Chapter Twenty-Six

The drive home felt as if it was purposely delaying me from my destination. Every minute made me feel more and more panicked about being away from home. Away from Ellie who had been waiting for me.

I prayed he hadn't left the house.

As I ordered Levi to drive faster, and even showed him a shortcut to take back to my house, I mentally vowed I would never leave Ellie alone like this again. The panic it caused in my own body, wasn't worth a few hours of social outing. I don't even like Levi.

I just wanted to be normal, and now I hate myself for it.

Levi was practically silent throughout the entire drive, he only ever replied to me when I told him the directions back to the house. When I told him to speed up, he'd grunt a bit, but he wouldn't disobey.

I don't think he's going to ever talk to me again after this bizarre experience, and I don't blame him.

Finally, he stopped in front of my house, and I immediately said goodnight to him, and left the vehicle before he could get out a word.

I ran up to my front door, realizing this was the second time I have erratically rushed home thinking about Ellie. Is this a problem of mine, or something Ellie needs to conquer?

I took a deep breath, and went inside.

"Ellie?" I called, and as expected, he didn't reply. That wasn't unusual, in fact I don't think he has ever replied to me when I called out his name.

Still, my heart was pounding so loud I wondered if Ellie could hear it, wherever he is.

I checked the living room, the kitchen, and the bedrooms. The only place he could be was the basement. The door to it was shut, so I swung it open, and made my way down the creaking steps. "Ellie?" I said, but this time, is was quieter, because immediately I could feel his presence.

My eyes fixed on him, but I didn't feel relieved.

Something was wrong.

He sat on the cold concrete floor, his knees pressed against his chest as his back was against the wall. His hands were in his hair, clutching it as if he was trying to pull the hair from his scalp. His body was shaking, and that's when I noticed how pale he looked, how his veins were the color of midnight, and how his entire body was covered in thick, red, blood.

His blood isn't red

I suddenly felt dizzy, like the world was spinning and I couldn't stop it. I could hardly stand as I made my way towards him, I didn't even realize I got on my knees beside him, until it was already done. All I could say was; "Ellie, what did you do?" But what I really wanted to ask him was, "Ellie, who did you hurt?"

He stiffened, and I wondered if he'd attack me.

I contained my fear, and slowly reached my hand out, I hesitantly wiped a smudge of blood off his cheek. He finally turned to look at me, and his eyes bored into mine. They were entirely black, but I could tell he wasn't in a rabid state.

He was just scared.

I made my voice as gentle as I could muster in this situation, "Please Ellie, I'm not mad, just tell me what happened."

His hands shook as he slowly released them from his hair, "Late." He murmured, breathing erratically, "You're late."

In my own shame, I had to look away from him, "I know, I'm so sorry. I swear, I didn't realize the time, it was an accident." I noticed all the blood on the floor, as if it was dripping off him all the way from the stairs. It was probably upstairs too, and I hadn't even realized it.

Ellie sat straighter, as if my answer didn't please him, "You promised." He said, his voice louder, his eyes still stuck on me.

"Ellie." I didn't like him raising his voice at me, not when he's currently covered in someone's blood. It set an unusual off feeling within me. "Ellie," I recurred, "What did you do?"

He stared at me in silence for a long moment, his eyes slowly turning back to their usual color, as his veins began to fade to a more relaxed gray, instead of liquid black. "You lied."

"And you disobeyed."

He flinched.

I repeated myself yet again, "What did you do?"

"I left." He inhaled a sharp breath, like he was angry, and defeated, and scared, and I felt it all with him. "I left because you did not come home."

"And you attacked someone."

He clenched his fists, "I looked for you."

"Who was it?"

"I couldn't find you."

"Answer me."

"You lied, and I don't know why you lied."

I gripped his shoulder, not hard, but stern, just stern enough to get him to focus, "Ellie, I'm asking you to tell me who you hurt." What if there is a body somewhere? What if somebody saw him come back into the house? What if the police were called and were on their way here now?

His eyes widened, and his mouth opened slightly. The blood was beginning to smell even stronger, or maybe I finally was aware of the stench it had. I wanted to gag, I wanted to yell at Ellie for not listening to me, but I also wanted to comfort him and yell at myself for being so careless.

I knew this day would come. It's not his fault. It's my fault.

I should have expected this day to come. I should have been prepared.

"I could not control it." He said so quietly, as a drip of black liquid fell from his eye down his cheek. I've never seen him cry. Of course, he wouldn't cry like a human being, his tears held the same black liquid from his blood, and yet, my heart broke seeing how vulnerable he was. He is the victim in this too.

He's contaminated with something toxic and monstrous, but he is not monstrous nor is he toxic.

I sighed and wrapped my arm around him, pulling him into a hug and ignoring the fact that the blood covering his frail body was now covering me. "We'll fix this." I said to him, as I ran my hand through his hair. "I'll fix this." And I meant it.

After a few minutes, I pulled Ellie to his feet, and slowly walked him up out of the basement and up into the bedroom where I told him to wash off and change his clothes. I was going to have to burn the bloody clothes, and scrub the blood that had dripped onto the floorboards.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified to know who the hell it was that he attacked.

Ellie walked back into the bedroom clean from any sign of blood of black liquid, and he sat on the bed beside me. I could tell he was still slightly shaken up, as was I, and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

I was about to speak up and ask him again if he killed someone, if there was a body that I needed to dispose of (I cringed at the thought), but I didn't have the time to. I was immediately cut off by the abrupt noises of sirens outside.

I forgot how to breathe.

I ran to the window, and peered out. Ellie was beside me in an instant, looking out as well. We stood there, feeling the same brooding emotions as five police cars and two ambulances dashed to the front of our house -and then they passed it.

"What the hell?" I whispered, as they all crowded around Levi's home. There had to be at least seven police officers rushing into the house all at once, and that was when I knew.

"Oh, Ellie you didn't."

I watched as two officers walked out with a screaming Levi. They both tried to comfort him as he attempted to turn back into the house, but they wouldn't let him. Not long after that, a detective showed up, as the paramedics took Levi presumably to the hospital.

I probably stood there watching it all play out for hours.

And then a few officers slowly began to make their way to each neighboring house.

Two of them were coming up to ours.

My heart sank as I thought of the blood on the floorboards that I had yet to clean up. The evidence was out in the open, and I would be found guilty. If I was sent to prison, nobody would be here to protect Ellie, and I had no doubt he'd go on a rampage and hurt others.

I quickly turned to Ellie and said, "We need to leave. Now."