A Touch of Life

18

They ended up having to climb out of the tiny window at the back of the room, since the door was stuck fast and Seamus wasn't keen on knocking this particular door through.

"I borrowed the key under a promise that I wouldn't cause a mess or break anything," he explained, eyeing up the window and trying to figure out the easiest way to get through it.

"I think you broke your promise," Emmie muttered, looking around the room to see various smashed vases, and multiple unconscious men littering the floor.

"We weren't here when this happened. We were gone within ten minutes, and we have absolutely no idea how they got in or what they were doing. Right?" said Seamus.

"Right," replied both Emmie and Fleur in unison.

Fleur climbed through the window first. Seamus insisted as such because she was the shortest and the smallest, and if she couldn't fit through, they'd have to rethink their exit. Luckily, Fleur wriggled through with ease, landing on the other side with a thud.

Fleur could see the sun just beginning to rise behind the trees, and she suddenly seemed to realise how unbelievably tired she was after such an eventful night. Fleur yawned three times before calling out to the two other boys still in the room.

"Your turn Seamus!" she whisper-shouted through the window.

She heard a grunt and a yelp and then Seamus' head appeared through the window, before promptly dropping back down out of sight.

"Come on Emmie, a little higher!" Seamus yelled. Fleur heard a sigh, and then Seamus was pushed up again, further forward until the top half of him was dangling out of the window.

Seamus began to wriggle, grunting and huffing as he thrashed around. His hands grabbed around mid air whilst his face slowly turned red. Seamus relaxed with a sigh, his top half flopping down as he tried to catch his breath.

"I'm stuck," he mumbled, defeated.

Fleur tried her hardest to hold back laughter, but couldn't help but smile a little at Seamus hanging halfway out of the window with his arms crossed as he tried to remain expressionless.

"I'm sorry, what?" Fleur said smugly, she could hear Emmie's uncontrollable laughter from inside.

"I'm fucking stuck, okay?" yelled Seamus, irritated. "Now will you please help me get out?"

Fleur couldn't stop laughing as she grabbed Seamus' hands and pulled as hard as she could. Seamus hissed and wriggled, thrashing around in the small space before he relaxed again with a sigh.

"It's no good," he muttered.

"Well you can't stay here forever," Fleur said, before leaning around Seamus to look through the small space left in the corner of the window.

"Em! You push, I pull. Okay?"

Fleur could just see Emmie's grinning face on the other side of the window.

"Okay!" he shouted back.

Fleur counted down, and she and Emmie began pushing and pulling at Seamus as he tried to squirm his way through the window. They had just managed to ease Seamus a through slightly, almost past his hips when Seamus frowned and tried to turn his head around to face Emmie behind him.

"Emmie what's wrong?" Seamus yelled.

"Uh, can you get out a little quicker? Some of these guys are waking up."

Both Seamus and Fleur swore in unison and Fleur got a grip on Seamus' hands once more, putting her foot up against the wall opposite her for leverage.

"Ready?" asked Fleur.

Seamus nodded and held his breath, a look of pure determination plastered on his face.

Fleur counted down once more, and put all of her might into pulling at Seamus' arms, smiling grimly when she felt Seamus shift.

"Almost there!" said Fleur, giving Seamus one last pull before he came flying through the window with a screech as he crashed straight into Fleur. Fleur hit the floor and Seamus landed on top of her, knocking all the wind out of them both.

Fleur saw Emmie jump out of the window and shut it quickly behind him, before he turned to Fleur and Seamus and burst into fits of laughter.

"Shall I leave you two alone for a while?" Emmie joked in between chuckles.

Fleur flipped Emmie off with a smile, and Seamus muttered a "fuck you," as he hauled himself up off of Fleur and brushed himself off, trying to look nonchalant.

Fleur heaved herself up too with a groan, and they set off walking to the front of the funeral home, back to Seamus' car.

"How's your neck, is it okay?" Emmie had reached out to Fleur to pull her back towards him, before quickly remembering with a jolt and dropping his hand.

Fleur nodded as she turned and pulled her shirt down, tilting her head up. There was a small cut, and a few trails of slowly drying blood, but nothing too bad.

"I never knew you could be so aggressive," Fleur said with another grin, winking at Emmie, who's face immediately began to heat up.

"I'm not normally, but he was a scumbag. He deserved it," mumbled Emmie with a shrug, trying to seem casual, although the colour of his cheeks probably gave it away.

"Thank you anyway," said Fleur, blowing a kiss to Emmie before turning to Seamus.

"And thank you Seamus. You could have let me die to save that pendant, but clearly I am worth more than that priceless piece of jewelry to you," Fleur smirked and bumped into Seamus' shoulder, and Seamus turned around with a scowl.

"Don't flatter yourself, Clark. I only did it because if I didn't, your dorky boyfriend would never speak to me again."

"Damn straight!" called Emmie, catching up to the other two.

"It's okay Seamus, I know you love me really," Fleur beamed at Seamus, and Seamus rolled his eyes.

"Can we have a minute of 'I told you so', too?" asked Emmie, bumping into Seamus' other shoulder.

Seamus grunted and looked up to Emmie with a frown.

"Fleur didn't steal that pendant, I told you she wouldn't have. I think you owe her an apology."

Seamus rolled his eyes and sighed, mumbling a half-hearted apology at Fleur, before turning back to Emmie with a scowl.

"You doubted her for a while too," he muttered, marching off towards his car.

"He doesn't like admitting he's wrong," Emmie said with a chuckle.

The sun was almost all the way up now, the sky was a pale blue and the last few visible stars were just clinging on to the remaining dregs of darkness. Emmie couldn't wait to sleep all of this off. Their most recent and most dramatic mystery had been solved, and Emmie had never been more relieved.