Chapter 137
- Evan -
As he swung once more, I caught his punch mid-swing. I closed my fingers around his hand like a trap. And slammed my head so hard into his I felt both our skulls crack.
Blood, sweat, and heat dripped off of us.
Two hearts beating like war drums inside our ribcages.
"You think I would ever hurt you?" I said, voice low and shaking. "Wake the hell up, damn you!"
His answering sound wasn't a word.
It was grief in the shape of a breath.
The portal roared behind us—another shockwave ripping outward, a blast of wind and dust across us. We are out of time.
Josh's eyes flickered.
Recognition.
Pain.
Just for a second.
"Ev—?"
The world bent, and I lost my grip on everything around me.
Time slowed.
The portal roared behind us, spilling light and heat into the air. The air shook with a hungry pull.
And I—
I was on my knees, hands gripping the dirt like I was going to fly off the earth. Dust from the broken concrete clawed at my throat as I tried to breathe.
A new demon's voice spoke not outside but inside my skull.
"You remember how it ended."
The world flickered.
Josh was lying in front of me.
The time he was in the abyss.
On the cold, hard ground in the snow, blood was pouring out of his arm.
Just—
This time dead.
His body twisted on the ground like it had been dropped from somewhere high up.
His shirt charred across his chest.
His eye is half-open.
Skin gray, lips cracked, dried blood at the corner of his mouth.
I screamed his name, but no words formed from my lips. What happened? Did we get pulled into the abyss again, and I blacked out?
Micah was sobbing.
James, shaking, hands covered in blood.
And Duke? He was frozen, jaw clenched, looking like a man who failed his last mission.
I was back there.
No.
Not back; we were trapped.
I reached for Josh—my hands shaking so violently I could barely get them to obey.
"Josh—"
My voice cracked in desperation. Broken. Ruined.
"Josh. Come on—no, no—no—"
My fingers touched his cheek.
He felt real; he felt cold.
Not cool or a fading warmth, but the cold of death.
My stomach dropped.
My lungs folded in.
Something in my scream was silent and couldn't get out.
"You couldn't save him then."
The demon whispered from behind in my ear.
Silky sweet and smooth, vipers' deadly words before the killing blow.
"You won't save him now."
My vision blurred as I looked at Duke again.
My mind locked on him; I couldn't understand why.
Duke! He is an angel; he can't be in the abyss. The creator of my false memory must not have thought that through, or this was my mind's way of placing a clue to help me reason myself back into reality.
But I remained trapped; images played on a broken record in my head.
I clawed my way out of the memory with bleeding hands.
My mind is shattered by the voice in my mind.
I punched my fist into the cold, hard ground.
Pain shot up my knuckles—good.
Real.
The scene glitched.
Josh's body disappeared.
Reality snapped back—
Josh was standing, still alive, fire curling around him like a second heartbeat. The demon was still pressed against his back, whispering into him, warping his mind.
James was okay.
Micah was steady.
Duke and Baby remained ready.
They were all alive and okay.
We were all okay.
Josh didn't need saving from a demon. He needed saving from himself, the lie in his mind.
I stared at the demon, and the demon stared back.
Its grip has no defined features, just a shadow gripping Josh's spine—like a leech hooked into his heart.
A demon of post-traumatic stress disorder that cursed its host with replays or false traumatic images.
Images that crawled their way into my mind.
Some images that haunted my nightmares of what could have been.
Crippling me once could have broken me, and yet I still never stopped trying.
It was using Josh now.
I tightened my jaw and steadied my breath.
My voice came out primal, low, and lethal.
"Get. The hell. Off—My BROTHER!"
The demons hissed.
Josh's eye flickers like static—recognition struggling to push through.
"Evan...?"
His voice was small and lost, almost terrified, like trying to find his way home in a foggy storm.
I stepped closer.
No fear or hesitation, I won't back away from this.
"If you're going to hit me," I whispered, "do it because you mean it. Not because that thing in your ear tells you I am a monster.
Josh trembled.
The portal expanded, pulling wind and loose debris into its maw.
Thunder cracked from another world beyond it.
Micah shouted something I couldn't hear.
James called out a warning to us.
Baby and Duke brace, ready to charge.
I was too blind to see what they were trying to say; all I know is. This battle was between Josh and me.
His eyes burned—not with fire but fear.
"Evan—" His voice broke. "I don't know what's real."
My chest cracked open.
"Then use me," I said.
"Use my voice. Use my name, my memory. Use every battle we fought together or had between us. We stand here for you all. Even if Kaysi and Becky aren't here, I know their friendship can anchor you, too. They're like our family—our home."
Josh exhaled—
—and came at me, tears pouring from his eyes.
Not possessed or corrupted. Just Josh was scared and confused.
I met him head-on.
A dance of brothers—fists, fire, and momentum as memories collide.
The fight was violent; history, love, and home were a way back to the foundation neither of us had but created for ourselves.