At The End Of Their Tunnel Vision

Chapter XVI

Her first night shift immediately spiraled into disaster.

It was going smoothly at first, since she got well acquainted with Eric and Gunther, and Theodore, as he promised on their first meeting he behaved himself as expected from him. She thought her first night as a night-shift would sail smoothly, until Jasper decided he would be one of the greatest assholes she met in this company and f****d everything.

What did he do exactly? Well when Eric and Gunther's turn for scouting the upper floor of the building Jasper suddenly snatched the cup on her head, which ultimately revealed she wasn't a human as what Ailey wanted her to present. And just like the usual Jasper immediately assumed the worst out of her; for tricking them. While Theodore just watched his coworker harassing her at the sideline of the room.

The moment Jasper eyed her maliciously she knew it was time to go. There was no room for argument with her blaring intuition that the dark elf grinning at her as if a predator finally cornered a prey, she had fallen into a panic stance of defiance. Although at the same time she was fighting the memory at the edge of resurfacing, it still untimely caused her body to freeze from the conflict from fear to defiance. She entered a standstill between her fight and flight response. Until the dark elf finally made a move and cornered her back into the wall.

The sudden aggressive stance startled her. And before her brain made a concrete decision towards the situation her body moved instinctively in defense. Her hand reached towards the pouch situated at her hips grabbing the teaser and used the electrical weapon. Jasper didn't notice the approaching device aimed at his side, as he continued leering at her and degrading her with filthy words.

Narelle pushed the charge button the moment the tip of the taser connected at the dark elf's side, shocking him. Jasper was shocked and stunned, staring at her after he staggered back away.

With her trembling hands she stood in a defensive stance as she wielded the taser in front of her as if it was a sword. Keeping her eyes peeled open her brain entered a high alert state because of the adrenaline surging in her blood. Screaming at her to fight. She was no longer there. In that hell hole. Narelle didn't have to be a submissive succubus at the hands of any men to be used.

"You f*****g b***h do you have any idea who am I? You're gonna regret tasing me, you dumb leech." The dark elf snarled at her.

Narelle gripped the taser tighter in her hold. Although she was visibly shaking like a leaf, her body felt more rigid from the constricting fear. The tension from the dark elf's livid expression only built up the anticipation he would definitely do much worse than before petrified her.

And when Jasper was about to take a step towards her again an oppressing charge of oppressing magic manifested inside the room.

Elliot appeared in the middle of the room looking absolutely enraged. His right hands were clutching the side of his head where his never healing injury was located. The injury looked aggravated from the amount of black tar gushing out of the hole. His irises were constricted into a white orb while the pupil turned into a slit as he glared at the dark elf. He looked dangerous, unstable as if he just came out into a life threatening fight. Even the sound of his voice was heavily different from his usual reserved tone from the moment he spoke, his voice sounded deeper and harsher; alarmingly vicious. And when his eyes diverted towards his direction Elliot's expression even delved into a menacing visage than before.

Narelle didn't think twice upon going out of the security room when Elliot ordered to pack her things. Her hands were still trembling but entirely for a different reason. Reasons that related to her roommate.

This was actually the first time she saw the corrupted angel succumbed into complete rage that it outright showed to his outward appearance.

Which reminded her of his confession towards his abnormal condition. But how did he know she was in danger? Didn't he go home earlier?

After opening her locker she immediately grabbed her bag placing her discarded cup inside before she closed her locker and walked out of the locker room.

She waited for Elliot right outside the security room and when Elliot emerged from the security room's door, she almost jumped away from the light tap on her shoulder. She didn't miss the flash of anger from her roommate from her startled response. Her entire system was still riddled with fear that she couldn't even hold a look towards her friend. Narelle tried to hold back the defensive reflex of flinching against his light embrace.

Her mind was so busy absorbing tonight's event that she didn't feel the nauseating feeling of teleporting. Only when the familiar smell of the living room hit her nose did brought her back into the reality of her situation. Again because of her being a succubus she got herself into another kind of trouble.

The tremble of her hands passed all the way down towards her arms as the shaking of her limbs intensified when she clutched harder on the fabric of Elliot's dress shirt. Her teeth clenched from a mad grit when she attempted to contain her tears from leaking.

Elliot must have felt her inner turmoil as he engulfed her in a tighter embrace when her knees gave out and she finally crumbled. And Elliot slid down with her and sat on the floor. Her breath was ragged upon fighting over the urge to cry. She didn't want to cry anymore.

"You are safe now, Narelle." Elliot whispered on top of her head and she buried her face deeper on the fabric of his clothes before nodding.

Her dark demon friend continued towards comforting her with the reassurance of keeping her company for the whole night. Eventually the ache in her chest from the troubling emotions and reeling thoughts settled down, while Elliot kept her in his hold.

"How did you know about my situation back there?"

The hand caressing her hair stopped. She prayed he wasn't watching her, because if he did Narelle didn't know if she could fully trust him. She was aware Elliot didn't know the whole deal of her fear towards commitment. If Elliot's urges upon keeping her were coming from the corruption, then she could tolerate him watching over her. But it would be different if he was indeed monitoring her in his own accord.

Possessive nature was a big no, no in her book. So, she hoped Elliot wasn't a possessive type of guy.

"I was back in the office when my watcher alerted the commotion."

"W-watcher?" she asked.

Elliot stared at her for a while as if trying to decipher why her voice trembled upon uttering such simple words all of the sudden. Then he suddenly looked away but his features didn't display any emotions for her to read if he even managed to decode her.

"It is one of the mannequins I have created infused with some of my corruption. Since I can't tolerate having another life form in the same room for a long duration, I made my own minion monitoring over security feeds in the higher sections of the building. But it also includes the security room camera." Elliot explained.

Oh, that explained a lot. No wonder he reacted fast, because his corruption basically witnessed what happened.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now? It is time for you to go to sleep."

She looked up at her roommate, confused at his answer. Her eyes fell down, disheartened from the possibility that she might once again lose her job because of a bigoted person, judging her immediately just from the nature of their species.

"Stop worrying about your job, Narelle. I will take care of it." He rubbed the side of his head which made her look up at the open wound. "You are my responsibility after all–what?" he suddenly asked when he saw her openly staring at the side of his head.

"Does it hurt?"

Elliot continued the circulatory motion of his two fingers at the side of his head as he answered. "Just a bit." Even though the obvious wince on his grimace contoured on his face.

Narelle got an idea as she slowly raised her hand reaching for the place he was constantly rubbing. When her hand touched the side of his head, both of them got startled when Elliot flinched back, an unexpected recoil from her touch.

"Sorry."

She felt the urge of slapping herself upon realizing her mistake. Of course he would react that way, she never knew if she was even allowed to touch anywhere near his injury. Elliot was always self conscious about his appearance, which also included the hole at the side of his head.

Elliot grabbed her hand and guided it back from her motion earlier. "I did not tell you to stop."

Her fingers gently put a pressure on the place she always saw him rubbing from time to time. "I assumed you didn't like what I'm about to do since you moved back." she blurted out while her hands were busy massaging the edge of his wound. "Does it always hurt, Elli?"

He peered at her only with his left eye. "No, not always." Then he shut his eyes again, looking more relaxed with her doing the massage. "But the occasional ache annoys me sometimes. Especially when the voices were particularly determined on murdering someone."

She didn't need to ask whoever that someone the voices wanted to murder. But what would happen to her now? Elliot already did so much for her. She troubled him enough times already, and he never asked anything to her in exchange for all those rescuing he did.

Narelle released a gasp when she felt a pull on her waist and Elliot laid his head on her clavicle after pulling her into an embrace.

"Sleepy?" she asked. Her head leaned on her right side so she could avoid touching the side where his injury was located.

A lighthearted giggle came out of her mouth upon hearing the dark angel groan. "No. I am just exhausted."

"Are the voices still loud?"

Elliot shook his head. "Now they sounded like a chirpy bird with how they coo at you." From the sound of his voice he held a tame annoyance.

His statement brought a chill on her spine. She didn't even want to know what the voices were even saying.

The voices. She was still conflicted upon grasping the fact Elliot had other sentient beings inhabiting within his consciousness. But she knew after the trip from the museum, those voices were entities that once took over Elliot's remains to achieve the physical body in this world.

They remained in that same position for a while until Narelle's back began to ache from Elliot's ridiculous weight that they decided to lay on the couch. Elliot was unexpectedly clingy tonight he insisted laying on her chest.

"This is unexpected. I didn't know you like boobs as a pillow."

Elliot remained silent and when she peered down towards her chest to check her roommate, he only pressed his head further at the safety of her clothes.

"Sooooo. You really like my boob? Huh?"

After a minute of silence Elliot finally answered her question. "Yes. But not in a s****l way. They are soft, ok." His admittance didn't bother her a bit knowing the dark angel was never one for lying. It even made her giggle in delight, hearing him stuttered a bit.

"I'm glad you like them, fruit loops. I've grow them myself."

He groaned again, sounding completely annoyed at her. "Sure you do, Narelle."

Narelle continued teasing her roommate until it turned into friendly banter. Gradually her drowsiness finally came knocking to kick her consciousness out. And before she dozed off into sleep Elliot carried her all the way inside her room and tucked her on the bed.