"Where are you going big brother."
"There's something I need to handle." He made himself smile. He wasn't sure how well it worked. "It's important."
She looked at him for a long moment. Long enough that he wondered if she was going to refuse, if she was going to plant her feet and tell him she wasn't moving until he told her the truth. She had done it before. She was more than capable.
Instead she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, brief and fierce, and then stepped back.
"Be safe." Her voice was steady. Steadier than his chest felt. "I'll look after Mum while you're away."
He watched her walk through the gate. Watched it close behind her.
The latch caught.
And Bruce stood alone in front of his home with blood drying on his chin and the weight of something vast and patient pressing against the inside of his skull, and he thought.
