Chapter 2: Reincarnation
[???? – ????]
Kenichi stared directly into Emma’s lavender eyes. Despite her injured arm, she had him pinned down with the knife to his neck. He kept as still as possible. His hand shivered ready to curl into a fist, but he resisted. Instead he tried to raise his hands up. The knife pressed further into his skin. “Aren’t you too young to be playing assassin?”
“Shut up!” Emma’s eyes trembled. “Who sent you?”
The sound of a click from behind caught Emma’s attention. She tried not to look back and kept her focused on Kenichi. “I only have to slit one artery.”
Maddox spoke. “I only have to pull one trigger.”
Maddox stood beside Sarina with his gun aimed at Emma. He shifted his body to the right just to make sure Kenichi is not in his sight. “You’re at a disadvantage kid.”
“I’m not a kid, I’m sixteen.”
Kenichi spoke. “That’s supposed to make me comfortable with you sitting on top of me.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sarina let out a nervous smile. “Well, you are sitting on him.”
Emma looked at where she was and her face blushed. Kenichi’s face blushed as well. She immediately sat up giving Kenichi an opening to throw a punch. When she saw the fist come towards her, she blocked the punch with her injured arm. On the surface she winced in pain, but she resisted screaming. Emma placed the knife back on to his neck.
Sarina spoke. “Please Emma. There is no need for violence. We can talk this out.”
“No. Someone learned about my husband and sent this imposter to capture me.”
“I don’t understand.” Sarina reached into her pocket and walked toward Emma.
“I’m not stupid. My husband is forty years old in Earthworld, and the age limit to teleport an Earthworlder is twenty years. There is no way this imposter is him.”
Maddox noticed Emma was not paying attention to the doctor and he keep himself in Emma’s sight.
“Emma,” Sarina said. “I’m sure there is an explanation for this.”
“Don’t you understand doctor?” Emma tried to force Kenichi back down on the bed but he stayed still staring right back at her. “Someone found out who I really am and dressed this guy up to look like my husband.”
Maddox looked at Kenichi’s face and realized what Emma was saying. “That’s not possible. Are… are you a reincarnation?”
Kenichi growled. “There is no such thing as reincarnation. My wife died sixteen years ago. This child is crazy.”
Emma leaned closer to his face. “Don’t call me crazy. I know who I am.”
“Who are you?” Kenichi noticed Sarina approaching them and faced Emma when she answered.
“I am Emma Fumiko Rosado, but on Earthworld my real name was Fumiko Yamamura.”
“What?” Kenichi stared into her eyes as he saw her tears well up. “No… it can’t be…”
Sarina stood right behind Emma with a sewing needle between her fingers as Emma spoke.
“Someone must have leaked information about me, and you’re using it to capture me like you captured my senpai. I’m not falling for this.”
Sarina poked her needle on the back of Emma’s neck. “Bedtime.”
Emma’s body lurched back from sting of the needle. The sting spread throughout her body causing her head to look up at the ceiling and every muscle froze in place. Her hands opened up releasing the knife. The knife fell to the floor and Maddox kicked it away. Emma’s eyes closed slowly. She fought to keep them open until she felt the needle removed from her neck. As she collapsed forward, Kenichi palm smothered her face and she felt him push her off his body. As Emma watched Kenichi stumble off the bed, she noticed the ring on his finger. She heard a ping as her eyes closed. She remembered feeling her hand slid down Kenichi’s hand before closing her eyes. The darkness she fell into in final breath. “I remembered I felt cold that day.”
Emma’s last image as Fumiko was seeing a pair of hands from a woman reach out to her. The hands pulled her into a warm gentle light. Her memories slipping away until Kenichi’s smile imprinted in her mind. “Is this when I…”
Emma opened her eyes. She found herself staring at a man and a woman with cat-like ears. She noticed their tails have split ends. The woman had lavender eyes, the man had green eyes, and they both had dark brown hair.
The woman spoke. “Hello Emma. It’s us, your mother and father.”
The man spoke. “Looked Yolanda, she has your eyes.”
Yolanda spoke. “She is my first lavender eyed child Armando. I’m so happy.”
“Strange that her hair looks a little black.”
“You’re right, but she has your eyebrows.”
“Hey!”
As Yolanda and Armando giggled to each other and smiled at Emma, darkness enveloped them. Fumiko’s memories of an angry married couple from earth played into her mind. Now all Emma saw was a pair of shadows with red eyes speaking to her.
“It’s your fault Fumiko.” The female shadow spoke.
“No… no…” Emma’s memories of Fumiko’s angry parents raced too fast to process and she started crying. “I can’t go through this again.”
As the baby cried, Yolanda looked at Armando. “Aww… it seems Emma’s already hungry.”
Armando reached for the curtain and pulled on it. “Let’s get some privacy Yolanda.”
“She’s going to be such a happy little girl.” Yolanda smiled. The calendar on the wall nearby read 8th Month, 4500.
***
[08/4510]
Emma walked through a hallway filled with students and teachers. Like her, they have cat-like ears and long tails with split ends. The school uniforms were stylized military dress in design. In her age group, the girls were dressed in grey skirts and the boys in grey slacks. With her school bag in hand she entered the classroom where her female teacher was in an actual military dress uniform with a dark blue color. The pin reading Marines attached to her collar sat alongside her rank pins.
“Good morning Señora Alvarez.” Each student said as they entered. While although a few girls did have their hair done in a bun like their teacher and the boys had their hair cut short like a soldier, the other children’s hair were as expressive as their smiles.
Emma sat at her desk in the center back. She saw the window three desks away and saw the birds fly into the sky. She stared out at the sky, watching the white clouds passing by. When she shifted her head along the ceiling where the lamps above illuminated a bright light, she turned to a sheet of paper in her notepad and started to draw. It was a pair of shadows with a human arm reaching out of one of them. That arm from the shadow reached out to a human man who had his fist raised toward the shadows. She looked at the fist and thought of a man’s right hand covered in blood. Fumiko stood behind him watching him walk towards the shadows. Underneath the blood it looked like rings connected together. So Emma drew that over his fist. She raised her head up when she saw her classmate up front stand up.
“Stand.” Everyone stood up. “Bow.”
As Emma bowed with her classmates, she stared at the drawing, and thought of this man’s name. She knows it, but it was so far away as though she was in a large library with endless rows of books and papers. After she sat down, she crumpled the paper up into a ball and threw it into her bag.
Mrs. Alvarez spoke. “Okay class. Today will be the first day of Borinquén history. Please take out your textbooks and open to the first chapter on page six.”
Emma opened her book to page six and saw a drawing of large ships with a flag of the Cross of Saint Andrew on them. The title of the first chapter read, ‘Day of Arrival’.
Mrs. Alvarez wrote on the chalkboard Earth year 1493. All the children whispered to each other. “Please raise your hand if your family has told you about our ancestors here on Teora.”
The entire class did. “Now, how about our ancestors from Earth?”
Ten raised their hands, Emma was not among them. “I see. It’s okay. I’ll walk you through this lesson and you will understand where we came from.”
A girl in front raised her hand. “Excuse me, Señora Alvarez?”
“Yes Señorita Velazquez?”
“What is Earth?”
“Well…” Mrs. Alvarez smiled. “Earth is a planet just like Teora. While astronomers don’t know where Earth is in the galaxy, what we do know is that one part of our ancestors came from there. Please read the first summary out loud.”
Ms. Velazquez stood up and read. “Earth is a planet where our human ancestors the Taino tribe came from. They were enslaved by an Earth country called the Spanish Empire. The Spanish Empire arrived on our ancestral island Borinquén in the year 1493 bringing peace at first. They renamed our island Puerto Rico, which means ‘Rich Port’ in Spanish. When more Spaniards arrived over the next ten years, they brought disease and slavery to our indigenous ancestors. Their laws of cultural assimilation forced the Tainos to speak Spanish and engage in Spanish customs while restricting Taino language and cultural traditions.”
She stopped, sat down, and Mrs. Alvarez walked in front of her desk to speak. “In the Earth year 1503, Spanish Conquistadors separated thousands of Taino children from the their families placing them on ships that carried goods, livestock, Taino culture like the hammock and yucca, as well as gold and silver. There were a total of fifteen ships that set sail into an ocean called the Atlantic where they met our god Juracán. It was then, that he rescued the Taino children by bringing all the ships to a peninsula the Spanish thought was Spain, but where they actually landed on was the western shore of the old country called Yurienda. The Spaniards first contact was with our yuman ancestors, the Venida tribe. Together, Taino and Vineda tribes were enslaved as the Spaniards marched across the land taking over the kingdoms until they reached the Cartanga Mountains. It was then they establish the country of Eiberia.”
***
After school ended, Emma exited the building. She waved goodbye to her classmates and made her way to the entrance gate. As she passed by the students, she saw two teenage girls and a young boy. They have dark brown hair and green eyes, the girls were visually identical however, the one with pigtails wore a Navy style uniform. The other girl with long flowing hair and the young boy’s uniforms were the same grey colors as Emma. They all smiled at her as she approached them with their school bags in hand.
“Nira…” Emma smiled at the pigtailed girl and turned to the other girl. “Marisol…”
Marisol spoke. “Hi Emma-sita. You had a good day at school.”
Emma smiled. “Yes.”
Nira leaned closer. “You want to see a cool spell I learned at class today.”
“Yes.” Emma watched Nira raised her right hand up. She noticed vapor gathering at the palm of Nira’s hand.
“Agua.” Nira said and the vapor flashed. It turned into a ball of water.
Emma awed at the water as Nira presented it to her. Emma tapped the surface with her fingertip and watched it ripple. “Amazing.”
Nira flicked the water ball onto a bed of plants and leaned close to Emma with a smile. “Are you ready for your birthday party?”
Emma looked down. “I don’t know.”
The boy spoke. “You’re planning to run away from mom and dad again.”
Nira’s cat-like ears twitched and turned to him. “Jorge!”
“What?” The boy looked away. “It’s the truth.”
Marisol took Emma’s hand. “Ignore him. He’s just being a brat.”
Nira slapped Jorge on the back of his head causing his ears to flop forward. “Behave.”
“Fine.” Jorge followed the girls a short distance.
Marisol looked back. “I will let mom and dad know what you said to Emma.”
“Come on!” Jorge ran up to them. “I was just joking.”
Nira looked down on him and whispered in his ear. “It’s not funny. Mom and dad are going to try to get her to smile at them for once. It’s ten years now.”
Marisol smiled at Emma. “We’re going to have a fun time Emma-sita. Your friends are going to be there. All your aunts and uncles… even Ori will be there with Eira and the baby.”
“Everyone is old.” Emma looked down.
“Eh?”
“There will be too many cousins to keep up with.”
Marisol and Nira looked at each other with awkward smiles.
Jorge spoke. “You’re right. Everyone in the family is old. You and I will get old too once we turn twenty-six. Even these two will look like shriveled berries.”
Marisol placed her hand on his shoulder. “Watch it…”
Nira turned to Marisol as they climbed up the hill. “I don’t know if I’m ready to have children once I turn sixteen. Five is a lot.”
“We don’t have much of a choice. It’s the law once we join the military, or would you prefer to go Militia and have one child.”
“Militia? No way. Military is the best. It’s just that, knowing that I have to make five babies before I turn twenty-six is scary.”
Jorge looked up to Nira. “You could join the Martials with Ori. You can be in law enforcement or the State Guard and you only have to worry about having three children.”
Emma smiled at Nira. “You can be a lawyer like Ori.”
Nira leaned close to her. “That’s where the serpents are at Emma. If you don’t have their toughness you will get bit.”
“I don’t want to get bit.” Emma said and watched a motorcycle pass by at a slow speed.
Marisol spoke. “You won’t get bit if you join the Martials. Seriously Nira, don’t give Emma bad ideas. Ori is doing great there. If she wants to join the Martials, I’m sure he’ll help her out.”
“I’m telling you, they have secrets going in there that is dangerous for the country right Emma? Emma?”
The twins and Jorge saw Emma standing at the top of the hill. They hurried behind her and saw her eyes staring the motorcycle. It was parked by a store just before the incline. As Emma touched the handle bar, Marisol pulled her hand away. “Don’t touch Emma. It’s rude.”
“This looks nice.” Emma smiled.
Jorge crossed his arms. “It’s a motorcycle, big deal. They’re everywhere.”
Emma remembered Fumiko riding a motorcycle into a warehouse where trucks drove by. She parked the motorcycle and approached a blue truck with her key in hand. As she was about to climb the truck, a grey truck stop by and inside was a faceless man that made her smile. Emma blinked twice and stepped back. She looked at her siblings not realizing she had her hand over her heart. When Nira reached out to Emma, she walked away from them.
In the distance were houses throughout the bright green grassy land with small roads connected to the main road she walked on. The small footpaths connected to the main road led to a nearby forest. At the far end of that road was the main gate of the military base leading to the outside world. When Emma turned back to where the school was, she saw military barracks and warehouse in the distance. As she followed her siblings to home, Emma saw the soldiers checking credentials of a horse drawn carriage waiting to come inside and head in their direction. “It’s the mailman.”
Jorge said. “They’re probably delivering a human head.”
“Eh?” Emma looked up at Jorge as her sisters looked at each other with a grin.
Nira spoke. “Yeah Emma… the head of San Diego.”
Marisol leaned closer. “They say if you stare into his eyes close enough, your own eyes and hair turn grey, and all your thoughts and memories are erased permanently.”
Jorge stands behind Emma with his eyes pointing up. “Making you his puppet forever.”
“Scary!” Emma raised her arms up pretending to shield herself, and she laughed with her siblings. She then led her siblings down to the third road where there was a large house with two floors. There was a shed not far from the house and a large tree with a swing attached on the tree limb. Above in the branches was a treehouse. Emma stood before it feeling out of place. Her sisters caught up with her as Jorge ran past them. She followed the twins inside the house.
***
Emma sat quietly before the dining room table drawing a picture of a man holding a baby in one arm and holding the hand of child with the other. The man had a smile on his face, but the children were blank. She wrote underneath each person. “Kenichi… child 1… child 2… remember.”
As Emma looked out the open window, she leaned back stretching her legs outward. She could see a faint image of a steering wheel before her. It was very large and she outstretched her right arm over it. Her hand gripped it. She felt her left hand gripping the gear stick. Her feet pressed the pedals. Her mind can sense those tactile feelings. The wind from outside gently brushed her face as her memories created an image of her driving a truck with an open window. The road ahead of her led to a city where a large snow capped mountain could be seen behind the metropolis. “Where am I?”
Yolanda spoke. “Emma?”
Emma crumpled the paper and stood to her feet. She hurried to the living room where a wastebasket was near the desk. She opened the lid and tossed the paper ball inside. Upon closing the wastebasket, Emma pressed her hand on teal metal knob and it glowed. “Basara.”
The knob stopped glowing and she lifted the lid. The paper ball was gone. Just as Yolanda entered the living room, Emma turned around.
“There you are Emma. It’s getting a little dark in this room.” Yolanda stood before a teal colored metal disc on the wall and placed her hand on it. “Luz.”
The metal disc glowed and the lights in the living room turned on. Once the disc stopped glowing, Yolanda smiled at Emma. She became an image of a shadow with red eyes reaching out with claws. “It’s time to celebrate your birthday you ungrateful child.”
Emma ran to the stairs and climbed as fast as she could. When she reached the top she bumped into Marisol and Nira. They did not appear as shadows in her eyes, but when she looked back to the stairs at Yolanda, the shadow stood there watching her. Emma slid between her sisters and hid behind them.
Marisol spoke. “Hey birthday girl. What’s the matter?”
Nira smiled at Emma. “Why are you running for?”
Emma peeked around Nira and looked at the shadow of Yolanda below. Marisol and Mira looked at each other and understood what happened.
Yolanda spoke. “Girls, could you help your sister get ready?”
“Yes.” They said.
As Emma wrapped her arms around Marisol, Nira patted Emma on the head making her look up to them. “Come on Emma. Mother and father are happy to celebrate your birthday today.”
Nira took Emma’s hand and led her down the hallway. “Let’s get your clothes together. You’ll look nice and pretty for mom and dad. They’ll be happy.”
Downstairs, Yolanda stood before the kitchen staring at the cake that read ‘Happy Birthday Emma’. Armando entered the dining room behind Yolanda carrying a large camera with a tripod. He placed it at the corner and slid under the covering to make adjustments. “Smile for the camera.”
Once he the focused the lens, he noticed Yolanda with her arms crossed. He slid out from under the covering. “What’s wrong?”
“Emma.”
“Did she run again?”
“Yes.” Yolanda sat down on the chair. “She’s too old for this.”
“I know.” Armando approached her. “She’s ten now and she is still near us.”
“I wish she would hug me.” Yolanda looked down as Armando wrapped his arms her shoulders and rested his chin on her shoulder.
“It’s those drawings.” He said. “I still can’t figure out what they mean.”
“They’re so strange.” Yolanda looked at Armando. “Like that one thing with all those wheels. She said it’s used to deliver stuff to stores. Some kind of metal monster.”
Armando smiled. “I like the one that has a window on the wall that shows a completely different world. She says its shows entertainment.”
“Entertainment?”
“Yeah.” Armando chuckled. “She has quite an imagination. Has she been writing stories?”
“I don’t know. I can’t get into her room.” Yolanda clutched Armando’s hand. “You made the arrangements today?”
“Yes. The appointment is for next week.”
“Confirmation.” Yolanda shed a tear. “Please, don’t let it be true.”
“Yolanda, if she really is a reincarnation, it explains her hair and–”
“I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to believe that my daughter is someone completely different. Someone else’s soul other than my baby’s. I want Emma, not some stranger.”
“You have to consider the possibility.” Armando pressed his hand onto Yolanda’s belly. “After what happened to both of you during pregnancy…”
“I don’t want to talk any more about this.”
Armando thought for a second then nodded. “Today is her birthday. We got to make her smile for us. The pictures of her smile from a distance are beautiful.”
“When will I get to see her smile with my own eyes?”
“As soon as we find out the truth of what has happened to her. We waited this long to do Confirmation, our prayers will be answered. We will understand Emma.”
Yolanda noticed his hair. “You’re graying.”
“I’ll borrow your hair dye.”
“I don’t want to feel old so soon. I’m still young.”
Armando smiled. “You look beautiful in grey.”
As they kissed, Emma watched the shadows from outside the kitchen listening to them. “We are raising an idiot.”
“She is such a problem… I’ll discipline her.”
Emma stepped back only to bump into her sisters. She saw their smiles despite her own confusion as to why they are nice but not her parents. She thought. “Why aren’t they shadows?”
Marisol spoke. “Go on, show mother your pretty dress.”
Nira smiled. “She is going to love you with lots of hugs.”
Marisol and Nira led Emma into the kitchen. As she got closer to Yolanda and Armando, their shadows grew taller. Emma looked small before them. She fought to get behind her sisters for protection, but they tried to keep her ahead of them. Emma broke free and ran off.
Yolanda looked down and Armando placed his hands on her shoulders. “Emma…”
***
Yolanda and Armando sat in individual chairs side by side before a desk. The twelve hour clock ticked along like dripping water. There was a painting on the wall of a pair of female hands guiding ghostly lights towards the land where people. Bookshelves lined up along the wall. The doctor sitting behind his desk read from a file in hand. Yolanda closed her eyes and tears fell down. She felt Armando’s hand as he took the file from the doctor.
“With her test scores at seventy percent she meets the minimum threshold of reincarnation.”
Yolanda looked down. “It’s not fair.”
Armando flipped through the pages in the file and he read the name Fumiko under the first question, ‘What is you name on Earthworld?’. “Did something happen to her in her previous life?”
The doctor nodded. “Yes. She experience childhood trauma. From the way she was writing during the exam, she exhibited signs when her hands shook answer–”
Yolanda pounded the arm of her chair. “Why her?”
“She goes through emotional distress when she sees you both. It would appear that whoever her previous parents were in Earthworld, they really abused her into this state. It is possible that her going through childhood again right now brought out that trauma which is why she was able to retain her memories.”
Armando spoke. “So, she would have not remember her previous life if she had not been abused?”
“Given that this is the precise moment of her life that she remembers, the answer is yes. She would have forgotten these memories if the abuse never happened. See, as she grew up during this period of her life, her brain had to retain new memories and new information from our world, as well as relearning motor functions like walking and sitting. So all the new information she received here should have pushed all of her previous life’s memories into the memory dump where she would have forgotten everything of Earthworld. She would probably have retained little things.”
“Such as?”
“Idiosyncrasies. Habits. You would have dismissed it as something she gained growing up and not from her old life.”
Yolanda wiped her tears away. “We’re not like them.”
Armando turned to Yolanda. “I know, but from Emma’s point of view we are.”
“I’m not evil. I love my children with all my heart.” Yolanda wiped more tears away. “I would never hurt them. I would never hurt Emma, even if she is reincarnated.”
Armando got out of his chair and embraced Yolanda. “You are a great mother. You have done everything you could for Emma.”
“I feel cheated. Why my Emma? Why not someone else’s child?”
“Maybe this is a blessing for all if us. You, me and Emma.”
“Don’t give me this religious talk!”
“Yolanda.” Armando pulled back and saw that she realized what she said.
“I’m… I’m sorry, I should not speak ill of Corianna. I’m sure she has her reasons.”
Armando looked at the doctor. “Could you give us a moment?”
“Yes, I will go get Emma for you.”
After the doctor left the room, Armando turned to Yolanda. He looked in her in the eyes. “Remember when you were six months pregnant with Emma and you had complications.”
“Yes.” Yolanda leaned back. “The pediatrician said I was losing the baby.”
Her eyes grew wide and she faced Armando. “No…”
“Yes Yolanda.” Armando grabbed her hands. “We did lose our Emma, but perhaps… Corianna blessed us with this soul to save Emma’s life so we can have her.”
“I can’t believe that.”
“It makes sense. That scare we had. We were supposed to lose Emma in a miscarriage but, I believe… I believe…”
As Armando wept on Yolanda’s lap, she looked up at the painting of the goddess Corianna leading the souls into the land. Yolanda remembered Emma as a baby crying. As she watched her grew up from a distance smiling at her siblings but never towards her. She started having clarity, that maybe, this soul did save her Emma’s life but as the doctor said, the soul’s trauma prevented Emma from forgetting that previous life on Earth. It prevented her from enjoying a new happy life with them. “How do we take this pain away from her and make her smile at us?”
Armando spoke. “Emma?”
Yolanda turned around and saw Emma standing at the door. She and Armando approached her but she stepped back raising her hand. They stopped.
Emma stared at the shadows before her. At first she saw lavender and green eyes from the shadows. It was as if she could here someone calling out to her. It sounded safe, but the eyes turned back to red and she shook. With a deep breath she spoke. “I hate you.”
Yolanda and Armando looked at each other. They were about to say something but Emma continued.
“I hate that you hurt me. I hate that you threw bottle at me and made alcohol splash on me. I hate that you blame me for losing your job. I hate that you would not talk to me, only yell. I’m mad that you burned my arm on my tenth birthday.”
Emma looked at the shadow covering Armando. “What kind of father are you? How could you act like I never exist? How could you not make me feel safe when I am near you?”
Emma looked at the shadow covering Yolanda. “How can I call you mother? You were supposed to be a woman I was supposed to look up to. You were supposed to be my role model. You were someone I needed to come to for answers to questions that only you could answer.”
Emma clasped her hands together and pressed them onto her chest. “You never loved me, yet, you would never let me leave you. But… I’m going to be all right. I found someone who loved me more than himself. He stood by my side. He never yelled, he never hurt, he never… hate.”
Emma envisioned Kenichi sitting in his truck with a big smile. She walked past Yolanda and Armando pushing the shadows off their bodies. “Even now, I can sense good people near me, with love to give, and here you are keeping them away from me like you did Kenichi.”
Emma looked at the portrait of Corianna. “I rose from the fires you raised me in and drove the truck to my own freedom, my own life… and it was taken away from me. Cancer… Now, I come into this world with a new start to life and the first thing I see is you two in this new world. I feel like you wanted revenge because I stood up for myself. My life is one big joke to you.”
Emma’s hands curled into a first. She lifted her head up with tears splashing off her eyes. “I hate you both. I was going to become a better mother to my children, with my husband, but you both got the last laugh when I died. I hate you… I hate you forever in my heart. Hate… a taint I have to live with forever.”
Emma turned to Yolanda and Armando. “I’ll show them. I’ll grow up, go to school, and fulfill my dreams. I’ll have children again and I’ll be a better mom than her. A better parent than them.”
Emma faced the shadows one more time. “Burn in Hell!”
As the shadows deflated into the ground, Emma took short breathes. She looked back at Yolanda and Armando and their faces were visible. Her memories of them cleared, and they looked different. Their smiles were freed from the shadows grasp, but now she saw sadness in their eyes. “I lost ten years with you. They’re winning again.”
As Emma’s tears fell, Yolanda and Armando hurried to her and pulled her into their arms. “Why are they winning?”
Yolanda spoke. “They’re not… because I love you.”
Armando spoke. “We love you.”
After hearing those three words, she heard one more voice say ‘I love you’. It was when she lied in bed closing her eyes for the last time. Her hand slowly slipped from his fingertips. Her ring tapped Kenichi’s was the last sound she heard before everything went silent. When her eyes opened the smiles of two loving parents was the first thing she saw. “Mama… papa...”
Armando spoke. “We’re here… you’re safe now.”
Emma hugged them tight and closed her eyes to feel their warmth.
***
[07/14/4517]
Emma opened her eyes and saw Maddox sitting by the desk with his hand on his revolver gun. She sat up rubbing her eyes. The pain in her injured arm got her attention.
Maddox spoke. “I’ll have the doctor look at that arm after you answer some questions.”
As Maddox aimed the gun at her, Emma straightened her posture looking like a mature adult. She crossed her legs and placed her hand over her knee. “Are you going to shoot an injured unarmed woman?”
“It depends.” He pulled back the hammer. “Are you going to kill my client?”
Emma leaned forward. “No… I have questions of my own.”
“You do?”
Emma nodded.
Maddox remembered she called Kenichi her husband and he wants that answered right away. He reset the hammer on the gun, but kept it pointed at her. “If I’m satisfied… I’ll let you see Yamamura.”
Maddox stood up and signaled Emma to do the same. “Come.”
“Okay.” Emma stood to her feet.
Maddox stepped aside to keep her in his sight. As she walked past him, Emma pushed herself onto him pressing her right hand on his stomach. “Estático!”
A surge of electricity surrounded Maddox. He struggled to scream as he dropped to his knees. As his face planted itself on the floor, Emma opened and escaped the clinic.
To Be Continued...
