We Live Here Now

Outside her bedroom, Emily is overwhelmed by a rotten stench and is forced to open the window on the landing. As the smell becomes stronger, the window crashes shut, and all the interior doors slam. Suddenly, Emily notices that the upturned nail is still sticking out of the floorboard. She is furious, remembering how Freddie claimed he had removed it.

Emily calls Freddie, still in London, in the early hours of the morning to confront him about the nail. He insists that he removed it and suggests Emily may be suffering from post-sepsis syndrome. After the call, he considers contacting Dr. Canning.

Emily is surprised to receive a call from Dr. Canning asking if she is experiencing unusual sensory symptoms, such as hallucinations. She insists that she is feeling fine. Secretly, Emily wonders if she is imagining the eerie events in the house.

Freddie immediately feels his mood sour when he returns to Larkin Lodge. He finds the hole in the floorboards where he removed the upturned nail to prove his point to Emily. Emily confronts Freddie about contacting Dr. Canning without her permission.

The next morning, as Emily stares into the steamed-up mirror in the bathroom, the letters “FREEM” appear in the glass. They disappear when Freddie enters the room, and he insists that Emily is imagining things. When Emily shows Freddie a photograph of the book titles spelling “YOU WILL DIE HERE” (97), he accuses her of creating the message herself. The couple’s argument is interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Tucker, the cleaning lady.

When Emily and Freddie go to lunch with the Carters, their anger with each other fades. Freddie asks the couple the secret of their long and happy marriage. Sally states that she initially struggled with the nature of Joe’s work and his love of women, but she suddenly overcame it. When Freddie declares that “marriage is teamwork” (126), Emily is reminded of how much she loves him.

On the way home, Emily and Freddie apologize to each other for their behavior. Freddie claims to be experiencing stress at work.

Emily and Freddie spend a “perfect” weekend together without experiencing any eerie events. Emily hopes that she may be pregnant after this renewed intimacy, reflecting that a baby would be a new start for both of them.

Emily hires landscape gardeners Pete and Merrily Watkins to improve the garden. She convinces herself that with a few alterations, Larkin Lodge can be a lovely home.

A new female bird, whom the Raven names Bright Wing, shows interest in him. The Raven initially feels unable to leave his dead mate, Broken Wing. However, one morning, he follows Bright Wing.

Freddie dreams he is laughing as he pushes Emily off a cliff. Woken by a noise from upstairs, he cuts his foot on an upturned nail on the way to the bathroom. Furious, he assumes that Emily has replaced the nail to spite him.

Emily wakes and thinks a ghost is at the end of the bed. She then realizes it is Freddie sitting unnervingly still. When the alarm goes off, Emily pretends to have just woken. While Freddie is in the shower, she scans the messages and emails on his phone. She finds nothing incriminating but remains convinced that her husband is having an affair. Freddie leaves for London, leaving Emily alone in the house for several days.

Alone in the house, Emily is distracted by the patterns in the wallpaper, which seem to shift when she glances at them. Visiting Paul Carr at Saint Olaf’s church, she is surprised by the gruesome images of hell depicted in the stained glass windows. Paul points out that the windows illustrate how “Good and evil live in us all” (148).

Emily scans Freddie’s Facebook page, looking for pictures of women with whom he may be having an affair.

Emily dreams that the house is devouring her. As demons tear Paul Carr apart before Emily’s eyes, he reminds her that she, like everyone else, is capable of evil. Emily’s voice becomes a “raven’s caw” as she screams. She wakes, realizing that a raven is screeching outside.

Emily reads “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. In the hallway, she is again overwhelmed by the smell of rotting, and overhead footsteps become louder as they descend the stairs toward her. Overwhelmed by fear, Emily flees the house.

Running into the mist, Emily collides with the postman. He reveals that Freddie instructed him to leave the mail in the post box on the lane instead of delivering it to the house. Emily returns to Larkin Lodge with a handful of letters that reveal what Freddie has been hiding from her. She wonders if the house drove her out so that she would find this evidence.

When Freddie returns from London, Emily confronts him with the pile of unpaid credit card statements. She correctly surmises that he has resumed his old habit of online gambling and has already spent the profit they made on the London flat. Freddie’s gambling addiction first emerged years earlier, when he lost all his inheritance and most of their joint savings. Freddie apologizes, stating that the stress of Emily’s accident caused him to relapse. He admits that in addition to having outstanding credit card debts, he owes thousands of pounds to a notorious loan shark. Emily berates Freddie for his weakness.

Freddie reflects that Emily would be even angrier if she knew that his gambling began before her accident. Although repentant, he is also irritated by her superior attitude. He sleeps fitfully in the spare bedroom and is woken by the sound of footsteps approaching the bedroom door. Freddie is terrified when the door handle turns, and he senses a ghostly presence outside. However, by the morning, he convinces himself that it was Emily who tried the door. He hopes she is losing her grip on reality.