Astray

11 / Goodnight

Felix left Emerson alone in their room for an hour or so. She obviously needed time to calm down, and he was getting hungry.

As he began to fry up some peppers and onions to use for dinner, he thought through their schedule for the coming week. If everything went as planned, they were finally supposed to go dress shopping for her in a few days, though he had some serious doubts about Emerson's willingness to go. She was so vehemently in denial of anything wedding-related.

After dress shopping, he had to attend a meeting with the contractor about some last-minute design details for their new house. Felix could have chosen anywhere to build their house, but he ended up choosing to stay near Arkbridge so they could visit his parents frequently. He loved the mountains, and he knew Emerson would love them too, as soon as she was allowed outside again.

The wedding itself was scheduled for October 25th. With two weeks to go, Felix had to admit that he was terrified. He had such specific, grand dreams for his wedding: it would be an outdoor ceremony by a lake, surrounded by the Arkbridge mountains, with endless autumn trees in every direction. The reception would be fun, loud, full of dancing, laughter, and good food and drinks, and his perfect wife, Emerson, would be smiling at his side. Everything else on the list was doable, but the last thing—the most important thing—was proving to be quite a challenge.

Felix sighed aloud as his wedding daydream morphed into nerves. As clearly as he could see his ideal wedding, he could also perfectly envision all the possible things that could go wrong if Emerson wasn't ready—if she wasn't behaving—by October 25th.

He wouldn't let it get that far.

He knew now that he had been too easy on her at first. He hadn't meant to, nor had he thought he even had a very soft side. But after taking her, finally having her in person and seeing her in such a state of turmoil, he had been weak. His father's lessons from the past ten or so years seemed to float out of his mind each time Emerson spoke.

That is, until a few days ago, when she had stabbed him. Emerson's escape attempt had slapped Felix back into reality; forcing him out of his naïve stupor in which he had convinced himself that she might actually like him already.

The truth was, it didn't matter whether or not Emerson liked him now, before the wedding, or even years after. He knew that she would love him eventually, and moreover, his need for her superseded all else. Love wasn't the task right now; he needed to mold her into the perfect wife first. She was going to be a Holloway—his Holloway—and to do that, he needed to stop acting soft and lay down the rules with her.

Felix thought through how he would go about taking Emerson dress shopping and such as he finished cooking the stir fry and sat down to eat. When he was finished with dinner, he dished up a plate for Emerson and stored it in the refrigerator, hoping she would put aside her stubborn, volatile attitude and ask him nicely. He reassured himself that he wouldn't give her dinner until she did so.

After eating, Felix stopped by the office upstairs and flipped on the security camera from their room to see what he should be prepared for when he entered. The live footage showed that Emerson was sitting on the bed with her knees to her chest, biting her nails and looking around nervously. Felix was relieved to see that she wasn't tugging at her chain or destroying the room. She seemed to be calm enough.

As he had predicted she would, Emerson immediately pretended to be sleeping when Felix re-entered their room. He didn't mind; on the contrary, he far preferred the fearful version of Emerson to the violent one. He watched her breathe shakily as she lay on the bed feigning sleep, surely wishing he would leave.