His arms relaxed into mine around him.
“No one will hurt you again.”
His weight became mine to bear.
“I’m with you.”
The kitchen had silenced except for Blue’s sniffles, and mine and Ethan’s heavy breathing. It was no surprise to notice Seb with Harmony, already inspecting Blue’s hand.
Then Dale’s heavy footsteps entered in a hurry. His eyes grew wide, trying to gather what he was seeing all at once. He ran to Harmony, “Honey, what happened?—”
She was still huddled over Blue. “Check Ethan!”
Dale ran to us, alarm etched on his face.
A little tired, I lifted fingers to greet him, but not a hand, to keep Ethan on the calmer side. “I have him. I’m with him.”
The back of Ethan’s head rested on my shoulder as he cried, “He was here, Dale.”
Dale’s eyes filled with angry tears. Then he gritted, “Nope. That fucker is in prison.”
Jesus. My head leaned toward Ethan’s while I exhaled and stared at Dale.
Dale gripped my shoulder, which said so much more, then, “I’m going to check on everyone.” He waited for a reply.
I nodded. “I got ’im.”
“I see that, kid.”
As Dale helped Harmony and Blue from the floor, and then tended to all bystanders who were so worried for this unit of damaged souls, Gage came to us on the floor. Exasperated, he sat next to us, shoulder to shoulder.
Eventually, Sarah and Caleb joined us on the floor.
No words were shared. We just sat there, allowing our breathing to unify. Slowly, we began inhaling and exhaling as one.
When Seb finally came to us, Ethan sounded beyond sad. “Did he hurt her?”
My heart bleeding for the guy, I rested a palm on Ethan’s forehead hoping I could ground him. Hoping he could see this horrid human wasn’t in this kitchen, or anywhere near us.
Seb seemed to completely understand. “N-no. H-he’s gone. Y-you saved h-her.”
“Good.” Ethan’s weight thickened on me. “I saved her.” Then his eyes closed. Quietly, he uttered, “She’s safe.” And just like that, he fell asleep.
No one moved. We continued to sit with our sleeping friend. Sad for his splintered mind yet relieved the episode was over, for now.
And that was when Finn entered the kitchen. Taking his time getting out of Dale’s car after baseball practice, he’d missed the entirety of the disaster, but he seemed to sense what had happened as he dropped his bat bag on the floor and joined us. “Shit,” he whispered, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
“He’ll be okay,” I assured Finn, needing to believe it myself, because I wouldn’t stop fighting for all of us to make it through our traumatic pasts, to be more than the hurts that shaped us.
Shortly after leaving the kitchen with Blue, Harmony returned with blankets and a note. After covering us, since it was clear we weren’t abandoning Ethan, she held up a piece of paper that stole my breath.
In her handwriting, it read:
He had a little sister.
Cheeks spilling with quiet tears, Harmony shrugged with a grimace. All eyes locked onto her finger that pointed to the word had.
My head fell back into the corner and stayed there. Ethan hadn’t been able to save his sister from this cruel world. He had been scarred by fire. His sister’s life had been stolen by it. The long hair that covered his damaged skin was actually covering his shame.
