Necessary Discrepancy

[Skraal]

((Emily Chou continued from Alone Infection))

Emily groggily opened her eyes, squinting at the sunlight streaming in through the window onto her face. Her thoughts were full of confusion as she pulled her aching body into a sitting position, groaning softly as she looked around in an attempt to figure out where she was, and more importantly, how she got here, since she could have sworn she was just in the basement...

A quick glance down at her tattered and bloodstained clothing soon resolved that mystery, confirming that the fragmented recollections buzzing around at the edges of her mind were not merely the remnants of a bad dream. Her eyes opened wide with fear as she pushed herself backward towards a nearby corner, scuttling across the floor as if to somehow run away from the body that she was looking at. It wasn't long before her back reached the wall, forcing her attention back towards the object of her terror.

No, no, no, no, no - this couldn't be happening. There... there had to have been some other explanation for this. Something other than the obvious. Emily's breathing began to come in increasingly fast and shallow as it quickly became impossible to deny the reality of what had happened. Her worst fears had come true: her medication had finally worn off, and she had lost control to It. Years of anxiously managing her medication and trying to keep her emotions under control, all while shamefully hiding herself away from her peers - all of that had been for nothing.

A slight itching sensation brought her hand to her cheek, only to be met with the discovery of dried blood caked around the lower half of her face. Her vision began to swim as she desperately pushed herself to dig through what remained of her shredded memories in search of what exactly had happened. Pain shot through her head as she scrunched her eyes shut, struggling to piece together the scattered images into some sort of coherent narrative.

However, the endeavour was soon rendered unnecessary by the squeal of an intercom crackling to life. Emily's head shot up, listening wide-eyed as the voice mockingly filled in the blanks concerning the events of the previous day, twisting the knife even more with the final congratulations at the end. Emily remained silent for the ordeal, slowly wiggling the fingers of bloodstained hands and watching them in horror. Eventually, silence returned to the area, and Emily managed to last a few extra seconds past the end of the announcement before finally bursting into tears.

It was so unfair. She had done everything right, took the utmost care to keep herself under control, and in the end she had still failed miserably. How could she have been expected to do any more? Nobody else had to deal with this. Even when it came to the other kids with dangerous Gifts, at least they were able to hold themselves in check and avoid hurting anyone by accident. She couldn't even do that; all it took was a little bit of stress and her mind was no longer her own. Why did it have to be like this? Nobody else in her family had a Gift that was even remotely close to this. Why couldn't there have been some way to foresee this before her mother had given birth to her? At least then, she could have gotten an abortion and then went on to have a kid that wasn't a constant ticking time bomb of shame and disappointment. Her parents, really, really deserved better than this.

Questions continued to swirl around in her mind, bouncing painfully against the inside of her skull like a swarm of angry bees. Why did she have to go and kill David? He didn't seem like the nicest guy in the world, but still, he had never done anything to hurt her either. All attempts to determine a reason, some sort of explanation for her actions, came up with nothing. It all just didn't make sense.

Emily gasped for breath, rocking back and forth in a panic as her thoughts went wild. Whatever the truth was about what had happened down there, it didn't really matter anymore. Her life was over now. She was a monster, and everyone knew it. They was no way that they weren't all going to hate her after what had happened. No sane person would want to let her live and risk something like this happening again. Hell, she wasn't even sure she wanted to let herself live after this. For a moment, she desperately prayed for a chunk of the ceiling to come down and crush her skull like it had Kennedy's, but unfortunately, no such mercy was forthcoming.

She probably would have kept on wallowing in self-pity had her crying not been interrupted by a sudden pain in her throat. Emily got onto her hands and knees, coughing and sputtering as something hard and sharp began to force its way upward, incapacitating her for several minutes before finally making its exit, revealing itself as it landed on the tiles below with a soft clinking sound. Emily stared at the floor for several long seconds before returning to her corner, resting her head back on her arms.

The sound of sobbing began to fill the room once more while David Penders' gold neckchain continued to glitter in the sunlight.

((Emily Chou continued in Worthless As The Sun Above Clouds))