Chapter 1:Elise

Chapter 1: Elise

“This is where we live?” Kor asks looking up in amazement, the building in front of me taking up an entire block. “I own THIS?” I giggle,”Yes Korn, your parents left you with 30 million when they went overseas to assist in curing these new, deadlier, more vicious viruses going around.”Kor looks at me in disbelief “30…million?” he asks after a moment’s hesitation. Argo chimes into the conversation “Well, they did cure cancer; you come from the wealthiest family in the world. You could probably own the entire United Union government.” Kor sits down on the sidewalk and just let this sink in. After a couple minutes pass he gets up and looks at them. “I hope you two are staying with me, I’d hate to live in this huge place alone.” we both crack a smile and nod “Of course, we aren’t going to let you stay alone anytime soon after the scare you gave us.” I say, my voice taking on a slight lilting accent, causing my words to sound less forced, and more real, like I was finally relaxing. “That accent Elise, where did you get it?” Kor says suddenly. I stop short and catch my breath “I was an orphan for 3 years before you took me in, I lived in Spain and came here to escape being forced back into a w***e house” My shoulders slump as she starts to walk on again. Kor catches up to mer as we near the doors to the house; he slides his arm around me and pulls me close, trying to comfort me with his presence I relax and lean against him, even though I am a good foot and a half shorter than him, I don’t mind. “Thanks Korn..” I say with a small smile “This means a lot to me.” I unlock the door and step to the side, letting Kor take it all in. Argo slides past and disappears down a side hallway. “This is where we’ve lived together for the past 3 years.” I say while looking around. “I guess you’re going to need me to show you around.” I giggle and wrap my arms around his, tugging him along, showing him where the kitchens were, all the bathrooms, the giant sauna, and several other miscellaneous and pointless rooms. We stop at a door under the stairs “And here, is where we go to your room.” I open the door slowly, and Kor gasps, for there is an elevator where he thought a broom closet sized room was. “You didn’t think you lived under the stairs did you? This was how you hid your room from annoying guests.” As we board the elevator he takes a glance at the panel, Floor 1 and Floor 2. We wait in silence for maybe a minute before the doors open again, and he is blinded by the sudden brightness. “Oops, should have warned you before I turned your light on.” I wink and giggle “That’s payback for when you did this to me.” As Kor’s eyes adjust he take a look around the space, and my heart seems to still. At first he thought the walls were painted a variety of colors, but as he got close to the wall, he realized they were words. Upon closer inspection, it occurred to him that they were written in a form of chaotic order, each leading to something bigger and greater. “It’s a giant poem” he whispers to himself. I look over with a sad smile and nods “This is your life’s work; you’ve spent countless nights writing, changing, adapting languages, to your own.” I look around and continue on “and you never said what it was supposed to be, why you were writing it, me and Argo, we think that you didn’t know yourself, that you were just..compelled, to write this.” He takes one last glance around and fixates on a piece of the wall. I look over and see nothing but the jumble of words he had written out. “Well, it’s best if we get some sleep Korn.” I head back to the elevator and blow him a kiss goodnight. His face starts to flush as the doors close. He sighs and sits down on his bed.

I lean against the side of the elevator, softly crying into me hands “He doesn’t remember me…Argo...his own room…How could we have brought this upon him..” As the elevator opens, I stagger out, my arm bleeding. At least my tears have dried up. I  hurry to the bathroom in order to stop the blood and to gather supplies to clean and disinfect the floor where her blood had dripped. I can’t let Korn know about this, I have to order some long sleeve shirts overnight delivery, but he mustn’t know… I slowly walk over to the door to mu room after disposing of the bloody rags, as my door opens inward, I takes a glance around. That cat plushy, he got it for me on my 15^th birthday, her eyes wander some more, resting on the gift he got for her a month ago, on the day of her birthday. I still haven’t opened it, I’m worried now that if I do, whatever is in there, its meaning will have changed since Korn can’t remember.. I flop down on my bed and bury my face into the fur of the cat plushy. Tomorrow, we start from the beginning, how we met, and why…I will make him remember, even if it means…reliving…my past. As this last thought drifts across my mind she starts to doze off, the loss of blooding having affected my already weak system.

Hours later, I wake up in a cold sweat, coughing harshly. Get ahold of yourself Elise, you have to be strong for Korn, he needs you now more than ever! Slowly the coughing subsides, and my body returns to a more stable temperature. I lay there in bed, looking up at her ceiling, thinking about how to go about telling Korn everything in the morning. After a while I remember I have to buy those shirts and hurry to do so. While I am busy ordering those shirts there is a soft knock at my door. I don’t hear it from being concentrated on finding a shirt to match my short stature, but very large size. “Just like trying to find bras” I mutter under my breath. Kor opens the door and walks up behind me quietly, looking at what I am doing. “Why do you need long sleeve shirts? It’s still early fall.” Kor says while glancing at the calendar. I squeal in shock and falls out of her chair, letting me catch a glance at the fresh scars. “Elise are those..”

“No don’t look! Please Korn!” I hide my arm as tears start to gather at the corner of my eyes “You weren’t supposed to find out..” I get up and sit down, this time on my bed. “Korn sit down, we have to talk…I think…if I told you everything again, maybe… just maybe…it would bring your memory back.” I look at him with a determined look. Kor’s stern expression softens as he sits down next to me.

“Just no more…hurting yourself…okay?” I say with a sigh of resignation, looking at her. She nods and goes silent, gathering her thoughts.

“I guess I should start with what caused us to meet, but to do that, I have to go back to when my parents were still alive…” I look him dead in the eyes, and draw in a breath.

“My parents weren’t rich people, not even middle class really. But we made ends meet. That was until the sickness struck. I was just turning 9 when I got really sick one day, and I can’t remember much for it is all…fuzzy, but I remember my parents talking about it one night…something about an Aegis forming in my heart…I never did find out what an Aegis was, but my parents had to pay a really high end Doctor, one who had studied something unique…they wouldn’t mention what it was in their conversation, as if they were afraid of what it was he had studied.” I stop and take a deep breath. “Now to get back on topic, he cost a lot of money…more than they could make in 10 years’ time, but he still came, he insisted that they didn’t have to pay him, that this was helping him somehow, but my father never would back down, so he insisted that he at least pay half of his usual fee. He eventually succumbed to my father’s pressuring and agreed to draw up the bill before he left. From what I remember it was a short, painful, but effective cure he used…I can’t tell you today if he had something in his hand, or if it was just his pure willpower, but the words he said when he put his hand over my heart I will never, ever, forget…” I look down “He said…’Form, Recite, Protect’ and suddenly, my chest was on fire, it felt like the whiskey my father teasingly let me try one day, had made its own way into my heart. I remember crying for what seemed like hours before it finally resided…by the time it did, the man was gone, my father had a look of regret on his face, and my mother was softly crying over me, for my fever had drastically dropped from 150 degrees, to my normal temperature..” I stop and go silent for a while, and Kor sits there, letting this all sink in. I get up walks over the mini-fridge, grabbing each of us bottles of milk. I sit back down and hand Kor one “Sorry for nothing else, water is to bland and soda upsets my stomach”

Kor shakes his head “its fine” After looking at my clock Kor apologizes for being in my room so late at night. I burst into a giggling fit “That’s okay; at least I hadn’t gotten into my pajamas yet before you arrived.” I give him a seductive smile “I’m pretty sure you would have liked that though.” I scoot closer to him, leaning against him “But on a more serious note, I should finish telling you everything”

I let out a sigh “Then my mother died. I was just turning 11, and my mom was killed when the Revolution bombed the grocer she worked in, it was owned by some big official in the city and..” I stop to wipe her tears away “My dad died soon afterwards, grief people were claiming when they found him hanging from our front yard...” Kor puts his arm around me as my tears start to flow more and more freely, he pulls me closer and I bury my face in his chest. “I’m sorry Korn, I never wanted you to see me like this. To see me so weak...”

“It’s okay Elise” he says while holding me close to me “Everyone has a breaking point, and everyone has a topic that makes them unable to carry on for the rest of the day. Maybe you should think of going to bed...” he starts to get up but I cling to him tighter.

“Please stay Korn...” I whisper.

“Just for tonight, okay Elise?” I nod her head, wiping my tears away as I curl up against him, holding his arm close to me.

“Thank you Korn…” I whisper as I drift off into a deep, dreamless slumber.

Hours later I wake up from my deep dreamless slumber to something unusual. Looking down I see that, while when I went to sleep holding onto Korn, snuggled against him, now it was him, snuggled against me. His face buried between my cleavage. I giggle, momentarily forgetting I should be mad at him and plays with his hair. “I hope you slept well Korn...” Eventually I untangle myself from him. Getting up, I walk over to my closet and takes out her exercise mat. I start to lift up my shirt than remembers something What if Korn wakes up while I’m getting changed into my workout outfit... I shiver at the thought but decide it’s better to get changed in my closet. Shortly after I close the closet door, Korn starts to stir from his slumber, feeling the lack of body heat near him.

He rolls over and opens his eyes, staring at the ceiling “Why do I feel like I did something I wasn’t supposed to in my sleep...” He mumbles to himself, and then shrugs “Can’t help it now.” Sitting up as he hears a door open, I come out of the closet and stops turning as red as my hair “KORN SHUT YOUR EYES I FORGOT TO GRAB MY SHIRT” I scream at him as he catches sight of what I was talking about. He closes his eyes while his face starts to turn red.

After I finish getting dressed I come out with an evil glare. “I bet you were waiting that whole time just to catch me getting dressed weren’t you!” I yell accusingly

“No no! I just got up and thought it was Argo coming in without knocking and...” I stop him mid-sentence and sighs

“It’s okay Korn; I know you weren’t meaning to peek.” I give him a halfhearted smile “Let’s go get some breakfast” he just nods, trying desperately to remove the image of me from his head. As we head downstairs I can smell something cooking

“Does Argo cook?” Kor asks me, I nod my head.

 “I think today he’s making pancakes.” I say after smelling the air. She licks her lips “He is such a good cook also. One of the best, and he is free!” I giggle at my joke “Let’s hurry up before they cool off!” I grab his hand and pull him along, smiling and laughing as if the sadness last night never had happened. Kor laughs and hurry after me. As we approach the kitchen the smell grows to include a very rich chocolate “He melts chocolate to pour over the pancakes” I whisper to him “He takes his work seriously so let’s be quiet as he finishes up” We sneak in through the open door and sit down, my jaw dropping as I see the stack of pancakes.

 “There must be at least 100 pancakes here” Kor mutters to me. I flash him a smile and nod.

“I’ll likely eat most of them…” I say blushing “I love pancakes...” my eyes drift to the open window and glaze over “My dad used to make them every weekend for me, even though it cost him more money than he could afford.” I lean against him as Argo turns around.

“Now you two love birds keep your hands to yourself” he says while laughing “And make sure you eat up missy.” He says with a stern look at me. I look down “How much chocolate did you melt down?” I ask softly. Argo gives a giant grin and sets a large pot down on the table. I look up eyes widening “I will definitely be eating all of this!” I grab a fork and spoon and start to shovel pancake and chocolate into my mouth, eating at what seems to be inhumane speeds. Kor just sat there and stared and laughed smiling.