Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors

Emily Witt : Power Mimicry : The Mirror

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

icequeensofia:

Sofia had vastly outgrown all of her clothes by now, and with just a little over 3 months left, she still had plenty of time left for her bump to overtake her frame. With setting up a day to get out of town, she was happy to invite Kendall and Emily along for the ride, and potentially start buying the smaller items for the nursery that she and Brooks still had to find a house for. There were so many things on the upcoming docket that Sofia needed a day away from it all. After picking up her friends, she started their drive towards the larger city for their day out. “They better have cute maternity clothes, because I still need to have my summer fashion.” Sofia stated with a bit of a cheeky grin. “Thanks for coming with me you two. I don’t think I’d have the energy to go by myself.”

@kendallharrington @smokewallssolitarymirrors

“You know you could make anything look cute.” Emily piped up from the back, looking at the two women in front of her. She was honestly very excited to go on this trip, and still somewhat surprised she was invited, which was ridiculous as Sofia and Kendall were her friends. Even more surprising was that she was off and may or may not have dumped Lucy on Brooks but it was a girl’s day.  “Also after the fact that you’ve seen my closet, Sofia, I’d be surprised if you said I didn’t need some new clothes.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

icequeensofia:

“I don’t think I’ll be too opposed. It’ll be nice not having to carry her around all the time. I think that’s the worst part about all of this.” Sofia replied, chuckling a bit more as she looked to the sleeping figure in her mom’s arms. “Someone is always going to want to hold the baby, which I am entirely unopposed to. I’ll have carried her for 9 months once she’s born. It’ll be my excuse for not wanting to hold her at all!”

She couldn’t help but laugh softly at Sofia’s comments. “You’ll be holding her more than you think. But, you are probably the strongest woman in the world so it should be no problem for you. At least it’s not a problem for me anymore.” Emily said, referring to her having Sofia’s powers since she walked in the door. “No, you’ll have lots of love and support, and you know Brooks at least will listen to any complaining you do. Goodness knows he does enough of that for me.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

icequeensofia:

“He will be a wonderful dad.” Sofia remarked, knowing just how much he took care of the both of them, despite not telling him that enough. Giving a glance back towards the girl on the couch, she smiled faintly, a soft exhale escaping her as she only wondered what life would be like in just a few months time when they had their own little person in their lives. “Oh, that’s so sweet! We have so many people offering to help, it’s gonna take a village to raise a baby.” She joked with a sly chuckle.

Nodding, Emily carefully moved to pick the sleeping child up despite knowing that Lucy slept like a rock. Making sure the little girl’s head was on her shoulder, still fast asleep, Emily looked back at Sofia. She could tell she was nervous and excited and who wouldn’t be with such a big change coming. “I think you’re going to have a village raising your baby whether you want them to or not.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

brooksmontgomery:

Brooks stayed quiet, letting her cry and lean on him in her time of need. It was partially his fault for her being like this. His hand rubbed at her back, trying to calm her down. “Everything’s going to be alright. It’s in the past now.”

"How could I not remember that.” She whispered, sobs subsiding, at least momentarily. She didn’t understand and honestly she knew he wouldn’t know either but she had to say it as the part of herself that didn’t stop talking resurfaced.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

aaronputnxm:

Aaron nodded, “We did run into each other, yes.” It had been an interesting one to say the least, thankfully she was remembering him now. “I was curious about that too. Does that happen often?”

Emily shook her head “No, just the one incident. I, I don’t know how it happened and I don’t even remember it really.” She wrapped her arms around herself, still rattled by everything that was going on and she showed it. The return of her memories after forgetting them, and everything else going on in town. “I’m sorry again if I did or said anything rude.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

brooksmontgomery:

Brooks shook his head slowly, “I wish I could tell you that, but I can’t.” He hadn’t placed it there, never would. It wasn’t a memory he wished upon anyone, but it was one that he could take away. He’d done that too often, though, without asking, which meant she’d have to ask for him to do it instead.

She took a deep breath, feeling herself breaking down even more. Emily turned, collapsing into Brooks’ chest, heaving a sob. She knew that he couldn’t mean to do anything to her, he wouldn’t, but it still hurt. Never imagining that she actually had been there, that was her past.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

aaronputnxm:

Aaron turned as he heard his name, recognizing the girl from the potluck and one of the days after. The last time they spoke, though, she had no clue who he was, a mystery he was still willing to seek answers for. He smiled as she approached, wondering if she only knew his name from the potluck or because he had to remind her. “Hi, Emily. How are you?” 

Emily jogged to catch up with him, relieved he had stopped. Taking a breath she figured she may as well ask him right off the bat, try and minimize any damage that had been done.”Did I, did I see you the past few days? If I did I’m so sorry if I said anything bad, I don’t even know what happened with my memory.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

icequeensofia:

“It helps to prepare.” Sofia mused quietly, the toddler asleep on the couch as she gestured towards her. She turned to meet Emily again as she shrugged off. Her simple smile had broken through, despite a tiredness that ran deep within her. “She was wonderful. Really. I can only hope that things are that easy for us, though, it is always different when it’s your own kid I’m sure.” The young woman had been daydreaming away about the possibility of her future and what it would all look like. It was frightening, and left her with far more anxiety than need be, and she only wanted to crawl into bed after that, exhausted but excited. “Brooks always learns something new when she comes over, so any teaching moment before ours arrives is worth it.”

Emily spotted her daughter asleep and let out a relieved little sigh, happy she wasn’t still awake. “You’ll be fine, Sofia. I have total faith in you. And you have Brooks too. Sometimes he doesn’t seem like it but I know he’ll be a good dad.” Walking over to Lucy, Emily brushed some hair out of the toddler’s face before picking her up. “I’ll be here to help too. I already did it once, I’ll happily help you guys with anything you could need. That reminds me, my mom mailed more baby stuff to give you.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

Walking down the street, Emily could see a familiar face in the crowd. She watched him walk down the street, unsure if she had encountered him during those few days without her memories, she couldn’t really remember those days anymore, but if she did she couldn’t imagine what she had said or done. Making one of her unsurprising impulse decisions, Emily ran forward to catch up with the man. “Hey! Aaron!”

@aaronputnxm

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

“Thank you for watching Lucy again, I didn’t think I’d be working this late.” Emily said, exhaustion pulling at her body. Her chefs coat was unbuttoned and covered in stains, her ponytail was half undone. Work had been long and hard today and she was so relieved that Sofia was available to watch her daughter. She was extremely grateful that Sofia would even consider watching her, as she was sure the woman was probably feeling exhausted herself with a baby coming. That was at least how Emily felt around that time when she was in the same situation. “I really hope she wasn’t too much trouble tonight.”

@icequeensofia

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

aaronputnxm:

“You guess? I’ll take that.” He wasn’t pleased by it, but he was getting the sense that something was wrong. “Are you going to tell me yours?”

“I- Um-” She had to stop and think. She didn’t know if she had one. “I think I’ve been called Emily.” That guy, he called himself Brooks called her that. “That sounds right.”

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

brooksmontgomery:

Brooks waited, hoping she would just say something. He would have taken her yelling at him over the silence. Silence was bad, knowing that she was probably replaying the memory over and over again since it had been repressed for years. “Emily?”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Emily finally let out a shuddered breath, tears beginning to fall from her eyes “Please tell me that wasn’t a real memory.” Her voice was soft, as pained as you would expect, she was surprised she was even managing to get herself to speak. Truth be told she already knew what he would say but she could hope, wish that it wasn’t what he would say. 

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

howyouseemexjames:

Joziah sighed, still annoyed. He understood that Emily was sorry, but he didn’t understand why she’d said anything to Brooks in the first place. “I get that you’re sorry, but I get to be frustrated about this. What you did isn’t alright, and it doesn’t really seem like you realize the gravity of it.” 

“I know,” She looked down, not even sure what to say anymore “I know I fucked up. You told me at probably the worst possible time and I just needed someone to vent to. It doesn’t even matter, I know you’ll never forgive and you don’t have to. “No, I don’t realize the gravity of it. You just fuckin left me and our daughter and I still don’t completely understand why and i hate it. You never should have told me, I’m the fucking biggest blabbermouth.” She said lowly, softly, as she knew the truth in the words and she hated them.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

howyouseemexjames:

“Of course we both changed, but I thought at the very least what we had together meant enough to you that I could trust you with this. Seems like that was my mistake.” He sighed, rubbing his temple the way he always did when he was frustrated. “He won’t tell anyone? I’m not sure what blurting it out when surrounded by other people qualifies as not telling anyone in your book, because that’s what he did.”

Emily looked at him, exasperated. Boy, they really had changed “What else do you want me to say, Joziah? I told you I’m sorry and that I’m going to fix it. “ Her words were heavy, serious, slightly annoyed. She had hoped in her mind that if they had seen each other again it would go very differently than this but no. This was reality and she had to face it.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

brooksmontgomery:

The expletives swirled around his head as he realized what he had done. Brooks knew that Emily had missing years, but with the amnesia she was experiencing too, this wasn’t what he wanted. He only wanted to open up her mind to the memories she had before finding the egg. The way she was reacting only worsened his guilt, placing his hands together in his lap so as not to cause anymore damage. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “Ar-are you okay?”

It was pretty obvious that Emily was far from okay. She was seized up and looked like she wasn’t breathing as the memory replayed over and over in her head, feeling every ounce of pain and fear as she did that original day. No, it couldn’t be a real memory. She couldn’t have been at the institute; that was impossible. It had to be impossible, how would she have not known.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

aaronputnxm:

His eyebrows knitted together, “Okay, I’m Aaron.” He held out his hand, trying not to freak her out. Maybe she had been drunker than he thought when they first met.

Nodding slowly, she shook his hand “Nice to meet you, I guess, Aaron.” She didn’t respond with a name of her own. It didn’t even cross her mind to say one, not that she could definitively say she had one.

[smokewallssolitarymirrors]

brooksmontgomery:

Brooks could tell she was growing impatient, and honestly, so was he. This may have been a new experience, but he didn’t realize how hard this was going to be. At least she was thinking about the institute, that helped. It was strong in her mind, seemingly wanting to lead him somewhere past the wall. He sighed, digging a little farther until he was able to find something. This time it wasn’t just her imagination of the institute, but an actual memory of it. Brooks let go over her hand quickly, not sure if those were the exact memories she wanted to come out.

That memory wasn’t one she would ever suspect. It was cold, and dark and there was so much pain. Whether she had locked that memory away herself or someone else had, it wasn’t welcome. Even before this, she had never actually thought she herself had been to an institute and it was possibly worse than she could have imagined. As Brooks pulled away she was trembling, staring forward eyes unseeing, tears stinging her eyes as she relived that horrid time of her life again and again as if it were the only memory in her mind now. She couldn’t breathe, she was just a kid, locked away, screaming in her head.