[ MAGNOLIA ] sender, believed to be dead, arrives at receiver's door. / for elias ⤿ @silvercrested
elias stood in the doorway, his hand still gripping the handle as if to reassure himself that he wasn’t imagining the figure standing before him. his mind struggled to process the sight — allison argent, standing in the doorway as though nothing had changed, as if she hadn’t been gone for years. her presence sent a shockwave through his chest, a mixture of disbelief, relief, & something raw he hadn’t expected. he'd mourned her. he'd buried that part of himself, the part that once held hope that maybe, just maybe, she could return. but that hope had been long gone, eclipsed by the harsh reality of gotham. he had seen death before, witnessed too much of it, & he’d never once thought it would be this way. her death had been final — he’d buried her with his own hands, with a quiet grief that gnawed at him every damn day. yet, here she was, the woman who had once meant everything to him, standing there, alive. but nothing made sense.
his breath hitched, & he forced himself to speak, trying to keep the words from spilling out too quickly, trying to control the barrage of emotions threatening to overtake him. ❝i — i thought you were dead, ❞ elias muttered, the roughness in his voice betraying the steadiness he’d cultivated over the years. ❝i never thought i’d see you again. never thought i’d —❞ he broke off, pressing his lips together, his thoughts fighting each other as his gaze remained fixed on her, drinking in every detail of the person he once knew. his mind raced, struggling to reconcile the reality before him with the version of allison he had long since let go of. a thousand questions ran through his head, but all he could do was stare, waiting for her to say something, anything to make sense of it all. the silence stretched on, thick & unyielding. he wasn’t sure what he was expecting — some explanation, an apology, a word of reassurance — but the woman before him remained quiet, just watching him with eyes that were still so familiar, yet painfully foreign.
