All That Remains

12. Elias

The next few hours were torture.

Jae and Elias marched along, weaving between buildings and clinging to the shadows. They saw no other signs of movement, no indication that anyone or anything else was in the vicinity. The quiet was almost too eerie, and the only thing to accompany them was their shadows.

Elias let Jae go ahead of him, and the silence stretched between them, as tangible as a rubber band. For the first time since he had met her, he didn't feel like making conversation and she seemed all too happy to oblige. His thoughts were taking him to dark places, beckoning him with open arms as he thought of the worst possibilities.

What if Lorenzo had taken the Pride to the next town over? What if Elias was wrong about where they would go next? What if Jae gave up on their rescue mission and left him to do it alone? What if it was already too late for Eden?

And the worst possibility of all: what if he never found them?

Though the thought of Lorenzo hurting his little sister was agony, the thought of never knowing her fate was even worse. But he couldn't think like that. He would find her, he had to. Even if it meant he spent the rest of his life searching for her, he knew that one day they would be reunited.

He wasn't sure what to do about his father of Lorenzo when that happened, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. One thing was for sure, if Lorenzo harmed one hair on Eden's perfect little head, Elias would wrap his hands around Lorenzo's throat and-

Elias stopped that train of thought abruptly, terrified of where it was heading. He wouldn't let Lorenzo turn him into a killer. He couldn't. His integrity was all he had left and Lorenzo had already destroyed far too much. Including his own father's loyalty.

"Elias." Jae's voice broke through the dark cloud of ominous thoughts that Elias was stewing in. He glanced up to see she had stopped walking and turned around to face him. "It's getting really late. I think we should find a place to crash for the night."

Elias looked around, sure enough, the sun was approaching the horizon, the sky a beautiful burst of bright colours. While he had been lost in thought, they had made it all the way to the edge of the city centre, and were now on the outskirts of the suburbs.

He was so exhausted that even his bones felt weary, and so hungry that his stomach clenched, desperate for food. But he was reluctant to turn in just yet. They still had at least an hour of daylight left that they could make use of. "We should keep going until the sun sets," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Jae nodded tiredly, turning around and continuing on down the road. Elias tried to pick up his pace to cover more ground, determined to carry on until they absolutely had to stop. Eventually, the sky turned to navy, the half-moon did little to illuminate their way, and Jae turned to Elias.

"It's time to call it a day," she insisted.

Elias opened his mouth to argue, quickly closing it again. Jae had once told him how dangerous it was to be out after dark and now, he could see why. An ominous silence seemed to settle over the road and the hairs on the nape of his neck stood to attention. It felt as though he was being watched by something hiding in the shadows as he nodded his agreement.

"Great," Jae smiled wearily. She pointed to a double story house just a bit further up the road. "I'm going to see if that's open, and we can hide out on the top floor. Maybe we'll even get lucky and find some food in there."

She turned around and started heading in that direction with Elias a few steps behind. Desperate not to get lost in dark thoughts again, he watched her ponytail swishing from left to right, the movement almost hypnotic. It served well as a distraction as they approached the house.