Rest in Peace

Who: Emma
When: Midday
Where: Cemetary

It didn't take long to find Torlin's grave.

It seemed so wrong that they all had to be buried here. Even in death they couldn't go home. Could anyone find peace laid to rest in this place?

Emma sat at Torlin's grave, and set a bouquet of roses beneath the headstone. She ran her fingers over the engravings, tracing her best friend's name. Finally losing her battle with her grief, Emma ducked her head and cried.

She hadn't seen Torlin die. When they put her in that room, it had already happened. But she heard people talk about how it had happened. Why it had happened. Bad enough that it had happened at all. As far as Emma was concerned, it wasn't a suicide. The scientists had killed her. They had systematically set her up and attacked her from every angle since day one. They broke her, and scattered the pieces. They knew what had happened. And Emma hadn't been there.

"I'm so sorry," she managed, crouched over Torlin's grave. "I didn't want to leave you. I'm so sorry for what they did to you. I miss you so much." It had been horrible, finding out about her death. Mourning Torlin had been one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do, and she'd had to do it alone.

No, not alone. The life moving inside of her reminded her of that. Emma sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I'm going to have a baby." she went on, sniffling again as she tried to get herself under control. "I wish I had your music to play for it. Remember when you played for me? I was supposed to shoot your first album cover." She took a deep, shakey breath as she reached into her bag and removed a framed picture. When they were in the house they'd done a photoshoot together in the ballroom. Torlin had gotten all dressed up, and she looked so beautiful. And happy, back before the bastards broke her. Emma had photoshopped one of the pictures into an album cover. She propped it up next to the roses.

"I kept up my end." she said with another sniffle. "Maybe someday I can get the tapes from the experiment and rip your music. You were so talented. You should have survived this. You should have gone home and gotten famous and had a family..." She wished she knew what had happened to Torlin's pets. She hoped someone was taking care of them, but knew well enough that that probably wasn't the case. "I'll live enough for the both of us. I promise. If we ever get out of here I'll make sure they bury you somewhere better. Somewhere you deserve."

Everything she said felt so hollow. She wondered if Torlin could hear her, wherever she was. Emma had never figured out what she believed in, about what happened to somebody when they died. She didn't think a person just rotted. There had to be something after death.

"I hope you're somewhere peaceful right now." Emma said. "And that you're not alone." That bit was so terribly important that it made her heart ache. "If there are others there... find Jennie and Taylor Keigwin. They're my grandparents. They'll adopt you and treat you like you should have been treated in the first place." The hope that Torlin was somewhere better was comforting. Somewhere where the scientists couldn't hurt her anymore.

Emma sighed and touched Torlin's headstone again. "I love you, Torlin. I didn't tell you that enough when you were here. You deserved to hear it a lot more. I'll never forget you. I'll come see you again." she promised. She wiped her face again as she stood up, and hugged herself as she stared at the grave a while longer. "Bye, Torlin." she finally whispered, before turning and walking away. She'd intended for that to be the end of it, until she neared the gates and saw something she didn't expect to see.

They'd told the house that Holly's body had been sent home to her family. I should have known. She stared at the grave, waiting to feel... something. Waiting to feel the familiar old terror of the night she'd been broken, and she'd watched Holly die. She waited for her heart to race and her palms to sweat, and to feel the need to hide. She was surprised when she didn't.

For some reason, she felt nothing. But she remembered that Holly had been pregnant when she died. She realized that she was more sad for the loss of the life of the baby than the mother. She and Holly had had nothing but bad experiences together when she was alive. Holly had been a lying, scheming, attention-mongering monster. And all these months later, Emma was still no closer to determining whether or not she deserved what she got.

Emma sighed heavily, turned, and walked away. She knelt down at Torlin's grave and took one of the twelve roses. "I owe you one, honey." Straightening, she walked back over to Holly's grave and placed it beneath the stone. "I hope you found peace too, Holly. But I'm not going to carry around what happened to us anymore. I'm not haunted anymore. I have too much to live for."

How could she feel stronger? How could she still feel hope, with everything that was going on? She did - she felt a little crazy for it, but it was there. She wasn't broken anymore.