Interlude: Emma Barnes
Its Dark in her dreams.
Endless Dark.
It scares her. Terrifies her. But even more she's scared if it ever disappears.
Because that means she's coming.
The woman that smiles with the face of a dead woman. Who's eyes leer and shine with predatory amusement...
That's when the Dark… stirs.
It changes to something else, something different, a fragment of memory, a shard of emotion.
The first few times… she hadn't recognized where it would take her, what the woman who smiles makes her see.
But every time it was clearer… a little more vivid. As if the woman that was dead was finding it easier to do this with practice.
The first time… it was just a sensation she remembered… just… the feeling of falling, pain at her shins, her knees, her wrist feeling as though it had just been violently twisted as she lands harshly.
The sound of laughter had been the last thing she heard that time.
Then… the next it was a hallway… it was… wrong.. too tall, twice as tall. The colors were off, the lights were wrong. Like… staring at the negative of a picture.
Something had shoved her, shoved her into the wall, her arm and elbow hurt… she wasn't supposed to feel pain in her dreams but the woman made this something more than a dream… more than a memory...
She felt… angry then… a foreign anger that fell over her mind like a greasy oil. But it was quick… gone in a second. Replaced by a sadness that felt sharp… like a knife in her chest.
She heard the laughter again.
It was becoming clearer with every night. Clearer every time the woman who smiles brought her to this place... this… dream… these...
…
Fragments of Memory.
She felt anxious every time she fell asleep, afraid of the dark, afraid of the light that came with her dreams.
And when the dreams became memories. When the emotions within those were… implanted into her own… she only felt more fear.
There was anger, sadness, a crushing anxiety...
But behind all of that… there was fear.
So much fear. She was surrounded by it. Suffocated. There was no escape, nowhere to turn.
She woke every morning with a scream, a cold and frosty feeling as though it was etched into her body, her skin ready to burst with it but feeling it trapped inside of her like bottled lightning.
She sobbed and cried into her bed sheets, begging and pleading at something she couldn't see or understand to stop...
But it wouldn't... The woman would simply smile again. Smile with leering eyes on a dead face and a touch that burned her flesh.
She wouldn't stop.
After all… why should she?
"Give it back Emma!"
The words came as the Dark bled away, the fragments of memory coming together, solidifying, pulled free from the whole.
Then she's standing there… staring at her own face. One that's smiling, taunting her.
"Give what back?"
The anger is burning across her thoughts. But it's just a thin veneer, a veil to hide the ice in her stomach, the harsh pounding of her heart and the sadness that wants to bring her to tears… all to hide the fear... the fear of losing something… the last precious thing that she has of a memory.
"My moms flute! Give it back Emma!"
The shout rings through her skull. She remembers this… remembers seeing Taylor standing in front of her, standing inches taller, but still looking so meek.
She knows when this happened… she knows… but she doesn't.
She doesn't know anything.
She doesn't know anything about what passed through Taylor's mind… how the emotions raged through her… how she was just a second away from hurting her...
Mom wouldn't want me to fight...
And that's it… that's the only thing that keeps her from giving into the desire to hurt her.
She feels sick to her stomach as she hears her own laughter
"I don't have it Tay. Maybe you shouldn't have been so careless with your things. Would you like me to help you look?"
She has it… she has it right now in her backpack.
'Just look… just look Taylor… just look and pick it up… don't let me leave… don't let me walk out of here with it...'
But she doesn't… she doesn't look. Her fists are clenched so hard that she feels her nails cutting into her palms. She's just a second away from lunging at her. Sophia's presence down the hall isn't even a factor. The teachers around them aren't a consideration.
Its just a memory of her mom's wishes that stops her.
Just a memory that she's helping to destroy...
She turns around and leaves.
She'd thought once upon a time it'd been because she was about to cry.
She knew now it was because Taylor didn't want to disappoint the memory of a woman who mattered more than she ever could.
When she wakes the next day… there's frost covering her room. And they ask her, as they've done the other times this has happened… if she's alright.
She wants to cry… wants to say that she's not… she's not alright. And with every memory the woman who smiles brings to her, she feels less alright, all the more sick to her stomach.
But she doesn't… she can't. So she tells them something else, different nightmares. The alley, the asians. A monster chasing her. Anything she can think of.
If she doesn't… if she tells the truth...
They'll blame Taylor.
They're already afraid… already cautious...
If she tells them this… if she tells them Taylor's hurting her in her sleep...
She can't do that to her… turn them all against her… not again.
She wants to see her… wants to talk to her.
But she can't… they've told her she can't. That she has to stay away. That Taylor would hurt her.
She'd deserve it… She deserves this as it is… deserves the pain.
She's not sure if she can take it. She's not sure if she's strong enough to endure… but she has to try.
And so tonight… she'll go to sleep like she always does… fearful of the encroaching dark, terrified of the piercing light.
And she'd see her face again.
Aunt Annette's face, smiling… leering… laughing… laughing in The Dark.
(X)
That night, again, she cannot sleep. Her eyes would droop, and memories of the Dark and what it harbors would make her wide awake again and again.
Is this atonement? She has to wonder. Atonement for the sin of betrayal she committed?
Yes… Yes it makes sense. Perfect sense. Her power, Taylor's power, is making sure that she will suffer. Just as Taylor had suffered.
But soon enough… she can't stay awake.
The Dark again engulfs. It consumes. She can see it, forming up against the scene before her…
The cafeteria. A table. Her, Sophia, and Madison. They were talking and giggling…
This...this isn't Taylor's memory.
You do recall this don't you. The thought is like an ice pick through her skull…
She remained still as she felt a hand on her shoulder, her blood as cold as ice. She didn't dare turn around.
Yes… you do.
'This was was when it happened… this is when we planned it...'
"Leave me alone…" Emma whispered, closing her eyes, not wanting to see the scene.
She hears her own laugh as she came up with it, Madison's shock and then glee, and Sophia's predatory smile.
She shuddered, and opened her eyes to feel hands over her shoulders, a caress over her hair.
The smiling woman… Annette would usually just stand there and grin as she showed her memory after memory… but… this... "Please...I'm sorry...I-"
She laughed.
Emma rounded on her, eyes wide and red with tears. "What do you want from me!?"
Annette's normal brown eyes changed… the whites became black and her pupils became red as the smile became something grotesque, impossibly wide.
It was an ugly thing… just like those Asian thugs from back then. Just like Sophia.
No… worse.
It was like her once upon a time.
It was like looking into the mirror of herself just a few months ago.
And it felt like it was getting hotter, and Annette reached forth with a hand… as it slowly began to crumble… her silky smooth hand…
Emma screamed, falling in the dream as the fingers changed, shifted into a gnarled mockery of the human limb, with seven digits instead of five, the whole arm becoming long and gangly, too many knuckles on the fingers.
"Enough!"
A gust of icy wind ripped through the cafeteria, striking Emma with cold and Annette, or… the mockery that was Annette let her smile grow just a bit all sharp and pointed teeth.
It was a cool breeze, and she felt arms embrace her from behind, pulling her away, a flash of white cloth at her peripheral vision.
She could hear the laugh, and saw Annette's face… beginning to crumble.
She must know fear sweet sister… if you cannot teach her, I will.
And Annette turned around, crumbling into ash as she was dissolved in the breeze, her chuckle echoing through the hazy and transparent cafeteria.
Emma, wide eyed, looked up, and felt long smooth locks of obsidian hair pour over her.
She looked up, but the shadow obscured her savior's face, she could see nothing
"What?" Emma could only ask, before a hand, a cold hand, was on her brow. She saw the woman lean down, and their foreheads touched.
"Sleep, my vessel. Sleep… I've finally gathered enough strength to hold her back for this night at least" The woman said, her tone soft, wistful, and sad. And Emma finally got a good look at her eyes…glowing eyes. They were similar to Annette's, only instead of red in black, it was a light ice-like blue in black. Her face...why couldn't she see her face...
"Your sister? But wasn't that-"
She looked down, feeling a brushing against her hand, and felt the dark-eyed Angel put something in there.
And in it was a glowing snow-white crystal.
"Use this, my vessel. And they will protect you in the waking world. I need to recover my strength… and then, I will explain..." And the sight that was the cafeteria was gone… and the two were sitting on… a cathedral floor? With open windows, the sun pouring in despite the howling gale of the wind and snow. The woman stood up, and began to walk away. Emma had her arms wrapped around herself as she stood up, looking at the retreating woman in white tattered robes and long midnight black hair that billowed in the wind.
"Wait! W-Who are you?! Come back!" Emma reached out, but the blizzard picked up and the woman faded into the white.
And Emma dreamed, and slept peacefully for the first time in weeks. When she woke, there was something in her hand.
A snow-white crystal.