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“Don’t you see?! You’re the problem, and that’s all you will be!”
“Kord!”
“No, Trixie! It’s all his fault! Tell them, Eli! Tell them your lies!”
Three sets of eyes turned to him; one black from Kord, one green from Trixie, and one brown from Pronto.
“Is it true?” Trixie asked, her tone just above a murmur. “Have you been lying this whole time?”
Large tears fell down Eli’s cheeks making his vision blurry.
“I couldn’t tell you,” the boy spoke, his voice watery.
“But you lied!” Kord yelled. “You deliberately lied to us!”
“I… I know.”
“And you just stand there, acting like everything was okay!”
Finally, Eli cracked, sobs overtaking him.
“I-I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything!” Eli gasped.
“Why?” Kord ordered.
“I can’t—”
“Why can’t you tell us?”
“I don’t—”
“Why won’t you tell us?”
“Because it’s a Shane secret! One that can very well get you all killed!”
Silence other than breathing. Tears were freely flowing down Eli’s face as well as Trixie’s and Pronto’s. Soft cries left the boy’s lips.
“I never meant to make it such a mess,” he whimpered.
“No, but you did,” the cave troll spat.
“I never thought it would go this far.”
“But it did.”
“You don’t even know what is at stake here!”
“It doesn’t warrant you not telling us!”
Eli turned away, his throat tight enough from tears that he almost couldn’t talk anymore.
“I’ll leave,” he rasped out, “since you don’t want me here.”
He heard gasps from both Trixie and Pronto.
“But this is your hideout!” Trixie argued tearfully.
“And you can’t leave Pronto behind!” the molenoid added.
“If it’ll make Kord happy, then I will,” Eli countered. “You don’t understand the consequences of me telling you about the Surface. You will never understand what it’s like. Ever .”
And with that, he walked out the door.
Eli gasped as he awoke from the nightmare he was in, his chest heaving up and down with sobs. He tried to ignore the way his chest tightened the more he thought about it. Finally, the fifteen-year-old wiped his eyes and blew his nose before creeping downstairs to grab a drink from the kitchen. There, he saw Pronto standing there.
“You okay?” he asked.
“O-oh,” Eli’s voice cracked, but he cleared his throat before continuing, “yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
“It’s just that Pronto knows you went to bed, and now you’re here in the kitchen with Pronto.”
“Don’t worry about it, Prono. I just woke up and—”
“Were you crying?”
That made the boy freeze.
“Wha—no, I wasn’t.”
“Well, if you need Pronto to talk to you, just tell Pronto when and where.”
“Thanks, but for now, I think I just want to get a drink and go back to bed.”
“Ah yes, of course. Good night, my friend.”
“You too, Pronto.”
Once the boy was in the safety of his bedroom, he tried not to cry again. He hated lying to his friends, but what choice did he have? Closing his eyes, he decided that it was a topic he’d cover later. Preferably once he was well-rested and not on the verge of another mental breakdown.