Night 48: F21-F30 Hallway

[fourstonewalls]

When the intercom finished another deliberately vague note, Lana was already standing at her door, flashlight in hand and scalpel securely in her coat pocket. She'd neglected to find out exactly how the doors worked at night, but the general idea was clear. Some time soon, they would open, and she had to be ready the moment they did

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[fourstonewalls]

There was a voice in the back of Lana's head, whispering to itself as Ema downright bounced off to collect her things. It was a voice she had tried very hard to drown out these last few years. There was too much silence here. Too little work, despite the open-ended investigation that was Martin Landel's Insititute. Too much room to think, and apprehensions became words.

This is the way it should be.

No. No no no no no. It was too late; far too late, by Ema's account. The best thing she could do for her sister was accept her fate gracefully, and keep her safe to walk out of the courtroom freed of Lana's mistake.

When Ema re-emerged, Lana turned towards the mouth of the hallway without another word, and started walking. As they neared the end, she finally broke the silence.

"Your flashlight was damaged last night?" Lana had always carried a penlight; she knew for a fact that Ema had heard chapter and verse on the importance of being prepared. So if she had left it behind, it had better be. It made going for their things more important, though it would help to have better directions than 'upstairs'. If Ema didn't want to talk about what had happened, they could talk around it, but Lana needed to know what was out there in the shadows just as much as Ema did. She couldn't allow the fact that Ema was the star witness to stop her.

[scientist_skye]

Ema fell into step behind her sister without a word of argument. Lana's lack of verbal communication didn't faze her in the slightest; part of being professional in the field was keeping the chatter down, after all. Of course Lana would get straight down to business, and Ema followed suit to keep from seeming unable or incompetent. The last thing Ema wanted was to somehow disappoint her sister further and be left behind the following evening.

The question seemed to come out of nowhere. Lana must have noticed that Ema had failed to bring her flash light. "Yeah." She was quiet for a few moments until she realized that Lana would probably want more information than a simple confirmation of the question. "I used it to beat back one of the rats last night, and then I tried to bash its heads in and missed. It's in pieces on Agatha's desk right now." There was a long silence as Ema realized just how brutal that really sounded. "They were attacking, I didn't have a choice..."

[fourstonewalls]

"You..." should be more careful with your equipment, Officer, was what she'd started to say. But Ema had no police academy training to begin with; to say she'd allowed her training to desert her was wholly incorrect. Instead, she snapped back over her shoulder. "When we get home, you're enrolling in the women's self-defense class down at the precinct." Lana couldn't protect her forever. A few more months, at best.

[continued here]