The next time Eli came in, Christian didn't reach for a notepad.
Didn't ask questions.
Didn't even sit behind his desk.
Instead, he pulled two chairs into the middle of the room. Set them side by side, not face to face. Not adversarial.
Then he placed something between them.
A sketchpad. Two pencils. And a box of charcoal sticks worn down from use.
Eli stared at it.
"I'm not an artist," he muttered.
Christian sat. "Neither am I."
Silence.
Then, slowly, Eli dropped into the chair beside him. Not close enough to touch. Not close enough to even share breath. But Christian didn't push.
They sat that way for minutes. Maybe ten. Maybe more.
Then, finally, Eli picked up the pencil.
At first, it was just lines. Jagged. Hesitant. But Christian didn't look. That was the rule—no peeking unless invited.
Instead, he picked up his own and started to draw too. He didn't know what he was making—just shapes, impressions. A blur of black that might've been a cage, or a hallway, or a scar.
After a while, Eli's voice came—quiet, like paper tearing.
"He locked me in a room sometimes. No windows."
Christian didn't move. Didn't speak. Just kept drawing.
"He'd say it was to make me stronger. To teach me silence."
Another pause. Longer this time.
Then: "It worked."
Christian set the pencil down, finally looking at the boy beside him. Eli's hand was still moving, feverish now, pressing dark smudges into the paper.
His drawing was of a door.
No handle.
No hinges.
Just something sealed shut.
"I didn't scream," Eli said. "Not even once."
Christian's chest hurt.
He wanted to say you didn't have to, or that wasn't your fault, or you were just a kid—but none of that would mean anything yet. Not until Eli could hold those words for himself.
So instead, he reached into the box of charcoal and passed Eli the darkest one.
Eli stared at it. Took it. Drew one more thing.
A crack in the door.
Small. Barely visible. But it was there.
When Christian looked up again, Eli was watching him.
"I came back," the boy said. Not quite a whisper. Not quite strong.
But real.
Christian smiled.
"You did."