Tapestry of Scars

The Wounds of Time

A/N: *shows up fashionably late*. Sorry for the delay in updating. These last few chapters are going to be coming at you slow. Life has decided to challenge me to a duel. And much like Alexander Hamilton, I don't have a great track record when it comes to duels...

***

Chapter 18:

The Wounds of Time

As the days passed Emily's anxiety started to get the better of her. She checked in with Caleb every day to see if there was any news. The only news he had was that Peter was still on a ventilator with no change in his condition. It wasn't looking good for him.

It made Emily's heart hurt for his little girl. She hoped the kid was okay. She remembered how hard Samara had clutched her hand on the way to the hospital. And the way she'd cried when her aunt called out for her in the waiting room. It had sparked memories of her own childhood.

After Emily's dad had been killed her entire family had been hauled off to the hospital. The doctors had examined her. And the police tried to talk to her, but she'd refused to say a word. She had gone silent for nearly a month.

The first words she'd said had been to her big brother. It hadn't been anything groundbreaking or important. She'd just walked into the kitchen one day at lunch and sat down at the table. Ethan had been eating a grilled cheese sandwich. She'd stared at it and then looked at him with her big brown eyes and quietly asked,

"Can I have a bite?"

He'd been so shocked to hear his little sister talking again that he'd given her the whole sandwich. He didn't pressure her to say anything else. After she finished eating he took her outside to play on the swing set. They'd started talking about Kool-Aide and what their favorite flavors were. He'd gotten a piece of Emily back that day, though she never was the same kid she was before the shooting.

Ethan never asked her to talk about what happened to their father. He just made her life as normal as he possibly could.

Emily thought a lot about her brother while she and Alison were cooped up in the cabin. Being secluded brought back a lot of memories for her.

Bouncing around from place to place had become her new normal after she'd run away from home with her brother.

The first few weeks after Ellie's death had been rough. They'd been terrified he would track them down. They'd paid for everything with the cash they had saved up. They stayed on the run, never staying in one place for more than one night.

Emily's cuts and bruises from the fight had been pretty bad. Her fingers were swollen from where she'd broken her nails trying to get out of the closet. She'd clawed at the wood so much that her skin was sloughing off. She'd had a large gash on her temple from where he'd smashed a lamp over her head. She'd also had a concussion and a black eye.

They had no way of knowing at the time, but she'd had a fractured rib from where he'd hit her with the fireplace poker. It had left a large gash in her side that had gotten infected. She'd had a fever for two days. Ethan just kept dousing it in alcohol and cleaning it, hoping it would get better.

Emily remembered trying to concentrate on the physical pain to forget her emotional pain. The mental pain that had been inflicted upon her was worse. Because she'd watched what happened to Ellie without being able to do a damn thing about it. Her little sister had begged for Emily and Ethan in her last moments. Emily would never forget it. She'd never forgive herself for not being able to save her.

Emily had blocked a lot of their time on the run out of her mind. It was too painful to open up those memories. But she remembered bits and pieces. She remembered being sick. She remembered Ethan gently cleaning the gashes on her cheek and bandaging her hands. She remembered him holding her hair back when she puked. And she remembered him talking her down from a panic attack in a motel bathroom two weeks after Ellie's death.