Well Meant Pain

Things at work were a bit strained. Emily had been walking around paranoid for days. She listened in on conversations, trying to glean as much as she could. But for once, Derek's creep of an uncle- she had every right to call him that seeing as he had asked to see her bra the first time they met. Passed it off as a joke, and then offered to pay her to spy on Derek, using money and other things- back then he had leered at her in a way that had left no misunderstandings as to what other things were. Since then she had been an active hater of his.

But even channelling all of her dislike and trying to use it to find something, anything, about what Derek's uncle could be planning she could not find anything. She had decided to call it quits when the man had spotted her leaning against a wall in hopes of hearing something. He had given her a slow look up and down, settled on her chest, and winked. She had given him an icy smile before going back to report to Derek that there was still no progress.

That had been hours ago, and Emily had long gotten off work. She was now using her time off work to rejuvenate herself the best way she knew how. Eating ice cream and watching a movie marathon with her mom.

They were just finishing up movie number two when he mom, bumped her shoulder lightly.

"I am glad that you are, alright," Her mom told her when she looked over. Noticing her look of confusion, the older woman explained.

"I know that just before I left you were having trouble sleeping again. Was it the nightmares?" Not trusting herself to speak, Emily nodded. It was the closest to being honest about her sleeping habits with her mother.

The older woman gave her a sad look, then she reached for something behind the couch cushions and handed it over.

It was a full bottle of sleeping pills.

"Just in case you ever need them, they are good for the year," Her mother said, all serious, and Emily had to supress a hysterical laugh. She had gotten so good at hiding things that her mom actually thought the pills helped, and that what had been Emily reacting to the pills was her acting strange because she could not sleep.

Wiping a tear, she accepted the pills.

"Thank you, mom. I will be sure to keep them on me in case I ever need them,"

That night she went to the bathroom, took out two pills and flushed them. The bottle ended up on the nightstand, and when she woke up a few hours later, covered in sweat from her nightmare, she was staring right at them. Getting up, she took the pills and stared at them.

She did not feel the urge to take them. But she was nearly overcome with the impulse to throw them against the wall. She did not go through with it though. Instead she chose to put them back down and go to her crafts drawer. It was filling up again, her nightmares back in full force.

But she still had a bit of energy left, and she would enjoy the little things, even her secret embroidering sessions for as long as she could. Blocking out all the rest of her worries, Emily let herself get lost in the stitch work.