kindred

Chapter 14 - Monsters in the dark

Elijah slid into the leather seats of a car and tried to put her down next to him, but she could't bear to let him go. He quickly realised and strapped the seatbelt around the both of them before commanding the driver to take them home. 

Addie remained silent throughout the quick drive home and when James ran up to her the second they were in the house and wrapped his arm's around her still clinging to Elijah. She only made an ounce of noise when he tried to leave her in the bathroom. 

"You're chilled to the bone Addie, you need to get warm." He reasoned with her. He tried to let her go but she clung to his neck. 

"Don't leave." 

"I'm not going anywhere Addie. I promise. But you need to shower." Addie knew she was being manipulative but she allowed tears to build up in her eyes and widened them as much as she could. Combined with a cute pout and a bat of her eyelashes she knew she could wrap him around her pinky. 

"Stay" He sighed and began to run the bath, filling it with bubbles. When it was almost overflowing he turned to her. He left the room and went into her closet, Addie following all of his footsteps before he pulled out a swimsuit and passed it to her before he led her back to the bathroom. 

"I'll leave just until you get changed." She nodded and allowed him to leave before stripping from her soggy clothes into the swimsuit and climbed into the bath. Her head hurt from all the crying she had done and her nose was still running. 

"Done" Elijah walked back into the bathroom and smiled at his sister. 

"Lijah" She spoke from the bath, she had been swilling the 

"Hmm"

"Your gun" 

"It wasn't real Addie." She sighed, hating that he was still lying to her. But ignored him all the same. 

"I understand why you had your gun. To protect yourself from people like them" She finished, Elijah remained silent in thought. He moved only to sit down next to the footed bath. 

"It shouldn't have happened Addie." His voice cracked. "I never should have let it happen" 

"It's not your fault Lijah" She tried to comfort him, running her hand through his hair like so many of the boys did to her. It looked rather comical. A tiny child in a bath running her hands through her six foot six brother's hair whilst his jaw began to slowly unclench. 

Addie was swaddled in a huge towel once she warmed up. A pair of pyjama shorts and top were handed to her as she pulled them on before pulling a pair of fuzzy socks on.

Her body let out a little tremble, more from recalling the event's than coldness. But instantly Elijah pulled his own sweatshirt off and onto her, drowning her like a never-ending ocean. 

Her head poked out from the large piece of material as a small frown etched onto her face. 

"What's going on in that pretty little head?" A finger poked at her cheek, trying to turn it into a smile. 

"Tommy murdered two men."

"I know. But he had too, otherwise they could have killed all three of you."

"I know." She sighed falling into his embrace again. 

He squished her into his side, it was then that she knew that she too would do anything for her brother's. It made her sick too think about but she knew she too would have probably turned the trigger on the men if it meant saving her brother. 

She realised for the first time that she loved every one of them. Every single fucking one of them.

"Do you wanna go downstairs?"