Pyromania | Diego Hargreeves [2]

【CHAPTER TEN...AND A HALF 】

—chapter ten point five, or...

❛ a new perspective. ❜  

"IN THE MORNING, WE'LL FIGURE OUT A PLAN. And make everything right. Okay?"

It was a real gift, the ability to make something so impossible sound absolutely believable. If Ellis Verbeck was still the kid he was ten, five, even one year ago, he might have taken his sister's adamantly confident words as they were. An actually plausible promise.

Given everything that laid between them, the weight that laid on both of the Verbecks hunched shoulders, that wasn't so possible anymore.

Still, Ellis agreed, because he knew that was what his sister wanted. "Okay."

Elodie lifted from the floor, grimacing at the loud 'crack' of her knees. "You should get some sleep. We all should. Okay? Then we can talk all about it in the morning, and I'll...I'm gonna make all of this right." She grinned at him, but it looked like she was smiling through enormous pain. "I promise you, Ellis Verbeck, I'm gonna fix everything."

He really, really wanted to trust his sister. He did. But it was hard, when he knew she had spent his entire life lying to him. Living a completely separate existence, with literal fire at her fingertips. A world he knew next to nothing about. And she was impulsive and completely convinced that she needed to save him — when it was him, changing and saving the world. Elodie was a good person. Ellis knew that. But she was completely blind when it came to the big picture.

"We're going to be okay," he heard through his thoughts. Elodie smiled down at him. "We're going to be okay, Ellie."

Ellis nodded, because he knew she needed reassurance. Some days he forgot how naïve his sister was, even after everything. And to think; Elodie was supposed to be the older one. "I'm going to try and sleep now."

"Okay. Sleep well, kid."

Not a kid anymore.

"You too."

Elodie patted his head gently before turning and leaving towards the door. He pretended to be getting comfortable in the bed, adjusting under the stranger's covers (a fact he was not so happy about, but too tired to complain) until he heard the door swing open and then shut.

Finally.

Ellis yawned, forcing himself deeper into the covers. Deeper, until his entire body, even his head was completely submerged. Not the greatest idea; this bed smelled weird. But he would have to live with it. Only shallowly breathing through his mouth, trying not to think about who's been on said bed, Ellis shut his eyes shut.