The True Story of Emily Lockwood / g. karim

𝟙𝟝. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕐𝕒𝕨𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕖

~ / Episode Four - Part Two \ ~

"Ballroom Blitz"

❀

--The cathedral must have once been beautiful, but Sweet Dreams Excavations had turned it into a rather ominous place of operations, tarnishing whatever kind of place it must have been. 

"Unusual table you've got there," George commented offhandedly, motioning to the littered surface with a hand. 

"It's a catafalque, according to Joplin," Saunders explained to him. "God knows what it does." George, bless his sweet, beautiful, brain, was ready to disprove the way the man talked of the cemetery artifact. 

"It's a life to take coffins to the catacombs," he said, while Emily snatched up a biscuit from the plate, but George gently grabbed it out of her hand right before she bit into it. "I'd normally never say this, but you really shouldn't be using it to serve biscuits." Emily shuddered.

"Thanks for that," Emily muttered, watching her brother talked with Saunders, in regards to the job they'd been hired for. 

"This is not what we agreed." Anthony spoke sternly, when Saunders essentially told them they'd be going alone, without proper back up. Basically, another Combe Carey Hall situation. Sacrificing young lives, to fill the sick, capitalist agenda. 

"What if there's relic men, or some other active visitors out there?" Emily snapped at Saunders, crossing her arms. 

"If you wish to complain, Miss. Lockwood, just complete the relative paperwork." The old, nefarious man told her rudely. 

"We're not filling out any more forms," Anthony held up his hand, leaving Emily to close her mouth and bite back the retort that lingered there. 

"Suit yourself," their irritating employer shrugged. "but you're still under contract." He reminded Lockwood and Co., with a beady smile that followed Emily out into the fresh night air. 

--It took some persuading, but finally Anthony released his anger and the team found themselves walking in the pitch black, deserted graveyard. Saunders, it seemed, did not think this job was worthy of any of his other employees, save for them. 

In unison, they clicked off their flashlights, while George broke the anxious silence. 

"They really did leave in a hurry," he said, looking at the casket that was half in the Earth, half out. 

"Okay. Ready?" Lockwood asked his team, and Emily nodded. "Em, what do you think?" She took a deep breath, reaching out to get a feel of the casket. 

"I - I can't feel much," she admitted, opening her eyes again to blink at him. "it's like, like static from a television." Her brother nodded empathetically. 

"There's no death-glows, nothing else visible," he reported back "Got anything?" He asked George, whose forehead was wrinkled in such a way that suggested he was concentrating quite hard. 

"Nope," he sighed, letting go of a breath. Emily brushed their hands together in reassurance, sending him a smile she doubted was very visible due to the lack of light. Still, he smiled briefly back.