Shadowforce

JOSH

After sending Alfred to his room to take rest, Emma did wake up in the middle of the night. She seemed really disturbed and scared. The Emma I had come to know was totally gone. She was panicking and was saying something gibberish. She did not notice me at first but when she did she just stared at me continuously,

"What's wrong Emma?" I asked her worriedly.

"What are you doing?" was her reply.

Her voice seemed so innocent it was totally impossible for me to think that it was the same all- attitude, cool, Emma. She seemed very frightened and childish, plus she was shivering crazily. I continuously tried to ask her what seemed to be wrong but she was not answering any of my questions just speaking gibberish with her eyes wide open. She had a tight grip on my hand. It was really hurting me at first but when I looked into Emma's eyes which suddenly seemed to be so innocent and beautiful that the pain no longer mattered.

After half an hour at last the grip loosened a little and the shivering stopped. I was still looking at her eyes because I just couldn't get enough of them when suddenly something about her eyes changed... it became cold... ice cold. Emma calmed down completely and let go of my hand,

"What are you doing here Josh?" she asked me.

"What?" she caught me off guard. For half an hour she was all innocent and panicky and after that she was back being the all-attitude Emma.

"Don't you remember anything?"I asked her.

Emma looked at me curiously as if trying to figure out what I meant. Then as if having a flashback Emma became still for a few seconds.

"Oh......" She said absent minded.

"Emma? What had happened?"

"Josh... I don't know... I don't remember" she said with an expression which clearly said she remembered everything with precise detail and she wanted to forget them.

"Don't lie Emma. At least you can tell it to me. I promise I will not say a word about it. Don't try to avoid what had happened... that just makes the situation worse."

It took a lot of persuasion but at last she agreed.

"I was on my way to the computer room when I heard someone calling me. The voice was so gentle and lovely and even was vaguely familiar to me, I tried to follow the voice... turns out it was coming from Alice's room. But that was not possible. The door was open... wide open actually. I went in to find no one but still I could hear the voice. The next thing I know in front of me were two beautiful and murderous red bloody eyes. I couldn't recognize the creature but then I find myself pinned to the ceiling... I have no clue how I reached there... but soon I felt a piercing pain in both my hands and legs. And that's the last thing I remember."

Though I knew that she was hiding something more... but I decided not to push her. The fact she had shared so much was enough plus I respected her privacy. Emma seemed really exhausted and so I asked her to go to sleep which she graciously accepted. But before she went to sleep she held both of my hands and said,

"Thank you, Josh"

With such a smile which... I can't actually describe that smile but it made my heart do a flip. I for the first time had seen Emma smile and I was speechless. Emma went to sleep holding one of my hands. I noticed that all of Emma's wounds had healed so they no longer needed any tending. I would have gone back to my room but I was worried that Emma might have had another panic attack so I decided to stay plus she was already innocently sleeping with a nice and strong grip on my hand and I did not want to disturb her by moving.

I must have fallen asleep in the middle of the night because the next thing I remember is Charlie waking me up. I quickly went tot my room had a bath, changed into a yellow t-shirt and blue jeans (nothing was even close to the colour black). I was the last one to arrive at breakfast. Emma still seemed to be asleep. Charlie and Scott then explained what had happened last night.

I had millions of questions in my head such as what kind was the creature... was it the same creature who had attacked Emma...and especially why will someone name anybody Bloody Mary!?

After breakfast everybody decided to do some training in their combat rooms. We all trained for three to four hours continuously. Even in this commotion that had occurred the day before nobody had forgotten that they had to train for the team's first quest. It was late afternoon when all of us were taking a break in the living room there was still no sign of Emma. I asked Alfred where Emma was to which he said quite cheerfully,

"Mistress has been awake for hours she is in the Library room trying to figure out which creature had attacked those two kids."

"We are not kids Alfred..." Charlie replied from behind.

"Emma is in the library room?"

"Yup" Alfred replied and went back to doing something.

When I told everybody that Emma was in the library everyone at once wanted to go meet her. And surely enough, we found Emma in the Library room reading a bunch of thick books.

"You are here at last! I hope all of you trained well in your combat rooms." She said when she noticed us.

"How did you know that? Anyways.... what are you doing here in the library?"Catherine asked.

"I am trying to find out which kind of creature Bloody Mary is. I think I may have found something valuable."

"Wait how do you know about Bloody Mary, Emma?" Charlie asked.

"Alfred told me" Emma said with a crooked smirk. Seemed like Emma was back being her herself.

"Plus I like the name Bloody Mary... "

"Emma... can you tell us what had happened yesterday... Who did it to you?" Brittney asked.

"I don't know Brittney... I don't remember a thing" She lied. But everybody believed her.

"Ok... here's the information I got so far..." and with that she started explaining what she had found so far, before others could ask her something else about what had happened the day before.