Ever Since We Met...

[Chib†]

[Destroya --> Ema Ryan]

Yet another difficult short walk, in such a short period of time. Ema certainly was having a lot of those. Like being The Doctor, only instead of running down corridors all the time, she's trekking across an island 24/7. She held back a laugh at the comparison, disgusted with herself that she could already be making light of the situation, poking fun at tragedy heaped upon tragedy. But it was the only way she had left of coping; laugh at it all, see it as a really bad joke, or draw comparisons to less depressing things. Look death in the face and smile, laugh at his coincidental jokes. What else was there to do, short of going mad?

Then again, deriving humour from Survival of the Fittest was hardly the behaviour of a sane person. Ema Ryan wasn't really under any illusions as to the completeness of her sanity, though. She knew she was slowly losing her grip on what had once been "normal" thought, "normal" behaviour, "normal" action. Life wasn't normal any more, why act as though it was?

If life were normal, Ema probably would've been giving the other bodies littering the bridge area the same courtesy she was giving Hayley's, the dignity of a makeshift burial by way of river. Sure it could be seen as dumping the body in the water and not having to look at it any more, but Ema liked to think maybe Hayley would be washed out to sea, and burial at sea was a legitimate thing, wasn't it? Yeah, she was pretty sure the Navy did it for sailors that were killed in action, or something. James Bond had faked it at some point to infiltrate an underwater lair, too. Yeah, letting her body go out to sea was the best thing Ema could do, short of scouring the island for a shovel. She didn't have time for that, though, so the river was the next best thing.

And that's why she found herself standing at the apex of the little bridge, the bloodied body of Hayley Kelly laying on the stone edge before her, quite lost for words. "I... I should probably say something, shouldn't I? Even if the cameras weren't here, you're meant to say something meaningful here, aren't you?"

Ema shrugged. She had nothing. Nothing poetic or terribly meaningful, at least. "Well fuck it, I'm not a priest." She sighed, lifting the body up again, approaching the bridge's edge, leaning out over the water. "Ever since we met, you were all I really wanted, you know? That feeling when you just see something, or someone, and you just can't resist. Nobody ever made me feel as good as you did. And I don't just mean that in a crude way... I guess what I'm trying to say..."

Ema let go, watched Hayley drop into the water below. She looked almost peaceful, in spite of the crimson stains running the length of her torso. Her hair covered over the entry and exit wounds in her head, making it look almost as though she might be sleeping... sleeping in a bloodstained shirt, at least.

"I love you, Hayley Kelly. I'm gonna miss you. Save me a space up there, yeah?"

I just hope I need it later, rather than sooner...

[Ema Ryan --> The Girl With the Thorn in Her Side]