fast. The room is empty.Where are they? Maria and Elizabeth? And everyone else?Where are they? Something raps on the window. A small white hand.A child's voice cries, "Let me in. Emily! Let me in."Gladly, Emily runs to the window and throws it wide. "Elizabeth?"But there's no one there. Just the wailing wind, driving icy rain into her face.Emily leans out into the blast. No one down in the churchyard moving among the gravestones. No light in the church, with its tall black tower.For a moment she can't breathe. And then a feeling of horrible desolation sweeps over her and she howls into the night, into the darkness, the emptiness..."Emily! Wake up!"She comes to, sobbing, with Charlotte's arms round her."Shh. It's all right." Charlotte strokes her back. "You were dreaming, that's all."Emily gulps. "It was that one, Charlotte. You know, about Maria and Elizabeth..."Charlotte nods. "Don't think about it. It's over now."When she's calmer, they settle down again. Charlotte is still holding her tight. "Go to sleep, now. I'm here. You're all right."She is, but as the nightmare fades, the question pushes itself into her mind. What will she do if Charlotte isn't here?She tells herself not to worry. She will not let Charlotte go away to school. There's still time to talk her sister out of this.
