Ashes, Ashes

Glittering Enigmas

- c h a p t e r   s e v e n -

One of Mrs. Hudson's favourite hobbies was going around to check on those living on Baker Street. Not only did she get to fulfill her maternal sort of feeling towards them by checking up on how they were doing, she also often got to get a fair bit of gossip out of them and such. It was just too much to resist.

On this particular day, Mrs. Hudson decided that she would start at the bottom and work to the top. This meant her first stop would be at 221C where Emma lived. That did mean that almost all of her walking would be up stairs once she'd descended all the way, but she was willing to put in the effort. She felt confident that those she went to visit would put in an effort as well.

She paraded down to the front door of 221C and rapped on the door three times in quick succession. While Emma did have a doorbell, Mrs. Hudson thought that it lacked the more personal touch of knocking. She wanted to make the entire experience as personal and sweet as she possibly could.

Mrs. Hudson was in a good mood, but as the seconds started ticking away she found herself starting to doubt that the cheerfulness would stick for the rest of the day. She wasn't a necessarily impatient woman...she just didn't want to have her time wasted, that was all. There were things she had to do.

Emma was taking her time to get to the door - and she was indeed in her flat, Mrs. Hudson could hear the sounds of her shuffling around and going about her business within. Deciding that perhaps she hadn't heard the first time, she raised her hand up to the door and knocked once again.

This time there was a more immediate reaction - "Give me a moment," Emma cried out from inside. "It'll just be a second. Wait, who is it?"

"It's Mrs. Hudson, dear - I'm just coming to check up on you!"

"Yeah, it'll be just a moment," Emma said. The sounds of movement from 221C became more frenzied as Emma was supposedly scrambling to get everything together before she allowed Mrs. Hudson inside. Her landlady hoped it wouldn't be too much longer before she was let in...after all, she did have things to do...

"Emma, is everything all right in there?" Mrs. Hudson asked. "If you need me to come in and help, just let me know..."

"Just...just come in," Emma called out. "I don't need help, but...the door isn't locked, you can just come in."

Pleased to have finally achieved a development in the current situation, Mrs. Hudson made her way into 221C. For several moments, she felt utterly confused - Emma wasn't standing in front of her. Then she lowered her gaze and found that Emma was on the ground, working on something on the floor that Mrs. Hudson couldn't make out.

The fancy clothing Emma had been wearing for the past several days had been done away with and replaced with sweat pants and a t-shirt. But it only took a single momentary glance in her direction to understand why she'd done such a thing.

Every time she moved she seemed to sparkle - she was covered in a thin layer of glitter all over. Even the dark circles underneath her eyes were brightened by their shimmer. It didn't seem fully intentional, either - she must've been working on something with glitter and managed to get it all over herself. Mrs. Hudson could only assume it had something to do with whatever Emma had on the floor.

For a second, Mrs. Hudson thought that perhaps Emma was trying to turn herself into a massive art project of sorts due to how much glitter had settled in every nook and cranny. But due to the way Emma seemed fixated on the ground it seemed clear that she'd placed something on the ground and that something was most likely covered in sparkles as well.

"Dear, what are you up to?" Mrs. Hudson asked, a stray chuckle managing to invade the end of her question. She kept her typical caring demeanor on, but there was certainly a fair amount of apprehension as she looked down towards Emma messing around with glitter on the ground. She kept her space, only to avoid getting any glitter on herself.