Chapter Text
How fast it went.
That it what always puzzled her afterwards.
How fast it went.
Most people have experienced walking cheerfully along and then lying on the ground, without any clear recollection how they got there.
A tree root, a patch of ice, a broken mobile phone usually the only sign of why one was the one moment upright, the next flat on the ground.
One moment everything makes sense, the next, the usual, safe world has gone topsy-turvy.
Emily wouldn't say that the world had made much sense lately, or ever, or that it felt particularly safe. It was at least familiar.
It was the familiar world which fell away when her head hit the icy pavement one day early in December, on the way from her joyless job to her joyless apartment.
When she woke up, she felt hazy. There was a cacophony of noise. A voice she was shutting out was distantly shouting.
The first thing she noticed was that it was difficult to breathe. Her hands immediately went to her mouth and to her nose, fearing that the accident had been serious enough for something to be inserted to help her breathe. But the pressure seemed to be coming from elsewhere. Her hands moved down to feel her sides. She appeared to be wearing a ... corset?