[ELIJAH JASON COX.]

Sissy said they would play a game as soon as he brushed his hair, but he didn’t want to brush his hair. He didn’t like the feeling of the bristles on his scalp. It felt like they were little nails, or thorns scratching at his scalp. Sometimes the bristled pulled his hair, and he hated seeing his hair against the plastic of the brush. He would pull the tuft out of the bristles, holding it up to his face, frowning. Is that what happened when Edmond’s hair started falling out of his head? Did he find it tangled up in a brush? Did Edmond loose his hair because of brushing? Elijah swallowed hard, his fingers uncurling from the handle. It fell silently to the bed, and he started rocking as he shook his head.

Elijah did not want to brush his hair. He didn’t need to. His hair wasn’t knotted. Elijah pushed his fingers through his hair, and they got stuck in the tangles at the ends. He yanked hard to free his hand, and then he stared at the strands of hair that had come out. See! That was why you didn’t brush your hair!

“Aslan didn’t brush his hair,” Elijah told Sissy as he picked up the brush to examine the bristles again. The bristles reminded him of bramble bushes. Who wanted to rake a bramble bush through their hair, or over their skin? He knew what their thorns felt like, piercing through his pants. He remembered trudging through them in the backyard with Sissy when they were younger. Elijah had grabbed her by the hand, dragging her through, and then he’d got stuck. The branches pulled at his hair, his pants, his shirt, and some had even wiggled their way between his socks and shoes.

Elijah set the brush back down in front of him, and laid back on his bed. He crossed his arms over his chest, staring up at the ceiling. Sighing, he turned over on his side. The ceiling was boring. At home, when he and Sissy lived with Mommy, he’d had stars on his ceiling. You know, the kind that glowed in the dark?

Elijah’s watch started to beep.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” he started as he looked at his watch. It kept going off as he scuttled to the window where a couple of plants sat on the sill. A bottle of water sat next to the flowerpots, and he poured a little bit of it into each pot. When that was done, he turned the alarm off, and started walking around his room in a circle. He stopped for a moment, his fingers flapping lightly together as he cocked his head to the side.

“I want some digitalis purpurea,” Elijah finally said, nodding his head, “will you get me the seeds Siss--” before he could continue, there was a knock on his bedroom door.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” Elijah’s finger’s flapped together again as his door was pushed open. His gaze immediately fell to the floor as the person walked into the room. He turned his head a fraction to look at the person’s shoes. They were wearing clogs. There was only one person he knew who wore those shoes…

“Hi, Smelly.” Elijah brushed past his older sister, and sat back on the bed.

[ELLA CHRISTINE COX.]

No, Ella wasn't tired.

She'd stayed up far too late the night before, though such an irresponsible thing hadn't been done on purpose. She'd tried to find sleep early, but sleep didn't come. So she'd curled up in front of the television in her apartment, beneath the blanket she'd torn from her mattress, her hands curled around a cup of hot chocolate. It was Ella's way of comforting herself; that was what Mother would let her do on those sleepless nights as a child. Mother wasn't there to rub her back or twirl her hair around her fingers anymore, but the ritual still brought comfort. Ella didn't think about the dark circles that would form beneath her eyes before the next morning.

But Ella wasn't tired. No, she'd learned long ago that there was no room for weariness or exhastion when it came to looking after Elijah. She knew she didn't have to put forth so much effort now that they'd found Silverwater, but she wanted too. Even through her fatigue, her time with her brother was the highlight of her day. Sure, it could take a toll on her nerves after awhile. But the familial bond between them was strong, and she almost always emerged from their visits feeling lighter.

Patience was a virtue, but she didn't have to remind herself of that anymore. When Elijah spoke of Aslan, she just giggled. "No, he sure didn't," she said, matter-of-factly. "But I bet his Momma did it for him. Lions clean each other you know. Do you want me to brush your hair?" She smiled a little bit to herself, knowing full well that one of the few things Elijah disliked more than brushing his hair was having someone brush it for him.

But he didn't seem to be listening. His watch had gone off, like it regularly did, and he moved toward the windowsill where his plants sat. It was intriguing to Ella how nurturing he could be to those little plants. She was already nodding before he finished his question about seeds. Ella was prepared to assure him that she would find him any seeds he wanted, when a knock interrupted their exchange.

Ella looked up to watch the door open, a familiar face peeking through the doorway. Suddenly angry and extremely uncomfortable, Ella crossed her arms over her chest. She heard Elijah's comment, but her seething mind barely registered it. "Elly," she stated coldly, more a dismissal than a greeting.

Unlike Ella, Elly had registered Elijah's words, and she was suddenly in motion, taking a few strolling steps toward the bed, scolding words visible on her tongue. Ella took note of this, and sidestepped, nonchalantly putting herself between Elly and Elijah to avoid any such confrontation. Elly's demeanor skipped a beat, and turned mock-cheerful. "Hey Ella!" she said with sarcastic enthusiasm. Ella didn't respond.

Elly rolled her eyes and sighed, in a disgusting manner that reminded Ella of an overgrown teenager. Ella grimaced, resisting the urge to gag at her sister's shockingly evident mid-life crisis.

Elly moved slowly toward the windowsill where Elijah's plants were bathed in sunlight. "I do have a reason for being here," she said. As she spoke, she rotated one of the pots halfway, so that the flower was facing the synthetic light of the room, instead of the sun. She pushed another pot three inches forward with a single manicured finger. "If you'll hear me out, that is..."

[ELIJAH JASON COX.]

His teddy (which was named aptly, Teddy) was leaning against his pillow, and when Smelly came closer to him, Elijah picked up the bear, cradling it in his arms. He rocked back and forth, and did so faster until Ella stepped between him. He cocked his head to the side as he saw a shiny pink thing in her pocket. Slowly he reached forward, and snatched it away, and then turned over on his bed so that he was facing the wall. It was Sissy’s cell phone.

Elijah pushed open the phone, and started pushing numbers, but when none of them popped up, he frowned. The phone kept making a weird sound. It kept beeping at him.

“Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.” Elijah pushed the buttons again, and still the phone wouldn’t work the way it was supposed to. He turned back to his sister (who were talking, when did that happen?) Smelly was headed toward his window, and he looked up at the side of Sissy’s face. He reached out, and hooked his finger around her watch band, and pulled at her wrist.

“Fix it,” Elijah told her, holding the phone out to her, “I wanna play that block game that goes down fast.” Elijah was just about to pass the phone over to Sissy, when he heard the sound of a flowerpot turning on the window sill. His eyes opened wide, and he dropped the phone in the floor. He scurried over to where Smelly was.

“Mmm. No. No. They need sunlight. Need it. Need it..” He continued repeating himself as he tried pushing Smelly to the side.

“Mmm. Mmm. Mmm…” He started turning one of the flowerpots back to the sunlight, but then the other pot was being moved out of its spot too. Elijah snatched some of his hair at the back of his neck, and started yanking it. “No! No! No!” he continued, pushing his sister away from the window, “doesn’t go there. Doesn’t go there.” Elijah started moving the flower pot back to where it was supposed to be, and then he turned back to Sissy, still pulling at his hair.

“Tell Smelly not to move it. Can’t move it. It has a place.” Elijah was still pulling at his hair and rocking. He felt like his heart was drumming in his chest. She was moving things. Putting her hands on things. It made him nervous, and he wanted her to stop.

Elijah moved away from the window sill, starting to follow Smelly around his room just incase she decided to touch other things.

“I-I,” Elijah could feel Smelly’s eyes on him, and so his gaze dropped to the floor, “your shoes look dumb.” He ended up saying instead. Elijah swallowed hard, and then gave his hair another hard yank. He kept moaning as he followed Smelly around.

Why did she always make him nervous?

[ELLA CHRISTINE COX.]

Ella barely noticed that Elijah had grabbed her cell phone, and it mattered little. She was still glaring at her sister, trying to uncover what her purpose was without actually breaking down and asking. The attempt was futile; Elly's exterior was as cold, detached, and hardened as Ella's voice. It wasn't until Elijah tugged at her watch that she managed to draw her attention away from Elly's icy glare.

She'd put her phone on lock. Poor Eli didn't seem to understand. She was about to take it from him, to unlock it and maneuver it to the Tetris screen he was so obviously yearning for. But as she went to reach for it, it fell to the floor. Elijah was already moving across the room to where Elly was rearranging his beloved plants. Had Ella noticed, she would've stopped her from touching Eli's prized possessions lined up on the windowsill (especially since she knew how negatively he would react), but alas, she wasn't fast enough. Elijah had pushed Elly away from the windowsill, and she fell backwards a few steps before steadying herself with a single hand on Elijah's bookshelf.

There was fire in Elly's eyes as she glared not at Elijah, but at Ella. "We knew you couldn't keep control of him," she said, her voice icy. She suddenly seemed very preoccupied with her manicured fingers. "Edmond and Emily took bets, even, on what you would do when you realized you couldn't handle it. Eddy thought you'd come crawling back home, and Emma said you'd check him into an institution. Neither of them guessed you'd check yourself in, too." Elly found this very funny; a dark, cruel laugh escaped her lips, echoing off the wall and meeting Ella's bitter ears.

Ella's eyes flitted between Elly's smartass smirk and the uneasy Elijah, and she found it harder still to withhold the anger that was welling up within. "Why are you here, Elly?" she said, flatly. "Spit it out, or get out."

Elly looked quietly entertained by the hostility in Ella's voice. Delaying a reply, Elly turned around to face the bookshelf she'd been leaning on. She squatted, looking at all the books on the shelf. Ella knew what was there without even squinting; a few advanced works on botany and the like, and the ever-present Chronicles of Narnia series, along with a few other children's books. Elly removed the copy of Prince Caspian from its place on the shelf, and thumbed through the old pages. "I haven't read this in ages," she said, and then placed it gracefully on top of the bookshelf itself, rather than the place she'd removed it from.

Elly was aware of Elijah's lingering presence. Ella knew this, because her mouth was turned up in a mischievous smirk, and she kept glancing at him out the corner of her eye as she dragged her acrylic nails over almost anything she could touch. There was a pile of board games in the corner, and she thumbed through those, too. She pulled one of them from the bottom, looked it over, and placed it on top of the stack, sideways. After she'd moved around the room, she plopped down on Elijah's bed, grabbing Teddy. She propped the bear at Ella, smiling wickedly. "How cute," she said.

She left the bear lying on its side at the foot of the bed, and she stood, moving a few paces closer to Ella. But Ella wasn't paying attention to Elly anymore. She was gazing at the little things she'd left out of their place, little things that were so much larger on Elijah's scale...

[ELIJAH JASON COX.]

He tried to snatch his book, Prince Caspian away from Smelly, but he was too slow. She put it onto of the bookshelf, and he rushed over, pulling it back down. Elijah thumbed through the pages, making sure they were all okay, and then stared looking at his books. He started moving some of the books over, to slide Prince Caspian back into its place, but Smelly was onto messing with his board games.

“Mmm. Mmm. Stop. Elijah doesn’t like it. Stop.”Elijah kept repeating himself as he scurried over to where Smelly was. She set the game down, and Elijah stood there, staring at the game on the top, and sideways. That was not how it was supposed to go. That was not its place. That board game was his least favourite, so it went on the bottom, but Smelly had moved it to the top like it was the best one he had. It wasn’t! He didn’t like it there. Couldn’t she see he didn’t like it there?

“Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.” Elijah was pulling his hair again, but he was starting to do it continually harder. His mind was reeling, and he just couldn’t take the step forward to put the game back where it was supposed to go. Elijah rocked back and forth, and slowly he turned to where both of his sisters were on the bed.

It seemed like it happened in slow motion. He watched as Smelly’s hand reached for teddy. He watched her hands squeeze into the fur, and the noises he was making were getting louder. Elijah could feel his knees buckle as he fell to the floor. His eyes were glued to the teddy that Smelly was touching. He pulled at his hair still, and when he started rocking, he went back too far every time, and smacked the back of his head against the wall.

Elijah couldn’t even feel the pain working its way through his body. He couldn’t control the loud sounds coming out of him, and finally he couldn’t stop thinking about how the plants had been moved, the book, the board game, and how teddy was being squeezed.

Teddy was discarded, but Elijah couldn’t stop rocking, and hitting his head against the wall. Teddy wasn’t in his place either. And the board game. And Teddy.

Elijah couldn’t hear what Smelly was saying. It didn’t matter what she was saying. Teddy was laying on his side. That’s what mattered. Teddy didn’t go there, and yet, every time he opened his mouth to say so, only noises came out.

Elijah wanted someone to put everything back, be he didn’t know if even that would calm him down…

[ELLA CHRISTINE COX.]

Ella was stunned for more than a few moments, her gaze flitting frantically between Elijah, who was on the verge of a full-on meltdown---one Ella wasn't entirely wure she'd be able to keep in check---and Elly, who was leaning against the opposite wall with a malicious smirk pulling up one side of her mouth. Ella wanted to throw herself at the self-assured, glamorous prick, her fists flying and colliding with her sister's smug form. Elly was built slightly larger than the petite Ella, though not by much. Size wouldn't stop Ella, though, because she'd have the element of surprise on her side. Elly wouldn't see it coming.

Neither would Ella herself, for that matter. Even the urge caught her by surprise, and she forced herself to hurriedly swallow it back when she realized exactly how terribly angry her thoughts had become. Violence wouldn't solve anything; what was she thinking? Ella wasn't normally a violent person. Usually, even the thought of physical confrontation made Ella's stomach churn uneasily. But some sort of protective instinct came over her when she saw how cruelly their sister was treating Elijah. That didn't withhold the disgust she felt toward herself for picturing such an image to begin with.

But the disgust woke her from her stunned trance, and the gushing reality of Elijah's current mental state hit her with full force. She took a few steps over to the games in the corner, where she slid the topmost off the pile and stuck it back where she was almost sure it had come from. She then moved swiftly to the bed, where she propped Teddy back into place by the pillow. And then she was kneeling next to Elijah's rocking form, slipping her hand between the wall and his head, cradling his skull from the impact. She shushed him gently, trying to calm him back into a more peaceful state. She broke this ritual for only a moment, to shoot a pointed glance at Elly, and growl a threatening "Get out."

"Are you sure you don't want to hear me out?" Elly said, her voice so sweet it was sickening. "Surely I wouldn't come visit this loony bin here without some sort of important reason."

Ella wanted to beat the smirk off her face. Instead, she just glared at her again. "Goodbye, Elly," she said in the same low, dismissive tone.

Elly shrugged, getting pure pleasure out of the exchange. Her voice was filled with mock disappointment, though she made no movement toward the door. "Well, that's unfortunate. I guess Eddy and Emma were right again. They said you wouldn't care about Momma long enough to listen. And here I thought I was doing you a favor..."

Ella gnawed at the inside of her bottom lip, feeling somewhat defeated. She worried about her mother everyday, about her condition and how much worse it had gotten. And even Elly knew how bad Ella felt about taking Elijah and moving away. But it was something that had to be done. Apparently Emily and Edmond still didn't understand her reasoning. "You have two minutes," Ella spat. "Spill it."

Elly sighed dramatically, as if Ella's words caused some sort of exaggerated distress. But her smug playfulness was suddenly gone, replaced with dejection. "She's worse." A humorless laugh broke through her anguish, mocking the irony. "Obviously. A month, the doctors say. I didn't know if...you, or him...wanted to see her before...well, you know." Elly looked suddenly vulnerable, and Ella thought she saw the twinkle of tears in her eyes. She held them back well, despite the intense emotion in her voice. "But some days, me or Em will sit with her for hours on end. An hour after we leave, Edmond will stop by to see her---after work, you know. He's always busy---and she'll tell him how lonely she was all day without anyone around. I know you think I'm heartless, Ella. But believe it or not, it hurts me when she says things like that."

There was a long, painful silence. "Time's up," Ella said finally, still kneeling next to Elijah. But Elly had already been moving toward the door.