Ashes Of Angeline

Part VI

“Emmet.” His name was an exhale that pushed through the lump that had grown in my throat. I couldn't move, afraid that if I did he would disappear before my eyes. So I stood still, my brain going haywire as it tried to comprehend that Emmet was not only alive, but he was here in front of me.

            He was looking in the direction of a man who was talking about engines, nodding along at the appropriate times but not really spellbound by the conversation. Though Emmet was a sports fan like teenage boys seemed to be expected to be, he didn't share an interest in mechanics like so many of his friends.

            Seeing him pull off the same act he used to pull on the teachers at school made me smile. This was Emmet. This was my Emmet with a chipped tooth in his smile and loud laugh. He said something, his voice lower than I remembered, and the man he had been talking to laughed.

            Though my goal when I approached the fire was to meet the people I intended on following  throughout my time in this limbo state, that plan was shoved briskly aside by the sight of one of my oldest best friends. His hazel eyes moved across the fire, meeting mine and sent a shiver of heat down my spine. It locked my limbs in place and sent my head spinning like a top. But just as Logan's did, Emmet's eyes moved away from mine and to someone else across the fire.

            It took the dizzy spell away, as well as the heat. Again I was left hollow and frozen, and the fire only a pace ahead of me couldn't rid me of the cold that had settled in my bones. It hurt, more than it did the last time I made contact with the living. It wasn't a physical ache anymore, but the reality that not even Emmet could see me cut through my hopes; it pierced into my heart and made it hard to breathe.

            I stood across the fire from Emmet for several more heavy beats of my heart. I held onto the faint sound with my eyes closed, remembering the slow beat that Emmet would play on his drum set when he was learning a little over a year ago. Concentrating on the memory was easy and calming. I counted the beats in my head, watched in my mind as Emmet's eyebrows crept together in concentration. Slowly, I felt the sharp chill leave my body and waited for the caving feeling in my chest to lighten.

            I settled for a dull ache.

            Somehow I got the nerve to open my eyes and face reality. My eyes unsealed slowly; cautiously with dark lashes shadowing my view until they were open enough for me to see the thin, metallic strands of silver lacing Dem's father's hair. He stood in Emmet's place; talking to the man Emmet had been speaking to only moments ago.

            Confusion swept through me and I wondered if I had imagined the whole thing; if Emmet were not here after all and my mind was playing tricks on me. My head spun around, searching for any sign that I wasn't crazy.

            My attention was grabbed by a dark form moving towards the tent area. It was taller than I pictured Emmet to be; then again I had not seen him for an entire six months. I tried to concentrate on the way the figure walked, the way their arms swayed slightly and their head bowed down and then changed its mind to look up at the stars instead.

            I stood, analyzing the figures movements until they dissolved into the shadows. Unwilling to lose them so soon, my limbs unlocked and I chased after them at a jogging pace. When I came to the wide mouth of an unhinged gate leading to the camp ground, I stopped to look frantically around for the figure that I believed to be Emmet.

            Impatiently, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the lack of light now that I was away from the luminescent fire.  I heard footsteps further down the path and moved slowly after them, watching with slight wonder as my eyesight shifted for me to see in dark shades. They strained after Emmet in the shadows.