Novacaine

Caedes struggled against the tide of his memories, each one crashing over him with relentless force; dragging him back to a time he had desperately tried to forget. Aurelia’s death had been the catalyst, and now the floodgates were open.

The memories came in a rush, the terror, the pain, the betrayal. His father’s eyes, wild and unseeing, the madness that had consumed him. The feeling of being utterly helpless, a child at the mercy of a force he couldn’t understand or escape. The shame of surviving when it felt like he shouldn’t have. The hate of being forced into that situation in the first place.

All of those emotions re-lived as he stood and watched his friend die, her children helplessly crying for comfort as her skull was bashed in.

Mariah’s hold tightened around him, her whispered reassurances fighting to pull him back to the present. Her voice was soothing and she was warm. Comforting, but the anguish was strong, its grip unyielding.

He forced himself to focus on her, to ground himself in the sensation of her slender arms wrapped around him, the steady beat of her heart against his chest. He fought to calm his breathing, his sobs stifled back into horrid heaves of his lungs.