[sylvanSpider]

Yoruba squeezed the bridge of her nose, shaking her head, “Fine, fine. You're right, you're right. I surrender. The blame is on you, then.” Emily remained silent, her eyes staring straight ahead. Her mind was in a place where Victor still was, cracking DnD jokes and crouching to pat Max on the head. The dog whined then, as if on cue, and nudged Emily's hand with his snout. Her eyes moved, and she attempted a smile for the dog's sake and moved to scratch, as if in Victor's stead. “I'm glad we can at least agree on that,” Yoruba said in regards to their expectations.

When she and Yoruba were alone, Yoruba took the opportunity to own up to her mistakes there as well and sat down beside her, back against the wall. The small shed had a window and light spilled in through it's gap, the tattered remnants of a curtain fluttering in the breeze. The warmth on Emily's cheek did nothing to warm her disposition, the very core of her being cold. “I'm...sorry about what I said about Victor,” Yoruba said, breaking the silence, “It's not...it's not him I have a problem with. I mean, yeah, I wasn't fond of the guy, but I knew he'd never hurt either of us – me or you. I trusted him. I don't know why I said what I did. Something about that woman woke up the worst parts of me I guess. I'll do better next time.” Admitting defeat was never easy for a woman like Yoruba. She was pig-headed. Intelligent, but stubborn and by the time she realized she was on the wrong road, she'd be too far down to turn around, so she'd ramp the gas up.

Emily knew this and looked at Yoruba through the sides of her eyes, not bothering to shift her head. She let the silence grow for a while, resting in the moment of the apology. It wasn't often that this happened. Still, an apology could never actually retract the words and the empty space in her chest ached, “I'm not...not gonna say it's alright. Because it isn't. It just isn't. Anna was right; he wasn't here to speak for himself. Please, just...let him rest. But, Yoruba...it will be okay, alright? Don't stress, please, we need to be as strong as ever to make up for his absence. You said it yourself, you can trust him. We can't...trust Anna just yet. Everything in me wants to, but for the time being we just can't. Especially with how quickly she changed her mind in the beginning. I can't trust her.”

Yoruba nodded, lifting her eyes and stopping mid-sentence when she heard the door's clasp unlock. “Thanks. We could use the sustenance,” Yoruba said when she saw that Emily was once again in that dream world. Victor's death was not going to be easy to overcome.