Mended

36

Ethan's POV

The silence that encased the room was the equivalent of drowning. Elijah stood right in front of me, yet he felt like he was miles away underwater. I stared at him, willing words to come to my mouth, yet my voice failed me.

I felt Rose's gaze boring into the side of my face, her hopelessness palpable even though I wasn't looking at her. I kept my eyes on my brother, unsure of how I could look away from the damage I'd once again caused by making him come over.

He hadn't known.

My eyes dropped to the letter he still had clutched in his hand, his knuckles straining. When I looked back at his face, it was completely void of any emotion. It was like he wasn't even there.

"Should I call someone else?" Rose whispered, her voice torn. She glanced between the two of us. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do."

Elijah blinked, his dark grey eyes flashing back to life. I couldn't look away as he slowly gazed at Rose.

A moment passed before he spoke. "Where's the first aid kit?" He asked.

"What?" Rose questioned, her voice small.

Elijah crumpled up the letter in his fist, his distant eyes jumping back down to my hands. "He's bleeding through his bandages," he explained quietly, but I didn't bother looking to confirm whether or not it was true. "They need to be changed."

I stared at him, but he wouldn't meet my gaze.

Rose stood up. "I used the last of them," she said, her voice hoarse. "I'll make a quick run to the pharmacy to get more."

Elijah only moved once she was gone. I tracked him numbly, watching as he grabbed the lighter off my desk. The flame flickered to life and only when he lifted it close to the crumpled sheet of paper did I realize what was happening.

Just like that, I snapped back to reality.

"Stop!" I rasped, launching off of my bed and lunging towards him. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Elijah paused and I didn't waste a second before I was ripping the lighter away from him. His eyes flickered to mine, the coldness I saw staring back at me turning my blood to ice.

"What are you doing?" I choked out again.

Elijah's face never changed; never revealing a single thing. "I'm getting rid of it."

My chest constricted. "Did you even—did you even read it?" I croaked. "Did you see what was in it? Did you see that Dad wrote it himself? Why would you—why would you want to get rid of it?" My words stumbled out in broken syllables, my heart racing.

Elijah's gaze darkened. "Yes, I read it," he gritted out and I almost stopped breathing. "Give me the match, Ethan."

I stared at him in utter disbelief. Elijah's jaw tightened as he took a step towards me, but I held it out of reach. "No." I could barely breathe. What the fuck was happening? "What the hell is wrong with you? That's—" I closed my eyes, swallowing hard. "That's from Dad. You can't get rid of it. It's the truth— "

"It's not the truth!" Elijah sneered in a voice that was so vicious I almost took a step back out of complete shock. His ash grey gaze burned into me, the rage in his eyes taking my breath away because it was so unlike him. "It's not the truth, alright? He's fucking lying."

His words took a minute to register. Even then, I wasn't sure if I could fully comprehend what he was saying.

Elijah's spoke again, his rough voice laced with nothing but a hatred so powerful I felt it in my very bones. "He's a liar," he growled. "He's lying to save his ass. Fuck, I mean he probably planned this so that even after death, he could make sure that I could never escape this goddamned hell."