Elie's POV:

I find myself questioning my entire childhood as I look at the man in front of me. He’s nothing like a remembered him, and I can’t help but feel betrayed. Adults, when I was young, were supposed to be all-knowing. As one of the most trusting kids anyone had ever met, I believed literally anything that came out of the mouth of someone above the age of twenty; if my older sister told me that staying in the shower for more than eleven minutes would make me swell because younger children have undeveloped skin cells, airy pores, and a higher water-storage capacity, I would have believed her. Not that that particular example actually happened, of course.

I would say that I trusted him--the man standing in front of me--the man standing, spreading over my friends like an unwanted sheath of sticky plastic wrap.

I trusted him because he was my uncle, and family is family, right? He was the one to take me to the carnival while my parents traveled far, far away into the moon and came back as different people entirely--and not in a good way. He, along with my older sister, of course, was the only one left to actually take care of me. He was the one who convinced me to leave and join the Facility in their darned masquerade even as my sister begged me not to go. I feel an immense pressure against the back of my skull as I fight against memories I’d held back for far too long.

A knife of denial presses against my throat; my sister crying in her room, bruises on her arms, fear in her eyes, and hollowness as she saw me leave. The sick crack of clarity strikes my heart in a blast.

Am I really that blind?

His rumbling voice, once a source of comfort, slices through me. “Go ahead, I know you have questions.”

“Did you . . . .” I choke on the word. My face is numb, I can’t really feel anything yet. I know it will come through. It’ll come and drown me.

He chuckles, and I vaguely feel Elodie’s nails digging into my arm. “Rape? No, I’m not a pedophile, son. Your sister was just weak. She just didn’t listen very well, a spoiled brat if you ask me. But I suppose you're not asking, are you?” he smirks amusedly.

My face isn’t numb anymore, it burns. It burns of anger and pales with fear. A sparking ball of rage tightens in my gut. How long had he been hurting her? Is she safe?

I drown in a daze as the force of a million questions being answered hit me. I’d always wondered why she refused to go to college; it must’ve been because she didn’t want to leave me alone with him.

But where was she now if not with--

“If not with me?” my uncle, no--IT, finishes my thought for me.

I try not to gape in surprise. Did he just read my mind?

“You’re surprised?” he snorts, “Quentin has been holding out on you. And your sister is fine. She fled as soon as you left. And now that we’ve cleared the air, let’s get down to business.”

He starts talking, but I can’t hear him. I hear my heart beat under my skin, beating fast and harsh against my lungs. I feel sick.

Quentin: Deep breaths.

I don’t give Quentin an inch, I simmer at him silently, hating that he kept so many secrets. “Shut the fuck up!”

Quentin: Shit, okay. You need to calm down. You just said that out loud.

“What did you just say?” IT levels his eyes at me, which artfully frame a dangerous sort of violence in them, and I refocus my eyes on him.

Quentin: Take it back, kid.

I probably should have just taken it back, but I don’t.

I’m not in control anymore. Quentin isn’t in control either.

I walk forward as if the earth is liquid fire. There is no hesitation I bend to grasp the branch just a few feet next to me, and all I feel is freedom as I whip the weapon towards his head.

IT catches the branch in both hands with a grunt, and he rips it out of my hands. “You stupid boy. Don’t you know I’m just trying to help you?”

I lash out with my fist this time and miss.

“Without me, you’ll never get to that pit, you know?”

I pull my fist back again. An iron grip yanks my arm backward and whispers for me to calm down. I realize that it’s Elodie that’s holding me back and feel betrayed all over again. Is she siding with IT?

She yanks me backward, lifts the branch up from the ground and snaps it forward with so much force the air around the branch whooshes and snaps as it makes contact with IT’s knee. Just as quickly, she charges forward brings her arm up, slamming her elbow into the back of IT’s head.

Sheila pounces as soon as he’s down, twisting his arms back and pressing her knee into his back. “Don’t move,” she growls. Elodie nods approvingly and kneels next to IT’s face. “Tell us where this pit is.”

His back heaves as he laughs with his face pressed up into the dirt. “Why would I tell you that? You know, by not telling you, I would be doing you a favor. No one ever comes out alive and well.”

I see Elodie tense, but she says nothing. I say something instead, “You’re going to tell us because you want to tell us.”

Tendons in his neck strain as he lifts his head up from the dirt to look me in the eye, “You don’t know what I want. Don’t pretend like you know.”

Elodie looks back at me, sensing I have a plan, and silently urges me to continue.

“You want to tell us because I know something you don’t. You think Quentin is holding out on me?” I sharp bark of laughter escapes my mouth, sounding uncharacteristically cold, “You don’t even know the half of what you’ve been kept from.”

Quentin: What are you doing!

I ignore Quentin and continue, “Quentin might have kept some things secret from me, but do you know what you’ve been missing? I think not.”

Suspicion clouds his eyes, but at the same time, I know he’s listening. If I remember correctly, he was a gambler. Risks were worth it to him if he thought he was going to win.

“Weigh your options carefully. Do you want to know?”

An annoyed scowl stretches his features, his jaw twitches. “Tell me.”

“No, you wouldn’t be able to handle it. I could never tell you,” I turn away and start walking slowly away.

A wheeze of protest sounds from behind me, “I want to know. I can handle it.”

“Why should I tell you?” he sneers at me as I throw back words he’d spat at us just minutes before.

“Tell me because I’ll tell you.”

I tilt my head to the side, “Tell me what?”

“The pit--it’s still there.”

“Still where?” I press him to elaborate.

“You fool, it’s exactly where that stupid gas station employee told you it would be.”

Frustration clogs my every pore as I recall the words of the cashier who had run off out from behind the counter, and right out the station doors. “All he said was “‘It’s here.’ But that doesn’t make sense, how could a pit be located in a gas station.”

“You weren’t looking damn hard enough! Now tell me!”

“I really can’t believe you fell for that, there is no secret.” I focus on his expression intently, expecting disappointment, or defeat. But he seems indifferent.

He sighs, “I expected there was nothing, but I couldn’t risk it, now could I?”

Something about his indifference doesn't seem right. Whenever he lost a gamble or a bet, he would seethe for hours on end, so why wasn’t he livid now?

Quentin: He hasn’t given up any information you didn’t already know, so he doesn’t feel like he’s lost anything. He’s hiding something.

Me: Yes, wow, Quentin, what would I do without your brilliant deductions?

Dev suddenly cuts in from behind me. “Search his pockets.”

IT visibly flinches; we’ve got him. Dev bends down and starts searching his pockets, and after a few minutes, he looks up and shakes his head disappointedly, “Nothing. Not even a crusty handkerchief.”

Elodie shifts and glances curiously at IT’s mask. She reaches out and places the tip of her finger under the edge of his mask. I watch curiously as his eyes widen with horror, and she lifts the mask. A key plinks into the dirt. Gingerly, her fingers wrap around the key, and she holds it up with the tips of two fingers.

“I think I know what this is for. It looks like we have to go to the gas station . . . right back to where we started.”

***

Author's Note:

Yeah, okay, probably lots of mistakes in there, a little sloppy lol, but other than that, what do you think?

Also, this week, I finished most standardized testing but now I'm winding up for the last stretch with finals (my school has finals on the  last four days of school) so I might not be able to update next week, but I'll try my best :)

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