Drakan (The Chronicles of Eli) [#Wattys2015]

Chapter 14

               “WH…what?” Eli blinked his eyes. “Abigail what are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?”

                        “I don’t care what time it is.” She said threw sniffles. “Eli, how could you?”

            Eli stood still for a second, baffled by Abigail’s demeanor, before walking towards her with his hands outstretched in front of his chest. “How could I what? Abigail, what are….” He trailed off, following her eyes to the corner where the bloody clothes were at. Instantly he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. She shook her head and walked over to the small pile of clothes.

            She crouched low, picked up his shirt and then held it to her nose. “This blood is about two hours old, was you injured or was he?” Without waiting for his answer, she strolled over to him and lifted his shirt up to his chin. She tilted his head left and then right, “Doesn’t look like you have any cuts, so it couldn’t have been your blood.” Eli watched as Abigail took a step closer to him and interlaced her fingers with his, “Eli you don’t know this man. I can’t tell you about what he did but…”

                        “Well…” he interrupted, “….I guess that’s another thing you and everyone else CAN’T tell me.”

 He removed his hands from her clutches and walked out the open door, leading to his patio. Once outside he rested his crossed forearms on the wooden railing, as he looked up into the bright night sky. When he heard Abigail coming from behind him, he spoke, “Whatever he did it’s in the past. Life is about making decisions, Abigail, and sometimes those decisions aren’t the best ones but under certain circumstances it may be the only choice we have.” Eli brought his eyes down and focused them on the side of Abigail’s face. He took in a deep breath pushing the recently fresh memory, of Liam telling him they can no longer be friends, further back in his mind. “You have to trust me; I know what I’m doing”.

Eli waited for her to turn towards him and when she did he found himself staring at a sorrowful countenance. Her lips trembled as they stood, no more than 4 inches from each other, in silence. Eli opened his mouth but before any words could be produced, he felt the warmth of Abigail’s arms wrapping themselves around his neck. In return he lightly placed his arms around her lower back, gently pacing his palms back and forth in a soothing manner.

            “I just don’t want you to get hurt” she whispered in his left ear.

            “I won’t. I just want to find out the truth, that’s all”

Just as he finished his statement, Abigail pulled back slightly and kissed him. Together they stood, under the moons light, connected by their soft lips.

            “I’m going to hold you to that, Eli” she said, smiling, after parting from his lips.

There were too many thoughts and emotions going through his mind for him to speak; all he could do was stare, absentmindedly, in the direction she was walking to. Abigail walked to a corner of the railing, put both legs over, smiled and blew him a kiss before jumping off. Without ordering them to, his legs carried him over to where she jumped. There she was at the bottom waving at him. Eli slowly waved back and watched her run across the bridge until she disappeared in the darkness, behind her backyard fence. He then turned around and walked inside, sliding the door shut behind him. His legs, once again, carried him to the bathroom where he cupped his hands under the cold water, after turning on the faucet. He splashed his face a couple times and rubbed the remaining water droplets throughout his hair. The only clear thought that ran threw his mind was, did that really just happen? Eli slipped in bed, a small smile playing on his lips as he rolled over onto his stomach and closed his eyes, drifting off to a peaceful sleep