Rebel Children

The kiss caught Eli by surprise. Frankly, it almost killed him. He was no stranger to women, but no girl spent time with him because they liked him. Usually it was to make another boy jealous, or to upset their fathers. With Rose it was different. She liked him, and he really liked her.

He found himself pulling her in and holding her close to deepen the kiss. Against his better judgement, with her protective uncle just downstairs. He wasn’t sure how long they were like that, but they sprang apart when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Thankfully it was only Charlie, though he was looking for Eli. Eli reluctantly poked his head out. Charlie turned around in a huff.

“You promised you’d teach me knife skills,” he said. “I could’ve died today and I had no way to- Hey, what are you doing in there?”

“It’s my room,” Eli said.

“Not right now it’s not.”

Charlie pushed the door open wider and saw Rose standing there, her hair and clothes a little rumpled. They both turned a bright red as Charlie looked between them with a sly grin.

“Not with Tobias downstairs,” Charlie said. “You two wouldn’t be that reckless, right?”

“Shut up,” Eli grumbled. “And don’t you go around spreading gossip among your goblin friends.”

“No, I want to see how this one plays out naturally,” Charlie grinned. “Wanna fix your skirt there, Rose?”

Rose looked down and saw her skirt had been hiked up a bit, and she turned bright red as she quickly fixed it. Eli glared at Charlie and put his hand in the boy’s face, pushing him away and slamming the door shut. He turned to Rose with an apologetic grimace.

“Sorry,” he said. “He’s kind of a menace.”

“I always wondered what it would like to have a younger sibling,” Rose said.

“Well if you’re serious about wanting me to stay with you, you’ll have to take him too,” Eli reminded her.

“And I’m very happy with that decision,” she said, going up on her toes to give him a quick kiss. “Does that mean you’re coming?”

“After all that, I’d be a fool to say no,” he said. “And I really want to make sure you get to the city safe with these monsters lurking. But… there’s still your uncle.”

“Right,” Rose said, the smile falling off her face. “Okay. I’ll do that. Do you need time before we go? You know, for your job.”

“Oh I was fired,” Eli admitted. “He didn’t want rebel associations. We don’t need to get into it.”

“You didn’t want to tell me you got fired?!”

“I didn’t want to make you feel bad.”

She sighed with a smile and patted his cheek. “You don’t know how sweet you are.”

He watched her walk out and followed her down, but stayed back a little bit as she approached Tobias. He couldn’t help but be a little nervous about the man’s reaction. Rose seemed a bit nervous too as Tobias looked up at her.

“I invited Charlie and Eli to come with us,” she said. “They want to get out of Brimsey, and they’ve already been such a great help to us.”



“Rose,” Tobias said sternly. “We talked about this.”



“And I made a decision,” she said firmly. “They’re coming with us.”



“Rose-“



“I want them to come,” Rose repeated. “I want Eli to come. We’ve been getting… kind of close.”



Tobias glared at Eli and he resisted the urge to shrink back and hide. He then looked back at Rose. While she hadn’t outwardly said anything, he had put the pieces together.



“Close enough for you to make this sort of big, impactful decision?” he questioned. “A decision that might have future consequences? And I’m sure he has all of the details, does he?”

Eli’s gaze flit between Tobias and Rose, who had her lips pursed into a tight line. He wasn’t sure what Tobias meant about “details”, but it seemed like Rose was keeping something from him. More likely than not, it was the reason they needed to leave. Eli decided not to pry since this was already sort of a miracle for him.


“It’s a decision I made,” Rose said. “And you have to start trusting that I can make them. I’m not a little girl anymore. You have to let me make my own choices and trust that they’ll be good ones.”



Based on the tone of the conversation and the look on Tobias’s face, Eli suspected that this conversation wasn’t actually about him anymore. Whatever it was, it was a tense topic between the two of them. And they were both very stubborn.

Maria finally reached out and placed a hand on Tobias’s knee. She gave him a gentle but stern look.

“She’s right,” she said. “You have to start trusting her to do these things. If she trusts someone, you have to trust them too.”



“Fine,” Tobias said with a sigh. “They’ll come with us. I need to get some air.”



As he stood up to walk out the back door, he paused next to Rose and lowered his voice. He spoke sternly, but he wasn’t necessarily angry.

“If you’re old enough to make these decisions, you’re also responsible enough to give the full truth,” he said. “Don’t you think?”

He left her with that. Rose turned and headed up the stairs again before she said anything to Eli. He wondered what Tobias was talking about, but he didn’t want to seem overbearing either.

“We’ll probably leave tomorrow morning,” she said. “You should tell Charlie and pack a couple bags.”



“We don’t have much,” Eli chuckled. “It won’t take long. Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she said with a slight smile. “Just thinking.”



“If there’s something you don’t want to talk about, it’s okay,” Eli reassured her. “Unless you’re married. Please tell me if you’re married. Are you married?”

“No, I’m not married,” she giggled. “It’s nothing like that. We can talk about it later. We just need to focus on Patrick Reeves right now.”



“Right,” Eli grimaced. “I haven’t seen him since our little scuffle. I’m not really looking forward to it.”



“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”



Eli wasn’t so sure about that. Rose was confident, but Eli remembered how bad his fight with Patrick had been. He nearly punched the man in the face.

That night, they met Patrick in a private room of Leon’s pub. There were a couple other trusted rebellion members flanking him, but they stayed quiet and out of the way. From the way they eyed Eli when he walked in, they were likely there in case Eli snapped again.

Tobias, Rose, and Eli had gone while everyone else packed up back home, and Eli tried to keep out of their way as they talked to Patrick. It was a little hard to do so when he was the biggest person in the room, but he didn’t want to be the one causing problems.


“Ah yes, Elijah,” Patrick greeted. “I was wondering when I’d be seeing you.”



“Good to see you,” Eli mumbled.

“So you’ll be leaving with them?” he asked.

“Yes,” Eli said, avoiding Tobias’s gaze. “My brother and I will both be going.”



“It’s concerning,” Patrick says. “Eli has been a key player for me.”



“Is that so?” Tobias asked.

“The effects of the possession on his soul made him good for sneaking around,” Patrick said. “He’s good at stealth missions, you know. He might be a little too kind to his targets, in fact. They don’t see him coming until after their throats are cut.”



Eli shrank in his seat a bit. He hated what he had done for the rebellion, and he hated those things being recited in front of Rose or Tobias. Even if they kind of knew, Eli had never gone into detail.”


“Eli is a victim,” Rose said. “He’s a survivor, not a tool.”



“I’ve heard much about you, Rose,” Patrick said with a chuckle. “Spunky, aren’t you? Your uncle here is right. You certainly don’t belong here.”

“Then you’ll be pleased to hear that we’d like to leave in the morning.”



“There’s monsters appearing in Brimsey,” Patrick said. “They’ve never been so close to the towns before. We have reason to suspect they may have followed you from the woods. How can I be sure that the innocents of Brimsey won’t be terrorized by monsters after you leave?”

“Because they’re not after the innocents of Brimsey,” Rose said simply. “Once we leave, things will be back to normal.”



“And if they aren’t?”

“I’ll make up for it, personally.”



Patrick looked at them for a long time, then shrugged. 

“Whatever,” he said. “Go, then. And take the boys with you. Especially that little one. He causes too much trouble.”



“We’ll leave without a fuss,” Tobias promised.

Eli didn’t say anything else, but Rose reached over and gave his hand a light squeeze with a smile. It was the first time Eli would ever leave Brimsey, but with Rose around, maybe it wouldn’t be so scary. He just had to prove himself to Tobias. Somehow.