The Beautiful Monster

Melina focused on Alaric, making darkness fill his vision.

"Elias, the fuel! Quick!" she shouted as Alaric stumbled around, temporarily blind.

Elias fought past his shock to focus on Alaric, staring at the fuel dripping off Alaric and setting him on fire.

His fire ability got an extra boost since Alaric was as flammable as could be. He watched flames eat up every inch of Alaric.

Alaric cried out in pain, trying to yank off his clothes and kill the flames, but they refused to stop. He dropped onto his knees, the fire burning him alive.

His shrieks and cries eventually turned into whimpers. Then, he was silent and still as he crashed to the ground, smoke drifting off his charred skin.

Elias stared at what was left of Alaric's body, feeling shock pulse through him. He couldn't believe that he did that. He actually killed Alaric.

He still couldn't fully wrap his mind around that, but it happened. The proof was in a smoking pile right in front of him. He looked over at Melina, who looked just as shocked.

"We did it," he breathed out. Even his words didn't seem real. How could this be reality? He had been fully prepared to die tonight, but they actually won.

After fighting for their lives with everything they had, they put an end to Alaric before he destroyed the world.

"We… did," Melina murmured, looking confused as well. She blinked a few times, taking everything in.

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When she saw Tyler emerging from the store, a look of relief washed over her face. For a moment, everything seemed okay, which was a miracle given what happened.

Elias couldn't even bring himself to get to his feet yet. He was still processing everything, and his body ached from being hit on and tossed around.

Finally, he didn't have to fight any longer. As much as he liked his fire ability, he preferred to just use it to light candles or something for a while. He was done lighting people on fire.

"Guys, Scott's hurt!" Alyssa called to them, snapping them out of their dazes and making them realize that not everything was okay. For Scott, things were far from okay as he continued to bleed out of multiple wounds on his body.

The joy that Elias felt about winning immediately went away when he remembered that Scott was hurt because he saved Alyssa.

It was another shocking turn of events, but he would be shocked over that later. Right now, someone was hurt, and things didn't look promising from Elias' point of view.

The group gathered around Scott, who was barely conscious at that point. They peered down at him with worried and sad faces, knowing that things weren't good. Alyssa did what she could medically, trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

"You didn't have to do that… save me. You shouldn't have," she said quietly as she knelt beside him.

Scott smirked weakly as his eyes rolled over to Elias.

"Are you kidding? He would've kicked my ass," he murmured.

Elias smiled a little in a sad manner, feeling his chest ache. No matter what happened between him and Scott, he never wanted this to happen to Scott.

They were still family. Getting under each other's skin didn't mean that they wanted each other to die.

"Thank you for saving her," he said as he placed his hand on Scott's shoulder. Honestly, he couldn't thank Scott enough for what he did. It was brave and selfless.

Originally, he didn't see Scott as either of those things, but his mind had certainly been changed. He just wished that it hadn't been changed in this way.

Scott grunted, sweat starting to bead up on his forehead as his skin grew pale.

"Yeah, yeah. No sappy stuff," he said.

Melina looked over at Elias with glistening eyes. She grabbed Tyler's arm, holding on tight as she used him for support. She sniffled as she peered down at Scott.

"Thank you for everything," she said.

What hurt Elias even more was the fact that they all knew that Scott was going to die. There was no saving him from his wounds. The glass had pierced his heart. Alyssa had done all that she could.

Now, all they could do was wait and say their goodbyes. It wasn't fair. No one was supposed to die. This was what he had been trying to avoid!

"Don't you feel guilty," Scott told Elias with a pointed look. "You did what you thought was best. Alaric is dead. That's what matters."

"You weren't supposed to go down with him," Elias said, his throat threatening to close up. He swallowed hard, shaking his head and trying to control his emotions as much as possible.

He didn't want to sit here and watch Scott die, but he wasn't going anywhere. He kept his grip on Scott's shoulder, not letting go and not planning to.

"She'll do more for the world than I will. If saving her is the one thing that I can contribute, I think I'm okay with that," Scott replied.

He coughed painfully, blood flecking his lips. He winced, trying to fight through the pain as much as he could in his state. There was no hiding from the pain.

"You helped us take down the world's biggest threat. That's a big deal," Elias said. He didn't want Scott to sell himself short.

He did help, even if he wasn't happy about it all the time. He was grateful for Scott's help.

"You always were sappy, Elias," Scott smirked. He breathed in weakly, his eyes starting to flutter. 

"Scott," Elias said, giving him a light shake when his eyes shut. His heart jolted when Scott didn't respond.

Just because he expected this didn't mean that he was ready for it! He gave Scott a few more shakes until Alyssa pulled him away.

"He's gone," she told him with a broken look on her face. She reached out and pulled Elias into a tight hug, rubbing his back.. "I'm so sorry."