Episode 22

Claire’s voice, usually a melody, was now edged with a weariness that Eli felt deep in his bones. “I don’t hate you, Eli,” she said, her eyes, once so full of light for him, now held a distant sadness. “But you… you hated me. Or loved me enough to kill me.” The words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. Bright, who had been listening with a clenched jaw, pulled the car over to the side of the road. He didn’t need to be told. He knew Eli was going to leave now. A tense silence descended, broken only by the hum of the engine. Eli looked out the window, the familiar streets blurring into an indistinguishable rush of green and grey. He felt a strange, hollow ache, a phantom limb of a life he’d once held so tightly. He wanted to test something, anything, to prove that the connection, however fractured, still existed. He wanted to know if there was anything left of the boy who had loved Claire, the boy who had promised her the world.