I wasn’t alone.
There was someone there. Voices. Images. Not faces.
“How is he?” my brother Chris’ voice.
“Oh, he’s the same,” my Mom’s! the two of them ghosts in my minds-eye; phantoms obscured by a memory fading.
“He’s too thin,” said Chris.
“He can hear you, Chris! Behave!”
“no he can’t!”
Yes I can!
How had i gotten here?
MOM ! I shouted. She never listened.
“Did you bring my Cosmo?” she asked.
I’m powerless! I screamed.
“Yes. How do you read this shit?”
“Watch your mouth!”
“I’m 18, Mom!”
18?!? How? Last I’d seen Chris he was a hip-check away from a black-eye!
“Talk to your brother. He’s likes that!”
“I feel like a doof,”
“He’d do it for you!”
I would?
I could sense a resignation as something touches my hand. I try to pull away, but i can not; and fear strikes at the very heart of me,
I feel breath at my ear, “Hey. It’s me Chris.”
There was a darkness in that whisper. “Are you in there, somewhere?!”
MOM !, she never listened.
My fear; primal.
“I’m here,” Chris said.