Emma and Seth decided it would be best to go back to her parents house to pick up a few things like food, water, and maybe a weapon before heading out with the excuse that they were going to the creek that they had frequented throughout the Summer before school had started in early September.

They never swam, but they liked to skip rocks. That's how they first met. Emma remembered back to that day. It was a cloudy, dreary day and she had been able to escape her father on the "guise" of her accepting being sent on a "special errand" for him to his friend Terry from the museum. He wanted her to deliver some ancient relics that he had found when he was cleaning out her Grandfather's house after he had passed before they sold the house in May.

She was a bit curious as to what the relics were, her father had told her not to unwrap them. Naturally, she did the exact opposite of what he told her, and decided that for "scientific purposes," she would take a quick peek and then wrap them back up again. Surely, her father would never notice what she had done. She knew she would be in big trouble if he knew what she was doing, but she was impulsive and tended to not think things through before doing them.

She decided that she would go sit under the bridge that spanned the creek by the small wooded area by the playground. She liked the creek because it was fun to explore and her parents didn't know about her secret place, so she was safe from prying eyes.

Her backpack was heavy from the tablets, but she managed to lug them to the spot she wanted to go. It was beautiful there, there was something about the sound of the water trickling down the rocks that soothed her and made her not want to fidget as much as she normally did. Green foliage lined the banks and the bridge, but not so much that she couldn't force her way through when she wanted to get to her spot.

She had marked the path that she had made 3 summers ago with a pink ribbon that she had gotten from her mother's clothing store. Her mother was a talented seamstress, people came to her when they needed custom clothing designed and her family lived well because of how much coin she made at her shop. Still, Emma disliked her mother. She was not kind to Emma, she made rude comments on Emma's appearance and choice of clothing more often than Emma would like. She told Emma that young ladies aren't supposed to dress like little boys, that they should wear dresses, like the ones her mom made for the rich girls at her school. Ugh. She hated those girls, just like she hated those dresses. They were uncomfortable and didn't allow her to do the activities she enjoyed like climbing trees and hanging upside down from monkey-bars. She regretted the time she tried the latter, it ended horribly.

Emma had been bored on the playground, and was embarrassed by the fact her mother made her wear the dress she had made anyways. Emma was too lanky and skinny for the dress, she hadn't developed yet even though she was in middle-school like some of the other girls had. She shuddered at the thought of hitting puberty, but knew it was coming, and soon she would be of age to marry. Emma was only 12 at that time but behind the wall, old men were known for taking an interest in girls as young as 14 years old. It creeped Emma out when she saw an elderly man old enough to be her grandfather with a girl that was nearly the same age as her.

She didn't understand why the young girls agreed to it, but she heard that they didn't make their choice for their husband. That they were forced to marry the men in order to secure their family and their future. Her father said that soon, they would pick a man for her to marry. She refused to think that she could be married in two years to someone that was 3 times her age. She hated life behind the wall, it was horrible, Emma thought as she sat on top of the monkey-bars dangling her feet in the cool October air.

To get the uncomfortable thoughts that were swirling inside of her head to stop, she decided she would flip upside down and hang by her knees for a few seconds; surely this would do the trick. Without thinking, she hooked her ankles under the bars and flipped backwards. That's when disaster struck. Her dress dropped over her face, revealing down to her underpants and everything else that she was not in the least bit ready for anyone to see.

Then she heard several of the children laughing at her, making fun of her as she was stuck upside down with her dress over her head. She had never been more embarrassed and when she struggled to break free so she could correct the situation, it got worse.

THUD! She fell from the monkey-bars and landed directly on her face, adding injury to insult. When she managed to push herself up out of the dirt, Sara Beth was waiting to kick dirt in her face. "Loser," Sara Beth laughed at her as she kicked up sand and small pebbles into Emma's eyes. Emma was furious, so furious that she doesn't remember what happened next but from what she was able to piece together from the stories she heard while walking down the halls later on, she had jumped up and punched Sara Beth so hard that it broke her nose. The children said that Emma's eyes had turned completely black like "the Devil's" when she jumped up. Sarah Beth never came near Emma again, three months later she changed schools.

Suddenly, Emma snapped out of her memories and remembered where she was and her mission. She sat down on the smooth surface of the large, gray boulder that she liked so much and with a heavy grunt she dropped her backpack in her lap and sighed with relief. Finally,

Emma suddenly felt slight anxiety as her fingers brushed against the zipper to the backpack. "I shouldn't be doing this," she thought to herself. Despite her moment of hesitation, she remembered that it was for "scientific research" and mustered up the courage to unzip the backpack, pulling the bundled relics out of it and sitting them on the boulder in front of her.

They were wrapped in fine silk, but the silk was tied shut with twine. The silk was beautiful, the twine was an odd choice to her however. As she unraveled the twine from around the black silk, she suddenly started to get light-headed. Danger. A sudden sense of dread engulfed her as she reached to unwrap the silk. Then she heard footsteps behind her.