Through Glass: Episode Four by Rebecca Ethington Read Free Book Online Page A

line.
    “ Think of a kamikaze squad,
Lex,” Bridget piped in, the disembodied voice sounding odd as it
addressed me. “Except these guys work in the dark.”
    I knew at once what she meant by that.
I had lived in the dark, in the shadows where the Tar lived, where
they came in silence and devoured you before you even knew they
were there. My eyes darted to the fire, subconsciously needing to
know that it still burned bright, even though I knew it wouldn’t
protect us from what Abran was now sending after us.
    Travis’s voice echoed around the empty
room as he swore in frustration, the sound making me jump. His
muscles rippled as he began to pace the floor in front of me, his
irritations saturating the air and heightening my own
panic.
    “ I think I found a way to
get out,” Bridget continued as if Travis’s outburst had never
occurred, “but I can’t leave for another day or two. Getting shot
sucks.”
    Travis’s pacing slowed as her voice
echoed through the phone, her tone changing to one that echoed her
own fear as well as something else that I wasn’t able to
pinpoint.
    “ As long as you are
healing, I can take care of everything else,” Travis said, his
voice still hard even though the muscles in his shoulders seemed to
have relaxed.
    “ I know, honey. I’ll call
you every day on the four.”
    “ I love you,” Travis choked
out as his tears began to fall again.
    “ I love you,
too.”
    “ Stay alive,” they said
together, their voices echoing against each other as Travis began
to shake with tears. His thumb then pressed against the illuminated
screen as he ended the call, the light dimming into nothing,
leaving Travis staring at a blank screen.
    I didn’t dare say anything. I only sat
in silence as I watched my brother before me, his back curved as he
stared at the phone in his hands, his shoulders shaking as he
fought the sobs, fought the tears and sadness that I knew all to
well.
    I knew that kind of pain. The pain
from when you were separated from someone you love. I knew the way
your heart would break when you had to walk away from something
like that. I could only assume that Travis was feeling something
akin to the heartbreak that lived deep inside of me.
    The heart break that still tried to
break me.
    I exhaled shakily as Travis did,
knowing I had to say something and wishing I could find the right
words. It was just like before, when I had watched my lanky, little
brother mope around the kitchen. I could see the pain on his face,
and I just couldn’t leave it there.
    “ She really loves you. How
long have you been together?” I said, knowing I was stating the
obvious along with a question that sounded as if it was coming from
the curious teenager I had once been, and not the adult I was
supposed to be.
    Travis looked up to me at my obvious
statement, his filthy face streaked with the tears that still
flowed freely. I watched the tears flow down his face, the lines in
his jaw hardening as he waged a battle with himself. A battle for
what, I did not know until one side won over the other.
    “ She’s my wife.”
    I could have sworn I had forgotten how
to breathe in that instant.
    I knew at once he wasn’t lying. I
could tell by the way he said it, in the way his body seemed to
loosen at the admission, the way his heart seemed to break as what
wasn’t said meant almost as much as what did.
    Bridget was not just his girl friend.
She was his wife. A woman he had married when the world was black,
after he had lost everything.
    I had known when Travis had left her
behind that he wasn’t as alone as I was, but now I knew how deeply
that went.
    “ What? Why didn’t you tell
me?” Even though I had already accepted the truth, I couldn’t stop
the words from spewing out of me, the questions meaning so much
more than just a plea for clarification.
    Travis seemed to accept that as well
because he only smiled, the fear of my reaction evaporating from
him as his grin only seemed to grow.
    “ I