When there had been a pause in his words followed by an apology, Emma shook her head, her ponytail bobbing back and forth as she smiled back at him.
"No. No apology necessary, Joseph. Believe me," she said, emphasizing the words with the spreading of her hands, "I know all about dark shit." She'd not only seen it in Havenwood—for a small town, it still had it's fair share of domestic abuse calls—but she'd lived it. She'd seen so much death than a person should before the age of 18 let alone now. It was a wonder she hadn't gone full-on crazy, but she had always felt that her father and drilled the crazy right out of her. You're a Hunter of the Order, Emily, you don't have time for crazy, she could almost hear him say.
Someboy Else's Problem. Guilt about how she reacted to his drug abuse made her want to tell him about her past, but despite his rather creatively brilliant mind, Emma knew she couldn't tell Joseph the complete truth. Telling him there were actual zombies in the world would have him sending her on a one way ticket to the looney bin. She thought all this while an elbow rested on the table, her teeth chewing slightly on the nail of her thumb while she stared at Joseph.
"My father had a particular view of how the world was going to end, too." She finally said, "And, for a while, I believed him because it was the only thing I knew until I turned 15. Until then, I lived a very sheltered and, uh... disciplined life. Fifteen was when I had my first real exposure to the real world." It had been her first hunt she'd gone and the end results could've completely turned her cynical right then and there if it weren't for the fact that she had to kill another girl that wasn't more older or younger than her simply for the fact she was considered an abomination. She could still remember thinking in the aftermath, after seeing the posters on the walls, this could've been me. That was when she started doubting her father and everything the Order stood for.
She shrugged, "After that, I kind of thought he was full of shit and I think you're onto something more realistic. Lots of people like to ignore their problems until they can't anymore."