~Jennie’s~

“You know,” I say as I place the steaming cup beside him, “you can keep staring at that fire like it’ll fix everything… or you can talk.”

The flames crackle in response.

Reo doesn’t move. He just sits there with his elbows on his knees, and shadows drag down his eyes. His jaw twitches. His fingers are scraped raw from earlier when he gathered branches and fought the storm and fought himself.

And still, he stays silent.

I sigh and start to turn away.

“She erased him.”

My chest stops.

His voice is low like he’s dragging it up from somewhere too deep. “My brother. He was older than...