After the Storm (Norman Ray Emma)

An even longer talk awaits.

It's hard to keep secrets from Emma, she's very smart. By morning, she was already concerned Norman wasn't at breakfast. At first, she thought he was pulling one of those "I'm too busy to eat" moods again, but he was nowhere to be found. 

"Alright, Ray, no more secrets. Where is Norman at?" she leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed. 

I take a deep breath. 

"To keep things simple, he's out. From what I know he and Zazie are going to make a deal with some demon who's going to help him take out the demon royals,"

I got his angry look from her, "And he didn't tell me?"

"He would've said goodbye, but you were asleep," That was a half-lie.

"Would he have told me where he was going?" The more she spoke the more anger and sadness grew in her tone.

Okay, if I tell the truth, Norman will face serious punishment from her. If I lie well enough, she'll have a slightly less painful conversation with Norman, but Norman would lie to her the whole time. The answer is, I tell the truth. Norman will be mad at me for telling Emma, but it'll be okay after Emma goes off on him. Norman should learn the hard way to be 100% honest with Emma about things if he can't already figure it out for himself.   

"No, he wouldn't"

I expected her to be filled with rage, but she looked down at her feet and sighed. 

"Okay," she quietly responded, then walked away.

This is either a good thing or a bad thing. Most likely a bad thing.  

I would be mad too. She's going to get the idea that Norman doesn't trust her and that he only tells the truth to me about things. That I'm always the first person he goes to when there are problems. It's the way he's been acting lately, even when we first got here I suspected there was something he was hiding from us.

But it's not "just an idea", it's the truth. Even back at Gracefield when he was blushing over Emma he didn't want to tell the truth to her some of the time, but it had to come anyway. He didn't want to tell her about the outside world and just how impossible her plan seemed. He even was unsure of how to tell her I was the traitor. Though it's not exactly like he lied to her the whole time, for the most part, he was very honest with her. 

It was refreshing to know he told her everything in that letter. Just before his so-called "Death", he told her how I planned to burn myself along with that house, and many other important things. One of those being how much he loved and cared about her. He wrote for her to tell me he loved me just as much. I cried when she let me read his letter one night in the forest. Norman is such a good man, it's just as Emma described to Barbara, "Norman is kinda and smart. He's always so soft and smiles in such a sweet way," 

-

It was close to noon, and one of those days where we could relax and have fun. Emma took a bit of medicine before breakfast, and now it seems she was never sick at all. 

Gilda insisted on Anna and Emma picking out cute outfits together. She found a sewing machine and plans of learning how to use it. Well, not only a sewing machine but a room full of fabrics, buttons, sewing needles, beads, yarn, and even things to crochet with. 

That gave a lot of the older girls like Gillian and Sonia have taken a liking to making little things out of yarn. Supposedly there are shelves of books on things like quilting, knitting, etc. I expect a sweater by Christmas! (I'm only half-joking, of course!)

--

I wanted to yell out, my heart was pounding with all the anger built up after that conversation with Ray. But I can't be getting mad at him, I'm going to let it all out at Norman. The very minute he gets back. In fact, I'm going to wait in his office so I'm the first thing he sees when he walks in. He can't ignore me then. 

When I open the door to his office I see Vincent rummaging around through a few sheets of paper. He looks up at me,

"What are you doing you here?" he asked me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask in return.

"Not your business, but I'm here to work on a few things while the boss is out. You know he's not in here so why did you come?"

"I'm here for my own reason. And I don't have to tell you a thing," 

I now only have to convince him to leave. 

"You probably should tell me, I'm his assistant. Basically, his replacement while he's out. So what can I help you with?" he pushed up his glasses to get a clearer view of me. 

"I wanted to talk to Norman I planned on waiting here until he got back," 

I truthfully told him.

"Are you going to talk to him about the demons?" 

That tone, I could tell if I said yes he'd kick me right out.

"You see, that's part of it. But I-"

"He doesn't have to tell you a thing. Go about your business,"

How bold of him. 

"Vincent, I need to have this talk,"

"Any questions you have, I'm here to answer them," his voice grew cold.

"I don't want your answers. I need Norman's,"

"That's a shame. Because he doesn't want to talk to you about it,"

"Vincent!" I finally snapped at him. This isn't like me at all. Maybe I'm just too stressed after all that's been going on. 

He grew more pissy at me, 

"Listen, Emma, if you're planning on stopping the genocide it won't happen. You can't change his mind."

Wait.

What?

"A genocide?" 

His eyes widened. He must now realize I wasn't informed about it, and why. And I think I know why too. 

"Get out of here please," I told him staring at the ground.

With that, he took the papers and put them into a folder taking them with him. He shut the door without a word.

I flopped onto one of the couches. I don't know if I'm angrier or sadder with him, so I just cry. This isn't fair, life isn't fair. I know that. I really do try as best I can to make things go the right way, I want to see people happy. Ray is blunt about things, with Norman it's different. He'll tell me things, but he's slow on approaching me about it. Not with Ray though, he'll tell Ray right away if something's up. What's up with me then? Why can't he tell me things?