Darkness surrounded me as I kept falling in my mind with images of what just happened passing by. The laughing, the fear and the feeling of helplessness...why did the goddess even choose to reincarnate someone like me into this pain.
“Hello,” a voice said distantly in the background.
What is my purpose even in this world, just to suffer more even though I keep pushing myself. I just want to feel safe.
“Hey, are you okay?” the voice said a bit closer now.
Light started to pour into my surroundings slowly giving the blackness around me color.
“Oh good, you are waking up!,” said the voice sighing thankfully. “After that fall, I was super worried and you were passed out on the ground when I found you,” she said.
I could start making out shapes around me. There I saw a young woman with chestnut brown hair standing in front of me gripping my hand and holding me up right in the chair I was sitting in. The surroundings started to come into view as I started looking around panicking not knowing where I was.
“Whoa, whoa, you are safe now,” she said, gripping my hand tighter. “No one is going to hurt you here so just breath and relax.”
Eventually my breathing steadied as I focused on the warmness of her hand grabbing mine. “Whe...Where am I?” I asked as my voice started to come back to me. “Oh, after I chased away those asshole nobles from my storefront I brought you into the backroom. It was a workshop, but now I just use it as storage and an employee lounge,” she said.
“Thank you, I don’t know what I could have done if you didn’t help me up,” I said, starting to tear up as memories of what had happened came back to me. “I felt so useless not being able to get up after losing my crutch and things felt pretty hopeless for me. I’m sorry you had to save someone as useless as me.”
I felt a rush of warmness and tightening rush over me as she hugged me. “You have nothing to apologize for,” she said softly. “I’m not sure what others told you, but I don’t think you are useless. Life has probably given you a wringer so far, but you are the one to decide your own worth.”
I’m not sure how long I sat there with her holding me as I broke down crying. It felt like a dam broke as all my emotions I bottled up came out as I cried into this stranger's arms. Eventually I managed to calm down enough to talk again.
“Thank you, I’m not even sure why you would want to help someone like me you don’t even know, but thank you,” I said sniffling.
“How could I not!” she exclaimed. “After seeing those jerks outside my store front berating you, I just kinda snapped. I mean seriously...how could they say such awful things about a cute person like you,” she said, averting her gaze as her face reddened a little. “Look, I know life probably hasn’t been easy for you given how you look, but no one deserves to be treated like that.”
I let the weight of what she said hit me...and the cute comment which caused me to blush a little. “Thank you. I really appreciate it and everything you have done for me so far. I don’t know how I can repay you for this,” I said.
*Growl*
I looked down a bit embarrassed at the noise my stomach just made.
“Haha, I guess we can start with you repaying me by having you join me for lunch and I’m not taking no for an option. I hardly get any customers so it is nice to finally have someone to chat with,” she said smiling. “Crap, I don’t think I’ve given my name. I’m Emily, Emily Knole and this is my shop. I’ve been running this place for the few months after my grandfather passed.”
*Growl*
“Let me go grab some lunch from my room upstairs. I live on the second floor and I have some soup and bread I can bring down. I’ll also bring down some cookies I’ve been eating through if you would like to stick around to talk more after lunch unless you have somewhere to be,” she said.
“I actually was actually on my way home after finishing shopping when you saved me. My family doesn’t get back until later this evening from work so I’m usually at home by myself,” I said.
“Great! Then you are staying with me here for a bit to chat! I haven’t had company in forever and it would be great to talk to someone my own age,” she said and rushed up the stairs.
After a few trips up and down, Emily laid out two bowls of soup and bread on the table and we started eating.
“I just realized I haven't caught your name or anything about yourself yet?” Emily said after eating a few bits. I finished my bite of food. “Oh...I’m Lilly, Lilly Hopper. Umm…as you can see I’m basically physically handicapped and lost my arm and a leg in an accident at the factory I worked at. I’ve been recovering since,” I said. “Okay, but who are you?” Emily asked. “I mean besides being one of the only people still up and about with missing appendages. Also, what was that wooden thing you were using! I think you said a crutch a while back. Is that how you get around? You seemed pretty good at it. Oops I should let you finish eating, hehe. I just got so excited to talk to someone again. It gets so boring in here watching the shop.”
And with that, we finished eating our meal in a bit of silence as I contemplated who I was. I really haven’t been thinking much about myself except how I can move around and be useful and how I hated being so useless.
Thanks for the chapter
Good work on the school stuff author :3
Hooray a mysterious stranger who doesn't immediately dismiss and devalue lilly's existence
Thanks! I live mostly off my grad school fellowship so I have to keep my grades up so I don't lose it so it's always a big stressor of mine.
I had a blast writing their dialogue in the next two chapters. It felt great to move away a bit from the more painful subjects and have a bit of heartwarming dialogue between them.
@autumnrayne92 yeah it's definitely a change of pace from the chapters of unfortunate events