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Etho closed his eyes and brought his hands up to cover his ears, as though that would be enough to block out the sounds of the child crying out in the room beyond. The very walls were vibrating from the force of the tantrum going on right now.
Though was it really fair to call it a tantrum? That made it feel so juvenile, so petty and childish. Etho knew it was far more than that. This was his friend's whole world crashing down on him and it was Etho's fault… he got too attached.
Etho is a burrower. He knew the rules, he knew never to show himself to humans and to keep his people's existence a secret.
He ignored all that when Joel came in to the picture. The boy was lonely- oh so lonely. He didn't know how to make friends, he didn't know how to deal with his parents being absent for so long… and so Etho had come out of the walls for him.
Etho, who was also so lonely, who had recently left on his own and found it far too quiet. Etho, who, though not quite an adult of his own right, found peace and happiness in teaching and taking care of another…
Etho, who ruined Joel's life by creating one of too many secrets.
He had made sure Joel knew, "Don't tell anyone about me, okay?" He was their little secret. He wasn't worried even if Joel told anyone. Joel was a kid, they make up stories all the time. It's not too unbelievable to think the little people in the walls is just some silly game of pretend.
Etho did start to get worried when Joel seemed to never make any friends even as he joined school and had more opportunities to interact with them. He would come home from school right away so he could spend time with Etho instead of trying to bond with other kids his age.
He remembered one day in particular, Joel's tears so vivid in his mind, when the younger boy begged forgiveness from Etho because he'd told someone. He'd told one of the other children about the little people in the walls after hearing how they had recently called in exterminators to kill some rats or something, and "weren't they worried it was borrowers instead? You just killed people, not animals!". He told Etho how he got made fun of for thinking such a thing and that he ended up punching the other kid in the face for saying Etho was just imagined, or that Joel was so lonely he made friends with mice.
One week of suspension later, and Joel had a hard time interacting with other students after that. Too many had heard him; too many mocked him, and so Joel grew to resent them and school as a whole. He didn't need them, he had Etho.
The summers were better. They were the days when Etho wouldn't feel the guilt. Where he could pretend that the other kids weren't so harsh to Joel, that maybe he could make friends the next year. They just needed a bit of time to forget it and put his quirks behind them. It was okay to have Joel constantly at home with him instead of living life a bit more and being with proper humans. It was okay for Joel to be at home where it was less obvious that he was growing too dependent on Etho…
It was okay.
But as the years grew, as Joel grew… Etho knew their friendship was only causing trouble. It was high past the time when a child could have imaginary friends, and even Joel's parents could notice how ostracized Joel was from the rest of his peers. He was almost 12 years old and people had had enough.
It was only when Etho heard talk of therapists and doctors that he realized how worried people were getting. Mentions of hallucinations, medications, and mental illness. He didn't know a lot about those types of things with humans, but he knew enough. He knew that Joel needed him gone if he was going to be okay. He knew that he needed to stop it all.
And so Etho hid.
He hid in the walls and ignored those early calls from Joel, wondering where his friend had gone. He blocked up the entrances the boy knew about, creating secret ones he would use only at night. He stocked up as much as he could so as to hopefully stay out of Joel's sight for as long as possible.
He did all he could so that Joel could forget about him and grow up normally.
Joel was screaming at his parents now. Etho had to do his best to keep from peeking out into the main room as he heard Joel scrambling to keep a grip on the doorframe, his father finally having gotten too impatient for his son to calm down. He was going to his therapy appointment, where they had started plying him with different meds as he continued to fight against the adults all trying to force their mindset on him.
A therapist for their son as he continued to believe in the little people in the walls, that it wasn't all just in his head-
"ETHO, HELP ME! SHOW THEM THEY'RE WRONG!!!-" Joel screamed, voice hoarse from his previous cries. "STOP HIDING, PLEASE ETHO!"
-that Etho was still his friend.
The door slammed shut as his father finally got him out towards the car, and Etho finally had silence. He stood, waiting as though Joel would run back in, smiling like he did every day after school where nothing was wrong; as though Etho had never left.
It was almost twenty minutes later when he finally got the energy to move. With them all out of the house, this was the best time to gather more food and supplies.
It was hard adjusting to living on his own again, but he would do for Joel. Etho briefly thought of moving, leaving Joel completely behind, but he couldn't do it. He loved Joel, they were best friends, he couldn't handle not knowing. He needed to see Joel grow into a normal functioning adult. He needed that proof that this was the right choice, that years from now once Joel let it all go, he would be better for it.
Etho could only hope and beg for forgiveness for the hurt that Joel would go through to get there.