The Beautiful Monster

Elias threw the church doors open and stormed outside, finding Scott waiting a few feet away. He didn't hold himself back, coming close to Scott with a glare on his face.

"So, it's my fault that Melina was almost killed?" he snapped, fury flaring through him. He refused to let Scott pin all the blame on him.

He couldn't take that blame. It would crush him if Melina had been killed, and he thought that he was responsible.

"It was your stupid plan that almost got us all killed!" Scott replied sharply, standing his ground.

Maybe it wasn't the best plan in the world, but Elias didn't know what else to do. They had to take some sort of action.

He thought that they could catch Alaric off guard, overwhelm him, and then kill him.

But things went wrong like normal. Alaric kept surprising them with his powers, throwing everything he could at them. Literally.

"What else could we have done?" Elias asked, throwing his hands up. Scott always tried to tear him down no matter what, but Scott never stepped up.

He never assumed responsibility, while Elias stepped up. Someone had to rally the group, or they would fall apart.

"Not try to catch a demon off guard! What the hell were you thinking?" Scott spat, shaking his head as he turned away from Elias.

Elias grabbed Scott's shoulder and yanked him around so that they could face each other again. He wasn't letting Scott run from this fight that he started. They were going to finish this now.

"I was thinking about the group! We're tired. We want to go home. We had to take action," Elias said, defending his decision. They couldn't go on like this forever.

They were already losing steam, and he knew that they would be obliterated if they kept running and using up all their energy and strength.

"You almost sent us home in a body bag," Scott replied in a cold voice. "Just admit it. You have no idea what you're doing. You tossed us to the sharks!"

Elias scoffed as he looked away from Scott. What stung was that Scott was right. Elias had no idea what he was doing.

He was trying to do what he could with what he had. So far, it hadn't worked out all that well, but Scott wasn't pitching any great ideas either.

"Fine. What do you want to do now? You lead us," Elias said. If Scott wanted to be so judgmental, he could put the group on what he thought was the right path.

Elias was tired of Scott ripping into every plan that he proposed. Nothing would ever be good enough.

"Not go on a suicide mission. How about that?" Scott replied with snark in his voice. He crossed his arms over his chest as Elias stepped closer to him.

"You've always thought that you're so much better than me. You're wrong. You're a failure, and you're about to let the world down. You already let all of us down."

Elias wanted to yell. He wanted to throw Scott through the nearest wall. He wanted to defend himself.

However, he couldn't do any of those things. All that he could do was stare at Scott as his own blood tore him to shreds. Now, Elias felt guilty, being weighed down by the blame.

Maybe Scott was right. Maybe he was letting everyone down, even if he didn't want to believe it.

He was supposed to be saving the world from a terrible entity. Instead, he was leading his friends into danger, nearly getting them killed, and letting Alaric use them as a punching bag. These plans weren't working, and he felt lost.

"That's what I thought," Scott scoffed. He didn't look amused or victorious, though. He looked almost as upset as Elias.

Without another word, he turned and trudged to the RV, leaving Elias alone.

Elias placed his hands behind his head, sighing as he closed his eyes. He wanted to end this fight with Alaric so badly, but he didn't know how.

Teamwork didn't work last time like it did before. It was like everyone was fighting their own battles. It didn't help that the tension in the group was high. It didn't feel like the same group that had been training together or going out to dinner together. They were losing.

The church doors then opened, and Alyssa and Tyler carried Melina out by her arms, guiding her along slowly. Melina looked over at Elias with a frown.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

Elias didn't have a great answer to that question. He shrugged, looking away from everyone as he still processed his thoughts.

Scott's words still stuck with him, and he doubted that they would go away any time soon.

"Yeah," he murmured, keeping his eyes on the ground. "I'm so sorry about what happened, Melina. We should've never gone after him."

Melina frowned and moved away from the other two to walk over to him. She placed her hand on his back, coaxing him to look up at her.

"Just because Scott didn't approve of the plan and things went south doesn't mean anything. It could've been the best plan in the world and things still could've gone wrong," she pointed out to him.

Maybe she was right, but the fact that it was his plan and Melina nearly got killed struck him hard. He almost lost his sister.

She could've not woken up, and he was so grateful that she was even walking and talking to him right now. Things could've turned out way different.

"I made a bad decision that endangered the rest of the group," Elias replied. If he thought of the situation in simple terms, that was what he was left with.

"We agreed to the plan. This isn't only your burden to bear," Melina said as she shook her head. She grabbed both of his shoulders as firmly as she could. "This is no one's fault."

Elias met her gaze, breathing in deeply through his nose. Her words made him feel a little better, but he was still upset with Scott. It didn't help that one part of his group was against him.

He didn't want the group to fall apart from the inside out when the enemy was still out there. Alaric knew that they were weak.. He could strike again at any time.

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