Ashes, Ashes

The Flat Above

- c h a p t e r   t w e n t y   s e v e n -  

How strange it was. There was so much going on in the flat just above her, and she remained in her own tiny worlds of her own basement flat and the restaurant and the place where she worked. Their world consisted of mysteries and lies, of danger and risks. Her world consisted of the occasional scratch from an irritated Florenz and therapy sessions. And, of course, her cello.

Emma wished she could trace this alteration in her life back to a certain point and rid herself of it, simply because she wanted to feel something once again. She'd felt all too much for all too long just to find herself witout anything to feel about. God. She didn't even need much. Emma just craved something which would make her feel alive once again.

But instead she sat, curled up in her threadbarren chair, thinking about how Mary had lied about everything. Mary Watson wasn't who she said she was at all, of course. Emma had a sneaking suspicion she wasn't supposed to be aware about this particular subject, and yet there she was. It provided a sort of thrill to her life that she refused to push away - it could mean that she managed to get something to push he forwards.

Even though it was right out of her reach, she relished in whatever details she managed to glean from her neighbors up above. Their everyday problems seemed to be anything up to a scandal, enough to attract Emma to everything that they were doing. Frankly, she found it all rather impressive in the end.

She wasn't involved in any of it, not directly, but it still felt as if she had a connection to it all. After all, she'd been in all sorts of incidents with Sherlock and the Watsons. At the very least, she'd gone to the wedding where John and Mary had gotten married to begin with. It had to mean something, it had to mean she wasn't entirely out of it all.

If she couldn't be involved in it, she could find some way to talk about it. The main dilemma with this particular idea had to do with the fact that no one cared to listen to her for more than a few seconds before they immediately cast her aside and assumed she had nothing to give except for some endless words.

But when she did speak about what little information she had within her grasp, she always made sure to gossip about what had happened between Janine and Sherlock. As she lived in the flat below where everything had occurred, people just assumed she had information.

Janine had been pushed from Sherlock's life. In actuality, she'd been dispeled from the relationship quite a while ago. She just hadn't been aware of it after everything. There was simply too much going on after Sherlock died for the second time in the past handful of years. Emma thought she should've seen the break up coming from miles away...but she hadn't expected them to get engaged first.

Of course, Emma was missing an important piece of this puzzle. This was a feeling she'd learned to become accustomed to as there would always be details missing from her life. It had nagged her since she was a child and she didn't think it would ever go away. It had only intensified since she moved to Baker Street.

It was in such close proximity to every move she ever made, and yet she knew that her actions had almost no influence on what happened. Her actions usually weren't enough to get her into the action, either. Most of the time she ended up forced to snoop around in the hopes that she would overhear something interesting enough to allow her to understand more of what was happening.

Surely there had to be a simpler way to make this entire scenario come together, but few plausible ideas ever rushed into Emma's wind, or so it seemed.

If she simply stepped upstairs and stood there for long enough, she would either get forced into the situations which surrounded every up there or end up pushed out of the area entirely. Emma might've even gone up to get something happening in her life if it wasn't for the fact this situation apparently was a matter of life and death for many people...especially Sherlock.