Being Fearless

23

Everyday she felt weaker, her hair fell from her head and her body bruised more easily. Her once firm muscles were slowly softening into fatty skin.

Her cheeks started to sink in and her body started rejecting her food.

She was dying and everyday Alex became more and more suspicious. Everyday Elliot cracked her face with concealer to hide the paleness below. Her eyes pink and puffy from the tears she silently shed.

She stopped letting Alex seeing her bare because she couldn't stand the sight of herself. She was a walking corpse and she wanted his memory of her to be a good one.

Elliot stopped worrying about what her mother planned, she simply didn't care anymore. Everyday she felt her muscles weaken and she just didn't have the strength to worry about it.

All her life she wanted something normal. She just wanted love. Someone to love her and to call her theirs. But when she finally gets it, it's ripped from her. Not only is she dying but so is Alex.

Alex sees Elliot pulling away from him. He sees the way she refuses to let him touch her. The way she leaves the room the second he enters it. It hurts him. It hurts him so deeply that he feels like someone is sticking a hot knife into his heart.

Alex can't seem to understand why Elliot is distancing herself from him. He doesn't know the battle she's going through or that by her making him loathe her, it will lessen his pain.

It had been approximately 15 days since she left the hospital or half of her life gone. At first she tried to pretend she was okay but once she just couldn't pull it off anymore she hid herself away.

"Elliot please talk to me." Alex begged with pain in his voice. Elliot looked away from his sad eyes and stared at the floor. "There's nothing to talk about." She dismissed trying to make her voice sound confident.

"Please Elliot. I know what happened was ba-" Alex got cut off by the sound of her phone ringing. No one calls her unless it's emergent. Alex watched as she picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"What do you want." She deadpanned. She waited for a moment before speaking again.

"This ends. Tonight." She hung up the phone and threw it at the wall. It shattered into pieces as she crumpled to the floor in defeat. Alex quickly rushed to her side in order to console her.

Elliot was defeated. Nothing she did could reverse this. She was dying and by the looks of it, she wasn't going to live past tonight.

*

They arrived at the location Elliot had directed the taxi driver to take them too. It was a tall, high end casino.

They exited the taxi and walked inside where they were promptly ushered to an elevator.

They stood in silence and the elevator dinged with each passing floor. Alex was the first to break the tension. "You know I love you right? And whatever happens tonight won't change that." He pulled Elliot in and gave her a deep meaningful kiss which Elliot replicated. She put everything left in her into the kiss. As it may be one of the last.

The elevator doors dinged one last time before the doors slid open to reveal the roof. It was a windy and cold day. The bitterness of the wind burning Elliot's already failing skin.

Alex gripped her hand and led her to where her mother sat.

"Lilith." She turned around with a smirk plastered on her face.

"Darling. Finally time you joined us. Take a seat." When Elliot didn't take her offer Lilith groaned and stood up. "Let's get to it shall we." Alex's grip tightened and he swallowed hard.

"Alex darling, what do you have to report?" Report? Elliot thought. Promptly Alex let go of her hand and just like that a switch in his brain flipped. He changed.

"Target 9012 is strong. It poses great strength and does sufficient in all areas. It has sustained mild injuries to my knowledge as well as sufficient mental and emotional trauma. Target 9012 is unpredictable in most circumstances." Alex finished off. He made it professional almost doctoral.

"What's the final decision Alex?" Lilith said with a slight smirk. "Target 9012 poses multiple threats and cannot be trusted." He finalized. By now Elliot was shaking with rage and pain. How could he be like this after everything. "I-I don't understand?" She asked.

"Well my sweet, Alex here has and always will be loyal to me. Nothing that he has told you has been true. His mother, is actually his fiancé. Her name is Bianca. She's not being tortured. He did all of this willingly. See, he doesn't love you, he never will." Lilith finished happily. Just like that, Elliot's tiny bit of life became ever smaller.

Fate is one cruel son of a bitch.