Chapter Twenty-Three

I grabbed Ellie's hand in an instant, my fingers intertwined with his, and I hoped that this would get through to him as a sign to keep calm. How odd it was to calm him down when my own heart was deceiving me by racing quicker than ever before.

If Ellie attacks Levi, I will not be able to stop him.

If Ellie kills Levi, his blood is on my hands.

I breathed, refusing to let Ellie's anxiety spark up my own. This is good for him. He must learn. God, please let him learn.

I roughly pulled Ellie towards me, praying that it'd catch his attention. When it didn't, I did the only thing that came to my mind, I pulled him against me, and latched onto him as if I were hugging him.

He turned his head away from Levi, and his coal-black eyes bore into mine.

I got his attention. Nearly crying from panicked relief, I began to speak to him. "His name is Levi." I said, beckoning towards the boy who was coming out direction. Why did he have to be so friendly? "And he will not hurt you, he will not hurt me. He is a friend."

Ellie tried to turn his head towards him, but with one hand, I nudged his head back to look at me. We stood there for a moment, staring at one another. "Do not attack him, Ellie. He is not a threat; do you understand me?"

His veins were protruding the color black, and his fingernails looked like something straight out of a horror movie, and I'm pretty sure his skin became a few shades paler -or maybe that's just because he doesn't get out in the sun often.

The pathetic artificial vampire with coal-black blood.

"Hey Ripley!" Levi called, and I gritted my teeth and my own fingernails dug into Ellie's flesh. I knew I was hurting him, but he seemed not to even notice the pain. His attention was back on our neighbor.

Trying to seem normal, I gave Levi a failed attempt at a smile, hoping that Ellie would see an understand there is not threat in this situation.

No threat but himself.

"Hi, Levi." I said, not even attempting to match his enthusiastic tone. "What's up?" Please go away. Please go away. Please go away.

"Nothing much," He glanced at Ellie, and his face contorted to one I could only decipher as confusion and disgust, "Uhh, what's wrong with your friend?"

My friend. My friend. My friend.

"It's nothing." I said a little too quickly, "He's just being an -an idiot." I blurted before I could stop it, "It's makeup." I pointed to his black veins, and fingernails. It really doesn't look like makeup, and only a moron would believe me. "He likes to dress up, it's a creepy aesthetic of his."

Lucky for me, Levi doesn't seem to be the smartest boy in the world.

Levi stared at him for a long moment before scoffing, "Damn, that's cool. What are you part of the drama team or something?"

"Something like that." I said, as I tugged on Ellie's arm towards the house. Ellie, at first, didn't respond. He stood there, eyeing Levi up and down as if he were about to rip him open. Levi seemed oblivious to Ellie's threatful aura, and completely ignored his presence all together.

"So, Ripley." He said as he dug his hands into his pockets. "I was wondering something."

"Hmm?" I was hardly listening to what he was saying, as I focused on inching Ellie towards the porch. I don't regret this. Not at all. Ellie needs to learn, that's what this is, a grand learning experience for the boy created in a lab.

No vicious consequences for allowing him out here -none at all.

Levi leaned on the heels of his feet as he slouched over awkwardly, "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go out sometime?"

I stopped.

For the first time since we met, I looked directly into his eyes. Levi, the idiot next door who I never bothered to even acknowledge. The only time I'd ever speak with him is to get him to leave. Who would have thought that he was interested in me, I've been nothing but a jerk to him.

"You mean, as a date?" I hadn't realized what I said until the words fell from my mouth.

Ellie stiffened.

Levi's face turned red, "Yeah, yeah, uhh, yeah, as a date, I mean if you don't want to, that's fine."

I turned to Ellie, I've never seen so much emotion on his face, as every bit of his expression was practically bleeding rage.

Even Levi noticed his look, and took a step back, "Uhh-"

"Levi can you go home?" I spoke quickly, "I'll talk to you about this later."

He nodded his head quickly, "Yeah, okay, sounds good."

And he was gone.

Ellie and I stood alone, and I took hold of his arm, and guided him into the house, despite his hesitance to do so, I knew I'd resort to dragging him inside if I had to.

I slammed the front door shut, and locked it. Ellie was staring at me as I walked past him to the stairs. I said not a word to him, as I ran up them, and hid in my room.

Hopelessness, complete and utter hopelessness was flowing through my mind and body like a river. I plopped onto my bed and began to wonder if Ellie would ever be ready to go outside and be around normal people.

And if he was bound to the house for the rest of his life, that only means that I am too. I can't let him be alone.

I refused to cry.

I could hear faint footsteps come into my room, and I didn't bother looking up to see how it was. There's only one person it'd could be.

"You're angry." He said, and I only shook my head as a reply.

"You're angry at me." He tried again, and this time I spoke.

"No, Ellie, I'm not angry at you."

"You should be." His voice was faint, softer than usual. I didn't like it.

I sat up in my bed, and faced him. He stood in the doorway, as if he didn't feel welcome to come into my room. His room. Our room. I could still see the darkness in his eyes, and his veins were still dark, but not the pure black that they were moments before.

I patted the spot beside me on the bed, and waited for him to come and sit. He didn't.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Ellie, are you alright?"

"I don't think I should leave anymore." He paused, "To go outside."

I didn't want to tell him that I agreed with him, because I wasn't entirely sure that I did. Part of me didn't want to give up trying, but another part of me feared that lives were on the line if we went back out there.

Every second we stood out there was a risk for someone's life. I'm aware of how selfish it is, but I want to try again. He deserves a normal life. I deserve a normal life. Neither one of us get to be normal if he can't handle being around others.

A thought in my mind kept occurring, a theory, that he'd eventually get used to others if we just gave it time. He had attacked me once upon a time, and now I'm the only person he can handle, he just had to get used to me.

I'm convinced this is no different.

I stood, and walked towards him, "Ellie." I said sympathetically, I reached up to grab his arm and stopped when he flinched away. My rapidly beating heart shattered.

He took a step away, "I will reside in your father's lab further on." He stated robotically, "I am not capable of leaving."

"Yes you are." I'm not lying. I believe it. He is safe. This is not a mistake.

This is not false hope.

"You didn't attack him." I said quickly, hoping he'd realize what I was saying wasn't just to encourage him, but to encourage myself.

These are not false words, and yet the burned as they toppled out of my mouth like acid.

"You could have attacked him, Levi, you could have killed him even, but you held yourself back."

"You held me back."

"You didn't want to kill him though." I argued, "I know you didn't."

He stared at me for a long moment, "Yes, Ripley, I did." Pause. "I do." He held out his arm, his veins still grey and we both stared at his pale flesh, forced to endure the toxic color of his veins, ruining the beautiful genius of his very existence. "I feel it." He said in a near whisper.

"You feel a false lust, it's not you that wants to kill, it's whatever plaguing your body." I will not lose to his self-pity, despite him having every reason to pity himself. "Besides, you don't try to kill me, so surely whatever is in you is sparked by something."

"I've tested it." He said with a breath, "I don't think I could ever understand it."

My father, a brilliant scientist who, I realize more and more every day as I spend my time with Ellie, may have been a bit mad, knew what he was doing. Ellie, and the mere arrangement of the entire method of artificial humans is a precise learning. My father specialized in analyzing the human body, creating things most close to man in a scientific way. He should have known something would have gone wrong in Ellie's creation, unless he was unaware of certain testing by the government when they still had ownership of Ellie's body.

That means someone out there knows what is wrong with Ellie, and they may know how to fix him.

I've thought about it before, but pushed the idea way knowing the consequences if the government knew that Ellie still existed.

"What if," I said as I looked at Ellie, taking in the defeat that he has succumbed to, "What if there is a way to cure you."

"Impossible."

"Ellie, you were created by a bunch of different scientists, my father was just the man who didn't give up on you, but ultimately, there were many men working with my father to give you life." I began to pace, "What if one of them injected you with something without my father knowing? What if whoever injected you, knows exactly what's in you, and can help you get rid of it?"

Ellie blinked at me, and I continued on before he could say anything, "If my father knew of how dangerous you are, he wouldn't have brought you home, not with me here, anyway. He thought you were safe, which means there's no possible way he could have known what's in you, but somebody else, might."

"Who?"

I shrugged, "I'm not sure, but I bet I could find out who worked on you in my father's logs, that or at least contact someone who may know."

"But Ripley-"

"I know." I cut him off, already knowing what it is he was going to say, "I won't tell them you exist, I won't let them take you from me, but I think I may know how to ask about the plague without giving your existence away."

Ellie stared at me as if he couldn't believe what I was saying. I couldn't believe it either, but suddenly, it seems like the only answer to our problem. "How?"

"I'm going to threated to sue go public with the labs my father was working for, and to do it, I need a jar of your blood." I gasped at my own words, "I'm going to publicly blame them for the death of my father."