SILHOUETTE, until dawn

NINE

˗ˏˋ CHAPTER NINE ˊˎ˗
o. the secrets of blackwood mountain

The slouched-over, slightly shivering form of Ellie Greene leans against the metal wall of the godforsaken shed, her gaze never once moving away from its set-in-stone position glued upon Josh Washington. It was almost as though she believed that, if her gaze was to falter for even a few mere seconds, he'd vanish before she'd ever get to truly forgive him, and he'd once again escape from her desperate grasp. Mike, who had made the decision to stay alongside the ex-lovers till dawn was to settle upon them, lingers only just beyond the main exit from the shed, the male having said that he had needed some air. Yet, the Greene girl was able to tell that it was the newly re-emerged thoughts of his lost love that had sparked such a hasty exit, and Ellie couldn't help but feel the slightest ounce of empathy toward him.

"Why'd you do it, Josh?" The wavering voice of Ellie finally pierces through the tense silence in which had lingered over them for long enough, the girl unable to deal with the lack of speech for any longer; especially when she's within the presence of the boy she had believed she'd lost forever only a few mere hours prior. Her eyes glisten over as these few words escape from her cracked lips, which are ever so slightly bloodied from biting down upon them too often, a sea of unshared emotion threatening to break out of the flood gates at any moment.

Upon hearing these few simple words bypass the cracked lips of his ex-lover, a harrowing, echoing laugh erupts ever so slightly from the throat of Josh Washington, one in which held no humour, with only insanity remaining in its place. "Why do ya think, El?" The boy stares at the obviously shaken girl in a manner that insinuates she should already know the answer, the uneasy smirk upon his lips never once faltering. "Those people you call friends, they're the assholes who killed my sisters."

"They're you're friends too, Josh," Ellie's eyes glimmer over with a sudden glaze of genuine intent as she watches the boy, the grief and pity within her heart swelling each further moment she lingers within his presence, and she is not provided so much as an ounce of relief. In her mind, at the moment, she did not care for what the boy had done what he did, no, she merely seeker closure as to why he did it. "They care for you, I care for you."

"Yeah, right," Josh scoffs as her words process within his rushing, frantic mind, and it takes what little ounce of patience that still lingers within him not to roll his eyes. His gaze obtains a much more hardened exterior as the thought of those people who had once been his 'friends' circulate within his mind, repeating as if they were some sick broken record; created only to taunt him. "Those people look at me as if I am some sick villain. And, in case you forgot, one just held a gun to my head."

"You know that he wouldn't have shot you," as the Greene girl utters these few, softly-spoken words, it is unsure within her mind if she was merely attempting to convince herself, or if she were desperately trying to force reason upon her own frantic mind. Her gaze momentarily flickers toward the open door of the isolated shed, her eyes coming to meet with those of Mike, whom silently observes the situation which is unfolding close by, both scepticism, and pity held within his gaze.