Chapter 4: Transfer

"Emma, where are you now?"

Emma's hands began to shake as the panic attack wrapped around her insides. Her breathing became forced and quick, her heart beating as if it wanted to break out of her chest cavity. Her throat grew tighter as she tried to force the air in and out.

"Emma….Emma please respond to me….Emma…where are you?"

Bathroom. She was thankful that she didn't need to physically speak to answer her. She wasn't sure if she could.

"What's happening?"

Panic. Attack. Can't. Breathe.

"Emma…focus…just breathe… Just focus on your breathing. Everything is fine. I am right here. You can't get rid of me even if you wanted to because I happen to be inside your head."

Somehow, Emma managed a laugh.

That's creepy. Stalker.

She then heard a sound that she hadn't heard before from Elphaba: a laugh. It was loud and sharp, just like her own (which many people in Emma's past have called "obnoxious").

"If you can crack a joke then you can breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale and count to four. Exhale and count to eight. Breathe. I'm right here."

After a few minutes, Emma's breathing returned to normal. Her heart rate slowed, and the vice grip around her throat loosened. She had attacks worse than this before, but it had been a while since she had one this intense. Not surprising, seeing as a giant wound had materialized on her leg out of thin air.

You know, most people wouldn't find a voice in their head saying 'I'm here' to be comforting.

"Well, you did the same for me, so maybe we're just both losing it. Are you feeling better?"

Yes, much.

"You said there was a problem. Was that it?"

Well, no. What caused it is the problem.

"Can you tell me?"

Emma looked down at her leg. How in the world was she supposed to describe this? It was so absurd that she would have thought she was imagining it if it weren't for the events of the previous few hours. She thought for a moment, and then got an idea.

Hey, remember how you said it was easier to show me what happened to you than to tell me? And you brought me to you? Do you think you could get to me?

There was a pause. "I can try."

"Find one spot in the room," said Elphaba. "Focus on it. Focus on everything that you are feeling physically: the floor, the walls, anything. Focus on it. If it works, you'll know."

Emma sat, fixating on the blue and white swirls on the shower curtain. She felt a small gust of air, and every hair on her body stood up. The feeling that someone was watching her, the very feeling that had her running through the apartment the previous night, slid up her body like ice cold water. The feeling intensified to the point that she felt frozen to the ground, and then suddenly she was warm. Heat began to spread from her chest outward, flowing down her torso to her arms and legs. It swelled up into her face and head, making her catch her breath. It felt like she had just been yanked out of a tub of ice and thrown into a warm bath. There was no pain, however. In fact, it felt comforting, like basking in sunshine.

She felt an itchy sensation come to her eyes. She blinked once or twice, and then suddenly a haze appeared around the edges of her vision. Elphaba was there.

"Whoa, it's bright in here." Elphaba's voice went through her mind, but this time it was much louder. Emma turned her head to the side.

"Hey, hey, slow down. Don't move your head so fast."

Sorry.

"Your bathroom is…bright. Terribly bright. Wait, are you on the floor?"

Yes. Is that a problem?

"No. I'm just a bit surprised. Honestly, I didn't think I'd be able to get to you. I didn't think I had enough strength left."

Emma scanned her eyes around the bathroom.

Well, here you go, here is the bathroom in all its glory. Now, onto the problem.

She extended her leg outwards, hissing at the pain that came from the skin around it pulling. She angled it upwards and then fixed her eyes upon it.

Elphaba was quiet for a moment.

"That looks like one of my wounds."

Yeah, that's what I thought. I didn't notice it was there until just a few minutes ago. It just showed up. I don't know how it got there.

"I wonder…" Elphaba trailed off. "I wonder if….if somehow, when you joined me…when you saw out of my eyes… we somehow joined in body and you… took it back with you. "

You know, I've heard a lot of strange things today, but that is by far strangest.

"I know, it felt insane saying it. Understand this: I connected with you. Someone I don't know, whom I never met, in a world that is worlds away from my own. We connected at the mind. We can see through each other's eyes. I'm wondering if were connecting in body as well."

I'm joining bodies with the voice in my head and now I'm getting mysterious injuries. This is all perfectly normal.

"Hold on, Let me check something." The warmth was yanked out Emma's body at such a rate that she almost fell forward, and then returned with such a fury that she cracked the back of her head on the wall.

Ugh, warn me next time

"Sorry. So…this is going to sound weird…but there's a spot on my left leg that I'm pretty sure is missing one. There's not usually any unmarked spots."

After shoving away the horrible thought of not having an injury-free spot of skin, Emma replied.

So…I somehow took it from you. I ended up in a prison in Oz, seeing out of your eyes, and now I have one of your injuries. Again, I say things can't get weirder, but they keep getting weirder. You might have to give me a minute.

Emma took a few moments for herself, trying to get a handle on what was going on. Common sense would say that she was losing her grip on reality. But something inside, something deep inside, the same thing from before was telling her that she was right and this was real. She decided to listen to it.

Emma then finally got the chance to ask the question she'd been dying to ask.

How did you find me anyways?

"I was on my last hope," Elphaba said, her voice flat. "I had a particularly bad beating from the guards, and I was sure I was going to die that night. I thought I had resigned myself to my fate, but the will to live is a strong one, even if you don't want it. I had no idea who could help me, so I pulled together as much of my magic as I could, and reached it out as far as I could. I used everything I had. I don't remember much after; I must have fallen unconscious. I don't know how long I was out. I remember waking up to one of guards kicking me, and then listening to them complain about how I wasn't dead yet. I thought it failed. I had failed everything else, why not this as well? ….and then I heard your voice."

Emma sat for a moment, processing everything that she had heard.

But…why me? I'm…not anything special. I'm not useful. I don't have any particular skills. I don't have magic like you do. I have absolutely no idea how far away you are from me, which makes me too far away to help at all. I don't understand why your magic found me, of all people.

"I'm still trying to understand it as well. There has to be a reason. For now, it's nice to have a friend. "

"Friend", Emma said out loud, and then laughed. A weird friend that talks in my head and sees out of my eyeballs.

While they were worlds away, the two laughed together as if they were they only inches apart.

Emma took another look at her leg.

What should I do about this? I'm going to have to hide it. No one here will believe me if I told them the truth about how I got. What even caused it?

"It's a lash from a whip."

Oh.

"Just take care of it like any other wound. Keep an eye on it. If something looks weird, let me know and I'll take a look at it. I've had enough of them to know what to do."

That thought made Emma squirm and she felt a small ball of anxiety start to grow.

Hey Elphie-

She could almost feel Elphaba recoil behind her eyelids

Sorry…sorry…I know that was Glinda's nickname for you. I just… it just came out. Don't be mad.

"No, no"… Elphaba said after a moment, "It's okay. It really is. If you're trusting me to let me see out of your eyes, then I can deal with that."

Okay, um…you've said that you've had many of these before-which the thought is horrifying to me and making me nauseous, by the way-but…if that's the case…how long ahve you been there? In that shithole?

"I'm actually not sure. I'm thinking it could be months, but it's impossible to tell. The only light we have comes from the torches in the hall and the lamp inside the cell. It's always dark. I never know if it's night or day, let alone what day. The only thing that breaks up the endless darkness are questionings from Morrible or beatings from the guards."

I wish I could get you out of there. Or at least help you get out. I really do. It hurts me to hear all of this. I wish this connection to me was more useful, other than giving me injuries I didn't get.

"I mean… that does help me."

Shut up.

Elphaba laughed. "Maybe we'll find out in due time. I know it has been a while since I last contacted you, but it seems that this is only growing stronger."

A while? thought Emma. It's only been a few hours…

"That's odd", said the witch. "It's been days here."

Emma had a horrible thought.

So…I can go an hour or so without hearing from you, and it could be days for you? Or more? I could stop talking to you, take a shower, and find out that they've hurt you and you've been suffering alone for days and—

She felt a stabbing pain in her eyes that stopped her mid sentence.

"Stop it. Time doesn't always flow equally from world to world. It could not even flow evenly. An hour for you could be three days here, and then reverse itself. Things aren't linear between worlds. At least, that's what I've read."

Emma was not fully satisfied with the answer, but she knew that was all she was going to get.

Okay, fine. Please just find me if anything bad happens.

"I will."

Promise me.

"I don't do promises."

Listen, I've heard that you are stubborn, but so am I. Promise me you will let me know if something happens to you. PROMISE ME.

Elphaba sighed, "Fine. I promise I will let you know. For now, I need to try to find some sleep. I'll be here if you need me as well."

The warmth disappeared from Emma's body, and the fuzziness at the ends of her vision returned to normal. She leaned back against the wall, her body growing cold from the sudden lack of radiating warmth. Marco and Polo had nudged open the bathroom door and were now roaming around her feet. She was just figuring out what she was going to do with this leg injury when she heard the bathroom door open wider.

Her husband, Rob, was not only home early, but somehow had entered the apartment without her hearing or noticing. He still had his work bag, which was dangling from his hand as his stood frozen, eyes transfixed on the massive whip lash across her leg.

"Babe….what happened?"

Emma put her hand to her head. How was she going to explain this?