Chapter Eight: Going Shopping.

Emily stepped out of the rip, and into a room. It seemed very human, but she could never really tell with these people anymore. So, she meandered around for a few seconds until Cancer came though behind her, which was weird because she went in first. But, probably stopped by the inter-rip café for some tea or something else equally bizarre.

“Hmm. Ireland. Odd, but at least it’s Earth again.” She muttered, and Emily’s face lit up. “Ireland? Really? Ooh, I have always wanted to go there, the accent is just so amazing!” She exclaimed, giggling like a fan girl.

“Well then, let’s go shopping” Cancer relied, striding over to the door and opening it. Emily saw she had changed back into her red dress, which – Emily was forced to admit – looked much better on her.

“So, where did you get a name like Busen from out of the blue?” Emily asked, heading to the door.

“Heh. It’s actually German, or rough German at least. Means ‘Breast Crab’ and well, I thought it fit” Cancer admitted, with a soft giggle. Emily’s giggle was less than soft, and persisted though the door, still breathlessly muttering ‘breast crab’ in between hysterical laughter. Cancer rolled her eyes and pulled Emily down the street. The place they had landed in was pretty busy, people walked down the streets, some carrying bags, others food, and the natter of nearly two dozen people melded into the incoherent soup it usually did in crowded area. Once Emily had recovered from her hysteria, she looked around with eyes like a child in a sweet shop. There where shops advertising things, some had signs in English, others in Irish –was just…weird.

“Well, it’s Ireland, and I hear they make great suits here.” She replied, still not being any less confusing, but suddenly those Cancer translated for her, so she knew what she was looking at – but she couldn’t decide which one to go in first.

“Wonder if we will see a walking skeleton around here” Cancer commented, so Emily rounded on her with a deep frown.

“Why…why would we meet a skeleton around here?” She asked, highly confused. Cancer was confusing at times, but this she dragged Emily into a shop, so she couldn’t question her any further. “Hello!” Cancer shouted, approaching the desk. From the look of it, this placed seemed to be a clothes store, or a tailors.

“Good morning to you. So, are you tourists then?” Then man asked, in that heart-melting Irish accent. The assumption must have come from Cancer's accent, being English rather than Irish.

“Yes, but I have been here before, a while ago. Actually where I got this dress” Cancer replied, brushing it softly to show it off.

“Thought the cut looked familiar. What name are you registered under?” He asked, acutely aware of Emily, who looked a step away from drooling at the guy’s voice.

“Busen Filzlaus” Cancer replied, which made Emily snort with laughter, knowing what the name translated to.

“ooh, what’s that one from?” He asked, referring to her name as he flicked though a book on his desk.

“Germany. My dad is German, but my mum is English. I lived in Germany for the first three years of my life, but then we moved to England for a new job my dad was offered. I like it, even if it doesn’t quite fit in sometimes” Which seemed like the truth, she had used it on two separate occasions. Or maybe it just amused her. The man seemed to find Cancer in the book, and looked directly at Emily. “An’ what’s your name?” He asked.

Emily took a few seconds to compose herself, before speaking.

“Emily, Emily Thorntree” she told the man, even managing to keep the stutter out of her voice.

“Heh, an English girl and a German woman. You make a great pair” he said, which made Cancer smile, but Emily’s eyes went wide.

“What? Ohh no, we are not like that, we are just…. Not like that” She stuttered, and then blushed deeply as Cancer drew Emily into her bosom again and hooked a finger under Emily’s chin, lifting it up so she was looking directly into Cancer’s eyes.

“Darling. I thought we really had something going here. Do you really not like me that way?” Cancer teased, her lips barely an inch from Emily, who had turned as bright as a tomato and could only make strange noises with no real meaning. After a few seconds, Cancer laughed and took her finger away. “But seriously, we aren’t together. I just enjoy teasing her from time to time” Cancer told the man at the counter, who was watching with slightly amused neutrality.

“Well, she is still rather young, don’t want to push her into anything aye?” The man asked, before coming out from the counter and looking at the two. “So, what can I do for you today, Miss..err” The man faltered, probably pondering how to pronounce Cancer’s surname. “Just call me Busen, I know how difficult it can be to pronounce my name. I’m looking for a dress, for my Emily. Could you show me what you got?” she asked, Emily blushed from the claim of ownership, but didn’t move from her embrace. She felt safe here.

“Sure, got some dresses in the back, but I can also make you one personally if you don’t fit any. She has quite the slim frame” The man told Cancer, before leading them to a door at the back of the shop, and into a room where dozens dresses where hung on rails.

“So, what’cha looking for?” He asked generally, as much a question for Emily as it was for Cancer.

“Something long, like mine but a bit more embellished” Cancer replied, letting Emily go to browse along the dresses. Emily herself didn’t really know what she was going to do; she had never worn a dress before. But, at the same time, she would be glad to get out of her school uniform. So, she let Cancer go through the dresses until the cry of success announced she had found one worth wearing. She drew it from the rail, and held it up to Emily.

The dress was long and pink, covering her neck and going down to just above her ankles. The arms cut off about halfway down the upper arm – at least to Emily, for anyone else it would probably end closer to the shoulder – and was embroidered with roses in a slightly darker pink. Emily really had no feelings about pink until now, and now she loved it. She reached out to touch it, running her hand down the dress and across the arms. The bodice was made of velvet from the way it felt, but the arms and skirt was chiffon, but she could see another material though the sheer covering, probably taffeta. A silken flower adorned the area slightly below the clavicle, looking good without being too close to the chin to irritate if the wearer looked down. There were also some black ribbons at the bottom of the skirt, and a pair of black gloves hung off the same hanger, attached to the arms by wires. It looked amazing, and the multi layering that made up the dress – there was three different fabrics that she could see, and could be more – spoke of great craftsmanship. Cancer clearly saw Emily’s face, as she turned to the tailor and nodded.

“This is the one. We’ll take it.” Cancer declared, grinning widely and making rather joyous noises.

“Right, I’ll go ring it up. Miss Thorntree, could you wait in the dressing room for a few, while we sort this out?” he asked, to which Emily nodded wordlessly and walked over to the curtained area, pulling the curtains back a bit and then moving to the side of the room where a small chair was. She then sat down, and thought. Emily thought about everything there. She thought about Simba, her cat, turning out to be some super-powered crab girl, about how she had met a real-life Angel, the future incarnation of her best, and closest friend, and most deeply, she thought about Death.

This day had seen a lot of death. Between hers, Jane’s, that thug’s and the dozen men Cancer had somehow mowed down, there was so much death. Most people said that Death was a very serious thing, and was traumatising to witness, but Emily did not feel much more than mild disgust at how much mess people left behind when they were killed. It must have been Cancer’s influence that did that. She seemed the kind of person to strengthen a person’s mental prowess before trying to strengthen them physically. She didn’t get much chance to wonder about the physical side of things though, since Cancer returned with the dress and a glint in her eye.

“Let’s get this beauty on you” Cancer cooed, and Emily was stripped in short order, feeling very awkward while naked in front of Cancer’s ogling eyes, but Cancer slipped on what looked to be a pale under-dress after a few seconds so it didn’t bother her too much. The underdress covered her breasts and pelvic area, but was thin and didn’t restrict her at all, so the dress could be easily pulled on over it.

Which it was, and when all the parts had been tightened, fastened and otherwise finished, Emily admired herself in the mirror. For the first time in so many years, she thought she actually looked beautiful. Somewhere along the road, she had lost the earring that she had put in for her dad, but the makeup remained, and added to how good she looked – Emily was a dab hand at makeup, and knew exactly how to apply it without making it take on the ‘far too much’ look. The dress was snug, but wasn’t tight, and felt as amazing as it looked, from the neck to her knees, and even the gloves in-between, it was unlike anything she had ever known.

“Yep. You look radiant.” Cancer commented, before Emily offered her a hand – which was taken – and gracefully stepped down from the dressing plinth. “So, wanna hit the town?” She asked, which caused Emily to smile.

“Absolutely” She replied. After they exited the shop and walked down a street, Emily could tell her extravagant dress was drawing a lot of eyes. They all seemed amazed at how well she wore it, and the few that saw the well-worn converse Emily had on her feet made no mention of it in their presence. Emily had hoped they could find a shoe shop and she could replace her current shoes with some that fitted the dress more, but their luck did not hold, and no shoe shop reared its head.

A good dozen general stores did however, selling all kinds of stuff that Emily didn’t know she needed until she had them, and by the time the sun was starting to set, she had two bags of books, a brilliant hat that suited her dress so well it was as if they were made to be a set, and some jewellery she would probably never wear, aside from a lovely sunstone ring they had found. Cancer had been a great help throughout the day, excited as Emily was to be having a fun day out, and assisting Emily with her purchases.

Only once did she do anything strange, and that was a good hour into the trip, when they were having lunch at a posh restaurant where her dress fit right in. She looked up into the celling with a frown, and muttered ‘what the hell is he doing’. But, when Emily had inquired to the nature of this, she brushed it off and said that the steak was very well made. Which, Emily was forced to admit, it was but she didn’t like the look on Cancer’s face. It was confusion, and disdain.

But, apart from that, they had taken in many other things, watched street performers - Cancer had even procured a flute from somewhere and joined in with one of them – and visited one of the more prestigious pubs in the area, which Emily was glad for the rest. Cancer set a gruelling pace when it came to shopping, and carrying her spoils was getting hard. Emily didn’t drink any alcohol, but Cancer knocked back many pints – or ‘slices’ as she liked to call them – of Guinness in bets that the men at the bar had propositioned.

It was fun to see Irish men slumping out of their seats in alcohol-induced loss of equilibrium, and Cancer sat, drinking the most current glass with the same grace and sobriety she had entered with. Once taxis had been called for half the pub, and several vats drained to the dregs, Cancer ordered them dinner, and they ate more meat. Not that Emily was complaining, but Cancer told her anyway that women needed a lot of iron, and thus a lot of meat, since they disposed of blood on a monthly basis.

When the sizzling gammon and home-made chips arrived, Emily felt her mouth water. It lacked the pristine presentation of the lunch, but had more heart to it, and when she began to eat, was every bit as tasty as the restaurant. Eventually, however, the day did what all days do, and came to an end. It was at this point that Cancer led them back to the house they had first come here in, and looked at the walls for a few seconds.

“Something wrong?” Emily asked, to which Cancer shook her head.

“No, just getting something from the walls” she replied, and an instant later the building changed, to one Emily recognised.

“No…This is, my….” She muttered, rounding on Cancer with half fear and half anger. But both of them melted away under the motherly stare that came back at her, and so Emily started to warily look around, and a minute later, found her mum crashed out on a couch. She wasn’t sure what it was this time, but she knew it wasn’t anything good, like always. “Wake, Giver of Life” Cancer commanded, having suddenly appeared at Emily’s side and speaking in an eldritch tone. It was the kind of tone that if it told the dead to rise, they would have no choice but to obey. And so her mother got up from the couch, and looked very reminiscent of the dead. She smiled lucidly at Emily as her eyes came into semi-focus.

“Hey…you” She commented airily, as if forgetting Emily’s name. Something that would not have surprised her. “Nice pink.” She muttered, before Cancer stepped in front of the blazed woman, and cupped her cheeks.

“Begone, Demon of Man. You shall never again take host in this vessel, no matter how much you try” Cancer intoned, still with her strange, powerful tone. It reverberated through Emily’s entire body, and she was sure the walls shook with every letter. And then, Cancer spoke but no words came from her mouth. Only a buzzing on the edge of hearing, and a feeling of potential energy, like standing near an electrical sub-station. But, it only lasted a few seconds, and then her mother slumped onto the couch, her eyes glazed for a few seconds before she blinked.

“Emily?” she asked, her eyes darting around as if only seeing things properly for the first time in years.

“M…mum?” Emily asked in return, not quite believing that the coherent tone and observing eyes where real. It had been so long since her mother had really seen her. Had really spoken to her.

“Where did you get such a wonderful dress?” She asked, with a clear indication of trying to avoid bringing up her own scanty outfit. Emily made a few croaking sounds, before launching herself into a hug, and squeezing her mother tightly. Hysterical water-works flowed for several minutes, before finally drying up in the face of ceaseless support from her mother. It was then, when everything had calmed down, that Emily’s mother was finally able to notice Cancer.

“Ohh, sorry for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Anne. Thank you for…whatever it was you did. The past few years have felt like some bad, barely lucid dream” She admitted, which elected a gracious nod from Cancer.

“It was the best thing to end the day on. I shall leave Emily in your care for today, and will be back to pick her up for school tomorrow. May grace favour you, Miss Thorntree”. The tone was the same, ringing angelic beauty that Emily had first heard, and then she was gone, nothing but memories.

“Well, let’s get you ready for bed, it’s late” Anne told Emily, in the caring voice only a mother could pull off. It was something that she had been missing so much, for so long.

After sleeping like the dead for however long, Emily awoke to a strange smell, like something cooking. Which wasn’t right because nobody really lived with her except for Simba, and he couldn’t rightly cook, could he? Then, at the thought of Simba, it all came flooding back to her. The Celestial Council, the trip to Ireland, the return to her house and meeting her mother who was suddenly and inexplicably cleansed of all the junk she had been putting into her body for the past couple of years. And she, would probably by the person doing the cooking. Also, there was the matter of school, but that was just by the by really. Her mother was back.

And then there was a crash that had Emily out of bed and sprinting down the stairs, not really caring if she was naked – which she wasn’t, she was still wearing the under-dress from yesterday – and arriving in the kitchen to see her father, in his general angry mode, looming over her mother.

“The fuck do you even think you are doing?! This is my house!” He shouted. The crash had come when he knocked Emily’s mother to the ground, and she had knocked over the bin in the corner. Such details the mind picks up on in times like this. Feeling something take over her body, she snuck up behind her father while he was still distracted, picked up one of the pans from the oven, and with a resounding thunk, cracked it around the back of his head, half-cooked eggs flying across the kitchen as her father was quickly knocked out from the blow.

“Bloody good shot” Came Cancer’s voice from behind her. Emily was still clutching the pan tightly and staring intently at her father’s prone body. There was a raw, red patch on his head were the heated pan had made contact with his skull and burned the skin. But that was the least of his worries right now. “Unfortunately, now we’d best get out of here before he wakes up, or he will kill you. And that’s not a maybe. Benefit of Telepathy means I can say for certain how people will react” She told Emily, looking to Anne, still on the floor with a red mark on her face. “With your consent, I can help you get away from all of this. But I have to have you tell me you allow me, or I will get into trouble even I can’t get out of” She told them, walking over to make sure Emily hadn’t done any permanent damage to the man. As brutish of a creature as he was, murder was still murder. After a brief examination, Cancer saw he was still alive, and that was really all she cared about.

“H…how do we give this consent?” Anne asked, slowly getting up off the ground, while Emily gripped the pan in her hands without letting it go, as if waiting for her father to start moving so she could hit him again.

“It’s a mental thing, really. You just have to tell yourself that you allow it, and I will fill out the rest of the work that needs doing” Cancer explained, turning off the cooker so nothing got set on fire. She waited for a few seconds, and then got a nod from Anne, before placing a hand on Emily’s shoulder, and then – with surprising reaction times – stopped the incoming pan with her hand. Anne thought she saw a slight stutter in the movement, where Emily’s pan swinging practically stopped for half a second while Cancer’s hand came up, but she couldn’t be sure of it. Must just have been the nerves.

“Ca..Cancer…. sorry. I, just….” She never finished her sentence, never needed to, Cancer just nodded and then looked to Anne.

“Well, I say it is high time we get off this rock. Usually, I would look into a way to do this more subtly, but screw the rules. Where you are going, nobody is going to bother you, so let them know” she announced, before Cancer started to glow, her eyes turning a deep white, and a feeling of eminence billowing off her in waves. Whatever was causing it was totally unknown to Emily, and she didn’t have any time to think about it, as there was a lurching feeling, like moving very fast and then suddenly stopping. The sudden stop had a mental feeling of hitting a brick wall, and both Anne and Emily winced as the feeling came, and then went just as suddenly. “Welcome to your new home. City of Koutomenn, on the planet of Ampyras” It was clear she was very proud of both the city and the planet, but Anne could just stare dumbstruck. Emily had slightly better experience with Cancer’s sudden tendency to surprise the crap out of everyone, so it was less of a shock to her.

“Neat trick….” Emily quipped softly, to try and break the shock. It didn’t work.