Paradise Among Metal

Chapter 14

CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains homophobic slurs.

About forty-five minutes of walking in silent fear later, nothing had happened.

Jacob and Emerson were putting up a brave front, but Mara knew they weren't fooling anybody. Their faces were whiter than usual, and both were trembling as they walked.

Mara felt bad for them. They could remember their worst fear, and they were expecting it somewhere down the yellow brick road. She had never realized how lucky she was, not being able to remember much.

During the walk, Mara had scrambled her brain trying to remember her worst nightmare, but nothing surfaced. For all she knew, she could be scared of trees.

Whenever memories did surface from the depths of her mind, they were random ones that weren't much use. Mara had remembered the countries of Earth (she was from the United States), her jerk of a teacher from eighth grade, and the anime Sailor Moon.

Good information, but not useful.

"I see in your eyes that you're beginning to remember things," Emerson commented, as if on cue. Mara nodded.

"Yeah. Not much of anything useful, though." She paused. "Is Topeka in the United States?"

He nodded. "Yep. Topeka, Kansas."

"Okay." Mara said. "It's weird, I remember cities, but I don't really remember the states. There are states in the United States, right?"

"There sure is."

Mara noticed that Emerson spoke in a slight quiver, and for the first time, she realized how scared he was.

She reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, it's going to be all right. We're here for you."

Emerson shook his head. "No. You don't understand. When the fears come, only you can face them. Completely-"

His eyes widened, and his mouth gaped. He stared ahead, his face white.

Nothing was there.

"Mom? Madison?" Emerson said, his voice cracking. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, I sw-swear!"

His knees buckled, and he fell to the ground.

"Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

He curled into a ball, his hands shielding his head.

"Emerson..." Mara trailed off. "There's nothing there."

"What he was going to say," Jacob said, "Was that when you face your fear, you do it alone. Anyone else sees nothing. He's gone to us unless he perserveres through it or runs. If he makes it, he'll meet us in Paradise. If he doesn't, well, let's hope we meet up again."

Jacob took Mara's arm and led her down the path, leaving Emerson behind.

"How do you know all this?" Mara asked him.

"One of the ones who were able to make it back to the Perimeter told us," Jacob replied. "He was the only one of his four-person party that made it back."

"Oh. Okay."

They continued down the path in silence. The fact that she may never see Emerson again scared her.

Mara knew that when she was alive, she would have never hung out with boys like Emerson and Jacob. They were all too mean, too insensitive. If those type of boys did have a scrap of decency in them, they never showed it. However, over the last week, Jacob and Emerson had become like brothers to Mara. She knew they possessed goodness within them, despite their past recklessness. If they didn't have hearts, then they wouldn't have tried to change their ways.