Elysian House: The Bitten Elixir [Remake] (1)

Chapter 28: Saving You

Chapter 28: Saving You

The drive to my house was almost completely silent. Viola had offered to take me back and it didn't go unnoticed that she was acting a bit strange. I don't know what her sudden deal is to try and tell me what I should and shouldn't do, but frankly, it's kind of pissing me off. So I kept my eyes to the window, or to Pereus, which was lying in the back seat. As long as I didn't have to talk to Viola, I was fine. 

Before I left the house earlier that day, Maya had gone out to see Bradley. Which was a bit strange considering the conversation we had the night before about her kind-of-crush on Bradley. But she insisted that she just wanted to talk to him and it would keep her from being stuck going to watch me get my ass kicked, or staying in my house, where she would probably be asked if she was sleeping with me one hundred times by my mother, then having "the talk" with my father. 

Even though we weren't having sex.

What can I say? My family is a bunch of weirdos.

We come up to a stop light and we freeze, behind several other cars. It was the first time that I rode in one of these black cars and I wasn't in a rush to get somewhere. Viola suddenly takes a sharp intake of breath beside me in the drivers seat and I hear a click and the car suddenly fills up with light. 

"Sorry," she says when she catches me looking at her questionably. "I have... a fear of the dark." 

Oh, trust me, I know. I thought. 

It occurs to me that the moonlight wasn't strong and it was dark in the car. She must have thought she saw something in the rear view mirror. I'm impressed, though. She's kept her composure much more than the first time I saw her freak out. She reaches into her pocket and holds out a polished black flashlight to me. "Can you do me a favor and just turn that on?"

I peer down at the flashlight in my hand and sure enough, I recognized it. 

The same goddamn flashlight I gave her when she was just a kid. She's kept it this whole time. Wow... I click the button and I see the beam is still fresh and still bright. "Is this new?" I felt the need to ask it, because... well, I wanted to know.

"No," she answers. The car starts driving again and she reaches up to click the car light off, so we wouldn't get in trouble. "I've had it for a long time. A... friend gave it to me. I made sure to keep it safe. Fixed it whenever it was broke. I always refused to get a new one."

"Must have been some friend," I turn the light into the back seat and aim it around.

We go back into silence. I remain leaned over the side of the seat so I could flash the light around in the car. Viola keeps her hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel. She drives at a pace suited for a human. Suited for me. 

When I see my street coming up, she finally speaks. "I'm sorry about earlier," she tells me. I lean back just a bit to let her speak to me properly. She glances at me in the passenger seat, but makes no real effort to keep steady eye contact. Her hands squeeze the wheel tighter, she shifts a bit in her seat. "I was wrong... to have said those things."

"Yeah, kind of." My attention went back to flashing the light aimlessly in the darkness behind us. 

She sighs quite loudly, hinting at me to pay attention to whatever she had to say next. "And... also, thank you. For not asking questions. You just... you seem so attuned to my odd fears. When I blew up on you at Enba Beach in Piombino."

"Ricky was scared of the dark when he was younger. He's not so much anymore, but when he was really young, he used to come into my room late at night and ask me to come and search his closet and under his bed."