Chapter 3

Emma holding her baby close to her chest walks stumbling towards a street light. Her bright red bodycon till her thighs look dull under an only distant street light. Her feet are freezing with the chill wind that roars at times. Her hands are not having any better time, she's cursing her sleeveless dress. 

She keeps rubbing her fingers over the thick fluffy cloth over her baby. To keep the baby warm or to keep her fingers from freezing she has no idea. 

The street light she assumed seems like a life savior for her. As the dirt in the air settles down, she sees the signboard clearly. Hagrid's Cafe is shining in neon light on top of a two storey building.

She pushes the door with a red glowing OPEN sign with her leg. The air of the normal temperature feels warmest on her bisque-toned legs. She keeps sprinting inside.

The cafe is all empty except for two people fighting in the corner. "How could you do this to me?" says the teenage girl.

"Chill, I'm making up to you," says the boy about her age pushing a heart-shaped candle towards her. A pink fluffy border is around the border of the cake. Happy Birthday is carved in pink color in the center.

Taking her eyes off Emma looks towards the other corner in the end. She steps towards it. A remote lies on the table just before the sofa in the corner. She picks it up and sits in the corner.

Pointing the remote towards a two tonne AC over her head she puts it on the maximum heat. As some warm air brushes her bisque face guarded by straight long hairs, she leans on the wall behind. Her eyes get heavier and she drifts into a memory from the past.

Emma is putting a rosy lipstick over her same colored lips. Her medium brown hair is all swept to her left and is resting over her shoulders. 

Putting all of the hair back. She adjusts her red gem pendant to the center. It glitters under the bright white light from the top of the long and wide vanity mirror. 

Getting up she checks her bodycon around her bumped belly. She turns to the side and her almost s-shaped side curve appears in the mirror. Turning face to face with the mirror image she smiles. The girl in the mirror still has her perfect hourglass outline intact.  

"Miss Emma, your stepmother is calling you down," comes a voice from behind.

She turns back. A lady dressed in white top and black lace till her knees step in. Gazing at her she leaves the gate that shuts down slowly in her behind. "You look, beautiful Miss," says the lady smiling.

"Irene what did we agree to...call me Emma," she says, making her eyes bigger.

"Ok, Miss Emma I'll call you that," her eyes trail downwards from Emma's face and stops at the lovely pendant.

Emma looks at Irene dropping her jaw. But then she closes her mouth and her lips are put up in a line. "You want it?" Emma asks her, smiling.

Irene shakes her head in denial. But Emma doesn't take no for an answer. She pulls it out of her neck and walks towards her. "Miss Emma, your mother will kill me," she says, raising a hand in front of the shining pendant.

"I'll be first to do that if you call me that again...you're only a few years older than me," she puts the pendant on her chest and locks it around her neck. She makes her walk to the mirror.

A smile from ear to ear turns up at Irene's face. Emma pulls Irene's curled hair to the back to give her a clearer view. "Doesn't this look as lovely as you?" she says looking at their mirror image.

"What's the hold-up?" a loud voice goes in their back. Emma slides her hand from Irene's shoulder and walks towards the gate. "I'm coming," she calls out loud.

Two hands each on her sides appear as soon as she puts her first step outside the gate. The silvery chain is hanging in those. It goes up towards her neck and a meek locking sound goes around her neck.

She turns back furious. "I don't want to die, Emma," says Irene with a lowered head. Emma's anger boils down in a blink. She rubs over Irene's shoulders. "Now go," says Irene, raising her head back up.

Emma steps towards a large half-circle staircase going down. It has a white background with golden outlines on the designer fences. She puts a hand over the slippery and shiny fence and walks downwards. 

Elora runs over the steps and stops near her. "Didn't you have something more destitute?" she mocks.

"Why? what's wrong with it?" she asks with an innocent face. 

"Good that we don't have anyone from outside...thanks to your baby bump," she remarks in the evilest way but keeps a smile over her face all the time.

Emma's steps slow down and her head lowers. She looks at her red shoes that feel like they are gaining weight with each step moving forward. Elora walks at a faster pace leaving her behind.

"There you are," comes a deep voice from the end of the staircase. Emma raises her head to see a smiling face. "My baby girl keeps getting younger every year," Robert, dressed in a black suit, opens his arms wide for her.

She steps into the arms that wrap around her. He gives a peck on her forehead finishing the hug. They walk into a room filled with only four people. Three women are dressed in white tops and black lace skirts while the man is dressed in a white shirt and black pants.

A wide table in the center has a heart-shaped cake on it. Pink-colored caramel is around the boundaries of it. Robert stands beside and hands a knife to Emma. 

Emma puts off the candle of twenty-four over it. "Happy birthday...Miss Emma," goes in the background with claps. "Happy Birthday Dear," says her father.

"Thank you, everyone," giving a glance at her father she looks at all the servants around her. Her eyes fall on Elora who keeps her lips sealed. Not expecting a wish from the cursing mouths of her stepmother she turns towards the cake.

A darker shade of pink of letters is contrasting the light pink background of the cake's main body. Happy Birthday Emma is written beautifully in cursive writing over it. She smiles looking at it.

An excruciating pain goes under her belly. Something travels from her heart towards her throat along the vein. Leaving the knife out of her hand. She puts her both hands over her mouth.

She coughs and feels something to have come into her hand. She moves her left hand away from the mouth and raises it to her eye level. It is soaked in red blood a drop of which falls from between her fingers. 

As she looks downwards at the cake some more drops of blood land on the cake. The blood spills over letters of Happy and in moments, letters are no longer distinguishable.  

A hand gets over her shoulder that she assumes to be of her dad. But it gives a jerk so hard that it shakes her whole body. 

She opens her eyes to see a bald man standing in front of her. A look around the cafe puts her senses back into reality. "We're closing...you have to go," says the man, taking his hands away from her.

She looks at the distant corner where the duo was fighting a while ago. They are no longer there. She gets up holding her baby and walks. Her eyes trail over the happy birthday cake the duo had left untouched over their table.

Her gaze stops on the cake's Happy Birthday Kylie. The letters of Kylie spills and merges into the background. Pink-colored caramels come from inside and write Emma over them. A blood drop lands from the ceiling on the H of the happy.

Seeing the girl's eyes locked on the cake, the bald man asks "You want it?" She doesn't say anything and keeps staring at the cake. Some more drops land around H and it smudges the whole Happy word.

Her body hairs rise up in fear. A tingling sensation starts under her throat. Her left hand sways upside. But her vision of the cake gets blocked by the bald man's light green shirt over his back. 

When his back gets out of the view the cake is no longer there on the table. "Take it and get the FUCK OUT OF MY PLACE!" yells the bald man furiously.