To Those Who Wait by Hayden Sharpe (digital e reader txt) 📕

/> “Ow!” I hissed as Lee Haller wrapped a bandage around my arm. “Easy, sport! Not so tight!”

Lee pursed his lips. “Sorry, gramps,” he shrugged. “I have to keep the pressure on it.” He was silent for a little bit. “You know, you didn’t have to join this war. It was our fight, not yours.”

I rolled my shoulders. “Nah, I had to. Especially after what you said they did to your son. I liked that kid.”

Lee tensed, and his brown eyes were cast to the floor.

“I’m sorry I brought that up,” I mumbled. His son was a touchy subject; it had been for the past seven years.

“It’s alright,” he murmured and backed up a little. “You’re all patched up.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, kiddo.”

“Uh-huh. I’m going to… I’m going to go check on Alyssa.” He bit his lip and got up.

“I’m sorry, Lee.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “I didn’t mean to… I didn’t…”

“I know.” He flashed a small, faked smile. “It’s my issue, not yours.”

“But I shouldn’t have-”

“Gramps,” Lee chuckled. “Just relax. It’s going to be fine. I just want to check on my wife and daughter. I’ll see you later.” And he was gone.

I slouched on the sofa and put my head in my hands. “I’m sorry, Lee,” I mumbled to myself.

There was a pounding on the front door. “Mister Haller! Mister Ravendale! Someone, open up!”

I sighed and got up, opening the door a crack. “Hello?”

A young man with dark hair and glasses stood on the top of the stairs. He stepped back, and I saw a bloody umbrella in his hand. His other arm was wrapped around something, I couldn’t tell what. “Who’re you?” he demanded. He seemed exhausted.

“My name’s Eli,” I blinked tiredly. “And you are?”

“Mitchell Lewis,” he gulped. “I’m one of Theo’s friends. And I’ve got a DTM here that needs serious medical attention.”

“DTM?”

“Driven To Madness, haven’t you heard the term?” Mitchell snapped. “Open this goddamn door!”

I was taken aback, but only slightly. People had gotten gradually more rude over time. I had gotten used to the inevitable fact. I opened the door, and froze.

Mitchell was supporting a girl, thin and pale. Her hair was stark white, and her hands trembled. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her teeth were clenched, as though even the smallest amount of light caused her agony.

Her face… Her face…

I would know that face anywhere.

My hands began to shake uncontrollably.

“Hey!” Mitchell snarled. “Don’t just stand there, help me!

”

I shook my head to clear it and helped them inside. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her face, her beautiful, pale face. All that time I’d been searching…

“W-where was she?” I whispered.

Mitchell sighed as we laid her on the couch. “Dark cell down in the Blacksoul cavern.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She screams all the time, so she was isolated from everyone else. Made it easy to find her. She said her name was Annie.”

“No,” I murmured, brushing her uncharacteristically white hair out of her eyes. “Not Annie.

“Avelina.”

Mitchell raised an eyebrow at me. “You know her?”

“Yes,” I said. Knowing her isn’t even the half of it,

I thought.

“Well, then I’ll leave her in your capable hands,” he nodded. “I’ve got to go.” And he left.

I crouched on the carpet next to the sofa. After all those years… “Avelina,” I whispered softly. “Avelina?”

She gasped and trembled. “W-Who are you?” she croaked. “H-How do you know my r-real name?”

“Avelina, it’s me,” I crooned, tucking her hair behind her ears. “It’s Eli.”

She flinched away from my hand, eyes still squinted shut. “E-Ee-lye,” she sounded out, and pursed her lips, as though my name was foreign. My heart shattered.

“Yes,” I murmured. “Eli. You remember. You promised you’d always love me?”

“I…” she swallowed. “I-I… d-don’t know…”

I got up from her side and pulled my fingers through my hair somewhat desperately. She didn’t remember me.

But why was she in so much pain? She was free… Then something occurred to me. …Dark cell in the Blacksoul cavern…

How could I have not thought that through? I guessed that I had been so happy to see her, that I didn’t take her pallor and delicacy into account. I shut the lights, and returned to the floor next to the sofa.

Avelina sighed, and her eyes relaxed. She began to murmur under her breath, and I had to crane my ears to hear her.

“Papa,” she was saying. “I can hear you again. I… I can hear everyone.”

Everyone except me.

I averted my eyes. It’s alright,

I told myself. It’ll be alright.

I curled up next to the couch and tried to sleep. Maybe when I woke up, this would all be a dream. Or… Or maybe a nightmare.

I didn’t know why I stayed there. I didn’t know why I stuck around. Or maybe I did know, and just couldn’t bear to admit it.

It was a while before I woke up. Avelina was still asleep on the couch, and Lee was shaking my shoulder. “Gramps,” he whispered. “Graaaaaaamps?”

The dumb kid and his nickname for me.

“I’m up, I’m up,” I groaned, stretching.

He looked at Avelina. “Who’s that?” he asked. “I saw Mitch leaving from the window upstairs- he bring her?”

“Do you mean the dark-haired boy? Yes. He brought her.”

“But who is she?”

“Just someone,” I shrugged.

Lee raised an eyebrow at me. “Quit it, Eli,” he snorted. “If she was ‘just someone,’ you wouldn’t be sleeping next to her like a Rottweiler, now would you?”

I breathed out through my nose. “Stop, Lee.”

“Who is she? An old girlfriend or something?”

I said nothing.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Lee crossed his arms, a ghost of his old ten-year-old pout flickering onto his lips. “She got a name?”

“Of course she does.”

“You going to tell me?” He sighed when I said nothing. “I’m not going to stop pestering you until you tell me, Gramps. So I’d spill now before I tackle you.”

I knew he was serious.

“Avelina,” I conceded.

“The

Avelina?” Lee’s eyebrows shot to his forehead. “No way,” he breathed, and took a closer look at her. “No way

! How the hell-”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

“Does she still-”

“She doesn’t remember me, Lee.” I looked away from him.

“Eli, I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be.”

Lee sighed. “There’s a guest room upstairs. I’m sure she wouldn’t want to wake up on a couch. You could carry her, right?”

I bit my lip. I could. But I didn’t want to. What if she woke up in my arms and panicked? I couldn’t do that to her.

“Eli?”

“Yeah. I’ll carry her.”

Sometime in the 2000's

Avelina

I was laying on something soft. Odd. Aleron was never this nice. I felt no shackles on my wrists. Another oddity.

I stretched my hands out to the sides, and found more plushness, and a pillow beneath my head. There was something on top of me- a blanket.

But the cell was still dark.

I sat up and looked around. Something moving dragged my sensitive eyes to the right. Curtains. Curtains, blowing in a breeze. A slight glimmer of light shone in through a window. A window? There was no window in my cell. I had looked. Even when I was sure there was none, I still looked.

Where was I?

My eyes adjusted gradually to the tiny light. It fell on a dresser in the corner, a closet door. A vase of flowers. No, it was no cell of Aleron’s.

My mind picked up a presence. Familiar… but I couldn’t place the name. I couldn’t place anything anymore. Voices filled my head one moment, but then were gone. I could remember nothing, yet I knew I knew everything that had happened to me. I couldn’t recall anything.

I crawled to the end of the bed and peered over the side. The silhouette of a boy was curled up on the carpeted floor. I could make out his features as my eyes registered the light. Wavy hair moved back and forth as he breathed. Strong shoulders, connected to strong arms. His rounded-yet-defined chin rested on his forearms, and his eyelashes twitched, as though his sleep was plagued by nightmares.

It was agonizingly familiar. Why could I place nothing?

Avelina

… my father’s voice echoed. I knew it was my father’s voice. That had been the only thing tethering me to life. Avelina, how could you forget him?

I… I don’t know… I don’t know who he is.

But there was one way to find out. I looked into the boy’s mind, determined to find out who he was, why he was here.

I gasped. I saw… I saw myself

. The boy was dreaming… about me

.

In his mind, I… she, smiled at him, or was it me? I felt her hand on my shoulder, her nose touching mine. I… She said, I wish I could run away with you. I wish I could come with you and I wish that I could just hold you in my arms forever.

But you can’t,

I felt myself say. Sadness sparked at my mind. Avelina, you have to stay here. You know you do.

I know,

she pouted. But I can still keep you, right?

As long as you want me.

I retracted from his mind and put a hand to my mouth. I remembered that, from my own point of view. That boy… The boy sleeping on the floor… I had held him close to me. I had wanted him. And we were torn apart… but he had promised… he had promised… He promised he’d come back to me…

And I had promised I would always love him.

I had

promised.

But why couldn’t I remember his name? It killed me that I couldn’t recall his name. Tears, pent-up for so long, began to stream down my cheeks. I felt my shoulders shake, and I let out little whines. I couldn’t hold them back. Why can’t I remember your name?

I cried, and squeezed my eyes shut. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

“Avelina?” a voice whispered instantly, and I felt someone sit in front of me, taking my hands in his. “Avelina, are you alright?”

Those hands… that voice… everything clicked. I had never been so relieved. The darkness that had swallowed me before helped me to remember.

“Oh, Eli,” I sobbed, practically throwing myself into his arms. “Eli,