A taste of freedom

Chapter 36

    We opened the door to leave Lucas's office only for everyone who was on the other side to fall inside. I chuckled "so I guess you guys already heard the plan then?" They all nodded with faces of embarrassment. "Ok since you already know the plan, SHOO!!" I yelled at the end of my sentence and everyone ran off, accept Ace. He had small tears in his eyes and stared me down. I smiled at him and opened my arms, which he ran to quickly. He picked me up in a giant bear hug. "Whoa there little bro!" I laughed and he set me down with his hands on my shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving? You know you can trust me with anything!" I smiled and hugged him again. "I'm sorry." I apologized and Emma cleared her throat. "Oh Emma, this is my little bro, Ace, my big sister Lily, my big brother Oliver, and my dad Lucas!" I placed all of my fingers together in front of my chest and smiled at her. She made a super shocked face. "What?!"

   "Well Lily is the only person I'm actually related to but that doesn't make a difference." She just kinda nodded but the smirked. Oh shit. Whenever Emma smirks you know your in trouble. "Yeah well wait till they meet your boyfriend!" She placed her hand on her forehead dramatically and all the others' heads snapped in my direction. "What?!" They all yelled simultaneously. I laughed nervously "look guys he's not my boyfriend. It was just one kiss." I waved my hand at them in a dismissive action. "You kissed a boy?!" They all yelled at the same time again. Emma nodded "I was there to witness them." She sighed with her hand on her heart. "Listen here young lady, your much to young to have a boyfriend." Lucas started to scold me. "You can't date him without my permission." Soon Oliver started to join in and I started to cry crocodile tears. "Well Y/n, who is it?" Ace asked and Emma and Lily crossed there arms with proud looks because they knew who it was. "You'll meet him sometime soon, also he's not my boyfriend!" I yelled and Emma and Lily giggled a small 'yet'.

   I grumbled and started to walk over to the area where we all slept. Emma started to follow me while the others just stayed back and continued to laugh at how my face had turned red in embarrassment. We got to my cot and I found that Theo was no longer there. I assume that he was getting check out in our makeshift infirmary. I sat down on my cot and patted the spot beside me, silently saying that I wanted Emma to sit down. She did and I sighed. "I suppose I owe you and explanation, but first," I pulled the picture of her and Norman from my pocket. "Some friends of yours told me to give this back to you." I winked at her and her eyes widened while the tears welled in her eyes. "How did you-" I cut her off "Mujika told me that you lost it in the tunnels and sent it with me when they found out I was on my way to meet up with you."

   She looked shocked to say the least. I just smiled at her and she hugged me. "Thank you." She whispered but I tensed up at the hug. "Emma- to tight! I'm still a little sore from getting shot!" I tried to pry her off of me but she let go on her own. "Sorry, so tell me- what really happened?" There it is again, that scary look of hers. I sighed once again and pulled out Ray's pocket watch. I grasped at the broken pieces of the watch. There was a bullet hole in the side of it and a bit of dried blood on the back. Despite all of the damage it was still ticking away. I pushed it back into my pocket again and opened my mouth  to tell my story. "Wait!" Emma held up her hand, just like I would if I was trying to stop someone. "First, I want to know why you even left this is place." "Well, I can't tell you. It's very important information that I've not yet shared with anyone accept Mujika and Sonju. But, to say the least I was revisiting an old home." She gasped a bit and stared to speak. "Did you go back to-" "no, I didn't go back to the house. How dumb to you think I am?!" I yelled and jabbed a finger to her forehead. She wined in pain and I started my story again.

    But before I could speak it hit me. Telling her all of this right now would be basically pointless. "Actually Emma, do you mind waiting? I think it would be a lot easier to explain to everyone when we're all together again." She grumbled in dissatisfaction but agreed nonetheless. "But I can tell you that I didn't die when I was shipped out!" I put my fist on my chest, right above where my heart is and boasted. "And I'm not dead yet either!" She looked like a rock was dropped on her head. "Oh, hey do you want to see something I brought from the house? I have a few things actually!" She nodded excitedly and I started with my parasol. I pulled it from under my cot and showed it to her. "This is the one mama gave you for your birthday right?" She asked and I nodded.  Next I pulled out Lily's sketch book, showing her all of the drawings. "There cool aren't they?!" I asked, feeling pretty cheery. I also pulled the one of her, me, Ray, and Norman out of my backpack and she gasped in amazement. "It's so detailed." She carefully ran her fingers over the page and I giggled.

   "Anyways, I also have this!" I pointed to my necklace and she smiled. "I remember Ray asking me and Norman if we thought you would like it." I smiled softly at the memory, the time I received this. "Yeah and I ended up loving it! Guess you all know me pretty well." She nodded "Ya know, Marko wouldn't shut up." I raised an eyebrow at her statement. "What do you mean? I mean that sounds like her but why, wouldn't she shut up?" She shocked her head. "She was absolutely convinced you were alive and wouldn't shut up about it. She kept say that there was no way someone as stubborn as you would die so easily." I laughed at this. That sounded a lot like something she would say. "She got pretty much everyone on board with the thought too! Especially Luke, Carter, and Ruth. Ray, mister and I weren't quite buying it though. Sorry I didn't have faith in you!" She clasped her hands together and bowed her head almost like she was praying. "Oh, I don't mind. *gasp* There's one thing I forgot to show you!" I reached into my backpack and felt around for a minute before pulling the object out. Her eyes grew extremely wide and her pupils dilated. My brown hair cast an almost sinister shadow over my eyes. "The reason we're hear in the first place."

"Little bunny."

Word count: 1234

(A/n: lots of filler 💁‍♀️)