Shattered (Watty Awards 2011!)

Chapter 17

Hey everyone!

If you expected this coming, good job. Seriously, it may surprise you... So let me know. ;)

Also, I've entered the Watty Awards!! So please continue showing Emma, Peter and Harry some lurve :P

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

He was standing awkwardly at the door, his hat passing between his large hands. He glanced up when I said his name.

"Harry - what are you doing here?"

I held the door open a little further, ushering him in quickly. He grasped my arm gently, speaking earnestly as he stood in the doorway.

"Emma, there is so much to say, I just... I had to come myself first."

"What are you on about? Please explain." I was frustrated again - I thought I had cried all the frustration out hours ago. My voice became more and more fraught as my heart went almost hysterical.

He didn't come in. "Harry..?"

"I'm on my way to catch my ship. I have to be there in half an hour. I just had to try to- to at least begin to explain." He bit his lip, his worried eyes attempting to gauge my expression. He squeezed my arm, and I pulled away, suddenly feeling defiant.

"Tell me then," I said, fire flashing in my face. "Tell me what I did, and tell me why HE isn't explaining himself in your place."

"I can't explain everything to you now, Emma. I need to leave."

"Then why are you here?" I felt my eyes stinging and blinked quickly, hoping to wash back the welling tears. "You said you'd explain... part of it. Please Harry, please!"

He touched my arm again, gently. "It's alright. Really. I just need to ask you something first."

I let out the whoosh of air I'd been holding in, and a few tears escaped and trickled down my cheeks. I just nodded, pulling myself straight to look at him.

"Do you..." He took a slow, deep breath. "...love Peter?"

My answer was simple, yet I had never felt so confused. For a moment, I thought about the very little I knew Mr Dinsmoore. I had spent just over a month working for him - truthfully, I had spent more time with him than I had with anyone in that time. He was so strange, that was hard to deny. But every little smile, every smooth motion, every soft word swelled in my mind.

"Yes," I whispered. That one word held more emotion than I'd ever had before.

Harry nodded, not meeting my eyes. "Then I need to tell you something. Something very, very important."

"I... Alright."

"Have you heard of Susan Benoit?"

Susan. The name was familiar. But...

"No..." I said slowly, confusion chasing the thoughts in my head.

"No one told or asked you about Peter's accident?"

The accident. Of course.

The day I'd been taken home in the car flashed through my head. The old man - he'd mentioned a girl. But he'd seemed so... sad, and reserved about it. Had she died in the same accident that crippled Peter?

"Yes, someone mentioned it." I continued to think, pressing my hand to my temple as though it would help me to think faster.

That's when I recalled something.

-0-One Year Previous-0-

The night in town was so exciting for me. I was just sixteen, and the opportunity to go and do the things that Ruth got to do (but not to that extent - I wasn't that naïve!). Really, it was all very innocent. Ruth and her friend came, our two cousins visiting from out of town, and the obnoxious annoyance Ruth currently had around her little finger. We went to the local restaurant, which was also the only restaurant, and then on a walk at the boys' insistence.

We wandered along the main road until we got to a country lane leading to the large estate near the ocean. The boys, as well as Ruth, were joking around continuously, and only got worse when the spotted a herd of sheep behind the estate's white fence.

My cousin Francis laughed hysterically as he announced his delightful idea to jump the fence and chase the sheep, and after recruiting everyone except me and Ruth's friend Lena, they went and waited by the fence for the moment to strike.

Lena and I stood back, shaking our heads like mature ladies. The other group crouched down, giggling and prodding, until Francis announced a countdown.

"10, 9, 8..."

The low cackle of of a distant engine could just be heard. I raised my head and turned, searching for lights.

"7, 6, 5..."

Was that a glow? I touched Lena's arm and pointed into the darkness. The humming rattle was louder, and we could just see a pinprick of light in the distance. "Automobile?" she asked softly.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"4, 3..."

There was a loud bang, a strange, screeching crush noise, and a sudden burst of orange light. I screamed, clutching Lena. The group behind us followed, yelling and running while Ruth cried out hysterically.

The boys started running towards it, calling for us to stay behind. But we followed, unwilling to be left in the dark, with a growing feeling of morbid curiosity. By the time we got there, however, a group of men had pulled two people from the wreckage and were taking them back to town, as the crash was not too far from buildings.

That night, we didn't know what to think, but only wondered the state of the two limp figures pulled from the raging inferno. The next day, we were told by the kind farmer that got to the vehicle first that the young woman, daughter of a famous businessman from the city, had lost her life due to the burns and injuries.

The young man was badly injured and could possibly never walk again.

-0-Present-0-

"Susan is the girl who died in the crash. Peter was in it too, wasn't he? I remember."

Harry nodded, gravely.

"Emma, I need to go. I'll write to you, you know, try and explain. But Emma..."

I looked up, wiping the tears from my face.

"The reason that you had to leave is for you - to protect you."

I was so very angry at that, but before I spoke, he cut me off.

"You were wrong about one thing with the crash." He paced the doorway, obviously upset.

"Emma, Susan, the girl in the crash... She never died."

She's alive.