Robbing his memories to Torture his soul

Eleazar had been in the middle of preparations for work when a knock disturbed his pacing. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the door for a moment from across the room, wondering who would be there at this sort of time. He wasn't expecting anyone, nor did Marian say anything prior to leaving the house earlier.

Shrugging off any possible alarms, he went to the door to greet their unexpected guest. After a moment of uncertainty, he recognized the boy from Marian's phone, and he opened the door wider. "You're... Mari's boyfriend?" he tried to confirm, an eyebrow raised with curiosity. Odd, he thought, she told him she would be going to meet him...

The Shade's eyes scanned the background, trying to find the girl in question but not finding hide nor hair from her. "Mari's not here right now, but she should be on her way back. You want to come in to wait?"

Eleazar nodded with understanding, replying in confirmation as well. "Ah, she's mentioned me," he said, a hint of surprise in his voice. He'd known his sister to not speak of family very fondly -- and with majority of their lives separated, he doubted she had a lot of stories of him to tell.

Moving aside to let the boy in, he lead both of them to the living room area which looked like an absolute mess of newsprint and paint cans. "Excuse the clutter though -- I was helping her work with an art project before she left," he said. He didn't seem to look like he was doing anything about it, but if James turned his attention to said clutter, something was moving the scraps and cans, a dark force somehow tidying up after the siblings.

Regardless of whatever Marian had said about him to James though, it was reflex for him to make his own introductions, reaching his hand to the boy for a brief handshake. "Eleazar. I would say 'Officer Esperanza' but I'm technically not clocked in right now," he said with slight jest, but withdrawing his hand to his person to dismiss James' comment. "And it's no issue; Marian hasn't brought friends since she started school in Starlight. It's comforting to know who she hangs out with," he explained. To anyone who didn't know the younger Shade's story, the last statement would have come off slightly ominous.

The blond moved towards the other side of the room, concerned of his sister's whereabouts. "Mari's usually on her way home around this time before I leave for work. It's really strange for her to be this late," he mused aloud as the room magically arranged itself. If James followed the source of the dark entities, it would all lead back to Eleazar. A thread of dark matter handed him a phone to Eleazar, after which he shot a quick message to his sister of her 'surprise' visitor.

Eleazar shook his head to the boy's query. There was a glint of something in his eyes, almost unreadable but on a closer inspection, he almost looked pained by whatever he had in mind.

"She's introduced a couple of people and she's shown me photos of her old friends back at home and... honestly she doesn't really pick her friends very well if you ask me," he explained, leaning over the countertop while his shadow seemed to keep itself busy behind him. "Most of them didn't look like good company."

The shade looked back to his phone, suspended on the air with a dark tendril. No response yet. Where is that girl?

When he turned back to their guest, he had a thoughtful look on him, but it was that sort that seemed a little interrogative. "And I'm glad you asked because... I could have sworn she said she was meeting up with you," he said. Was Marian lying? He wouldn't be surprised, but he felt bad for this boy. If Eleazar was to be asked, he seemed like a nice boy to be around his sister given her life story.

"That's what she told me." Eleazar's reply had no lead in. It was straight and simple. "I asked right as she was rushing out the door, but maybe she answered that so I wouldn't have questions and hold her up from meeting whoever she was supposed to see," he added. He doubted it though. If he ever had questions for her, he would have asked after he himself came back home when he was clocked out. She'd tell him that she would tell him about it later; that wasn't the case here. What was she even hiding?

Damn it, Mari, what sort of trouble was she getting into this time?

Eleazar glanced back to his phone, still absent of any replies. He sighed. "I don't want to be the guy most people hate but... I think you should be careful around her," he told him. Eleazar looked at the boy sadly. Whatever that girl was up to, it was probably not good. Or for James at least. The boy seems even more clueless than either of them would want.

"I know she probably told you we didn't grow up together, but I hear enough from the letters to know what she'd been doing before she had to be forced into living here on the island."

Marian had actually seen her brother's message.

She chose to ignore it. He didn't say who it was anyway and she was too busy to bother worrying about it. It was just Eleazar. Plus she told him she was meeting her boyfriend -- there was no need to explain herself that she would be on a little stake out that had nothing to do with said boyfriend. Besides, he seemed okay with James when she told him about him so there was nothing to worry about.

Except at least when James texted her that when she realized her grave error. Marian looked carefully around her, making sure she hadn't been noticed and blown her cover. Shit. The guest was probably James; how could she forget about that detail?

Looks like she would have to wrap up there quick. Marian wrote up a little reply for James, sending him 'I just ran into someone in town! Be there soon.' and decidedly ignored her brother's for the mean time. She let a few minutes pass before she hit 'Send'.