Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2017 0:27:05 GMT
If Emma was being totally honest, it was a wonder this hadn’t happened sooner. She had kept it together decently well over the last few days. Mostly because other people needed her to. Her uncle, her cousins, her mom. But her aunt was gone, ripped clean out of their lives, and it felt like Emma couldn’t breathe. Like the walls of the mountain were closing on. And then one more person had told her how sorry they were and how they understood how much it must hurt, and Emma had just lost it. Because they didn’t know. Loss was such a rare thing in here with few accidents and fewer illnesses. Broken genetics was about the only thing that killed. Defects. Cancer. The bodies of the elderly rejecting the transfusions. People just didn’t die young. Not enough that a large portion of the population understood. Saying they did was just empty words.
So there had been yelling and angry accusations and maybe throwing a chair. Emma was a little hazy on that part. And now she was huddled against the wall of a restricted tunnel with her knees hugged to her chest. She had only meant to calm down, but the crying wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t a quiet dignified crying either. It was a loud and ugly kind that shook her shoulders and made it hard to breathe. Thankfully, she was pretty sure the range of the nearby security cameras didn’t reach around the nearby corner. She didn’t want anyone seeing this.
The tears had mostly died down when she finally heard footsteps. They rounded the corner and stopped beside her. Emma lifted her head, resting her chin on the arms crossed atop her knees. She couldn’t bring herself to look up. Not with her red eyes and damp cheeks. Although she didn’t need to look past the shadow to know it was Uncle Carl. She couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. Had he come looking because he was worried? Or did the cameras reach further than she realized to highlight her defiant act of vandalism? The words I WAS HERE had been scratched into the opposite wall in an angry frenzy, and the offending screwdriver was laying at Emma’s feet. A desperate attempt to create meaning, to leave behind something, anything. Not that it would last. They would probably slap some putty in the shallow grooves and paint the words clean away. But between that and the little explosion near the dining hall… Suffice it to say he had every right to be disappointed. And Emma wasn’t sure she could handle that right now. So instead she just sniffed and wiped her eyes, her watery gaze trained on the ground.
iah2
So there had been yelling and angry accusations and maybe throwing a chair. Emma was a little hazy on that part. And now she was huddled against the wall of a restricted tunnel with her knees hugged to her chest. She had only meant to calm down, but the crying wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t a quiet dignified crying either. It was a loud and ugly kind that shook her shoulders and made it hard to breathe. Thankfully, she was pretty sure the range of the nearby security cameras didn’t reach around the nearby corner. She didn’t want anyone seeing this.
The tears had mostly died down when she finally heard footsteps. They rounded the corner and stopped beside her. Emma lifted her head, resting her chin on the arms crossed atop her knees. She couldn’t bring herself to look up. Not with her red eyes and damp cheeks. Although she didn’t need to look past the shadow to know it was Uncle Carl. She couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. Had he come looking because he was worried? Or did the cameras reach further than she realized to highlight her defiant act of vandalism? The words I WAS HERE had been scratched into the opposite wall in an angry frenzy, and the offending screwdriver was laying at Emma’s feet. A desperate attempt to create meaning, to leave behind something, anything. Not that it would last. They would probably slap some putty in the shallow grooves and paint the words clean away. But between that and the little explosion near the dining hall… Suffice it to say he had every right to be disappointed. And Emma wasn’t sure she could handle that right now. So instead she just sniffed and wiped her eyes, her watery gaze trained on the ground.
iah2
