ELLISON
While I’m well aware I just declared that I was going to explain it all, I find myself simply staring at them some more.
“Do… you want to talk about it in a different way? Like fewer of us here?” Landon suggests after about three minutes of staring me in the eyes.
“What if we went down and got something to eat for everyone from the cafeteria?” Nolan asks. “Deus, why don’t you stay here; you shouldn’t stress your wound.”
“Oh, I’m fine, I can go. Don’t underestimate me,” he says.
Nolan raises an eyebrow. “How about you stay anyway? Just for fun.”
Asmodeus finally seems to get what he’s saying and finger guns him as the others, including Valerie, leave the room.
“Am I supposed to stare at you now or something?” I mumble.
“You can stare at me if it makes you feel better,” he says as he pops open the first button of his shirt.
My eyebrow lifts a bit, and I’m confused until he pops open the second button. I shake my head. “No.”
“No? I was giving you something better to stare at.”
“Before I know it, you’ll be naked, and they’ll walk in and think I’m a pervert.”
“Don’t see the issue when I can go…” And he immediately turns invisible.
I smile and slump in my seat as he turns visible again. Asmodeus comes around the table and kneels next to me.
“I know you want to run away, but weren’t you there for me the whole time I went through my shit? Did you ever point fingers or blame me for any of it?”
“Of course I wouldn’t,” I say. “But it’s different.”
He lays his head on my lap and closes his eyes. “Are we not both here for the person we care about?”
I want to touch him. I ache to run my fingers through his hair, but I force myself to keep my hand away. “It’s still different.”
“The only difference I see is that I have more Ellisons to hold me at night.”
Only Asmodeus would be perfectly fine with this… even looking forward to it. “No, that’s not where this is going.”
“How do they work?”
I set my hand on his back and decide that I owe him this much. “It depends. Some of them are like extensions of myself. I can control them, I can tell them what to do or even make them do it, but in some ways, they have a personality of their own. It’s hard to explain. I was… thoroughly examined as a child and was told that while they may exhibit a different personality than I do, they are a part of me because I can recall what they do, tell them what to do, and I always have a mental connection to them… all besides him, that is.”
“The one who stabbed me.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t see what he does?”
“Not anymore. But I can feel him sometimes. I can feel the rage, the anger, the hatred.”
“Hmm… I know a bit about handling that,” Asmodeus says as he wraps his arms around my waist. “Do they have names?”
“Some.”
“What about the one who stabbed me? We can name him Stabby.”
And then I can’t stop myself any longer. My hand reaches out to his head and my fingers slowly trail through his hair. I close my eyes, as simply touching him puts me at ease, but before I can say anything else, the others have already returned and I notice that this time, Lex is with them. I really don’t need another person to witness my failure, but I suppose it’s best for them to all know at once.
