Harrison
“He looks so much like our mother.”
That was the single thought that kept repeating in Harrison’s mind, like he could do nothing more than circle around the words, as if he were stuck on a carousel from hell.
Luca had her soft, brown hair. He had her warm, whiskey-coloured eyes. He had her pale, freckled skin that always burned fast in the sun.
And even though he knew his brother’s features like how he knew his father’s cologne smelled, or what his grandmother’s knitted blankets felt like wrapped around him on long car rides, something was wrong.
“Killinger!”
Something had twisted the sight of his brother’s face in his vision. There was something about how those brown eyes stared past him like they weren’t seeing him. Like they were looking at the stars beyond all the clouds and the rain that wouldn’t stop soaking his shirt, and not at him, where they should be.
“Killinger! Hey!”
There was so much noise. He could hear Taylor’s voice, but he sounded entirely too close and far away. And there was a ringing sound, as though someone had set an alarm off on the inside of his skull and he couldn’t find the off-switch.
He couldn’t think. He couldn’t see or feel past the pain, and he couldn’t hear over the sound of the ringing.
How had they ended up here? Where washere?
Hadn’t they just been driving the car? What was he doing sitting in the rain holding his baby brother?
“Harrison,please, we have to get off the road. The next person who drives by us is going to hit us.”
“He looks so much like our mother.”
Harrison brushed a strand of wet, brown hair out of Luca’s face, and blood smeared across his skin with the motion.
They had been celebrating. He remembered suddenly as his leg throbbed, making his vision darken only until lightning tore across the sky.
He was celebrating because he had just been drafted into the NHL. After years of dedication, training, and a whole childhood spent growing up on skates, he had hit it big. A one in a million chance. He had flown back home to see his family and his best friend. Eat good food, drink good beer, and take a week’s break before leaving for a training camp in Toronto.
Harrison blinked back frustrated tears. He felt sluggish, and trying to think through his mental fog was a task he couldn’t accomplish right now.
He was sitting on the pavement in the middle of a torrential downpour with no recollection of what led him there. He didn’t know why he was in pain or why Luca wasn’t laughing at his stunned expression. All he knew was that if the ringing didn’t stop, he was going to vomit on himself and Luca.
Thunder rumbled after another flash of lightning, and he heard Taylor curse.
Harrison was ready to go to sleep. He needed to get a nap in before getting on the plane and dealing with the long flight. He held Luca closer, trying to keep him warm as his eyes began to close, and exhaustion took over.
Arms suddenly wrapped around him, crushing his already bruised lungs. The pain in his leg became unbearable, and there was no holding back the hoarse scream that tore from him.
“Out of the road,” Taylor kept saying. “We have to—oh fuck, someonehelp me!”
Hands were tugging at his arms, trying to pry Luca out of his grip.
“Let him go! He’s gone!”
Gone where? Luca was right there with him. He was just too busy daydreaming and looking at the sky to pay attention, like he always did.
When Taylor’s hands kept trying to loosen his grip, Harrison jerked away from him, and the motion made him light-headed enough to make his vision go dark.
Dark. Everything was so dark. Where had all the light gone?
“Oh shit.”
Warm, yellow light slowly burned in his eyes, and Harrison only had seconds to glance up and see what looked like the yellow eyes of a demonbarreling toward him before he was abruptly pulled off the ground and thrown.
