Chapter Text
ELIJAH
You know… looking back on it, I can understand why Sydney would have hated me. I still fully believe that what I did would have made his life a lot easier, and he would be much happier with me than that rotten architect, but I do get obsessive over small things, and a majority of normal people do not like that.
However, what I don’t understand is why Jedidiah—that architect of all people—would be the one to save me. At least, that’s what he told me after I woke up in the Here & There infirmary. Do I believe him entirely? No. He wouldn’t do that on his own. I believe if it was him who brought me here then it would be solely for the goo-goo eyes of Sydney Sargent. And I told him this. He just grunted and sputtered some insults. I think he knew I was right.
It’d been maybe an hour since I’d woken up. My cloak was gone, as well as my mask. I found myself laying only in the itchy comfort of my baby blue hospital scrubs… my under-garment, I liked to call it. My eyes stung each time I closed them, and I could hear my skin shifting like rubber every time I blinked. My hair was matted with twigs and dirt, per usual, but I felt the urge to pluck them out for modesty reasons.
That’s when… he walked in.
His curly hair sat against the middle of his back. His face was pale and discolored but only slightly, and his green eyes hung heavy with exhaustion. The panaelous foenisecii and poplar leaves in his hair made up for its messiness. It almost, in a way, matched mine. Although I felt another need to make it neater for him anyway. He had bandages along his arms and some on his legs, as well as a couple small marks on his face that would take a few more hours to heal.
He looked up at me with those life-filled lifeless eyes, and I felt myself melt. He quickly squeezed them shut and turned his head to the wall next to me instead. It was common for him to pass out just from looking at me, and it was clear he didn’t like that.
“It was my idea,” Sydney practically whispered after a long pause.
“I know,” I replied. “There isn’t a chance the architect would come up with a stunt like this on his own.”
“You’d be surprised how opposed he was about it. How much convincing it took him. How many hours I watched you lay there.” I watched him move around the infirmary and situate objects he carried in his arms that I hadn’t noticed were there before. “How badly I wanted to cry.”
I clicked my tongue and frowned. “Oh… Sydney.”
“I’m still mad at you,” he spat. “I will never stop being mad at you. Don’t act like we’re suddenly friends or something more just because I didn’t want you to die out there, alone.” I heard him scoff, and watched as he ran his hand over his face. He wanted to look at me. But we both knew he couldn’t. “What kind of nurse would I be if I just let someone die in front of me?”
He’d be a good one. Sometimes letting someone die to save yourself is the better option. But I didn’t say that out loud, half because I didn’t believe it, because I know what I did was for Sydney’s own good. But he just refused to see that. Instead I just hummed and turned to look at the ceiling above me. I followed one of the blades of the fan with my eyes.
I heard him step closer and felt him sit at the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
Oh, what I would’ve given to kiss him right there. “Tired, injured, sore,” I said. “Can you look at me?”
He almost laughed. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew he was scowling. “No.” He stood up and began walking away from the bed.
Without thinking I felt myself lunge forward, ignoring the pain that bit at me as I did, and grabbed his wrist. “Please, my muse. I need—”
He ripped away from me immediately and finally made eye contact that lasted more than a second. He threw his hand against his chest and shouted, “I’m not your boyfriend, Elijah! You tried to murder me! Jedidiah had to… the kids, they…” his knees suddenly gave out and I turned my head away reluctantly. He was still conscious, but he was weak.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Shut… the fuck up,” he coughed through deep breaths.
The door opened again. The architect. Of course it was. He noticed Sydney shaking and attempting to regain his footing and ran over to help him.
“Sydney!” He swung Sydney’s arm over his shoulder and lifted him up. “I told you not to come in here on your own.” His gaze suddenly turned to me, and I bore my teeth. “What did you do to him?” he demanded.
My arms folded and I sat back against the cold pillow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I could almost hear Jedidiah’s blood curdle. He bit down against his teeth and almost screamed at me, but Sydney reached up to his chest and rubbed it, a gentle sign letting him know ‘it’s okay’. And Jedidiah obeyed, like the dog he was. Witnessing this made me want to hurl.
“I looked at him first,” Sydney reassured. “Heat of the moment. It was my fault, don’t yell at him.”
“Sydney”—Jedidiah guided Sydney’s chin so they were making eye-contact—“he tried to kill you just a day ago!”
“It doesn’t matter now. He’s weak. Considering how I was still conscious, albeit very dazed, after staring at his face for a few seconds, his powers have gotten notably weaker, too.” Sydney glanced in my direction as he said this. I hadn’t noticed that my eyes had gone wide and my lips were slightly parted as if I was planning on saying something but staying quiet.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to keep him here?” asked Jedidiah, breaking my focus on the muse.
Sydney laughed bitterly. “Absolutely not. And we’ll figure out what to do with him later. But for now, just find a way to cover his face and keep him as far away as possible from any campers who need treatment.”
Jedidiah stared at me for a few more seconds. I hated how the two of them spoke to me as if I wasn’t there, or more like I was there but I was just a thing; some object they were figuring out places on the shelf it would look best to never be touched again. I guess I was thinking all of this through my expressions because Jedidiah looked a little intimidated by my unintentional sneer in his direction.
“Go do the evening announcements, Sydney. I’ll take care of it from here.”
Sydney nodded at his new perfect boyfriend and left the room again. It felt infinitely empty without his presence. I turned my head to see Jedidiah reaching into a cabinet and pulling out a wrap of some kind. Some bandages.
“I’m going to put these around your eyes,” Jedidiah said. “I want to see if it… makes it easier to look at you, somehow.”
Something between a scoff and a laugh came from me as I smacked the architect’s hand away the moment he reached closer. “In your wildest dreams! You don’t get to touch me, let alone control what I put on my sacred body!”
Jedidiah, already visibly annoyed, sighed through his nose long enough to let me know he wasn’t here for my games. I wasn’t here for his, either, whatever they may be. “You are so lucky Sydney’s as kind as he is,” he started. “If it were up to me, you’d be crucified, probably set on fire too if I was having a good day.”
“Is that a threat, Martin?” I asked sotto voce and leaned closer. “My power is shortened but not limited. I can still bury this camp if I want to.”
The architect shuddered and another annoyed expression came to his face. “You’re the most fucked up person I’ve ever met! Just…” He looked down at the bandages in his hands. “…You care so much about Sydney? Do this for him. You affect him the most and you’re literally staying in his house, so be courteous and cover your eyes at least.”
I folded my arms. I knew what he was doing, trying to bait me into doing what he wanted through Sydney. Jedidiah just loved manipulating anything that was dumb enough to listen. But then again, I thought about it, and he was right. Sydney wouldn’t be able to properly do his job if my face was uncovered and in front of him all the time. So I caved.
“Well where’s my mask?” I asked.
“I’m… assuming it got destroyed somewhere in the woods when you fled the scene and passed out. Sydney and I don’t know where it actually went. It wasn’t beside your body.”
“Strange,” I remarked, and Jedidiah made an atonal hum of agreement. “Fine. I’ll use the tape, until I get a substitute for my mask.” The architect reached over to place it over me but I grabbed his wrist and pushed it away. “Ah ah ah, not so fast! I put it on. You don’t get to touch me.”
He stumbled slightly as I pushed him back and grabbed the bandage tape from his hands. I felt the stickiness of the one side and could think only one thing: This was going to hurt like hell coming off. No matter, I shook the thought away. My eyes caught the scene of the infirmary one last time before I began to wrap my head in the adhesive, and the world went dark. Well, mostly dark. It was surprisingly easy to open my eyes and see through the tape as I didn’t make it too tight and didn’t layer it one above the other, only a few rows of one layer that connected at the back. I could feel it against my eyelashes which made me grimace in discomfort but it was better than being stone-cold blind.
Don’t get me wrong, it was extremely hard to see; everything was reduced to simple foggy shapes and messy figures discolored by the brown of the bandage, but when I could see the close and underwhelming figure of Jedidiah Martin staring at me when I turned my head, I knew that I could definitely see enough.
“All better?” I asked, looking down at my hands that I kept opening and closing in an attempt to prove to myself they were detailed enough for my satisfaction. They were not, by the way.
“That depends,” I heard him answer as he stood up straight and put a hand over his lips. “Let’s test it. Stay here, I’ll get Yvonne and Joshua.” He turned his heel and began out the door, presumably towards Cabin Silkworm.
I raised my hand before he could exit fully. Even though I was mad that my plan had failed, everything I tried, everything I’d earned, everything I knew would work if it weren’t for the architect who was always just two steps ahead of me, metaphorically and literally. “Jedidiah,” I projected.
He turned. “Hm?”
“Um… thank you. And tell Sydney I said that, too.”
It damaged every fiber of my dignity to say that, so by the gods he’d better be grateful for it. He ended up raising his head a little and fixing his glasses. I couldn’t tell what his expression was through the tape.
“Sure, I guess.” He mumbled the last bit but I still caught it. And he finally left me alone behind a closed door.
The fluorescent hum of the light above my head was the only thing left filling my ears. It was unbearable. I swung my hands over my face and shouted, “Fuck!” as loud as I could manage without causing a disturbance. What the hell had I gotten myself into? Why did Sydney even want to save me? Why couldn’t I have just wound up dead instead?
So many questions, so little answers. I shifted myself and heard the creak of the wooden bed. I’d love to have Jedidiah dead in front of me, taking my place in this bed, and Sydney getting with me and realizing that Jeddie had wronged him for so long and I was what true, genuine, raw love really was and he would never look back. We could finally complete the ritual together and he’d look at me before falling unconscious and tell me that he loves me, and I’d say it back.
Or something like that, I’m not sure. I fell asleep before I could finish that thought.