50

“Oh.” Suddenly, Trevor didn’t look so dazzling up there; he looked like a little kid. “Maybe we should go home after all. I…I don’t want to end up like them.”

“Okay. Do you need help getting down?”

Trevor shook his head, then both boys jumped as the leaves rustled. Samuel stared with wide eyes as a dark figure stepped out from between the trees. Trevor yelped and fell off the trunk in his haste to get away. But all Samuel could do was stare as the figure got closer and closer. Finally, the figure started to look less like something dragging itself out of the shadows and more like a person.

“Hey, what are you two doing out here?” The figure pulled back its hood, revealing Troy’s face.

Seeing Troy as a young teenager punched me in the chest. I recoiled from the memories of him yanking my hair and pushing me down. The gray film over the vision grew thicker as the shock rolled over me.

Get it together, Bryn, I coached myself. Just get through it. You can’t lose it now. It took a couple of