Memories - An AU Emerald x M!Reader book (Multiverse AU)

Chapter 7

924 AF1.1 - (y/n)'s POV

I follow Emerald down the hall to her office. My body still felt slow and heavy. I still couldn't believe my eyes. Am I really following Emerald or is she just a delusion? It feels like I'm following a ghost.

It's been a rollercoaster ride, to say the least. From believing she's real to having to come crumbling down to following her down the hall to her office, unsure if she's actually real. I analyzed the way she walked, the way she carried herself, trying to find a discrepancy that would tell me she's a hallucination, but there was none. The sound of her feet hitting the ground, the faint scent distinct to her, everything was familiar.

"How did you sleep last night?" Emerald slowed her pace to walk beside me. She stared at me intently with curiosity in her eyes.

"Um... Good...?" The words left my mouth awkwardly. While my body wanted to believe Emerald really was walking next to me, my brain had shut the idea out. My mind was waiting for the woman to suddenly disappear into thin air as if she never existed. "I think they gave me some kind of sleeping pill..."

She nodded. "Did you take Thorazine?"

The word "Thorazine" pierced my ears like an arrow. I feel myself grit my teeth at the mention of the antipsychotic. I silently nod.

As we continued to walk down the hall, I recognize Dr. Arc's office as we pass by her door, indicating Emerald's office is just around the corner. Will it be bare or will it be furnished just as it was the first time I had entered? We rounded the corner and I stood in front of the office door, waiting for her to open the door.

"(y/n)?"

I turn to Emerald, who was farther down the hall, waiting for me to follow. I turn to her with a confused expression while pointing at her office door. "But..."

"Ah." Emerald gave me a knowing nod. "Since Dr. McCauly retired a few days ago, it was decided that I'd take his old space.

I stare at her in disbelief. "What?"

Emerald points down the hall. "It's down that way..." She continues to stare at me. I stare back with confused eyes. "Are you OK?"

"It... just moved?"

Emerald scratches the back of her neck. "Yeah... I'm still unpacking boxes, so don't mind the mess."

I turn back to the nameless door. "It just moved..."

"(y/n)? What's going on?"

I turn back to the doctor, still unsure of her existence. "I... I came by this morning... Everything was gone..." My hand shook as I remember the scene of the door opening to an empty room.

Emerald looks at me with a sympathetic frown. "Sorry about that. I should've put a note up on the door."

"But... You are real, right?"

_____

Third Person POV

Emerald opened her mouth to speak but paused when she saw (y/n)'s lost expression. "Y-Yeah... I'm real." At this point, she realized why (y/n) felt the need to touch her hand earlier. The man must've felt like he'd lost his mind the moment he saw her old office cleared out. Emerald mentally kicked herself for causing it.

"I thought..." (y/n) looked down at his feet and shook his head. "I thought the Thorazine kicked in and I had just been imagining you this whole time..."

Emerald cringed as she listened to (y/n)'s reasoning behind his strange behaviour earlier. She extended her hand towards (y/n), palm facing him. He nervously reached out and touched her hand, fearful of the possibility her hand, and by extension, Emerald herself would disappear and seize to exist. (y/n)'s hand shivered at the warm sensation at the point of contact.