Episode 9 – Emma

“Emma? Are you okay?”

Emma blinked away her thoughts, coming back to reality. “Yeah, why?”

“You haven’t even touched your food,” Erin replied, eying her brownie with a hint of longing.

Emma quickly stuffed it in her mouth. She meant to say “Look, I’m eating” but it came out more like, “Owh. Eiwh ewtegh.”

Erin cracked up, covering her own mouth. “Okay, now I know there’s something wrong with you.”

“Don’t you always?” Emma replied after swallowing.

“So… what’s got you so distracted?” her friend pressed.

“Just trying to figure out how to do a project.”

Erin nodded, though it didn’t look like she completely bought it. “Which class? I didn’t think we were doing any projects, unless it’s for history.”

“It’s for someone else.” Emma had to steer this conversation away before it got too awkward. “You seem a bit quiet yourself.”

Erin gave her a knowing look, but luckily she let it drop. “I’m just trying to prepare mentally for the quiz. Do you remember what the wall of a cell is called?”

“A cell wall,” Emma gave her friend a mock concerned look. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head when you fell out of bed?”

“I’m fine, just a bit nervous.” Erin looked down at her empty tray.

Something else was definitely bothering her. “And what’s the other thing?”

“Nothing,” Erin said quickly, grabbing her blue plastic tray and standing up. Her gaze lingered on Emma, as if she was searching for something, then she gave a crooked smile and walked off.

Emma moved to follow her, but something stopped her. Instead, she watched her friend head out of the cafeteria.

“Emma?” a familiar female voice came from behind her.

Emma turned in her seat to see Mrs. Smith, the principal of the Academy, smiling at her with the same smile she used when someone was in trouble. Emma set her face as thoughts raced through her mind.

“Can you come into my office for a bit? There’s something we need to discuss.” The warning in her tone was clear.

Wordlessly, Emma got up and followed the woman out of the bustling cafeteria and into the hallway. Had they found her? Maybe that person in the woods had been one of them. No. She couldn’t leave, not again. At least right now she had her sister. If she was relocated, she would lose everything. 

“Please come inside,” Mrs. Smith’s voice was warm as she led Emma into the large, brightly colored office. She gestured to a chair by a small table, and Emma sat down, dread growing in her gut like spreading fire. Mrs. Smith sat down across from her, folding her hands on the table.

“Emma, have you been leaving your dorm after lights-out?”

Emma’s heart froze, and she was sure her face betrayed her guilt for a second before she put on a look of confusion. “What do you mean?”

Mrs. Smith wrung her hands. “I was just checking.” Her face didn’t betray anything. Obviously someone had tipped her off.

Immediately, Emma’s mind flashed to Thomas. He had certainly been acting strange the last few days, running off on alleged chases. Sure, it didn’t make sense for him to tell on her, but who else would? Nicolau? No, it had to be Thomas. After all, wasn’t he infamous for deserting and betraying his own teammates? Why had she let him join in the first place?

“Emma? Do you know something I don’t?”

Emma turned to Mrs. Smith, her blood starting to simmer. “Thomas told you, didn’t he?”

“I believe it’s best not to confuse this with other students,” Mrs. Smith said, her face guarded. “This is between you and me. I want to keep you safe, Emma.” There was obvious concern in her eyes, and Emma wondered just how much she knew about the situation.

“How is locking me in a prison safe?!” Emma was surprised by her own ferocity, and Mrs. Smith leaned back, raising her eyebrows. Now I’m in for it.

When Mrs. Smith spoke again, though, her voice was soft. “Emma, I’m sorry. I know it must feel like you’ve been shut up, but your parents just want you to be safe.”

Her parents? Her parents wouldn’t do something like that. It had been the FBI, right? Her heart started racing.

“Emma, hey.” Mrs. Smith reached out a hand, and Emma jerked her own away. “My parents wouldn’t do that!” The anger she had felt all these months bubbled up inside her, bursting to get out.

“They did it to protect you. I’m doing this to protect you.”

“Okay, so I go out at night because I feel like I’m trapped!” Emma snapped. “What am I supposed to do?! I’ve literally been trapped on this island for months, and I’ll probably never see my family again!” Her nose stung as she tried to withhold her tears.

“I hear you,” Mrs. Smith replied. “And I wish there was a better way. How about this? I’ll try to figure out a way to get you off this island every so often and you can stop going out after lights out. How does that sound?”

Emma’s mind reeled at the thought of never seeing her sister again. She couldn’t stop going out. She had to be more careful. She nodded, which seemed to be enough for the principal.

“Alright. Why don’t you take some time to collect yourself then head over to class. You can give this to your teacher.” She handed Emma a note. “I wish I could help more, Emma. I really do.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Emma huffed, standing abruptly.

“This was your warning, Emma. If I catch you slipping out again, there will be consequences.” Mrs. Smith called out after her.

Then I won’t get caught.

The cold wind whipped around Emma’s hoodie, and she pulled the hood tighter over her face as she vaulted the railing of the boat and headed for the cabin. Once inside, she plugged in the USB drive and typed in the coordinates. A second later, the rumble of the engine started and the boat slowly drifted away from the dock. 

Ejecting the drive, she ducked out onto the deck and walked over to the stern. The trees blew gently in the wind, casting shadows over the still forest. Nothing moved. Good. That meant Nicolau hadn’t followed her, not that she expected him to.

She tried to shake the image of him kneeling over her out of her mind. She didn’t suspect he was the snitch, but if she brought him, the real snitch might follow them. Nicolua wasn’t exactly the best at being covert. The image of him watching from his window as the boat disappeared didn’t exactly do anything to ease her conscience.

Sitting on one of the cold seats, she waited as the boat slowly made its way down the river.

Thomas. He was the reason for all of this. She should never have let him join her. She should have pushed him off the boat that night and left him to drown. She found herself grinning at the thought, even though she knew it was wrong. Well, she wasn’t going to make the mistake twice. Somehow, she would find a way to get Nicolau without Thomas finding out. Tonight, though, she just had to talk to her sister.

Emma grabbed her bag from her seat as the boat neared the city dock. Instinctively, she braced herself to jump, only to remember that she had programmed it to dock in the little cove she had found last time. Reluctantly, she sat down again as the boat slowed and turned into the inlet. A few moments later, the engine died, and she hopped out onto a strip of beach. 

After securing the boat to a tree, she headed off into the woods. She couldn’t help thinking about how much faster it would have been to just hop the train from the usual drop off area.

When she finally caught sight of the cafe, the moon was already high above the horizon. Probably around 9:30 or 10:00. Her heart sank when no light came from the windows. Her sister was probably gone by now, since she hadn’t been expecting Emma until Thursday. Hoping against hope, she tried the door. Locked, of course. 

Sighing, she started off again, heading toward the inner city. She couldn’t visit her sister at her apartment. It was already risky enough to visit the cafe after hours. Luckily, she hadn’t been spotted yet, or at least not murdered.

Last night’s adventure suddenly flashed back into her mind. Had they spotted her? What if whoever Thomas had been chasing had been following her? 

Every shadow on the street seemed like it was trained on her. Had Thomas even been following anyone? What if he had just made that up? It would have been an excuse he could get away with, since no one else saw the guy he was chasing. But why would Thomas need to get away?

She shook her thoughts away as she rounded the corner into a quaint little neighborhood just on the outskirts of the inner city. A few houses down, the widow’s house stood, blackened, with caution tape wrapped around the yard. 

Apparently, Hank had decided to go with a more official look. It was a relief that they didn’t have to do the work, but it still felt a little wrong. Weren’t they supposed to be this group of kids who make the world better? Were they even a group anymore? Thomas obviously couldn’t be trusted, and he had come up with the idea of making the group. 

“Thomas, the loner,” she grumbled, walking silently. Why would a loner suddenly decide to buddy up? To get what he wanted. And with Thomas, who knew what that could be.

Inside the tape, at least three men in hard hats and reflective vests were working on the porch, the occasional hammering echoing through the neighborhood.

As she approached the porch the shortest man looked up, then gave her a wry smirk. 

“Don’t you know this is a construction site? No place for a dame like you.”

“Try and stop me,” Emma replied, ducking under the tape.

“So what? Ya’ decided to stop by to watch an old retired geezer and his two cronies try to fix up a house?”

From somewhere inside, a man called out, “Who are ya calling a crony?”

Hank snorted, a grin lighting his face. “So why are ya’ here, and where are your merry men?”

For a moment, she felt a flash of guilt as she remembered Nico, but she shook it off. “They didn’t come tonight.”

Hank continued to look at her expectantly, like she hadn’t answered the question yet.

 “I just wanted to check and make sure you haven’t destroyed the house yet,” she retorted, grinning.

“Ahh! Then you’ll be glad to hear we’ve only destroyed the porch so far. The rest of the house will have to wait.”

It was true. The porch looked like, well, it had been burned, ripped apart, and someone had attempted to patch it up again with fresh clean boards.

“It’ll look better when it’s finished,” he added when he saw her skepticism. “Now,” he sat down slowly then gestured for her to sit. “Why are you really here and where are the boys?”

Obviously, Hank wasn’t going to leave the issue unresolved. For a moment, she considered just ignoring him, but the man wasn’t anything if not stubborn. 

“Fine,” she sat down next to him. “One of them ratted us out. He got me in trouble. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him! Now I don’t even know if I’m safe. I might have to move again, and—” she bit her lip to stop the tears that threatened to come again.

“So you’ve already decided it was one of them?” Hank raised an eyebrow.

“It had to have been! They’re the only ones who know I come here.”

“Do you have proof, though? How do ya’ know I didn’t ‘rat’ on ya?”

Emma scowled. “Because Thomas did it!” Frustrated, she got up and spun on Hank. “He betrays his team any chance he gets, and now he’s betrayed me.” Before he could say anything else, she spun and marched off the porch, ducking below the caution tape.

As she started the long trek back to the boat, she tried to fight back the pit of loneliness that threatened to consume her. It was true. Until her family came back together, she would always be lonely. A loner, like Thomas. She was tired of running, tired of letting fear rip her family apart.

She kicked a stray stone, watching it glance off a building and skitter to a stop. She was so caught up in her thoughts, that she barely even registered the man standing in the street before her shoulder knocked into him.

“Hey, kid! Watch it!”

Anger simmering, she glared up at the clean-shaven bald man, and her stomach turned to ice. No, was all she could think as recognition filled the man’s eyes. 

She stared at the man for a horrifying second, all thoughts gone. Then her instincts took over, and she bolted. She didn’t know where she was going, and she didn’t care. Her legs were pumping like they had a mind of thier own. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t have found her. Not after all this time.

She vaulted a fence in a graceful leap, then she was running again. She couldn’t hear any footsteps behind her, but that didn’t mean the man was gone. Up ahead was downtown, with late-nighters walking the sidewalks and cars stopped at traffic lights. If she was going to get lost, it was going to be in the little shops and buildings or downtown. Darting past a couple, she bolted down the sidewalk, her breathing growing labored. She needed to rest, but her legs wouldn’t stop.

Finally, she risked a glance behind her. No one. Slowly, she came to a stop in an alley, shrugging her backpack off and pressing her heaving back against the cool bricks. He’s gone. Maybe he didn’t really recognize you. No. He knew. 

He knew she was here. Her heart started racing, pounding with the system of her thoughts. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Calm down. An anxiety attack isn’t going to help! She focused on her breathing, watching as her breath faded into the cold air. Okay, think. What should you do? What about her sister? If the guy had recognized her, then he was probably contacting his boss right now, the same man who had ripped her family apart.

Picking herself up off the ground, she grabbed her backpack and started for her sister’s apartment at a fast jog. By the time she mounted the steps to the old paint-chipped metal door, the moon had risen over the rooftops. Glancing around the street, she hit the intercom button. “This is Emma Reynolds. I’m here to see Fiona.”

“I’m sorry. Only family and people with a key card can enter the building,” came the curt reply.

I am family! She couldn’t say that, though, could she? Then again, their cover was blown anyway. Closing her eyes, she pressed the button again. “Look, there’s a man chasing me and I need to talk to my sister.”

There was a pause. “You said your name is Emma Reynolds? Sorry, you aren’t on the list.”

Her parents were going to kill her for what she was about to say. “My sister and I are under witness protection. Please, you have to let me in.” As soon as she’d said it, she knew it wouldn’t make a difference.

“You’d be surprised now many times I’ve heard that one. Sorry, but I can’t let you in.” With that, the static died, and Emma was left standing in the silent street, alone. There has to be another way in.

Looking up, she made out a dozen or so barred windows and even a security camera mounted on the roof. Her sister had probably picked this apartment specifically for the security. She looked back to the door and the key card slot next to it. It was probably hardwired into the door’s mechanism, otherwise she might be able to hack into it. 

She turned around and made as if walking away dejected, then as soon as she was sure she was out of the camera’s range, she turned down a side alley between the apartment and another building, whipping out her tablet.

Quickly, she booted up her program she had once used to hack into the CCTV cameras. She waited impatiently as it searched for cameras near her. Finally, a view appeared of her looking down at her tablet. She hit the reverse button, and she saw herself put her tablet away and walk backwards out of the alley. Once the screen only showed an empty alley, she hit the button to loop the feed on all the cameras in the area. Hopefully the guards hadn’t noticed that she had suddenly disappeared. She quickly deleted the section of video with her in it and put the tablet back.

A large metal gate blocked the way into the little yard the apartment offered. Glancing up, she saw more barred windows. Looking back at the gate, she made up her mind. Getting a running start, she leapt forward, grabbing the gate and swinging herself up and over the top, landing in a roll on the other side.

With a glance around the little grassy area that could barely be called a yard, she jogged over to the door. 

It didn’t seem like they expected anyone to enter this way. Instead of an electronic lock this door had a manual one. Fishing around in her backpack, she came up with a small can of compressed air. One calculated spray later, the latch clicked and she pulled the door open, slipping inside.

Inside looked pretty much the same as it had the last time, with water-stained walls and flickering lights. To the left, a door was propped open with the word “stairs” drawn with marker on a piece of paper. 

Racing past, she took the stairs two at a time, with a growing sense of dread. Something wasn’t right. She could feel it. Pushing the door to the third story open, she slipped into the hall, heading straight for her sister’s room. Pausing for a brief moment to collect herself, she gave the secret knock. Nothing.

Okay, she must be asleep. She knocked louder, then waited. The only response was the whirring of a fan somewhere below. 

“Fiona!” She pounded on the door, her own heart pounding with the rhythm. Nothing. Her sister wasn’t that deep a sleeper. Gathering her courage, she gave the door a solid kick. There was a crash as it flew inward, revealing the wreck that had been her sister’s room. The glass  pieces of a blender were scattered around the floor and counter. The small table was turned over at an odd angle. 

Rushing into the room, she caught sight of small holes in the couch. Bursting into the bedroom, she found everything mostly intact. One thing was missing, though. Her sister. 

Fiona was gone.

“Well, well, well, came to join the fun, did we?”

Emma spun around. There, standing in the doorway, was the clerk, gun drawn. “You big—” she started, but the insult was cut off by a “thwack” and pain shooting up her arm. She glanced down at the feathered dart sticking out of her sleeve. “Where’s Fiona?” Her voice was already slurring. No…

“Oh, she’s safe and sound asleep. Nighty night.”

Emma couldn’t keep her eyes open. The pull of sleep was so inviting… She could just… take a short nap, right? She barely even felt herself hit the ground as the soft cloud of sleep enveloped her.