Breathing ∞ Kol Mikaelson [1]

[42]

It took only a moment until Emma heard the flurry of her mother's movements through the house as soon as she passed through its doors. That same reason was exactly why she'd sat in her car for an extra five minutes before making her way inside. She took that time to debate acting like nothing was wrong, like nothing happened. But Emma realized that wasn't the way.

"There you are!" Her mother exclaimed, a scolding look on her face as she came to stand in the hallway, a few feet away from Emma who was taking her shoes off at the door. "You know, while I may have eased up on your friend choices, the standard rules still stand. When your sleepover extends to another night the least you could do is call to tell me."

"Right, because we tell each other everything." Emma mumbled to herself, making her way towards her bedroom to drop off all of her things. Those exact words were why she decided to not hold her tongue around her mother. They'd made a deal to be honest and no longer keep secrets. Her mother may have broken it, but doing so herself would make Emma's judgement of it hypocritical.

"So how was the dance? I want to see some pictures." Marissa followed after her daughter, a somewhat confused look on her face. It wasn't hard for the mother to take note of the distant tone of Emma's voice. The somewhat concerning mood made her push back the scolding for a later time.

"I never made it to the dance." Emma said honestly, dumping her bag and dress on the bed before turning back to look at her mother as the older woman stood leaning against Emma's door.

"What do you mean? Why not?" Marissa questioned in surprise. It wouldn't be too unusual for the two high-schoolers to have skipped the dance and rather have fun on their own, but having heard stories about Rebekah made Marissa suspect a school dance was exactly her kind of fun.

"Well, let's see, there are multiple highlights to cover." Emma said, tone laced with sarcasm and evident annoyance. Unsuspecting that it was actually directed at her, Marissa moved into the room, sitting on Emma's bed and expecting a story about two friends bickering or something simple and mundane. "Let's start with getting locked away in a magical cave beneath Mystic Falls by the mother of my friend who was using her body as a costume."

That most certainly didn't sound mundane or simple. "You... Excuse me?! What did... How?" Marissa stumbled over her words as she tried to process the surprise as well as the speed and nonchalance with which her daughter had spoken the words.

"And funnily enough, that isn't the best part of it all." Emma added on with a fake smile on her face.

"That's not all?!" Marissa exclaimed in surprise. By the look on her face, Emma could already imagine her mother composing a new packing list and trying to remember where she'd stored away all the boxes.

"I want the journals you took." Emma didn't outright say the next part this time. No, she wanted to give her mother a chance to come clean on her own. Tell her there's something she can do about spells, or tell her something. But seeing the questioning look on her mother's face, Emma continued to add an extra explanation. "Dad's journals that went missing from the box."

They'd spoken about the journals before, her mother explaining taking them as simply not wanting Emma's memories of her father to be altered by the way his mind became obsessed. Apparently the three journals she'd taken held some of the worst instances of it. But now, Emma was questioning that considering she'd never gotten a chance to properly go through them.

"I told you I threw those away." Marissa reminded her daughter. And that part, at least, was true. She'd burnt the journals she took, not wanting to take the risk of hiding them and Emma still getting her hands on them.

"Why?" Emma prodded further. She wasn't about to back down. Not when her mother seemed to be the only way to get answers. Kol had offered his help, yes, but Emma couldn't be sure how genuine that was. Even if it sounded like he had no other motives aside from simply helping her figure out what was happening to her.