Juliana Salvatore || The Tribrid

The Brother

I walk downstairs and see someone standing in the kitchen, staring at the wall. It's the brother. I walk towards him. "Hey, how are you feeling?" I ask. No response, again.
He keeps staring at the wall, he looks kind of nervous and scared. "Hey, talk to me, what's wrong?" I ask, but he doesn't respond to me at all. He keeps staring at that wall. I don't walk away from him, because I don't want him to be alone right now. He's holing a glass of water. He keeps staring and staring, but then his glass breaks in his hand. He looks shocked and looks away from the wall. "Hey..." I say, and he looks at me right away. He's breathing heavily. He gets tears in his eyes and keeps looking at me. "Are you okay...?" I ask. He swallow and nods his head. He steps away from me and leans his hands on the counter while staring at them. He keeps breathing heavily and a tear falls down. He immediately wipes it away, and keeps looking at his hands. "It's okay, you can talk if you want" I say to him. No response, yet again.
I look at his hands, and suddenly I see blood dripping on the ground. I rush to him and grab his hand. I turn it and I see that there is glass in it. "Oh honey..." I say. I get the pieces out of his hand, and clean it up. I do the same to the other hand, as he keeps staring at the wall again. I grab a towel and begin to clean the counter and the floor. When it's done, I look at him again. He really doesn't look good at all. He looks pale and scared. I tried to reach him a couple of times, but it really is like he's not here. I still don't want to walk away from him, but I have to tell Freya. I call her and she walks to the kitchen. "What's wrong?" she says. "I... I don't know... He won't respond and keeps staring" I say to her. She looks at him. "Something probably happened while he was gone" she says. "Right, like he's bene trough a lot." I say.

Now I recognize it. When I came back from the prison world, I wasn't myself at all. Sometimes, I drifted off and got back into the prison world with my mind. I couldn't hear or feel anything around me in those moments, and now I realize that he's going trough the same kind of drifting off.
Freya walks away, but I don't want to leave him here all alone. I know that being alone after that kind of thing isn't great. It feels like you're alone in the world, with no one who knows you. I grab a chair and sit at the counter.
After a while, he looks away from the wall and his eyes fill with tears. He breathes heavy again and looks at his hands. "Hey..." I say, and he looks at me right away. It's like I scared him. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you!" I say. I stand up and walk towards him. He takes a step back. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help you" I say, and he looks at me. He tries to talk, but he can't. He stopped wiping the tears away, because they keep coming. "It's okay to cry, you know." I say. He looks away and wipes his tears now. He starts panicking. He breaths fast and tears keep coming. He looks around, like he doesn't know where he is. "Hey, calm down..." I say, and I grab his hand. It scares him and he looks me in the eyes, while tears are still coming. "It's okay, I won't hurt you. Don't be scared, it's going to be fine. You're going to be fine" I say, and he calms down a bit. He looks down and tears fall down. I grab his other hand and look at him. "Hey, look at me" I say, and he looks at me. "I won't hurt you. Your going to be okay, alright?" I say. He nods his head. He wants to say something, but he can't. "It's okay, just breath." I say. His heavy breathing stops, and he starts breathing normal now. "That's it, good job" I say, and I keep looking him in the eye. "You're at home, in New Orleans. Your siblings are here too. Freya and I brought you back. You're back." I tell him. I can see that my talking is comforting to him.
"Do you want a drink maybe? Are you hungry?" I ask him. He nods his head. "Alright, let's get you a bloodbag okay?" I say. I grab a bloodbag from the counter and I pour it into a cup. I give him the cup and let go of his hands. He takes a sip. "Good, that's good. You can have all of it if you want" I say. He drinks all of it and has some blood on his lip and the corner of his mouth. I get it away with my finger and take the cup from him. I place it on the counter. "Was that good?" I ask. He nods his head again. Because of the shock, it's hard for him to speak. I get that, so I won't make him speak to me. "Maybe you can write down your name for me, so I can call you by your name. I keep calling you 'the brother' now, but that's not your name!" I say, and I smile at him. He softly smiles back at me and nods his head.

I get him a piece of paper and a pen. He grabs the pen and writes down the first letter. Is an 'E'. "Good!" I say.
He looks at me. I can see that he tries to speak. "It's okay to write if you don't want to speak" I say. He keeps looking at me.

"Elijah" he says quiet. I look him in the eye and smile at him. "It's nice to meet you, Elijah" I say, and he softly smiles back at me. "My name is Juliana, but you can call me Julie" I say.