Twin Souls: The Story Behind The Broken Roses

Chapter Thirteen: August 22, 2014

Emma Walsh

Honestly, Emma used to really like being out late and walking around when there was no one around, but there was something different about doing it here. When she was at boarding school, the security and people around her wanted to protect her and keep her safe, but if someone caught her out here now it would result in her possibly not being allowed to leave on time, they could claim that she was breaking rules - it carried a lot more weight than if she were simply wandering around the grounds of a boarding school...

There were also no lights, nothing guiding her path - sure, it was nice to have friends, but there was also something anxiety inducing about not being able to see where they were standing in relation to her - she felt like they could come out of the shadows at her at any given moment, which was highly unpleasant, and she felt jumpier than she ever had...

Which was only heightened when she heard something snap to her right and she paused, making her friends pause too before she felt someone - Penny probably. The hand was too big to be Tegan's and too soft and warm to be Esme's - pull her along gently. How can you keep moving? What if someone's looking for us, we could get in trouble...

It was odd to think about that now... She never used to worry about getting in trouble, she kind of just always thought she'd get bailed out... But this camp had taught her a lot of things about responsibility and being a normal fucking person that she hadn't known before... She cared about her friends, she cared about them not getting in trouble... That kind of shit was new and she didn't totally hate it.

"What was that?" Emma asked, glancing around frantically - she was worried that a counselor was going to find them, that was the root of it all... Also, Tegan muttering about how they could get murdered because no one knew that they were out here was also something that wasn't pleasant, but she felt that it was a secondary reasoning for her anxiety.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped before turning to see that it was attached to Esme. Jesus fucking Christ.

"I stepped on a branch." She said, and Emma let out a breath of relief... Well, that probably solved it, but there was no reason to not check twice and make sure, right? That seemed like the correct thing to do in this situation.

"Are you sure?" She asked, and Esme let out a heavy sigh and pushed away from her so that she could walk backwards, looking at her... Or at least that was what she assumed - the tree cover made it really hard to see her, and she already had shitty night vision.

What a stupid thing to not be able to see in, night time is the right time to have to see things.

"Considering I got stabbed in the ankle by a stick and there was a snap right after, yes I'm sure." Esme said in a flat tone, and Emma rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest as she shivered into the night air... She knew Esme was joking, but sometimes it was hard to tell, they were really good at having little to no emotion in their tone when they wanted to be sarcastic.

Really the only way to tell was if she could see their face, because the left side of their smile would crook up a bit to prove it was a joke, but it was too dark out here to see that, and no one wanted to use a flashlight because they didn't want to get caught, so she'd have to suffer through not really knowing if Esme was joking or not.  

"There's no need for that attitude." She said, and Esme shrugged, sighing as they looked forward again, turning so that they were walking facing the night instead of facing the group... Something that in Emma's humble opinion should've happened from the beginning.

"Yes, there is." Esme countered, and Emma sighed and rolled her eyes, shaking her head... She knew that Esme was just contradicting her for fun, that she was doing this as a way of trying to show affection... Esme wasn't the best at that, and she could hardly blame her. It sounded like the only person who'd ever bothered to show her affection was her mother, but she was working all the time.