The Rules They Broke

Chapter 41: Three Confessions

[Warning: mentions of suicide and depression. please take care of yourselves <3]

ELIJAH

There were no windows in the room they were being kept in. No way to tell the passage of time beyond the number of times they were unchained to go to the bathroom or have a drink of water.

There was a single lightbulb in the corner of the room that slightly illuminated the dank room, but other than that, there was nothing.

Elijah shifted on the balls of his feet again, trying to get in a position that was less painful on the wrists.

The handcuffs they had on were hooked onto metal hooks from the ceiling, holding their arms above their heads, their feet barely touching the ground. They were chained up in a row, with Blake closest to the lightbulb and Elijah in between him and Logan.

Blake was the shortest out of the three brothers. His feet barely scraped the ground. Elijah could see the raw red markings on his little brother's wrists growing darker and deeper by the hour.

"Blake?" he hissed when he saw his chin start to turn downwards towards his chest. "Blake, wake up!"

"Just shut up, Elijah," Logan groaned. "Just give it a rest."

Panic built up in Elijah's chest. He ignored Logan. "Blake!" he hissed again.

"Huh?" Blake jerked upwards on his toes and swung around to face him, his eyes hazy. He blinked twice. "Yeah, I'm...yeah. Fine."

Elijah looked around at the moldy concrete walls around them. "Definitely all fine," he muttered. "Logan, are you okay?"

"Will you quit fucking asking me if I'm okay? Do we look fucking okay to you?"

Logan did not look okay. His lips were whitish and the bags under his eyes were almost as dark as his eyes.

"I'll get us out of this," Elijah insisted.

Logan let out a dry laugh. "Elijah, I know you think your job is to fix everything, but this is one thing you can't fix." He sighed. "And that's okay."

Elijah adjusted the handcuffs again and stayed silent. He wasn't really seeing how they were getting out of this either.

This was what Olivia had been terrified of since the first day she stepped foot in his house. This was what she had fought so hard to save them from.

In the end, it was all for nothing.

He hoped they hadn't gotten her. He hoped she had started running and hadn't looked back. He hoped that at least one of them would get out of this to tell people what really happened.

"Well," Blake said in a forcefully upbeat voice, as if he could hear Elijah's dark thoughts. "Since we're all tied up like this, Elijah, I have to confess something."

Elijah sighed and twisted to face him. "What, Blake?"

Blake grinned, his teeth flashing in the darkness. Elijah's heart ached for his little brother who in any situation and despite everything always thought to smile.

"Remember that party after the football game you told me not to drink a drop at, and I came home and you thought I did?"

Just a day ago, Elijah would've sighed and groaned, but now he found himself smiling every so slightly. "You did, didn't you?

Blake rocked back and forth on his tiptoes. "Well, I did. But I only drank half a cup. Harley really did drop a whole cup on my jeans."

"I don't know whether I should be mad or glad."