✓ Chaos Theory | Diego Hargreeves [1]

【CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR】

—chapter twenty-four.

  ❛ wednesdays always suck. ❜  

ELODIE VERBECK USED TO DESPISE THE RAIN.

Rain had always brought sour, bitter memories with it. Elodie always used to find herself stuck in it cold and soaked through with only the thinnest of jackets to keep her alive. It would be long walks back from even longer shifts and she used to make it home with tears in her eyes and a thousand sneezes building in her nose, ready to ruin the few miserable hours she had to herself. Of course, back then, she used to be very different. It wasn't so easy to run and she didn't have quite so much hope for what came after the rain. The storms never seemed to end, when she was a younger woman.

But times changed and she learned that the rain could clear. Or, at the very least, when the downpour was loud and refused to settle, she learned how to solve the problems that came with that in seconds. Being one's own walking blowdryer might not seem glamorous, and honestly she wasn't proud of how she utilized her abilities, but it at least kept her warm. And she was content with being lame, if it meant being useful and somewhat confident in what she was doing.

Elodie hurried up the shallow steps to her home. She fumbled with her keys for a second, shuffling from foot to foot as her clothes and body steamed. A few moments later and the young woman was dry as she had been when she first left, and swinging open her mahogany door to meet a softly lit foyer.

"You're a wonder, Miss Elodie," she grinned to herself. She dropped the keys into their allotted dish and caught her own smile in the hanging mirror; for a moment, she let herself admire the girl reflected back to her. "A whole freakin' wonder. Tired, but..."

Her hands lifted to pull her loose hair back. The curls fought back angrily, but the elastic held their tickling fingers back enough to give some relief. She nodded at herself in the mirror, watching the other girl give a thumbs up back, before turning to head into the kitchen.

"Ellie?"

Silence.

"Ellis? Where you at?"

The only sound back was the creaking floorboards under her socked feat. For a moment, Elodie began to consider the worst. She raced through the rooms, heart thudding angrily until she fell to a full stop in the tiny dining room's doorway, staring at the sight in front of her.

Elodie always reminded her brother that he could play his music out loud, especially when she wasn't there. She never knew why he preferred the tinny earbuds sound over sharing the sound with the entire room -- and it always meant he couldn't hear her calls and left her petrified that he was gone. But despite her protests and insistence, Ellis preferred his music pressed to his ears alone, serving as a peaceful friend as he poured over his work. It was like he didn't have the same fears she clutched so tight, scared of any little sound or sight. Like he could actually let go.