Alyssa nodded as she stood up from the couch. He seemed to be okay, but she just wasn't sure nowadays.

He was good at hiding his emotions, which made it hard for her to know if he was okay or not. She needed to get better at reading him.

"Everything okay?

" she asked as she watched him grab his car keys.

Elias turned to her and gave her an intrigued look.

"Yes. Why do you ask?

" he questioned her, searching her face with his eyes.

Alyssa didn't want him to think that she tried to eavesdrop when he was on the phone, so she smiled and shrugged.

"Just checking because of all the Scott stuff. Maybe he'll back off eventually,

" she said.

She tried to be optimistic, but it was hard to feel that way when Scott showed no sign of backing off anytime soon.

They would have to weather this storm or force Scott to back off. She preferred the drama free way.

"He should for his sake,

" Elias replied, his expression turning dark for a second.

Alyssa was caught off guard by his switch in tone. That sounded like a threat, and it didn't seem like an empty one.

Lately, she had been noticing how dark he could get, bordering on aggressive. She didn't see this side to him a lot, and she hoped that it didn't become a regular thing. She didn't want him to be so angry and stressed.

"Come on,

" Elias said, his voice snapping her out of her thoughts. He took her hand and led her out of the apartment.

Alyssa looked down at their joined hands, noting how gentle his grip was on her hand. At least he was gentle toward her.

When he was protective was when he became dark. She supposed that it was for a good reason, but she didn't want him to think that he always had to protect her.

She knew that she needed to stick up for herself when she could. She had been trying to teach herself that since her sophomore year of college.

The world was rough, and people could be cruel. She had seen that firsthand.

************

Alyssa hurried into the hospital, trying not to be late for her shift. She had to stay behind after a class to ask a professor a question, and that turned into a fifteen conversation that she didn't expect to have.

At least she had plenty of information about her last paper for that class. She couldn't believe that she was about to start working on the final assignments for her classes in her undergraduate career. The end was coming fast.

She honestly couldn't wait for summer break. It wouldn't be much of a break because she would be preparing to move across the country and getting ready for medical school.

There wouldn't be that much time left for her to relax, but it was a whole new adventure. And she was happy about that.

She was just glad that there would be a break from homework and tests for a few months.

Her sneakers thumped against the hard, white flooring of the hospital as she rushed for the elevator.

The last thing that she needed to do was leave a bad impression during her last few weeks at work.

She wasn't one to be late, and she didn't want Jackson jeering at her for getting in trouble and being sent to do paperwork or scut. She wanted this to be a good day.

Once she reached the elevator at the end of the hallway on the first floor of the hospital, she pressed the up arrow, shifting impatiently in front of the closed doors.

Of course, the elevator was coming from a few floors above her. She hated how slow it moved. She thought that elevators in hospitals would move with a little more urgency.

When the elevator doors finally slid open, she hurried inside and hit the button for the third floor, which was where she typically worked.

She turned to face the doors when there were a few inches left between them. A flash of black moved past the doors, like a gliding shadow.

Alyssa narrowed her eyes in confusion once the doors slid shut. She didn't know what she saw, but it was weird how it just showed up like that.

For a split second, she thought that it was a person trying to get into the elevator at the last second, but it was far too dark and quick to be a person. Maybe she was just imagining things.

She coaxed herself to relax as she felt the elevator start to glide up the elevator shaft. She glanced up as the light above her started to flicker.

She blinked her eyes a few times, wondering if she was imagining it, but it kept flickering until it went out. The second it went out, the elevator shook slightly before coming to a sudden stop.

Alyssa gasped as she tumbled to the floor, being knocked over by the jolt of the elevator.

She placed her hands on the floor in front of her, unable to see through the darkness. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest as she glanced around, trying to find the emergency button on the panel to get her out of there. She swore that she was in a nightmare right now.

"Come on. Come on,

" she whispered frantically as she tried to find the button. She needed the lights to come on now, or she would start panicking. It was taking everything in her to not start screaming at the top of her lungs for help.

Suddenly, a light gust of air brushed against the back of her neck, making the hairs on the back of it flare up.

She flinched and scrambled away, cowering into a corner to try to get as far away from whatever touched her as possible.. She stared into the darkness in front of her, and she could've sworn that she wasn't alone in that elevator.