Chapter Text
"Em! Keep up!" the teacher called, after Emmet got glued to yet another display description.
"Oh! Sorry!" Emmet squeaked, running after the rest of the class. He wanted to grab his buddy's hand, but the last time he did that, he pulled away and his arm hurt for a couple minutes from being yanked so hard. So, he was just going to keep his hands to himself, if that was ok!
The teacher (Emmet couldn't remember her name. Mrs. Sketcher?) just sighed and shook her head. She seemed kind of sad, or maybe tired. Either way, she just told Emmet to stay with the group.
Emmet's class was getting to go to a museum! They were being led by the curator, who said he was happy to see the Southeast Bricksburg Elementary School Third Grade. With a special voice and everything. Emmet really liked him, and he was really interesting, but he also skipped over some really interesting stuff on the descriptions of the displays.
"Alright, we can't see the Artifacts wing today, because it's being remodeled..." Emmet heard distantly as he noticed another plaque, one about raptors, and was mildly surprised when there wasn't just a chorus of 'awwww's. I mean, they were missing a whole section of the museum! That's disappointing! But he supposed he was already busy enough with what he could see.
He hummed to himself as he moved on to the next display, something that he'd heard on the radio. His mom had let him listen when he'd found an old one in the thrift store. "Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough..."
Emmet skipped on to the next display, and the next, and then he had to duck under something to get to the next one, and then...
He looked up, and realized he didn't know where the group was, and that there were no more displays to read because he was surrounded by construction.
He gulped. He couldn't get in trouble for wandering away from the group again! And he thought he was getting better at that! He looked around, trying to see if he could spot them, but all he saw was dust and leftover tools. Despite being the middle of the afternoon, it was dark, gloomy, and empty.
Emmet was beginning to panic as he realized he didn't know which exit might lead back to the main part of the museum, and to his classmates. And it was so dark, he was starting to get scared. And all that scaffolding that led up to the ceiling seemed to be looming...
In his panic, he didn't realize he was backing into a display that hadn't been taken down during the construction, for some reason. He spun around, suddenly coming face to face with an open display. He was at the end of a hall, very much away from any decent exit. He winced as it wobbled on its display, but was relieved that it didn't fall. The rocky purple base seemed to stabilize it.
Emmet stared at the item for a moment. He could barely see it in the dark, but the rocks themselves seemed to glow... he couldn't quite read the description, but he could make out this artifact was donated by... It was a very pretty thing, despite its plain nature, outside of the base.
Suddenly... despite all the warnings given by the curator and the teacher at the beginning of the tour of not to touch...
He very much wanted to touch it. And not only that, something in the back of his head said it was ok, that it was fine, that he should really touch it right now. It was practically calling his name.
Deciding that if it was left in the construction area, it wasn't that easy to damage, and he reached out...
The moment his fingertips touched the orange of the main block, the light of the purple flared.
A police officer smiling, then glaring. The teacher and the curator, calling for Em. A bright orange vest, and a calming blue cape. A baby laughing. Blue and pink hair. So many bright colors, swirling, meeting, and then something dark in the middle of it all--
Emmet woke up. He felt a little funny, and then realized he was sitting upright in a chair. And he was remembering something, what was it--
"Hello, little buddy."
Emmet jumped, and realized there was a table too. Across from him was a police officer, dressed in much darker clothes than what was in the TV shows. And with more zippers. The man was smiling brightly, his eyes big behind his glasses.
"What's your name, little buddy?" the nice officer asked. Emmet could see himself in the reflection of the glasses, just slightly.
"Em Brickowski," Emmet said, a little quietly. That's what he liked people liked to call him, anyway. Or it was close enough.
"And how old are you, Em?"
"I'm eight and a half!" He threw up eight fingers, and struggled for a moment to hold up a ninth half way before just going with the eight.
The officer chuckled. "That's great! I'm going to ask you a couple questions about that brick on your back, ok Em?"
Emmet was confused. A brick on his back? He spun around to try and see it, but he didn't really have much of an option to do that, and ended up nearly falling out of the chair he was sitting in. He ended up craning his neck around, and was confused by the color, but then he realized: it was the artifact. The one that was previously on the display. Oh no.
"I didn't mean to touch it!" he protested. "I just was curious about the displays, and I got lost, and--"
The officer held up his hand, silencing Emmet. "That's ok, Em. We're just glad you're alright." Emmet relaxed, happy that he wasn't in trouble. He really didn't want to get in trouble. He followed the rules as best he could... "So, you did touch it?" Em nodded. "Do you remember anything after that? Any funny dreams?"
Emmet paused. Now that he thought of it, he... did. There was something, full of color, that he knew hadn't happened... at least, he thought...
There was that whispering again. Something in the back of his head saying don't talk about it, don't tell them, it's a bad idea...
And he decided to tell the truth.
"I never have any dreams," he said honestly. He didn't remember having dreams before, ever. Everyone had them, apparently, but he couldn't remember his, or something.
The officer looked confused, but almost relieved at the same time. Like if Emmet's answer was different, he would have had to do something he didn't want to, but wasn't expecting anything else to come out of the kid's mouth.
"Alright, then, little buddy," he finally said, smiling. "We're gonna call your parents now, ok? Can you hang tight for us?" Emmet nodded really fast; he could be really good at that! As long as no one told him to stop fidgeting. He could stay in the chair, at least. The cop smiled, and left him alone in the room.
That confused Emmet a little bit, since he didn't get left alone very often, but then his teacher rushed in (Stevens?) and hugged him, and his field trip buddy came in after her and apologized for not letting Emmet hold his hand. Emmet just grinned and said it was ok, he was ok. Especially when his parents came in a little while after that, and he had a new friend named Larry.
His parents took him into another room, somewhere kind of dark and with a giant machine in it. The police officer explained that some of the workers were going to take the brick off Emmet's back, which was a relief, considering that it was really heavy, and he kept falling over.
They also said it wasn't going to hurt, but that's also what the doctor says when he gives you a shot, so Emmet cried until it was over, heat still on his back as his parents hugged and kissed him and the cop said "Sorry, little buddy," over and over again until he fell asleep once more.
He noticed that the whispers were gone when he woke up.