Elemental

Chapter Fifteen

Waking to the soft croaks of crickets, I attempted to brush off the news of my mother. Unable to do so I sat up, and wiped the dry tears from the brim of my sockets. It's hard, you know? Losing everything. My mother, my father, my brother. It felt as if I'd grown this blackening void inside of my heart, as if everything that mattered faded away, as if I was empty. I shook my head attempting to clear my mind. Rising to my feet, I stumbled to the door and made my way to Charlie's room, gently clicking open the door. Knocking quietly, I walked in.

"Ella?" The man looked up from underneath his burrow of pillows through the small glimmer of light the moon gave, "What are you doing up?" He yawned.

"I couldn't sleep." I looked down at my bare feet, "Sorry, you were asleep. You don't need me waking you."

Charlie sat up slowly, "Don't ever think that. You're not a burden on me."He smiled softly. Shuffling back to lean on the headboard he switched on the lamp. "How's school going?" He asked nonchalantly.

"You're asking me about school?" I asked confused.

"Did you want to talk about your mother?" He frowned.

"Not at all." I walked forwards an sat next to him on the bed.

"So, school? You doing alright?"

"I guess so? I have a lot on my mind really, so studying's hard..."

"Oh, I found that, what are you studying?" He asked, looking into my eyes intently.

"Maths, Further Maths, French, Physics and Politics." I laughed. "Did you do A-levels or whatever?"

"Yes. I did Maths, English Literature, Chemistry and Biology. But I dropped English after AS." He replied.

"That's pretty cool. What did you want to do? You know, before--"

"Yeah, I wanted to be a Doctor." He looked into the darkness. "What do you want to be?"

"An astrophysicist." Charlie chuckled and looked at me.

"Nerd."

"Hey!" I slapped his arm and he laughed.

"You're like your dad you know, I remember going to your house for the day when you were three, I must have been what, six?" He nodded and continued, "He'd tucked you in, and taken Noah and I into the garden to show us his telescope. It was one of the most interesting things I'd seen."

"It was Dad that inspired me really." I looked down, feeling tears brewing again. "He always spoke of how vast and amazing it was, and how there was always something to find out." I blinked back the tears.

"Your Dad was one of the most amazing men I've ver met." Charlie put his arm around me and I burrowed my head into his neck. "He looked out for me when my father died."

I looked up into his eyes, seeing them fill with sorrow. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." I squeezed his arm in reassurance.

"It's alright, hardly anyone does." He closed his eyes for a long time, frowning deeply.

"What about your mother?" I asked.

"She lives in London, when I chose this pathway, she closed off." He shook his head.

"She'd be proud of you, you know." He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "You're kind, and confident and you care Charlie." Our eyes locked for a moment, and I felt a warm safety surround me. "Thank you Charlie. For taking me in."

"Don't worry about it, least I could do for my best friend's sister." He smiled softly. "You should get some sleep Ella."

"I don't want to sleep, all I could see was her face in flames." I croaked slowly.