TWELVE ; CLOSE YOUR EYES

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     TARON IS STANDING by the window, examining a mysterious red plant growing wildly outside, beginning to invade the basement by growing on the windowsills. He breaks off a piece of the weed-like plant, studying it with furrowed eyebrows.

Taron left Eleanor just a few minutes ago to look out of the window once again, thus finding that the tripods are still doing their mysterious work; he's becoming nervous that the tripods won't leave, for if they don't then he and Eleanor will be stuck down here longer than they'd like.

The two of them have been silent for most of their time in their asylum. Eleanor merely stares into space or picks at the fuzz on her sleeves while Taron tries his best not to glance at her; she hasn't even laid down, and that worries him the most. She always lays down.

For once, Taron doesn't know what to say; Eleanor might have just lost her brother and father, and who knows what the fate of Mary Ann could be. Taron lost his mother and the rest of his family is across the sea. They're both substantially solemn, and the eerie presence of Harland is doing nothing to help.

Suddenly anxious about leaving her alone, Taron glances back to the staircase, where Eleanor was sitting. Harland is sitting next to her on a step.

"Do you miss your mom?" Harland asks her. "I had a daughter nearly your age. Y'know, if anything happens to your friend, I'll take care of you."

"I can take care of myself, thanks," Eleanor says, disgusted. She stands up and quickly walks down the staircase as she crosses her arms over her torso, covering herself with her denim jacket. Taron walks toward her with a livid expression on his face. He stands protectively in front of her, staring at Harland.

"Oi, you don't have anything to say to her, d'you understand? If you want to talk to somebody, you talk to me," Taron tells him, distinctly angry without yelling.

"What exactly is your plan, Taron? I know what I'm gonna do — how about you? You gonna sit here, wait for them to come get you? Is that your plan?" Harland asks as he walks down the staircase. "Maybe you want to get caught. Hiding in a basement is too much for you, I bet. You'll probably turn yourself right in!"

Taron opens his mouth to retort before he notices an absence of murmurs. The tripods outside have stopped moving, causing the background noise of rumbles to cease. Eleanor notices it, too.

"Listen," Taron says. "It stopped."

Still angry, Harland continues. "Maybe you'll be okay. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll train you as their pet. You know, train you, feed you, teach you how to do tricks...."

"Will you shut up and listen?" Taron says, nearly yelling.

The three of them watch as pieces of wood fall from the hole created by the initial trembling. A slender, snake-like robot with some sort of camera resembling a single, large eye descends into the basement, a headlight of sorts turning on as it looks around the dim room. Taron immediately grabs Eleanor's hand and pulls her behind the stairs to hide.

Their hearts pounding, Eleanor grips Taron's hand as the long robot snakes around the couch. Taron pulls her out of their failed hiding and away from the machine, which investigates where Eleanor and Taron were previously sitting before moving on.

Taron leads Eleanor silently across the room. They squat near a wooden wall, Harland across from them. The slender body of the robot separates them.

Harland raises the ax in his hand, prepared to attack the perpetrator. Taron holds up his free hand in order to make Harland stop and, thankfully, he ceases the motion. Taron slowly shakes his head at Harland, pleading with his eyes to convince him not to swing at the robot. Eleanor continues to grip Taron's hand rather tightly.

Taron gestures for Harland to come to their side in hopes that if Harland feels less threatened by not being alone he won't impulsively chop up the robot. Harland nods, quietly walking forward and ducking underneath the machine. Eleanor's eyes dart between the two of them.

Just as Harland makes it to the other side, he bumps into a shelf full of glass containers, which obnoxiously cling together. Taron and Eleanor cringe, listening. The robot turns toward the noise and the three of them silently run to a different spot to hide.

Taron and Eleanor sit next to a wall, Eleanor leaning against Taron with her legs bent to her chest. The two of them practically hold their breaths to stay as still as possible, and yet they are both positive that the entire state of New Jersey can hear their thundering heartbeats.

To her annoyance, Eleanor's once trustworthy boot loses its grip on the floor and slides out of hiding. Taron quickly pulls her leg back to her chest, leaving his hand on her shin. Eleanor squints her eyes shut as they both listen.

The snake-like robot veers toward the noise to investigate just as quickly as Eleanor's heart broke at the betrayal of her favorite boots. Its head swerves around the corner, the light illuminating the vacant space where Taron and Eleanor once sat; she was sure that they were done for, but he managed to pull her away just in time.

The two of them hide behind a low wall, Eleanor and Taron sitting in rocking chairs as Harland hides nearby. Taron looks up to find the robot retreat out of the basement and back to the tripod it came from.

Taron lets out a silent sigh of relief, his body relaxing into the chair. Seeing his expression, Eleanor lets out the breath she was holding, too, and tries her best to stop herself from trembling. Taron looks at Eleanor, planning on mumbling an assurance — but all he can manage to do is look at her, still holding her hand.

They don't even get a minute to catch their breath before more rustling resounds from the dreaded hole. The teenagers merely turn their heads and lift their eyes toward the source, finding rather unexpected company: aliens. Real aliens, with rather large heads and equally orb-like eyes. Eleanor would tell Taron "I told you so" if she wasn't completely and utterly terrified.

Harland quickly turns off the lantern before hiding. Eleanor and Taron freeze in their chairs as the four aliens look at, smell, and touch various things in the basement out of curiosity.

A minute or so later, one of the aliens climbs on the short wall behind Eleanor, putting a "hand" on the back of her chair. She squints her eyes shut as the rocking chair leans forward. Taron stays as still as possible as he holds Eleanor's hand tightly; being petrified with fear made being tranquil quite easy, despite his pounding heart and his urge to shout.

Taron looks between Eleanor and the hideous thing above her, completely ready to punch it in the face if it notices Eleanor. No amount of fear could stop him from protecting her.

The trademark vibration noise from the tripods sounds just a moment later. As if it was a call, the alien above Eleanor backs away, causing her chair to rock. She grips the armchair and Taron's hand, not daring to speak or breathe anything but shallow breaths. The two of them listen as the aliens retreat back up the hole.

Taron waits a minute or so before breathing out once again and looking at Eleanor. She is still extremely tense.

"Eleanor," Taron says quietly, leaning toward her. She doesn't respond. He touches her shoulder and she flinches, opening her eyes. "Hey hey hey, it's all right." Taron studies her expression with extreme worry blatant on his face. Finally, her eyes meet his. "They're gone."

"Are you sure?" Eleanor whispers. Taron nods, not telling her that if she squeezes his hand any harder she will most likely break it. Eleanor exhales as she releases both the armchair and Taron's hand.

"Are you okay?" Taron asks her. She pauses a moment before shaking her head no. He leans forward and she gladly responds, Eleanor wrapping her arms around Taron's neck and Taron hugging her torso. She considers crying on his shoulder, but she was never a crier, so she merely closes her eyes and breathes in her best friend's comforting scent.

☁

Taron gazes at Eleanor, who is currently laying on the couch and attempting to sleep. Every time she closes her eyes, however, she becomes too frightened and immediately looks up to make sure that Taron is still sitting on the ground next to her. Taron rubs the back of her hand with his thumb as she goes through this process.

Finally, Eleanor sighs and says, "There is no way I'm gonna be able to fall asleep."

"Are you sure?" Taron asks.

"Positive."

"Try to think of stories, then. Future novels. That'll help calm your mind." Eleanor nods. Taron gives her a sympathetic smile. She closes her eyes for roughly three seconds before opening them again and shaking her head. Taron chuckles softly.

Suddenly, although he has managed to keep quiet for the past hour or so, Harland begins to shout Taron's name. Taron glances at Eleanor before quickly standing and reluctantly letting her hand go, running to the room where Harland is shouting.

"Keep your voice down!" Taron tells him, his voice calm but assertive. Eleanor sits up on the couch and listens.

Harland, who is kneeling over a hole in the ground that he created with a shovel, looks up at Taron. Harland points up to the window in the room. Taron skeptically looks through it, watching as a tripod uses one of its tendrils to set down a man, who is struggling to be let go. A needle-like object descends before stabbing the man and pumping the blood out of him.

Horrified, Taron puts his hands on his head.

"Not my blood!" Harland shouts, repeating it over and over. Taron realizes that he and Eleanor will have the same fate as that man if Harland continues to yell.

"Stop it! You gotta be quiet or they'll hear you!" Taron says in a harsh whisper.

"They drink us!" Harland declares, an insane expression on his face.

"Please, they'll hear you!"

"Then they spray us like a fertilizer!"

"They're gonna come back down here!"

"Then they spit us out all over their goddamn red weeds!"

"Do you understand what I'm gonna have to do, mate?" Taron says, no longer whispering. "I can't let her die because of you." His hands are off of his head now, one of them pointing in Eleanor's direction. She is still tensely sitting on the couch, listening to the tripods overhead.

"We're the resistance, Taron! They can't occupy this country. Occupations always fail. History's taught us that a thousand times. This is our land!" Harland continues as he digs.

Taron runs out of the room and to Eleanor, who is worriedly looking up at him. He kneels in front of her and puts his hands on top of hers, which are resting on her thighs. Harland is still saying odd and completely insane things.

"Are you...." Eleanor starts, trailing off. Taron nods slowly. Eleanor nods, too.

"If I'm not the one who comes out of that room, you take that ax and you hide. Anywhere. In the house, maybe, like a closet or something," Taron tells her. Eleanor's eyes widen out of fright, tears forming despite her effort. He puts a hand on her cheek to comfort her. "Can you sing me a song?"

"A song?" she asks. Taron nods, his hands returning to hers. "I'm not all that good — "

"I don't mind."

"I-I can't think of any songs."

"Just sing the first one that comes to mind," Taron says. "Please."

Eleanor nods before shakily singing Rivers and Roads by the Head and the Heart.

"A year from now, we'll all be gone, all our friends will move away...."

Taron nods, a sort of sympathetic smile crossing over his face.

"Don't stop," Taron tells her. He holds her wrists and raises her palms to her ears.

"And they're goin' to better places, but our friends will be gone away," Eleanor sings, her voice trembling as she looks into Taron's eyes.

"Close your eyes," he whispers, prompting her to read his lips. She complies, forcing her eyes to shut. Taron kisses her cheek before letting go of her wrists and standing up.

He glances back at her, considering the idea of telling her everything, just in case he isn't the one who walks out of the ominous room. But he doesn't. He sighs instead, and walks away.

"Nothing is as it has been, and I miss your face like hell," Eleanor continues, tears threatening to cascade down her cheeks.

Taron closes himself in the room with Harland, who stops chanting "Not my blood" at the sight of him.

"And I guess it's just as well...."

Eleanor hears grunts and shouts as the two men fight behind the door.

"But I miss your face like hell," she sings, pressing her hands against her ears tighter.

The noise continues, along with thuds and other sounds of a struggle. Eleanor is about to sing the next line when the noise suddenly stops. Everything is silent as Eleanor lowers her hands, staring at the door in anticipation.

The door finally opens and Taron walks out, causing Eleanor to cover her mouth. He walks toward her without meeting her eyes and sits on the ground with his back against the couch, one of his legs straight and the other bent, his arm resting on his knee.

"Taron," Eleanor says quietly. When he doesn't respond, she slides down next to him, facing him. Taron turns his head away from her. "Taron," she repeats, putting her hand on his arm.

He looks at her, tears forming in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

After a moment of silence, Taron says, "I killed someone, Eleanor."

"You did the right thing. He would have killed us if you didn't, or gotten himself killed by one of those things," Eleanor says. She pauses to look at his beautiful eyes. "You saved us. Again."

Taron looks down, then to the side, then back into Eleanor's eyes before saying, "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me," Eleanor tells him, still holding his arm.

"I'll always worry about you," Taron says, looking forward. Eleanor smiles softly.

A moment later Eleanor turns to sit with her back against the couch next to Taron. They sit in silence before Taron rests his head on Eleanor's shoulder.

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author's note ;

i wanted nothing more than to not have taron kill someone bc i wanted to keep him pure™ but it's vital to his character development, and harland would have gotten them killed, and taron's gotta protec eleanor. the whole point of this shit is that these two beans are growing up way too fuckin fast (and this isn't even the beginning of the Growing Up Too Fast Rollercoaster)