Becca sat beside the bed that the unconscious Elias laid in. The nurse said that all of the water was no longer in his lungs, but he still hadn’t woken up yet. Becca held his hand and rested her head on it too.

“Is she gonna be ok?” Georgia asked Aaron quietly.

“She cares about him a lot. More than I’ve ever seen her care for anyone.” Aaron whispered back. “But there's a lot about him that she doesn’t know and these things are exactly easy to chew on. Trust me when my roommate told me everything he knew about him I had a hard time sleeping that night.”

“She needs to find out sometime.”

“I know. But how would you feel if you found out a bunch of people knew about everything in your past in significant detail and you never told anyone.”

“I would feel pretty uncomfortable and vulnerable.”

“Exactly, that’s why I refrain from telling anyone.”

“Well I think out of everyone that wants to know, she is the one that needs to.”

“Yea... you’re right. I’m gonna tell her. Everything. Watch over him will ya.”

“Good luck.”

“Thank you. Hey Becca... we need to talk.”

She looked up, concern spread all over her face. “About what?”

“About Elias, I think you need to know everything that is behind him.”

Becca nodded and followed Aaron out of the room towards the roof.

“So... what is it about him?”

“As you probably guessed life hasn’t been fair to Elias. Not even a little. I know you’ve gone through some terrible things but when I compare your story to Elias’ story. It sounds like you were living the perfect life. You have a loving family. A humble family too. Your parents love you and your sisters loved you as their big sister before they died. You were born with an incredible amount of power too.” Aaron leaned against the railing.

“Yea. It does sound pretty good. But I have a feeling that what Elias has gone through is torture.”

“His eyes are soulless for a reason Becca. He was born into a world full of abilities and he doesn’t even possess one at all. Not only that but he comes from a long line of very powerful people.”

“Yea. That’s something most people can figure out."

“His family hates him Becca. They want him to die. That’s why they allowed him to attend this school. That’s why they won’t pull him out despite him meeting death twice already. But it gets worse. He’s 4th oldest of his siblings. He has 9 siblings. Only three of them are full siblings.”

“His parents remarried?! Because he was born without powers!?!”

“That’s the nice way of putting it. But what happened in reality is even worse. His birth mother... She was the only person that didn’t care about him being powerless. To her he was like the other three. But one day she suddenly went missing and the dad just so happened to remarry the next day. His step mom feels as much hatred for Elias as everyone else in the family does. While his birth mother hasn’t been seen in 13 years. In fact she’s probably dead.”

Becca looked at the ground.

“That’s just the start. He was beat up by his family. Physically, even sexually abused by outsiders when the family decided to make some revenue off of him. He didn’t get to go outside with friends. He was never fed and he lived off of whatever he could get out of the dumpster. If the family wasn’t using him they treated him like he never existed. When he started going to school no one wanted to interact with him. Middle school was the same.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Becca tried to hide the break in her voice.

“You’re the first person who has treated him like he was human.”

"Are we sure he has no ability? Maybe some low version of immortality like Georgia except he can take damage and she can't."

"Whenever ever they test for an ability they check once at birth then later about 3 months later. Babies are able to produce a little bit of their power by the 2nd month. That's been true for everyone. Those that have passive abilities like Georgia is where the test machine comes in. When they scan the baby it will give two readings. It shows what the ability of the infant is. Elias got the other reading. He got and error message at his birth, then on his 3rd month. Errors only have two possibilities... either the ability is completely new and no one has ever had it before, or that baby doesn't possess an ability at all. Elias is truly powerless Becca.

“You know it’s amazing. He’s gone through all of that. Yet here he is. He’s incredibly strong.”

“No. I don’t think that’s it at all. He does have strength when you look at it from a simple perspective. It looks like he doesn’t let anyone walk over him. Insults are slung at him and he doesn’t even flinch, life continues to screw with him and he keeps going. But once you take an extra look, you start to realize that there’s a difference between ignoring those that insult you and ignoring the walls they put up in front of you."

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Elias has the great ability to ignore those that try to block him. But ignoring doesn’t always stop the blockade. Life is putting up wall after wall and Elias just lets it happen because that’s all he expects from life now. He never expects anything good to ever come from life. Elias isn’t fighting to destroy the walls put up in his face. When he sees a wall he just turns around.”

“I think I understand.”

“Then you also need to understand that as his first friend. It’s your responsibility to read his soulless eyes. You need to get him to release all of that guilt, all of the anger and sadness that he has been locking up for years. Elias is a broken man. A shell protecting a whirlwind of negativity. You need to break that shell. Release all of the negativity and refill him with positivity. Once you do that. He will begin to heal. He will become truly strong.”

Becca stood silent for a while. “I will do it.” She finally spoke. “I’m gonna bring life back into his eyes. Give him reasons to keep on fighting. I will be his friend.” Determination glowing through her red puffy eyes.

“Good. Because he really needs one. I’m not sure how much more he can take before he's lost for good. Let’s head on back now.”

Becca and Aaron left back towards the nurses office. Once they entered Georgia was still watching over him. Elias still hadn’t came back from his slumber. Becca resumed her position at his side. After a little while he began to stir. His soulless brown eyes slowly opening.

He looked at Becca and noticed everyone else in the room. “How long was I out?”

Becca was startled. “Y-you’re awake!”

“You’ve been out since the fight. It’s 2100.” Aaron told him.

“Oh wow. That’s longer than last time.” Elias laughed.

“It’s not funny.” Becca said quietly.

“Huh?”

“Why are you laughing about it?”

“I-“

“You almost died Elias... again. I support you in your decision to risk your life to attain your goal. But it’s not funny when you get like this. I’m your friend, and I get so worried when I see you in battle because I know that it could mean the end of your life.”

“Becca...”

“No! I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want you to say that you’re laughing because it’s better than you expected. I want you to stop expecting the worst out of life.”

“But then I’ll just be disappointed.”

“That’s part of life Elias! You’re going to be disappointed at one time and another. There’s nothing you can do to never be disappointed.”

Elias looked away towards the window. “It’s getting late. I need to recover. You guys need to leave.”

“W-what? No I’m not letting you push me away lik-“

“LEAVE!” He shouted. His soulless brown eyes void of anger but still serious.

“NO! I’m no-“

“Becca!” Aaron spoke. “Let him have it his way.”

“O-ok.” Becca bowed her head and followed him out of the room. She couldn’t hold it now. Tears overflowing her sad blue eyes. “D-did I do something wrong Aaron? W-was I too straight forward with him?”

“No. I think that’s what he needs. With all of the harsh treatment he’s been through. It may be the only way to get through to him.”

“He’s right. Elias is going to be a tough nut to crack. But with the amount of determination you have to help him out, you will get there.” Georgia agreed.“ She knelt down a little to meet her in the eyes. Sometimes when someone has become so broken they go through a complete change in personality. The Elias you know now isn’t the one that he once was, and I’m afraid it will be very difficult to meet that one. But you need to break this newer Elias to start getting glimpses of the old one. This Elias was formed by betrayal and hardship. In order to bring back the old one you need to break him with love and loyalty. Even if that means shouting at him and giving him hard truth like you just did. Follow what your heart is telling you Becca, your heart knows how to heal him. You just need to listen to it.” Georgia smiled.

Becca hugged Georgia. “Thank you. I will do my best.”

“I know you will.”