The alley wall was cold against my back. Rain hammered down in sheets, each drop hitting like a small cold nail. Then that too faded. Just weight. And cold.
Sound became muffled, distant, like it was happening to someone else. The amber blur of a streetlamp bled at the edge of my vision, I watched it fade. My thoughts came apart at the seams, slow, quiet.
"Hey." A woman's voice cut through the rain. Sharp. Close. "Is he dead?"
A pause. Footsteps.
"I don't know." A man. Lower. Unbothered. "Let me find out."
The kick landed before I heard him move.
It caught me square in the stomach, and whatever air I'd been keeping broke out of me. My body curled forward, hands scraping wet stone, lungs seized and screaming. I couldn't draw breath. I tried. Failed.
The gasp that finally tore through me sounded broken even to my own ears.
Above me, neither of them moved.
"You see, Thea?" He laughed. "Still alive."
"Then get it over with." Her voice was already drifting, bored. Footsteps turning. "It's cold and I want to go home."
I couldn't answer them. Couldn't stand. My knees ground against wet stone as I fought for air that wouldn't come, each breath scraping down my throat like broken glass swallowed wrong.
'Are you going to let them beat you?'
'Shut up.'
Another breath. Worse than the last.
'Pathetic.' The voice slid closer, intimate, a mouth against the inside of my skull. 'You have the power. Use it.'
'I said get out of my head.'
'Let me out.' Louder now. Pressing. 'Just let me out, and we can enjoy taking them apart.'
The rain. The cold. The laughter above me. All of it compressed, sound folding inward, the edges of my vision darkening at the seams, and the voice filled every crack the pain left open, burrowing.
"SHUT UP!"
The words ripped out of me before I could stop them.
Silence.
Even the rain seemed to hesitate.
He turned slowly. Took his time walking over.
"You've really got some balls," he said, crouching down to my level, "telling me to shut up."
"Dylan." I forced the words out between breaths. "I wasn't telling you."
He was silent for a moment then.
He laughed. So I laughed.
Then he stopped.
My face slammed into the ground before I registered his hands moving. The impact swallowed everything, sound collapsed into a single high-pitched ring, white and endless, and the alley tilted, folded, went dark at the edges and then all at once.
Somewhere above the ringing, his voice.
"Don't say my name." A pause. The sound of him standing. "This fucker thinks I'm stupid." Another pause, lighter now, almost cheerful. "See you tomorrow. At school."
Footsteps. Then nothing.
I don't know how long I lay there.
My eyes opened. The rain was still falling.
I pushed myself up slowly, one hand, then two, and looked at the scattered wreckage of the alley around me. Books soaked through. Bag on its side. The food.
I leaned back, the rain masking my tears. Sat there for a moment.
Then I gathered what I could, checked what wasn't ruined, and walked.
The road home cut through narrow lanes — broken homes, shapes sleeping against walls, against nothing. The hut sat just behind the slums, small and certain. I walked closer. The mirror by the door caught me. I stood there a long moment. Wet clothes. Bruised face.
'At least the rain washed away most of the blood.' I almost smiled.
Hands on the door handle, my breathing slowly steadying.
I fixed the smile before I opened the door.
"I'm home!"
She was already crossing the room, bare feet on the floor.
"Welcome..." She stopped. Grabbed my face with both hands, turning it left, then right, eyes moving fast and clinical. "What happened to your face this time?"
"Hey." I pulled back gently. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
Her hands dropped to her hips. She didn't step back.
"I'm your sister." Her voice went quiet. Which was worse than if she'd raised it. "Worrying about it is literally my job. So." She tilted her head. "Talk."
I looked somewhere past her ear.
"You remember my friend Isaac?" A pause. "We had a stupid argument. About, you know. Who's stronger. It got a little out of hand, that's all."
She said nothing. Just watched me.
"Is this the part where you say, I should see the other guy?"
A beat.
"Honestly?" I set the food down on the counter and was already moving toward the bedroom. "I am the other guy. Haha."
I didn't look back.
"I have to take a shower now, bye."
I didn't look back. But as the door clicked shut, I heard her footsteps cross the room and stop just outside it. Then her breathing, slow, heavy.
Then it hit me.
The image of her barely standing behind my door, face down, tears hanging from her eyes, her hands twisting her skirt as she cried without a sound.
After the shower I got dressed, hung my clothes to dry, and walked out to the living room.
The table was already set.
"Come on, Alec." She was at the stove, back turned. "Dinner's ready."
I stopped in the doorway. Took in the careful arrangement of the bowls.
"This looks nice." I sat down and reached for a plate. "Where did you get most of this?"
"The neighbours." She sat across from me and pointed at the soup, a small clay bowl, steam still rising. "They gave us some of their leftovers. Try these. They're delicious."
"Yeah." I tasted it. "They are."
I smiled. She smiled back.
We ate.
But her eyes moved, slowly, quietly, across my face, down to my shoulders, back up. She didn't say anything.
I noticed the trail when I looked up. One line. Halfway down her right cheek. Already dry.
My heart sank. The lump hit my throat so fast I couldn't speak through it. My vision blurred, and I was already standing, chair scraping back, before I made the decision to move.
"Thank you for the meal."
I didn't meet her eyes. Just walked to my room and closed the curtain behind me.
I buried my face in the pillow and the tears broke all at once. I pressed down harder, muffling it, kept my shoulders still, kept my breathing controlled, because the only thing between her room and mine was a curtain.
In the quiet, she was still at the table.
Crying as she ate. The night closed around us, two rooms, one thin curtain, and the kind of silence that isn't empty at all.
Morning came slow. Light found the cracks in the walls and pushed through them, thin and pale.
My eyes opened.