Circles and Wings

Chapter 45

*Jenkins*

"Emily," I sighed as I watched her pour over books I know she's read before. "It's time to take a break. You've been reading all day."

She didn't speak, she only looked at me. She said she wouldn't speak to me until I called her by her name. I thought I had been, but apparently, Emily didn't think she was Emily. She thought she was her daughter, Scarlett. I didn't have the heart to remind her she couldn't have children. Not anymore.

"Emily." I sighed again, "Please speak to me."

She looked at me again, taking a deep breath. She looked tired, like she couldn't figure out what to do next. "Jenkins," she stood, "Do you remember when Michael snuck into my room?" She asked.

I nodded grimly. "I do."

"Will you show me what happened after?" She asked, placing her hand on my cheek. The room shifted into her room and I saw her laying in bed, sound asleep. Then, as he always does, Michael entered and cut out her fertility. Then he left and she sobbed in her bed. Bleeding.

The scene shifted to my room, I watched myself studying at a desk, while the secret passage to her room opened. I watched myself navigate the dim passage, meeting with the young Benny at the entrance to her room.

"What's wrong?" Benny asked, his voice echoed. "Why did she summon us?"

We heard her sob from the room and rushed in. She laid there on the bed, bleeding, crying. We rushed to either side of her. "Emily!" I exclaimed, "What happened?"

"He... he cut it out..." she sobbed. "I'm useless. I can't have... he took it..."

"Took what, Em?" Benny asked as he began sewing up her abdomen.

"What happened, Emily?" I asked, taking her too cold hand in mine. "What did he take?"

"He took my... my fertility." She whispered, "He made me useless."

"Who did?" I asked, fury growing in my stomach.

She met my gaze, "Michael." She sobbed, "He made me worthless."

Benny took her chin and met her gaze, "Don't you ever say that again, Em. Your worth lies far away from your ability to have children. You are worth more than your reproductive system."

She nodded, "I'm glad you think so, Ben, but I don't think my brother will agree. I don't think even the mysterious man at my window would agree."

"That's not true." A man said. I looked to her window and saw a man with brown hair, a bare chiseled chest, and black wings. "I agree with Ben, as a matter of fact."

"It's Benny, to you." Benny snapped. "What are you doing here?"

The man held out a box, "I was going to leave this token by her bed." He sat it on the small table where Emily took her breakfast every morning.

The Emily in the bed, looked different from the one standing next to me now. Her hair was a dimmer auburn, and her skin was a little more golden. In fact, the structure of the Emily next to me's face was completely different. The one next to me, the one who called herself Scarlett, looked at the stranger with black wings and breathed one word, "Dad?"

A tear flowed from Scarlett's eye. She wiped it away and straightened her spine. I turned my attention back to the scene unfolding before me. The man placed a kiss on Emily's head and whispered, "I'll see you again, Emily." Then he vanished.

I moved forward and stood behind my remembered self, as I whispered to Emily. I looked back at the one who called herself Scarlett. She looked like Emily, but she wasn't Emily. I could see that now. I could see the subtle differences in the slant of her nose, and the height of her cheek bones. And her eyes, they were older, more worn from life than Emily's had been before Michael stole from her.