The Revival

05| Shower Thoughts

Now well into the night, Elia is surprised to find that no one has come in to chain her back up.

Instead of the pitch black night, Elia sits currently under the working lights, a dim glow cast over the entire room. She still has to wiggle her hands and feet from time to time to remind herself that she's awake, that this isn't some sort of dream. While she might not be free yet, she feels almost as if she is. She didn't think it would be possible to feel happy in this sort of prison, but that's how she feels in a few fleeting moments.

The other moments, however, are filled with a sense of desperate urgency to escape. Now that she has one single form of freedom, Elia craves the rest of it. She needs to figure out a way to get out of Elijah's grasp and find her way back to Portland.

It's the only place she knows where to start.

If Zola or Robert, or anyone from her past life is alive, she knows that Portland is the place to go. Someone has to be there, Elia hopes. If there's anything left of her city, that is where she needs to be.

Suddenly her thoughts are interrupted by the opening of the door on the far side of the room, a dark figure moving quickly inside. After the door shuts securely behind the silhouette, Elia finally catches a glimpse of him underneath the lights. His dark tousled hair and matching eyes are what identify him to Elia as the same man who had visited her before. His tanned features looked even darker under the warms lights, the paleness of his lips standing out as the brightest feature on his face.

As he approaches, Elia also notices a tattoo snaking around from the back of his neck, disappearing down underneath his shirt somewhere. Keeping her eyes focused on the design, Elia is surprised she didn't notice that detail during their last visit when he had gotten so close to her bed. Usually Elia was a much more observant person than that.

"I'm glad to see you're still awake. Does having the lights on help?"

Elia feels oddly comforted by his casual tone, clinging to the only sense of normalcy she's experienced in the past few days. Though he is one of Elijah's men, Elia couldn't help but wish for him to stick around for a while. She needs a grounding force in whatever form she can get.

Nodding to his question slowly, Elia tries not to aggravate her brain more than she already has. "It's better than being stranded in the dark. I don't sleep much anyway, though."

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Elia finds herself regretting them. She shouldn't be sharing anything personal with a man like this, she realizes, no matter how nice the company may be. She can enjoy a conversation and not open up about the demons haunting her every second of the night.

This is probably Elijah's plan, Elia realizes, with a sickening knot in her stomach. He's counting on her opening up to this man so he can use the information against her. Letting her head fall down towards the ground, Elia lets out a tired sigh. Elijah would have to get more creative than this if he wanted to beat her at this twisted little game.

"I didn't think you would. At least not with those above you," the man notes, pointing a single finger towards the photographs hanging above her head.

Elia lets her eyes travel over to them, reaching up to let her fingertips trace the outline of Nathan's body. No matter how many times she'd tried today, Elia just couldn't bring herself to take them down. In a twisted sort of way, they were the only pieces of Nathan she had left, and Elia was too selfish to get rid of them. No matter how awful of a reminder they were, they were still Nathan.

After a long while of holding the photograph, Elia finally remembers that she isn't alone in the room. Turing back to the man with a bitter grimace on her face, she shoves herself off the bed and makes her way to the opposite side of the room. "Yeah, well, you can thank your boss for those. Was he the one who sent you in here to talk to me?"