Board Thread:Fan Fictions/@comment-29206018-20170115145710

'''If Elias ever confronted Lewis about his interactions with Richard (before The End of An Era) I believed it to have gone like this. Lewis belongs to Jekyll1886, Elias belongs to Doodle, and Richard belongs to Tairais. '''

“STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!” The door flew open banging into the wall and shaking the room. In the frame stood a steaming Elias, glaring at the man sitting comfortably in the chair. This man happened to be Lewis.

Lewis sighed and put down the book he was reading. Hastie’s not going to like having another hole in the wall, he thought before rising on his feet to address the livid Elias. This was most definitely not how he planned to spend his afternoon. “And who may “him” be?” Lewis asked letting a fraction of annoyance he felt creep into his voice.

“DON’T YOU START PLAYING GAMES WITH ME!” Elias shouted, his gold eyes locked with Lewis’s green ones, “YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO “HIM” IS AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID! JUST STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!”

“Elias,” Lewis pinched the bridge of his nose and let the full extent of his exasperation be known, “I have no idea what or who you are talking about--”

“LIKE HELL YOU DON’T! RICHARD!! YOU FUCKING WON’T LEAVE HIM ALONE!!” Elias screamed and began to stomp towards Lewis.

Oh. He’s back on this then, Lewis thought, I should have known. “Elias, I’m not trying to come between you and your boyfriend, what I’m attempting to do is quite the contrary. You may think me the villain in this plot but I’m merely endeavoring to help him.”

Elias’s already crimson face flushed darker (if it was possible) at the word boyfriend. While yes Richard was his agápi mou that was only in his company, not the rest of the opinionated world’s. “Help him!? And how do you plan to help him when you don’t even know him?!”

“Elias, please, I thought we addressed this--” Lewis started trying to put off the conversation. In truth he thought this was already dealt with by his actions in the library. He helped Richard when Elias no longer could. He was there to help, why was Elias so adminate against it?

“Addressed this?! Like hell we’ve addressed this!! And none of your tricks and games I want a some straight answers for once!” Elias steamed cutting off all attempts of ending this confrontation early. Lewis sighed and sat back onto his chair, this was going to be a long night. Elias pulled up a nearby chair determined to not let Lewis weasel his way out of this one and scoffs,”How dare you try to help him when you don’t even know him! You don’t know his desires, his needs, his love! You don’t know him!”

“But I do,” even though he knew Elias would deny it, Lewis offered him the gift of honesty, “I have seen Richard. I’m just trying to help him accept himself. He can not continue on like this, he’s not whole.”

“And what you’re doing isn’t making him “whole”, it’s making him worse!” Elias gripped the chair arms, “He’s trying to change! He’s trying to be a better man and you’re undoing all of his work!”

“I want to help him be that better man but to do so he needs to accept his darker parts rather than just hide them beneath that scarf.” Lewis hesitated before asking this next question, “Did you even know what he was like before?”

The color drained away from Elias’s face and he glanced at the ground answering a flat, “No.” But his defeated eyes regained their spark and locked with upon Lewis’s again. “Do you?”

“I do not.”  Lewis sighed. He knew a lot of Richard but not all of his past. “I guess we’re in the same boat here then.” he continues with a chuckle.

“Same boat!?” Clearly this comment ignited Elia’s dying rage “We’re not even on the same ocean! I’m trying to help him achieve what he wants! I’m respecting his wishes!”

“What he wants and what is best for him may be completely different things.”

“He wants to be someone else! Someone who loves and can be loved!”

This last portion caught Lewis off guard and he paused before asking his next question, “Do you love him?”

Elias snapped back, “Of course I do! What kind of--”

“Do you really love him? All of him?”  Lewis seeing that Elias had not understood his question.

Elias hesitated remembering the scraping of claws on glass, the warm trickle of blood on clothes, the looming destruction, “Yes.”

“But have you seen all of him?” Lewis guessed the answer was no, however this answer was not for Elias alone.

The guilt slowly pooled in his stomach, he had not and Richard had made sure of this fact. Yet, he was sure about one thing, “I have seen more of him than you!”

Lewis doubted this fact. Richard was good at keeping people an arm’s length away and only by breaking down those expertly constructed barriers was he able to see him. “Did you know the stutter was false?” Lewis had never seen Richard drop it around Elias like he did around him. It was a test, yes and one he knew the answer to.

“Yes.” Elias’s eyes harden and his mouth set itself in a firm line,  “I found out this fact when he stabbed me through the stomach.”

Lewis was surprised by this. Sure he had heard rumors of Elias being stabbed by Richard but then again he also heard rumors of Henry being a drug dealer, it was hard to tell fiction from fact sometimes. They seemed so smitten that he highly doubted anything like this had happened, let alone Elias would still love Richard afterwards, “And was this before you two were…” Lewis trails off letting Elias fill in the blank as he reacted so badly to the mention of boyfriend before.

“Yes.” Elias didn’t need to finish Lewis’s sentence but he appreciated the discretion, even if it was from a man who seem to have problems with personal mental space, “Can you say the same? Has he gutted you and yet you still accept him?”

Lewis was quiet for a long time, pondering scenario after scenario, “No, but I would like to think I would if he did.”

Elias looked at the ground, all the rage he felt when first bursting in there was long gone, and a quiet chuckle drifted from his mouth, “He works so hard.”

“He does.,” Lewis agreed, “He works so hard to make sure we never see that darkness deep inside of him.” He looked at Elias, sitting in that chair, looking defeated as he felt, “He’s never going to ask for our help.”

“I know,” Elias replied. Of course Richard wasn’t going to ask, he didn’t want to be selfish, he didn’t want to hurt anyone else. A sorrowful laugh rose Elias’s eyes to Lewis’s, “He makes such poor decisions.”

Lewis laughed along too, for what else was there to express these emotions? “He does! And never says a word about anything!”

“Never!” Elias agreed, “In Fact I don’t even know where he is do you?”

Lewis shook his head a smile dancing on his lips. So many unanswered questions. So many locks within Richard that they would never have the keys for. People cared about him and he refused to let them in. Richard would open up in his own time (if he ever did) but at the moment all Elias and Lewis could do now was stand at the doors to the fortress and knock. The only problem is both had yet to find the fortress.

And where was Richard? What was he up to while the war over his love raged on? Was he standing along the walls gloating? Feasting upon the idea that so many desired him? Was he ignorant of the bubbling tension? If one was to walk down the halls, to his room in a corner of a corner of the Society they would find him.

Richard sat in the dark, alone, friendless, limbless. The door was locked, the masks gone, the guilt hanging off of him in spirals of shadows. The day was filled with warm sunshine but in that room a storm raged on.

The soft hum of his limbs could no longer be heard as they were no longer needed. What had those hands done? Replaced time and time again, different materials, different structures, different bolts, different births but always the same end. Suffering. Was it him? Was it him that corrupted those innocent things to fulfill some dark bidding of his soul? He was the constant denominator. They were his hands. His hands who stabbed Elias. His hands who killed Lewis. His hands who ripped his uncle open. His hands who took Lillian’s life. His hands who didn’t save Jack. His hands who didn’t save any of them. Not at the end of it all. No one was saved.

Richard knew that in a fit of passion he had removed his hands, just in a futile attempt to stop the cycle of turmoil for an hour or two, but he did not remember doing so.

Why him? Why did they want him? Love him? Need him? Why didn’t they run? Didn’t they see what he was? Didn’t they see the stag that bellowed near his ears? Didn’t they see the blood that coated him? Didn’t they see the trail of dead left in his wake? The hunger in his eyes? The itch of his teeth? The inhumane smile? The dense scars? The warnings? The signs? Didn’t they see him begging for them to run?

Why did they not just leave him? They would be safer if they did, they would all be safer. He was a monster. He didn’t want to be and yet he did. He wanted to rip their hearts out and eat them only to feel the anchors of regret drag him to the bottom of his ocean of tears. He wanted to kill and suffer for it. He wanted to suffer for what he’s done and what he was about to do. There was no stopping it, there was not justice. Justice would have been his death long ago. Justice would have been him realizing his promise would have never been kept. Justice would have been selflessness in isolation. Justice would have been merciful. Justice would have kept everyone safe...from him.

Hot tears ran down his face. No! He did not deserve to weep! He did not deserve to pity himself! He had made this mess! He and made this mess and he had to live with it! This is what he deserved!

The puddle around his feet only grew. It filled the room and poured down his throat. It threatened to drown him but he would not be so lucky. If he died...they would drown themselves in a sea of their own tears. Why did they love him? He was a monster, a killer, destruction wrapped in a scarf, death waiting to happen. They deserved better than him. Why did they love him? But he guessed...in his own sick, twisted way he loved them too.

Why? 