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The one that always had him a phone call away from heartache, a phone call away from running back to the only one he’d ever loved. And if he’d learned anything in all those years since, it was that the past didn’t lie, and while he’d vowed to stay, Priest had done no such thing…
“JOEL…? JOEL! WAIT for me,” Henri called out, trying to project his five-year-old voice across the swampy marshlands, as his ankles sank into the mud underfoot.
It was Saturday afternoon, and when his father, Victor, had dumped him at Big Jimmy’s and told him he’d be back for him in the morning, Henri hadn’t much cared. That just meant he got to spend the night with his best friend Joel, instead of being locked up in the empty shack they lived in out of town.
“Nuh-uh,” Joel shouted back from somewhere up ahead. “It’s hide-n-seek. You gotta find me.”
“But that’s not fair. I can’t see you,” Henri said as he pulled a foot free. The wire grass they’d been running through was thick and much taller than he was, which made seeing anything more than a chubby arm’s-length away hard, and when the mud oozed through his toes again, Henri began to giggle, getting sidetracked by the cool, wet feel of it.
“Henri?” Joel called out, refocusing his attention, and when Henri’s head whipped to the left where the tall cypress trees sprang out of the ground, he spotted his friend in an instant.
A shock of red hair glinted in the sunlight up ahead. Henri grinned as he started off in that direction. He laughed, excited to reach his friend, even though his legs were now all but covered in the sludge that he was merrily stomping through.
“I see you! I see you!” Henri yelled, pointing up at the tree where Joel was perched on one of the higher branches. His arms were wrapped around the trunk and his dirty legs were hanging down on either side of the branch he was straddling.
Henri came to a stop at the base of the enormous tree, and as he craned his head back, he did a little jig of victory. “I found you.”
“Yeah, but you cheated,” Joel said as he swung his leg over the branch.
“Did not.”
“Did too. You made me talk to you.”
Henri was about to answer when a big, beautiful bird with white wings glided through the air and caught his attention. As it soared through the trees, Henri took off after it, and with his eyes sky-high, he wasn’t paying attention to what was beneath his feet, and his foot got caught on a gnarled root sticking out of the ground. He pitched forward and barely had enough time to put his hands out in front of himself, and before he knew it, he was tumbling face-first into the mud.
“Henri!” Joel shouted from somewhere behind him, and Henri shoved up from the ground just in time to see two big boots stop directly in front of him.
As he wiped some dirt from his eyes and craned his head up to see who it was, Henri jerked back onto his ass and scrambled away from the man now looming over him—Big Jimmy. Joel’s father and Victor’s boss.
All the joy from seconds ago drained from Henri in an instant, as he stared up into flat grey eyes and a glower that was straight out of his worst nightmares. Jimmy was in his usual work pants, suspenders, and white shirt, sleeves rolled up. There was blood splattered on the leg of his pants, and the muscles of his left arm bulged as he gripped the shotgun he held.
“Joel?” Jimmy said as his eyes narrowed on Henri, then he raised his head and called out, “Boy? You better show yourself.”
Henri cowered at Jimmy’s feet, not daring to move or speak as he heard the grass shifting behind him, and not a second later, Joel stepped into the clearing. “I’m right here, Dad.”
“What have I told you about running around out here?” Jimmy’s voice was low, and made a shiver race up Henri’s spine. The one thing he and Joel always tried their hardest to do was avoid Jimmy, which was usually easy, since he didn’t like children and was never around. That was not the case today.
Joel lowered his head, his eyes on the ground under his feet as he answered, “You told me not to.”
Jimmy whipped his right hand out and took hold of his son’s chin, and as he jerked Joel’s head back, Henri quickly clambered to his feet. Something in his too-young mind understood that he needed to stand up, that he needed to stand tall by his friend’s side and help, because unlike normal children, they were the sons of monsters, and they had to stick together.
Jimmy’s eyes shifted over Joel’s shoulder, but he quickly dismissed Henri as a threat by bringing his attention back to his son.
