hhhhhmmmmmm i was actually going to try writing a cohesive thing for Emma, but as it turns out, i'm illiterate, so have this instead:
even before Emma knew how to make fire, she was always warm.
some nights, her sister would creep across their shared room to climb into her bed
most of the time it was because her sister, Julia, had a nightmare or was genuinely cold. there were times where Julia was there simply because they are sisters.
it never lasted long. they'd start arguing about who was taking up more space or hogging the blanket, which woke their parents up.
Emma and Julia were loud together. they were always arguing, or making up a story or a song, or planning out what they were going to do later, or pointing things put to eachother, or just talking.
Julia was the more daring one, but Emma wasn't willing to let her sister out do her, so almost every thing became a competition.
including stupid things like who can hold their breath in the bath longer and who can stay up later and who can get closer to the fire
the first time Emma accidentally caught fire was when she was sitting too close to the fireplace and her skirt caught a little.
she didn't yell, she just put her hand over it. it didn't even make sense when she looked back on it, but as the fire continued to devour her skirt, it didn't move out from under her hand. it didn't burn as it should have.
she was left with a hand shapped hole at the edge of her skirt and boy howdy if her mum wasn't mad about that one.
but the image of her hand burned into her skirt stayed with her. when she was left alone to her thoughts, she'd think about the tiny flame crawling across her palm.
one evening, when the both of them were kicked out of the house until dinner and Julia was off in the back yard on her own 8 year old business, Emma was sitting on the front step, thinking about the fire again.
this time, she smelled smoke.
when she looked down, her hand was burning, and she didn't feel a thing.
it was just the tiniest whisps of flame circling around her palm, and she sat, hypnotized by it, for several minutes.
until some neighbor lady came walking down the street.
she tried her best not to think about it after that.
but now she felt warmer all the time, and her palms had been itching since she watched the whisps of fire dancing in her hand. when she touched things, they came away hot. the fire was in her dreams.
she almost wanted to tell Julia. they always talked about how fun it woud be to have magic powers, like the fairies in the stories their parents and grandparents would tell them. it just seemed so much more horrible now that it was here.
some nights, she'd lay awake and wish her hardest that Julia would come to her and tell her that she had similar powers. that they were both magic and could do this together and be extraordinary. that she wouldn't be doing this alone.
what did happen was that she fell asleep thinking of this, and woke up to her sheets on fire.
since the book pretty much covers what happened to Emma from there, i'll leave it for now. depending on how many notes this gets, i may just do an other one, but who knows. sorry this got so long
yousharknotpass
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
