Shadowforce

CATHERINE

Relaxing was totally out of question. I had never been so impatient in my life. I mean only a few hours ago Emma was in Octave ordering us, being all-attitude and cold and again, ordering us. You may say my perspective about Emma had changed a little bit. When I had first met Emma, I had thought that she was just a selfish rich spoilt brat with a really famous sister. But to be honest she was nothing like that in person I mean yes, she was cold, full of attitude, a show off but still she wasn't spoilt or selfish.

I was baffled as to what our next move would be. It was then that the realization hit me that Emma was actually doing a fine job as a leader, she had been making all the decisions all this time not giving us even a tiny bit of pressure. She made all of the arrangements herself as we trained. Yes we trained hard but Emma not only trained hard but also made so many arrangements both back in the mansion and in Octave.

From the mansion I remembered about Alfred, over these few days I had grown fond of Alfred. Alfred was always worried about Emma, but now, who was going to tell him?

You see Gnomes and Elves are very common in mansions, you can say they are the slaves of the mansion they cannot leave the mansion without their masters permission. If something happened to their master, the gnomes and elves would starve themselves to death as a punishment since they believe that they have failed to protect their master all the time. And hence they starve themselves and it is believed that these elves and gnomes follow their master's soul and serve them in their "afterlife".

But in case of Emma, the mansion was being inherited first from her parents to her sister, Alice and from Alice to Emma. But I don't know who would inherit the mansion next and if nobody does, Alfred and all the other gnomes and elves would die.

But I decided to put that thought aside, I was disturbed enough. Lucy had previously said something about Emma being inflammable. Now that could be possible but I don't know how anyone can reform themselves after they are turned into ashes! THAT was impossible.

Believing that Emma was still alive would be pushing my luck. I mean when someone sees one burn into ashes there is pretty sure no way can anyone escape death in that way. I mean there was no way if I was being logical that is. Plus all the three of them (Scott, Drake, Brittney) had agreed on the fact that they had seen Emma burn. (That was no doubt horrible and terrifying).

So as you can understand my mind was full of these thoughts, horrifying thoughts. I was just sitting there in my bed looking blankly and unconsciously at the door. Suddenly there were so many thoughts in my head that it got hard and hard of me to think anything. I mean there were suddenly so many voices, so many thoughts in my head. And I didn't know how or why that was happening. And before I knew it I was having a splitting headache. The voices, so many of them...

The pain continued for a few more minutes when suddenly like with a bang! All became silent in my head. Then a stinging noise... I can't describe it... the noise increased by volume per second. I did my best restraining the pain... keeping myself from shouting. Then the door opened and the pain just vanished. It was Lucy.

"Hey... Josh is... wait are you alright Catherine?"

"Oh... yes I m fine. You were saying?"

"Um... yes...Josh is calling everybody in the meeting room for some reason."

"Ok... you go I m coming."

The pain was at last gone and so I took some deep breaths and went to the meeting room. I was the last one to come there. All the others except Josh were sitting in their seats with their heads down. The meeting room in Octave was the exact replica of that of the meeting room back at the mansion except, the chairs and tables were made of pure steel instead of crystal and the whole room was black while the whole meeting room back at the mansion was totally white.

Josh had this really determined look in his face. I took a look at the Empty chair with Emma's name written on it and immediately had this guilty feeling... My mind was repeatedly telling me that I could have done something else... I could have saved Emma. Then josh spoke up taking my attention as I sat in my seat,

"Well, I honestly I have no clue as to what to say to you guys. As you know I rarely speak and trust me, I am not good in motivational and inspirational talk. So I am only going to be speak my mind, I had not known Emma for long... In fact I never even knew Emma. But she did her best to train us in these few days and not only that she even sacrificed her life like it was nothing. We accept this or not Emma had been a great help to us and is literally the reason why we are here."

We nodded to what Josh said in grief.

"Um... I don't know as to what will happen next... what we will do... but I think instead or grieving for her and wasting her sacrifice, we should make it worth it. It's actually ok if you will not agree with me, I am absolutely fine with that. But I am not going to let Emma's sacrifice go to waste."