Pixie Dust Never Lies

Chapter 16

Before now I had sought comfort in my house; the white walls, the dark tables, the grey sofas. But now the colorless walls only emphasized the emptiness of the house. There were no children running down the hallway, no one waiting for me to cook supper, and no one to hold me in their arms and tell me everything was going to be alright. I sat and laid down on all of the chairs in the house. When I wasn't doing that, I wandered aimlessly down the hallways; pacing and thinking. I would go out for a walk, but outside was worse.

The entire previous day had been horrendous. Everywhere I went, eyes followed me. Whether they were curious, sympathetic, or malicious I could feel their stares in the back of my head. It made me uneasy and tense all day. One man even screamed "Whore!" at me across the street; it was immediately accompanied by quiet murmurs of agreement. I walked quicker, bowing my head in an attempt to hide my face with my hair.

As bad as it was for me, it wasn't even close to what happened to Emma.

As I walked home from work that night, I passed by the sheriff's station. To my horror, I saw that someone had vandalized Emma's car. The word "FAG" was written across the entire left side of the car in red spray paint. Emma was there, just starting to scrub at the corner of the "G." As she went to dip her brush in the bucket, she looked up and met my eyes. Immediately, she looked away and continued scrubbing.

"Emma, I..."

"I don't want to talk," Emma snapped.

I was taken aback. She hadn't spoken to me in that tone of voice since before the second curse. With a tear in my eye, I turned and walked away. What could I do? There was nothing I could say to her that would make her talk to me.

Now I sat in my dining room, my upper body slumped on the table. There was no one there for me, and I'd long since abandoned taking my pain out on others, so what purpose did I have?

As I sat there, head in my hands, contemplating my own existence, I heard a sharp knock on the door. The sound broke me out of my reverie. Who would come to my house? What if it was Hook coming to kill me?

Or what if it was Emma coming to forgive me?

I walked to the door cautiously, trying to be quiet so that whoever was on the other side of the door wouldn't hear me, and looked through the peephole.

I threw open the door in relief. "Henry!"

"Hi, Mom," he said. I pulled him India tight hug; the one person in this town I hadn't alienated. The smell of his hair warmed my heart and relaxed my muscles.

"I missed you," I whispered.

"I missed you, too." He hugged me tighter. Then he pulled away from me, his face serious. "I have something I need to show you."

"What is it, Henry?" I said, bringing him inside. The door clicked shut behind us.

He took a deep breath. "So, today I decided to go to Archie's office to hang with Pongo and chat with Archie a bit."

"Okay..." I said. I wasn't sure what he was getting at.

"Well, as I was playing with Pongo on the floor, I saw something shining under Archie's dresser, and I found this." He held out his hand; in it he held a cuff link.

"What?" I took it from him to examine it closer. "It's a crest."

"And it definitely wasn't there a couple of weeks ago."

"So this crest," I surmised, "must belong to the man that took my files!"
Henry nodded. "I thought maybe you'd know whose crest it is."

I looked at it closer. There were seven green flowers decorating the top, under which was a red pointed divider, with a green lion roaring at the bottom. I tried to remember where that crest came from. It was so familiar...

Suddenly, I did remember. "Henry, come with me."

"Where are we going? Do you know who it belongs to?"

"I do indeed, but it's not quite as simple as that. I need some answers." And I was afraid of what would be waiting for me when I got there.