Page 94 of Emma & Edmund

"You should. But I came to make sure you will be fine without me."

"I already was.”

"Well, don't mourn my absence for too long. You don't leave this room, all right? I'll see you in the morning."

"Yes, yes," Emma waved her hand in his general direction. "I'll see you-"

Before the final words could form on her lips, the overwhelming smell of sulfur hit her senses. She knew before she even checked that he was gone.

Chapter 28

It was morning before she knew it. The lumpy mattress below her tickled her skin, the room had grown cold in the shade of night, but she had not been as well rested in months. The fingers of sunlight that reached through the windows danced in the dust, allowing her to slowly blink herself awake against the low light.

Emma could have easily stayed there for hours, soaking in the morning until it was time to stir and see what Mrs. Elliot had cooked up for breakfast.

A loud rapping on the door ended any hope of that.

Throwing off her quilt, Emma lazily tugged the same dress as yesterday over her head. Her trunk, after all, never made its way to her room.

The knock came again, heavier and at a quicker pace.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming," Emma approached the door, trying her best to button the last few tricky buttons at the base of her neck. "What is it?"

The question ended up being far more rhetorical than she would have liked it to be. In the same moment she pulled open the heavy old door, Emma groaned out loud, knowing her brief bliss was over.

On the other side, draped in a black hooded cape, the hem hitting the boots wrapping his feet, only Molek's awful eyes shone out from his costume. With the mask covering half his face, it served well enough to have him move around the now-quiet inn unnoticed.

"What are you wearing?" Emma questioned, already knowing it wouldn't be answered.

"We need to go. Now."

There wasn't anything Emma needed to pack, nothing that tied her to the small room, but she still dug in her heels.

"And why is that?"

"Do you want to live here? We have a destination, yeah? So, let's go."

Molek didn't give her another chance to protest, reaching out a black-gloved hand to grab at her arm, hauling her through the hall and down the stairs with speed.

"You're hurting me!" Halfway down the stairs, Emma tried to wiggle out of his iron grasp, with absolutely no progress.

"Play along, I'm just putting on a show."

"For whom? There's no one about!"

"Hm," he paused in step for the briefest moment, allowing Emma to collide with his back, "for my own entertainment, I suppose."

His cackling laugh filled the small stairwell, following them into the now-empty pub.

The pair came to a halt outside of the inn, the dirt still clingy and wet from dew. The coach was parked just up the way, waiting for them, but Emma immediately noticed a missing, vital piece of the picture.

"Molek," she started lowly, "where is our driver?"

"On his way back home, I imagine."

Her blissful sleep immediately turned to a pounding headache.

"And why would that be?"

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