Sharp pain pierced its way into Sebastian's neck as his assailant's nails drove into his flesh.

Thump thump thump

Sebastian heard something faintly off into the distance, although right now everything was off in the distance. Thinking was hard, breathing was harder.

Everything was black.

Very abruptly, the hands tightened so desperately around his throat suddenly released and were pulled off into a different direction, the nails ripping out of his neck along with them. Warm blood trickled out from the puncture wounds.

He heard a very loud crashing noise off in the same direction the hands were ripped too as he collapsed down onto the floor, desperately grasping for air.

His vision and other senses began coming back to him as he replenished the oxygen his body so desperately needed.

His hearing became unmuffled, alerting him to the conflict taking place off to his left.

"Nothing." Eli said to himself as he finished his sweep of the upstairs.

In total he'd gone through three bedrooms, one bathroom, five closets, and the attic.

Thud

There was a loud, solid noise down on the first floor.

"What the h- Sebastian!" Eli screamed in his head.

He quickly slid down the pull-down ladder that led up to the attic and ran down the hallway upstairs. He got to the stairs, ran down just enough to fit over the railing and swung over it dropping down onto the floor below.

He could hear heavy breathing to the left around the corner in front of him.

Eli quickly darted up to the corner and turned.

A woman held Sebastian pinned up against the wall by his throat, a wide open closet door behind them.

It was impossible to make out what the woman looked like in the dark but one thing was blindingly obvious, she was going to kill Sebastian.

Eli ran into her, shoving his shoulder into her as hard as he could. Her hands let Sebastian free and she got sent flying into the wall beside her, still standing upright.

Before she could process what happened Eli was running towards her again. He jumped up and kneed her in the chest as his momentum carried him forward. She slammed back into the wall once more, as Eli landed down from his jump he hit her with a right hook, right on her chin. He grabbed her hair in his left hand and pulled her face downward, smashing it directly into the knee he brought up to meet her. Still holding onto her hair, he smashed her head back into the wall and in one fluid motion he drew the knife from its sheath on his right hip and slashed her across the throat before stabbing the blade up into her skull from below her chin.

He released her hair and she fell dead on the ground at his feet, a puddle of blood beginning to form.

"Just in time." Eli thought to himself.

He turned, "Are you all right?"

Sebastian sat on his knees, still hunched over breathing heavily, eyes wide with shock staring at the woman.

Silas came barging in, "Is everything alright!? What the hell happened in here!?" He shouted.

He had heard the commotion from outside and came running in, fearing for his son's life. Seeing him hunched over struggling to breathe, Silas ran over to him, kneeling down next to him.

Eli snapped, "What the hell were you thinking!?" He began in a raised voice that only kept getting louder, "What did I tell you about checking doors!? You're lucky she didn't have a damn weapon! You'd be dead right now if I hadn't been here!!" He finished

"Eli calm down, that's enough!" Silas snapped back.

"Shut up!" He snapped back, "Your son's recklessness almost cost him his life!"

Silas stood up, enraged.

“Don't you dare talk to me like that! EVER AGAIN!"

He stepped closer to Eli

"I'll say whatever the hell I please." Eli said.

Silas took another couple steps closer to Eli and threw a wild punch with his right arm at him. Eli effortlessly ducked under it. The force Silas swung with spun him around after it didn't connect with anything. Eli gave his shoulder a little shove, causing Silas to spin fully around. Eli lightly kicked the back of Silas's knee, causing it to buckle and bend under his own weight. As Silas began to fall over Eli wrapped his arm around Silas's throat and put him in a headlock, but didn't squeeze.

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"You need to calm down!" Eli barked at him, much softer than he had previously been speaking to him.

Silas struggled but Eli's grip held firm.

"Both of you stop." Sebastian said softly.

Silas stopped squirming upon hearing his son speak and Eli let him go.

Sebastian was clearly still in shock, his eyes wide and whole body shaking.

"Eli." Sebastian began, "Why did you kill her like that?"

Eli remained silent, stepping back from Silas, who was now standing back to his feet.

"Why?" He asked again softly, almost like a frightened child.

Eli sighed deeply, "You've never seen someone still alive get killed have you?"

Sebastian shook his head.

"None of us have." Silas interjected.

"Why doesn’t that surprise me." Eli thought to himself.

He sighed once more, "You better get used to it fast then."

"Why?" Sebastian asked again.

“Because that's all this world is filled with anymore."

"Not why to that. Why did you kill her?"

"Because she was going to kill you." Eli said plainly, "I don't let people on my watch die… never again." He trailed off, the last part said much quieter than the rest in an attempt to hide the choke in his voice.

Thankfully for him, it was too dark to see the tears in his eyes.

"But you could've just knocked her out." Sebastian said.

"And what about when she wakes up?" Eli countered, "She'll just try to kill us again then."

Sebastian paused to think for a moment.

"We could've tied her up. She couldn't kill us then."

"Unless she broke free." Eli said plainly, "It was too big of a risk leaving her alive. Or she could've screamed all night keeping us awake and alerting anyone or anything that we're here. Face it Sebastian it was the logical thing to do."

"Logical doesn't mean right!" Sebastian snapped in a raised voice.

Eli took in a deep breath, "There's no place for right and wrong in a world like this! You either live or you die. End of story. If you don't kill then you'll be the one killed. Nobody else is gonna share that same right and wrong bullshit thinking as you! They'll jump on you the first chance they get and rip your life away. You've seen that first hand!"

Eli started to shake.

"That woman was clawing into your damn throat. Doing whatever she could to kill you. And now you sit here, telling me I shouldn't have treated her the same. That kind of thinking is going to get you and everybody you love killed!" He finished with a snap.

Silas spoke up now, "Eli, you might see the world that way, but we do not."

"Then you're damn fools. And you'll die like them too."

The clouds shifted in the sky, allowing light from the moon to seep in through the windows, lighting up Eli's face.

Silas and Sebastian both were shocked at what they saw. The normally stone cold, calm and collected image they were used to seeing was no longer there. Instead it had been replaced. His eyes filled with water, tears flowing slowly down his cheeks. He looked almost like a frightened child, nothing like his usual self.

"What has this poor kid gone through?" Silas asked himself.

The pain residing in Eli's face was immense. Much, much greater than should ever be seen in someone his age, or even someone at all.

The clouds shifted once more and his face was once again hidden by the shadows.

"Go upstairs, there's three bedrooms up there for us to use. Pick one out and get to sleep, it's late and we leave at first light tomorrow." Eli said to them, "I'll take care of her and head up myself.

Silas nodded and helped pick Sebastian up off the floor.

Once the two were out of earshot Sebastian whispered to his father, "You saw his face too didn't you?"

"Yeah... I did." His father responded.

"I wasn't expecting to see that at all, it was almost frightening."

Silas paused before speaking. "Son, that's the face of someone who's been through hell, and seen horrible things along the way. I don't even want to imagine what he's been through."

Once Silas and Sebastian were up the stairs he picked up the woman's corpse, before throwing it into the closet. He heard whispering coming from the two men as he went to close the door but couldn't make out what they were saying.

The woman's corpse was twisted in all sorts of unnatural positions, lying in whatever position she had landed in after being thrown, smashed between the contents of the closet.

Her lifeless eyes staring directly into Eli's soul.

"At least your suffering is over now." He whispered so quietly it was almost inaudible.

He ran his fingers down across her eyelids, closing them, and closing the door behind him.

"You'll suffer for what you've done!"

"You've broken our rules!"

"You traitor!"

“You'll die for this!"

"We'll find you!"

"We'll kill you!"

"You'll wish you had died instead of him!"

He shot upright in the bed from his light sleep, breathing heavily and covered in sweat.

Rain pounded against the window. light shining in, the moon still high in the sky.

"Still night." He thought to himself. "Why can't it just be morning?"

Creeeeaaaakk

Eli snapped his head towards the door

"What was that!?" He asked himself

Creeeeaaaakk

He sat quietly.

"Was that the rain hitting the house?"

He listened to the rain for a moment.

"No, it's not that. It's something… else."

Creeeeaaaakk

There it was again!

Eli thought hard for what could be making that sound.

"The back door!"

Someone was breaking in.

He uncovered himself quickly, leaving his bow under the bed where it was currently, and drew one of his knives.

Slowly, he peered around his door. Head at the bottom of the frame close to the ground, where no one would suspect to look.

"Closed doors means somebody could be in there, open doors means the room is likely to be empty, leaving people to search it last."

Seeing nothing around the corner he began crouch walking down the hallway towards the stairs, leaving Silas and Sebastian still asleep.

He looked down the stairs.

Nothing.

Slowly and carefully he began down the stairs, careful to avoid the steps he had already memorized creaked.

Once at the bottom he looked around the corner staring off into the hallway, moonlight lit up the house as he did.

Still nothing.

The moonlight faded and he continued his crouch walk along the wall, peering off into the living room as he did. The closet he put the corpse in was still closed.

"They must still be trying to get into the kitchen."

He inched closer to the kitchen, careful not to make a sound.

He got to the end of the wall and took a silent breath.

He suddenly shot around the corner, coming around it in a full crouch to throw off any intruder that he would find.

Much to his surprise, there was a man sitting at the table, feet resting on top of it crossed one over the other.

Eli stood up but his heart and stomach remained down at his feet when he realized who it was.

Sitting in the chair was the man he had seen from on top of the roof

"Yo Eli." He began, "It's been a long time. How about you grab a seat, we need to talk."