Under the trees: Elijah/OPEN
It was odd, the house deep within the woods. It had floors and floors and while he had everything he wanted (everything he needed, which was of course, the same until it wasn't) on one specific floor, when the house crawled under his skin and nestled there, Elijah wandered it. The house deep within the woods had vistas and uninterrupted views of the woods and the lake. He had thought as an angry boy of boiling oil, and crenellations and gargoyles from up there. The house was slivers deep under his skin and the house wanted to be full. He saw smoke, he saw the flames and was pushed. Too long inside. Too long with books, and coffee and music and enough. The house pushed and went where house shoved. It was easier that way. It made resistance if anyone looked like they might threaten to cross the threshold, easier.
Elijah was a reticent shadow under the spread of the trees. Avoided the lake. Hadn't been in the lake in decades. There were things in the lake, and if the people in the lake were stupid enough to be in the lake then they deserved what the things in the lake might bring them. He bobbed occasionally in from the periphery, largely to avoid anyone who looked like they might approach his general direction, and wove (scuttled, really) between the trees and and the yard.
The music was nice. The people twined around each other like trees whose roots had tangled too closely together looked to Elijah, like one of those very beautiful, very venomous flowers that would bite. It was busy, too busy but busy meant every single person present was preoccupied with another person and if they were preoccupied, no one was looking. Which meant Elijah could. Didn't have a Solo cup or a drink. He listed on the fringe of the grass, just where the trees ended and the yard really began and watched them laugh, and spiral and bloom for one another, with the greedy look of one intending to consume as much as possible before starvation ran again.
Which was how it was, until someone crashed out of the trees at Elijah's back and he shrank, face livid with a muddled mix of fear, anger and shame.