Eloim had been sleeping next to me for a while now. I turned the TV off and took him in my arms carefully. He wasn’t light, especially all limp this way and I moved gingerly.

I stopped as I heard creaking upstairs.

Xander?

“Enola,” I heard him say.

I froze.

My arms were starting to burn and I sat at the bottom of the stairs, putting Eloim’s weight on my lap carefully.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but we need to talk,” said Xander’s voice from above.

I didn’t want to interrupt or bother him, so I waited.

“I know you looked after Eloim all this time, but you’ve done enough now. He’s safe, loved, cared for. You can move on. You can let go. I know you mean well, but Eloim is scared of you.”

At the end of the corridor, against the window, I could see the shape of a woman. I couldn’t see anything but the silhouette, but I knew she was watching me, very, very intently.

“I’ve loved you, for a very long time,” said Xander upstairs. “But I can’t continue to live in the past.”

I somehow knew that she was hearing him as clearly as I.

“I know it wasn’t always perfect. I know I probably let you down plenty of times. I wish I could go back and be there more, when you really needed it, but I can’t do this now. We can’t keep doing this. Eloim needs to move on too. He’s what’s most important now. We need to protect him. I know that’s what you want to do, but that’s not the effect you have. You have to understand that.”

She stood there unmoving, looking at me, and I couldn’t rip my eyes away from her, in fear of what could happen next.

“We’ve both loved you, but the time has come for you to leave. Please, just move on. Mila doesn’t deserve what you’re doing to her. No one does.”

She started to walk in our direction, slowly, a bit oddly and my heartbeat accelerated at a thunderous level.

“Xander?” I pleaded loudly.

Enola accelerated. I gripped Eloim harder, making sure his face would be hidden from seeing anything if he woke.

“Xander!” I said louder, now panic clear in my voice. I couldn’t run away with Eloim in my arms, not in stairs.

She had nearly reached us as Xander thundered down the stairs and Eloim stirred.

And it was over.

“Mommy?” asked Eloim, sleepily.

I felt scratching on my arms, one after the other, but as I searched the darkness, I could see nothing.

“Take him,” I told Xander as he landed next to me. I tried to reel my emotions in as Eloim was stirring now.

He didn’t ask any question and lifted his son effortlessly.

“Up,” I said.

My instinct told me to stay close to a fucking railing as I didn’t want a repeat of my free fall.

Xander rushed up and me behind him.

That’s when I felt something cold wrap around my left ankle. I unconsciously lowered my center of gravity and put both of my hands on the railing a second before it pulled. Hard.

I went down, my knees hitting the stairs, but I didn’t fall down.

“Mila?” Xander began turning back to look at me.

“Up,” I ordered again.

We needed to get Eloim away from this first.

And then it pulled down. I gripped my hands on the bars and held on for dear life as it pulled painfully on my leg.

I tried to suppress a grunt of effort, but Xander heard it and whirled around rushing down cursing.

“No, Eloim,” was all I could say.

He hesitated for a split second, but ran down, holding Eloim’s face against his chest.

Miki which hadn’t realised we had moved, woke and decided to join the fray, barking at the bottom of the stair incessantly.

I grunted again as the pressure didn’t subside.

Xander landed on his ass next to me, Eloim in one arm, and tried to grab at me. And that’s when the pressure redoubled and I went flying down.

I managed to use my arms to prop my upper body up so that it wouldn’t be smashing my head on every stair, but it didn’t stop once I was down and continued on.

I heard Xander curse again and rush after me again, evidently slowed by the boy whom I’d no idea how he was doing in all this.

I twisted myself on my back to try to see something, grab something, anything, and I was swung sideways and inside a room, and knew what was happening a second before it did.

She would not hurt Xander, nor, especially Eloim, but now she got me alone.

The door slammed behind me, and a loud bang resounded nearly right after. Xander.

“Now I need to you be calm okay, so we can get Mila, can you do that for me,” I heard him tell Eloim.

I managed to get back on my feet and to the door.

Obviously the doorknob didn’t work.

“Xander?” I called out.

“I’m getting you out,” he said.

Things started flying my way, so I lowered my head below my shoulders to limit the risks of head injuries and kept my back to it as I tried the doorhandle again.

Xander banged hard on the door again with his entire weight.

“STOP!” I said suddenly angry and the room.

Nothing more crashed into me.

I tried the handle again and it turned as Xander was about to crash into the door again, but he shifted his weight agilely, and grabbed me out of the room.

He kept his arm around my waist as he bent and took Eloim in his arms and walked us to the main entrance door.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we walked outside without shoes or anything else. He had managed to grab the car keys by the door, and nothing else.

We piled into the car.

Eloim was not happy to sit alone in the backseat and I sat next to him to calm him down, but he was not as panicked as I would have expected.

“I don’t know, Mila,” he admitted as he sat behind the wheel. “I just need a break.”

Didn’t we all?