Eli!!!, – why isn’t my toilet washed and why are you still holding that damn key. Selva asked, walking into the kitchen and snatching the key from his hands.
“Didn’t you play when you were little?” Now you are actually acting dramas and creating scenarios in your head?”
“I am so sorry, the toilet totally slipped my mind, – I just thought you would be hungry, so I decided to prepare lunch now. I also wanted Elara to have something to eat when she gets home, – please can I have the key back.” Eli responded, dropping the bowl he had just sieved down, stretching his hands to retrieve his key from Selva’s hands.
“Don’t you dare touch me with those filthy hands, and I need you to stay 5 meters away from me. – Hope you watched those hands properly before thinking of touching our meal. Selva spoke, taking further steps away from Eli.
“That key really shouldn’t be in your hands, Mrs Morreau.” Eli said, his voice cold making Selva to flinch in fear involuntarily. “It’s too disgusting, and a proper lady shouldn’t be holding on to garbage like that. When I am done here, I will dispose of the key properly, away from your lovely eyes.” Eli continued, his tone going back to its usual submissive and obedient self.
“Yes, Yes, you are definitely right, — for once, I can agree with you on something.” Selva responded, her normal cocky and arrogant face shining as she threw the key on the ground.
“Hope you don’t mind that I threw it on the ground, but you should know your dirty self, shouldn’t come close to my esteemed self.” Selva added.
“Too bad your daughter loves coming in contact with me.” Eli muttered under his breath as he went down on his knees to pick the key Selva had just thrown.
Selva stared smugly at Eli’s bent head, when she heard the words Eli had spoken.
“What did you say?”
Eli froze, not daring to repeat what he had just said, it hadn’t been his intention for Selva to hear him, so when she had asked him to repeat his statement ,he froze, thinking of a lie he could come up with that would pacify her. He knew if he were to repeat what he had said, Selva would find something to complain about to Elara, and that was going to break Elara’s heart, something he didn’t want to see happening.
“I thought so, I knew there was no way in your right senses, you would be able to talk to me from below. Selva spoke, pleased that Eli did not have the courage to repeat his words.
Seeing no further way to bully Eli, she stomped her feet and left the kitchen in anger, not forgetting to remind him about the toilet he still had to wash.
Eli stared at Selva’s retreating figure, breathing out in relief, he brought out the key he had placed in his pocket, hoping and wishing that it would lead it out of this miserable life as he stared at it, but he immediately moved the thought out of his mind, who was he kidding, he had been poor and an orphan for the most part of his life, why did he think a key and a letter was going to suddenly change his life.
“Where are you going?” Selva turned her head from the series she was watching to face Eli that was about stepping out the house.
“Going to look for some manual jobs, I can take on. I don’t feel comfortable sitting around while Elara isn’t around.” Eli, responded, saying half the truth, he really didn’t want to be home doing nothing while Elara was probably out, discussing business ideas with her grandma, but he wasn’t going to look for manual jobs, he was planning to go to his fosters homes and see if he could find any information about the key that sat in his pocket. He had tried it on all his belongings that he had brought with him, also on the household materials and appliances while Selva hadn’t been paying attention, but it didn’t seem to fit.
“Are you done with the meal you were to prepare?” Selva asked, not willing to let Eli out of her sight.
“Yes Selva.” Eli responded, already unbolting the door.
“Did you remember to wash my toilet?” Selva asked again, turning her attention back to her Tv.
“Yes,--- I would be back late incase Elara asks for me when she comes home.” Eli responded, leaving immediately before Selva could think of more tasks to give him.
Eli’s first stop was the home he had been moved to in his teenage years, but after thorough search and hostile reception from his foster parents and siblings, he decided to leave.
Not having much hope, he decides to pay the parents he thought were his birth parents all his life of growing up, till he had turned sixteen a visit.
“Eli!!!. – we didn’t think we would see you again.” Evelyn Hart, Eli’s foster Mom, squealed from the doorway as she stared at Eli, trying hard to conceal her shock as she stared at the son she thought she had lost forever.
“Come in, – come in.” “Why are you breathing so much?” Evelyn asked, ushering Eli in.
Eli had also answered the surname Hart, till he found out that Evelyn and Franklin Hart were not his real parents, so he had decided to stick with his own surname, not after some interrogations from him.
“Where have you been , where did you run off to?, – don’t you know you made mommy worry” Evelyn inquired, looking at Eli as she checked his body for injuries.
“I couldn’t accept the fact that I was an orphan, so I had gone in search for my real parents, somehow I ended up in an orphanage, and I got adopted again, I am sorry for making you worry, but I just couldn’t gather enough courage to face you people after I had run away and I thought it would be best if I didn’t come back.” Eli replied, looking at the one woman that hadn’t treated him cruelly as tears pulled in his eyes.
“Eli…, you would always be my son, and this home is always open to you, – your father isn’t home now, but I am certain he would be excited to see you again.” Evelyn responded, pulling him in for a hug, she didn’t question why he had shown up today after all these years, she was merely happy to see him.
“Would you mind if I stayed for a while?” Eli asked, stepping fully into the house, the floorboard squeaking under his feet. His mind raced as he thought of how he would tell his Mom that he was married and that he was here because of a key he had picked on the road.
Latest Chapter
One hundred and fourteen
Chaos had a sound.Not one sound.Many.Layered over each other until they became something almost unrecognizable.Sirens screamed through the night outside the hotel, sharp enough to cut through the smoke pouring from the shattered floors above. Helicopter blades churned overhead, heavy and relentless, the noise vibrating through the streets below as flashing lights painted the wet pavement in streaks of red and blue.People flooded out of the hotel entrance in waves.Some crying.Some barefoot.Some too stunned to even react properly as police officers pushed them farther back behind barricades, voices raised over the panic.“Keep moving!”“Stay calm!”“Ma’am, this way please—”“Sir, step back!”The smell of smoke lingered thick in the air.Burned fabric.Gunpowder.Concrete dust.Eli stood near one of the emergency vehicles, untouched by the movement around him.He looked still. Too still. Almost like he was one with the background.The cold had settled into his eyes completely now
Two hundred and thirteen
The silence settle slowly, heavy, lingering, refusing to be lifted.Eli stood there for a moment longer, staring at her like the answer might rearrange itself if he just… waited long enough.It didn’t.Something in him gave way instead.It wasn't loud. Nor was it visible. Just enough.He exhaled. Then turned.The movement felt slower than it should have, like his body was moving through something thicker than air as he crossed the space and dropped onto the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight, grounding in a way nothing else had been able to.His hands came together loosely, elbows resting on his knees as his head dipped slightly.And for the first time since he walked into the room—He looked… tired.Not physically.Something deeper.Like the fight had been burning for too long without pause.And now—It was slipping.His breath left him in a quiet sigh.Then he leaned back slightly, turning his head just enough to look at her.His eyes—They weren’t cold anymore.
Two hundred and twelve
The jet cut through the night like it had somewhere urgent to be.Or maybe that was just him.Eli didn’t look out the window when they took off. Not when the city lights stretched into thin lines beneath them, not when the ground gave way to cloud, not when the world below became something distant and irrelevant.He sat back instead.Still.One hand resting against the armrest, the other loosely curled in his lap, fingers occasionally tightening without him realizing it. His gaze stayed forward, fixed on nothing in particular, like if he focused hard enough on the absence of thought, everything else would stay contained.It didn’t.Selene’s face kept resurfacing.Not the one he knew. Not the one he had trusted, that had been so clear and branded in his mind.This one was unclear, broken into tiny fragments.The tilt of her head.The way her shoulders moved when she spoke.That moment—when she turned.And looked exactly like herself.His jaw shifted slightly.No.That wasn’t enough.It
Two hundred and eleven
…Time to face reality.”The words didn’t sit right with him.They felt… premature.Like something he said just to avoid thinking too hard about what came next.Eli stood there for a moment longer than necessary, the chip resting between his fingers, turning it once, then again, his gaze fixed on nothing in particular as Elara’s laughter—faint, distant—still echoed somewhere at the back of his mind. It didn’t belong here. Not in this space. Not in this silence.His jaw tightened slightly.Then he moved.The laptop slid open with a soft click, the sound unusually loud in the quiet of the room. He didn’t rush. If anything, his movements were slower than usual, controlled in a way that almost looked deliberate, like if he took his time, whatever waited inside that chip would somehow change.It didn’t.The moment it connected, the screen flickered once, then steadied.Leonhart’s voice came first.“…you’re approaching this incorrectly, Eli…”Eli leaned back slightly, one hand resting agains
Two hundred and ten
That night lingered longer than it should have, longer than Eli had prepared his mind for.That night.That table by the glass.The way the city had stretched endlessly beyond them, lights blinking like a quiet promise that something bigger existed outside of everything Eli had known before.Even now—Days later—It stayed.It wasn't loud. Nor overwhelming.Just… there.Like something that refused to be forgotten.Eli sat on the edge of the bed, fingers tapping slightly against the wooden nightstand, his gaze unfocused as the memory slipped in again.Elara’s face.That exact moment when she had taken her first bite—And then paused.Her eyes lifting slowly to his, suspicion fading into surprise… and then something softer.Warmer.“You’re smiling again.”Her voice had broken through the moment back then just like it did now in his head.He had been smiling. He hadn’t even realized it.---That night hadn’t ended at the restaurant.It had stretched.Unplanned. Unstructured. Perfect.The
Two hundred and nine
Eli didn’t remember the last time he woke up feeling like this.There was no sharp pull in his chest.No immediate weight pressing against his ribs.No urgency clawing its way into his thoughts the second his eyes opened.Just… quiet.Real quiet.The kind that didn’t feel like it was holding it's breath, waiting for the most unexpected moment to break.This one felt…. earned.His arm was still wrapped around Elara, her body tucked into his side like she had never left that space. Like she belonged there.Like she always had.For a few seconds, he didn’t move.Didn’t think, just stayed, staring the beautiful pattern of the ceiling.Then—It came.It didn't land loudly. Nor in an aggressive form.It came in a slow drift of awareness slipping back in.Victor. The chip.Eli’s gaze shifted slightly, unfocused as the memory surfaced. The weight of it. The unknown of it. The fact that it was sitting somewhere in his world now—waiting.Then—The Meridian Circle. Constant. Unresolved.Still ahe
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