Ashes, Ashes

Day of Grey

- c h a p t e r   t w e l v e -

Emma woke up in the morning feeling as if part of her chest had been torn out, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of her body. Her instinct was to whip her glance downwards in order to see if this was actually the case. Of course, there was nothing abnormal going on there - she'd been hoping the feeling had been due to her being in a dream.

In a dream, she wouldn't be thinking about Maddie - or at least, she hoped she wouldn't be thinking about Maddie. She already missed her Maddie, even though Maddie wasn't someone she'd ever truly known. She was nothing but a facade, something used to hide what was truly going on in so many ways.

Emma thought she'd finally found someone to be her best friend, someone who would always look out for her no matter what ended up happening. Of course, she'd assumed that it all had to do with her and what was going on in her life. That was where things went so horribly wrong. She'd allowed everything to seem like it was entirely about her instead of anyone else.

She should've known what was going on from early on - no one cared about her problems, not truly. Even she didn't care about her problems herself sometimes (something that never failed to get Emma into trouble). At the moment, however, she couldn't help but wallow in self-pity for losing so much so quickly.

Nothing interested her on this particular day. She glanced down at a piece of artwork she'd been trying to make from excess glitter (most of which was splattered around the floor). She could only hope that Florenz wouldn't step on it and mess it all up - which he would most certainly end up doing now that she'd wanted him not to. 

As she walked through her flat with tired eyes she noticed that Florenz was still asleep. A rush of jealousy pushed through Emma, making her wish she could simply go back to bed. Deciding that there was nothing better to do, she started heading back that way. Before she could walk too far, however, her mobile started buzzing in her pocket.

A scowl crinkled up her face as she picked it up. The next moment her mouth dropped open as she read the text she'd recieved. 

**Maybe some day I'll come back. We can have dinner then, if you'll like.**

Emma gawked down at her mobile phone, trying to decipher what was going on. Was this really from Irene? Did she actually mean it? It seemed like she was trying to make things into some sort of code, but Emma would never be able to decipher it no matter what she did. It just didn't come through with her - unless, of course, it was meant to be taken at face value.

Maddie never would've done this to her. Maddie never would've been so complicated and manipulative. Certainly she would've been far more straightforward and far better about all of the situations they'd all gone through.  Yes, she'd persauded Emma to do something illegal, but it had been in order to make things better together.

It was maddening how much things had changed in the past several days - and how much that Emma wanted to say to Irene in order to get her side of the story out there in a more proper way. But now it seemed as if she could be reading a message from her, something saying that there wasn't going to be an opportunity for the two to speak.

Emma felt her pulse beginning to pound faster and faster as she allowed herself to continue thinking through it all. It could very well be Irene. It could very well be her, but what did it mean? Her mind immediately became far too frazzled to decipher anything about it. If she wanted to know what Irene was trying to say to her, she needed to find someone else.

Immediately Emma realised there was only one person in particular she should ask - and of course, he was one of the many people who Emma wished she could avoid as often as possible. Yes, he'd let her run free after knowing that she'd stolen from Alex Holder, but he still was far from kind. Things weren't working out perfectly, but there wasn't much else for her to do.