A recurring nightmare woke Elijah from his sleep again. One that he couldn't seem to let go of, and it was haunting and killing him inside. He couldn't unsee it; the things he had done no matter how his father and the others tried to help. Slowly he sat up, sighing as he reached for half-smoked blunt lighting while he thought back what got him to this point.
Flashback
Xerxes was in surgery, and the doctors fought to save his brother's life. Elijah could feel everything inside of him start to fall apart. He couldn't lose one of his big brothers almost two years after losing his twin. Shit, Xerxes was like their twin, and he could feel him fighting to stay with him, but his life was slipping fast, and Elijah couldn't do a done thing about it, and neither could the rest. All it was now was a waiting game. One that he couldn't handle, and he knew it was hard on his children as he watched them pace the floor until Xavier finally left out. Only to come back moments later with the surgeon, which caused Elijah's heart to skip a beat.
"We have done everything we can. Your father was stabbed in the lower part of his heart. It amazes me that he is still alive... but there isn't much we can do. He will need a transplant and may not live through the night. Right now, my team is still working on him, but he is losing blood just as fast as we are putting it in his body... I'm sorry."
Everything around Elijah started to fade. He could hear his niece yelling and understood her words clearly, but the doctor's words kept replaying in the back of his head. There was nothing they could do. His brother was going to die. Xerxes was going to die. It couldn't be real something wasn't right here. X should be living to be their father's age or older while their father lived to be older than their Opa did.
"Eli..."
"I-I'm... I'm good, dad. I'm good." He whispered as he held his face in his hands. He didn't want the others to see him cry but was sure they saw his tears dropping on the floor below him as he listened to his nephew speak.
"Wait, what about an artificial heart until we find one? I'm sure one of those assholes who ambushed us has a valuable heart we can have it to by noon. D-don't..., please don't let our dad die." Xavier said as he motioned for Elias and Barkley to follow him. Elijah wanted to go but couldn't get his body to move from his sitting spot. For hours he sat there as the others came to check on him. Trying to get him to eat or go home and get some rest, Elijah refused. Even his wife couldn't get him to move from his spot as Amoy stood before him.
"Eli, have yuh ate?"
"I don't want anything...."
"Yuh gotta eat," Amoy said as she sat beside him. Eli sighed, refusing to look over as he tried to give him a sandwich. Something that he didn't want. "Yuh son came back with some hearts. They are working on him now. There is hope, Eli. Papi has to be okay... Mi needs him to be okay, like yuh Mi love him." She spoke as he slowly looked at the woman crying beside him as he gently touched her hand.
"H-he'll be okay... Wait, you said Elias bought the hearts back. When and where are my nephew and Barkley?"
"They have Ying Lee torturing him."
Without a thought, Elijah stood from his seat and made his way back to the community. He was going about ninety miles per hour and what should have been a fifteen-minute drive. It took him less than five as he quickly threw his car in park and ran into the warehouse. Once inside, he saw the man responsible for the death of his sister and why his brother was lying on a table fighting for his life. Torture was too good for him. As he grabbed the first thing, he saw... Acid,
"GET BACK! GET THE FUCK BACK!" He yelled as the two men in front of him quickly stepped to the sides. Elijah didn't think twice as he threw the liquid at the man while he screamed as he turned to his nephew, taking his sword and stabbing it threw the man's chest. He needed to feel the pain Melody and Xerxes did.
