The Seventh

Chapter 5

"Ow,,, Jesus, that hurt" Schneider squealed while Emma was combing his curly hair, it was a nice Saturday evening, she was sitting on the top frame of the sofa and the drummer sat between her legs. "stop moving, it's so tangled, do you ever comb your hair uncle schnei?" she was frustrated.
"hey Paul... Man you promised you'd wait for me, turn it off and wait for me" he yelled at Paul who just sat in front of the TV to play the latest COD on their Xbox. "Ow... Shit Emma, are you trying to pull my damn head out?" he hissed at Emma. "relax, your head is fine" she giggled, then she started to tie his hair. "I'll wait for your sassy ass" Paul rolled his eyes and put the disk in the console. Schneider grinned. "here, done"
"pigtails? You gave me fuckin pigtails? What am I? 7?" he almost screamed when he saw himself in his phone's front camera. "I think the right question would be 'what am I? A little girl'?, but you know? Whatever." Ollie said while laughing loudly and picking up one Xbox handheld. Paul laughed at him and Emma made a fake innocent face. "you just put yourself on my shit list, kid" he threatened Emma.
"On Mine as well, but for different reasons probably" Till just entered the room with an angry expression on his face, Richard walked in behind him, they both looked outraged. "What?" Emma panicked, she was in real trouble whenever they both were mad at her like that. "what did you do?" Paul asked Emma. "nothing" her voice turned high pitched.
"nothing, huh? The student council just called, asking why I didn't attend the parents teacher conference last week" Till tried very hard not to yell.
"it's nothing, it's just teachers talking to parents, it's boring, I told her you were busy, besides I'm getting straight A's, what do they possibly want to talk to you about?" it's been two month since she was going to school, she still hated it but kinda learned how to ignore it.
"you had no right to not tell me, she said she specifically wanted to talk to me, said it was important, uh... And she also wants to talk to reesh cuz she thought we were partners" Till was really mad, Richard was worse but he softened a little when he saw Emma was terrified of till. "he's listed as my parent in my file, you gave them his number yourself" her voice was shaking like crazy. "as your parent, yes. Not as MY goddamn husband. why the fuck did you tell her that bullshit?" his eyes were red with rage. Emma took a few steps back, she turned pale and couldn't speak.
"hey it's OK, alright? Honey just tell us why you told her that?" Richard got a bit close to her, his face went soft and kind when he saw how scared she was.
"No it's not alright, why do you tell her that it's OK to lie? Why the hell are you defending her?" Till was boiling.
"I didn't lie, alright?," she was crying and screaming. "she asked me what was Uncle Z's relation to me and I told her he was my dad, then she said she needed to talk to you and your partner, she just assumed that you were partners and I just didn't deny it, cuz honestly I don't like explaining my life to others, it's non of her business, I didn't lie and I didn't think you were gonna be this mad and I didn't tell you guys about the whole meeting thing because....because there's nothing a stupid counselor could possibly tell you two about me, that you already don't know, I don't do anything at that school, I basically just sit somewhere and listen to either the stupid teacher talking about stuff that I already know or to music. That's all I do, will you please stop yelling at me now?" her face was wet, eyes red and she was sobbing, she went towards the door and opened it, "no wait... Where are you going?" Till tried to sound authoritative but his voice came out panicked.
"OUT!" she stormed out and shut the door behind her. "should we follow her?" Paul asked with confusion and worry. "No leave her be, Paul, she'll probably spend some time in the yard to calm down" flake said.
"You yell at her like that again, I swear to God lindemann, I'll kick your ass. Haven't you put her through enough shit already?" Richard hissed angrily at till and lit up a cigarette and started smoking one after the other. Till opened his mouth to say something back but was shut up when saw the daring glare in his friend's eyes. They went silent for minutes until Schneider couldn't wait anymore and went out to talk to Emma. He came back couple minutes later with a scared look on his face. "she's not there" he was outta breath. "The fuck? Did you look every where?" Richard jumped up and his face went pale.
"how about the pool? You checked there?" Till ran his hand through his hair and tugged on them. Schneider nodded. Paul took his phone out and dialed her number. They heard it ringing by the chair near Paul's guitar. She left it. "Great..." he sighed.
"Hey guys... Calm down, maybe she just needs time, she probably went for a walk" Ollie reasoned. "I think Ollie's right, she knows around the neighborhood. She'll be back soon" flake was calm as usual, he was good at masking his anxiety.
Nobody spoke for nearly an hour, they were all lost in their own thoughts. Schneider had his headphones on and was doing something with his phone. Paul had his head in Schneider's lap, Richard was smoking one cigarette after the other, Ollie and flake were sitting next to each other and exchange worried looks every fifteen seconds and Till was nowhere to be seen. He was probably in his room writing something, it was his way of distracting himself. Everyone was hyper alert. Suddenly Richard stood up which made Ollie jump in surprise. He went near the door. "Where you going?" he asked and Schneider took his headphones out to be able to hear. "I'm outta cigarettes and I can't sit here in weird silence anymore" his tone was cold. "you want me to go with you?" Paul asked concerned about his friend. "No I'm good, paulie" he tried to sound less cold. Three seconds later the door was shut behind the jumpy guitarist. He didn't come back for another hour when he entered the house again, he glanced at the room. "Nothing?" he sighed. Ollie shook his head "nothing." Till came down the stairs and went to the kitchen and came back with a fresh box of bear and put it on the coffee table and picked up a bottle and sat in a chair. "you OK?" Schneider asked while knowing the question was stupid. Till took a long sip and just nodded.
"You know this is all your fault, huh? You couldn't just cut her some fuckin slack, could you? So she didn't tell you about a stupid meeting, who gives a shit? Everyone knows those meetings are meaningless anyway. If something happens to her...she...She's never been out all by herself," Richard couldn't bear to stay silent anymore, he exploded after almost three hours of waiting.
"hey... Ressh, come on, stop being a bitch to him" flake said.
"So what now? You're taking his side?" he was mad.
"What side? There are no sides here. He's a mess without you going all full kruspe on him, and you throwing tantrums isn't gonna help." flake answered dryly.
"Don't worry, if anything happens to her I'll kill myself before you get a chance" Till said with a stone cold voice.
Before anyone could say anything else, they heard the door and Emma entered the living room, pale face and red hazy eyes, she was walking funny and bumping into things. She was DRUNK! She glanced across the room "I'm sorry, did I interrupt anything?" she spoke languidly and slurry.
"Are you drunk?" Paul couldn't hide his surprise and a bit of anger.
"Yeaaah...and I'm not faking it" she had a weird smile on her face and her voice went more slowly.
"Where did you get alcohol? Where were you?" Paul asked.
"I stoooole it, I know how to steal stuff,"she sounded proud. "and whha was your second question?" she couldn't speak properly anymore.
"look at you, oh baby you had us so worried, hey it's OK come on" Richard walked towards her. She took a step back and hit the wall and gasped with surprise.
"hey it's alright, It's me, I'm not gonna hurt you baby" Richard said with his voice as low as possible.
"cuz you already did?" she asked more alert. "huh?" Richard was confused. "sweetie you're a mess, I've never seen you like this before, it's alright, you're..." he tried to calm her down but she cut his words and started talking with a high pitch voice "that's right, you've never seen me like this before, cuz you weren't there, were you?"
"baby what are you talking about?" Richard was more confused.
"I'm talking about when you left me, you left me, I needed you and you left and why? Because you felt like Berlin was strangling you. Huh? You left for this damn country, you left me and didn't talk to me for six months, I couldn't sleep at nights. Dad had to hold me close to him all the time. I was a stupid helpless baby all over again. I got sick and you weren't there, I cried my eyes out for you and you didn't even know, you didn't even care cuz you were sooo into your new little band severing all your family ties. That's what you said, wasn't it? I had nightmers, I begged you to come back in my sleep. You knew how attached I was to you but you left anyway, no explanation, no nothing. They just told me you needed time to deal with your problems and that we shouldn't bother you for a while. I felt like my world fell apart, I felt incomplete. My heart was...was empty," she was screaming and sobbing, she clutched her heart "this...this was empty, nothing could fill the hole that you made, you raised me and then you dumped me and just...just left...and you came back like nothing's happened, I was alive again but I  couldn't forgive you cuz I didn't understand why you did it, they told me not to ask you, they said you dealt with your problems and you came back" she fell on her weak knees and sobbed, it echoed through the room, it was the saddest, most devastating view in the world. Richard's face was wet with tears. He felt his whole body filling up with hatred and anger with himself. He went near Emma and sunk in his knees next to her trying to hold her, but she suddenly started hitting Richard with full strength, trying to get him off of her. "don't touch me, leave me alone" she screamed between sobs, but Richard didn't let go. He silently let her take her frustration out tho it was both physically and emotionally hurting him, he didn't care, he just wanted her to feel better. "let go of me, you did it once, do it again" she punched in his heart. "no...no never again, I will never leave you again," he whispered and nuzzled her messy hair. She finally stopped hitting Richard and clutched in the front of his t-shirt and sobbed in his chest. No one said anything, for fifteen minutes the only sound was Emma slowly crying and sniffing in Richard's arms. She looked up, she had scratched in his face and saw the fresh red lines on his cheek. Her own face along with the front of Richard's t-shirt were completely wet. She could barely see through tears shielding her vision and the effect of alcohol. Richard pressed his lips against her forhead. "What can I do to fix it?"
"Promise you won't leave again, no matter what happens. I...I hate living without you" her voice was trembling.
"baby I hate living without you, too. I can't be the me that I want to be when you're not around, I promise... I won't do that again, I don't want to do that again."
She fell silent until Richard heard her breath getting calm and shallow, she's fell asleep in his arms. Richard picked her up and looked at the others "I'll take her to her bed." he said and walked upstairs putting her in her bed and covered her with a blanket. "don't go" her voice was small and shaky. "I wasn't going to, baby" he smiled and lied down next to her, holding the small girl close and had one arm under her head. She buried her face in her god father's chest again and let out a shaky breath. Richard kissed her head and held her closer and started singing her favorite lullaby, the one he always sang to her.

"Guten Abend, gut' Nacht
Von Englein bewacht
Die zeigen im Traum
Dir Christkindleins Baum
Schlaf nun selig und süß
Schau im Traum 's Paradies
Schlaf nun selig und süß
Schau im Traum 's Paradies"

"Sleep my precious little angel, I will always be with you" he sighed when the lullaby was over. She was deep asleep.