Breeder

Secret Meetings (1)

9/14/2022: Guys, sorry for disappearing into the unknown for half a year. I've had writers' block for the stories, and I was caught up on school+work+moving. Uni started back up again, too. But here's everyone's update!

I have also updated the first chapter with content warnings. I did warn people of mature content in the story summary, and I thought that the title was a clear giveaway and a general idea of what to expect from the book, but that wasn't enough, apparently.

(Edit) Feb.5, 2023: Started this chapter months ago and finally finished it;;; my emotional state is much less than well and I've been taking breaks from writing so that I can focus more on myself for a bit. School is still very much going underway, so I can't write a whole lot but I am chipping away at it bit by bit.

Thank you to those of you who have been hanging around patiently for so long.

(Edit) 16July23: Reading all the edits is lowkey painful but funny haha. Major thanks to those of you who kept leaving comments and asking me to update, showing that they stuck around despite my year-long disappearance. Here are the updates, finally.

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Recap:

Erica makes Ray her second "Partner"- to which, Isabella is not happy at all about. After a confrontation gone wrong, Erica sets up a sleepover with Norman, Ray, and Emma in order to get a feel for their morale and possible actions in the future.

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Third Pov

Soft creakings of the wooden floorboards filled the silent night air as Emma tiptoed her way to her best friends' room, spare blankets in her arms and a pillow balanced on her head. A small candle held far away from the cotton sheets lit her way with a warm orange glow.

Emma froze in the hall when she noticed movement from the widow a little way in front of her, face freezing in a silent scream when a small, pale hand pulled the window open from the outside.

".....Erica?"

"Emma?"

The two locked eyes for a moment, before falling into soft laughter together. Erica closed the widow behind her after climbing into the hallway, an emptied-out pillowcase full of midnight snacks hauled over her shoulder.

"I'll take those, you carry the candle," Erica suggested, taking the bundle of blankets from Emma.

"Wha- I can carry them too, you know!!" Emma whined, whisper-shouting.

"And risk setting them on fire? No thanks."

Emma gave Erica a visibly offended look, huffing and pouting cutely. Emma knew that Erica was far from normal and kept many secrets hidden from them, but she also knew better than to pry. There was something going on between Erica and Mama, too. But something within Emma begged her to not ask any questions about it, twisting uncomfortably within her gut.

"Do the guys know what to do if Mama comes to check on us?" Emma asked, pushing the uncomfortable thoughts away and deciding to focus on the events at hand.

"Yeah. The snacks go under the desks, you go under someone's bed, and the rest of us pretend to be asleep. Worst case scenario, we pretend to be asleep on the floor. Of course, the snacks still have to be hidden and you need to be out of sight."

Emma nodded in understanding, a somewhat awkward silence falling between the two girls.

".....I don't mean to take your friends away from you or anything."

"H-huh?"

"You may hate me for turning up out of nowhere and separating you from Ray and Norman. But that isn't my intention."

Emma blinked. Erica, take away Ray and Norman? From her? Was that really what Erica expected Emma to feel about the two boys? Why did she think that way?

"I don't hate you," Emma spoke firmly.

".....Really?"

"Really. I think that you're amazing!! You know so many things, and try your best to get along with everyone even though we probably make you uncomfortable, since you don't know us as well as everyone does each other..."

Erica hummed in response, absent-mindedly scratching the blade of her hands. .....Is that... a giant scar? Emma wondered for a moment, thinking that she had seen a large scar at the edge of Erica's hands for a moment. It almost looked as though something was ripped out. Or cut through it with something very rough.

"Be very quiet," Erica whispered, bringing Emma out of her thoughts.

"Isn't this our winter clothes storage room?" Emma asked, watching as Erica walked inside and pushed some boxes away from a portion of the back wall.

The storage room was two rooms down the hall from Erica's room, filled with stacks of spare linen, blankets, winter clothes and other items. Emma quietly closed the door behind them and put the candle out for safety, the two of them now relying on moonlight shining down from a small window to navigate.

Emma watched avidly as Erica kneeled down to the floor and pulled out a small box of coloured marbles from a stack of winter clothes. She picked out an orange one and a red one and put them into one of the small holes in the wall. She could hear the marbles rolling somewhere very faintly, towards Erica's room.

A few minutes later, a single green marble, along with the two others that Erica had sent appeared at the hole just beneath the hole that Erica had sent the two others into.

"We're good to go."

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Feb.5, 2023

2.8 pages, 947 words