Page 53

Hollis jolted from the darkness to find himself already dressed and in bed. A spike of terror gripped him, but Walt was talking.

You cried yourself to sleep. It’s okay, nothing happened, Walt whispered. I didn’t look.

He put a hand in Hollis’s hair and petted it gently, like it wasn’t attached to him. Like he was gentling a horse or quieting a child.

Go back to sleep. It will be easier in the morning. I won’t get up without you.

Without you. Without you. It echoed in the darkness of this place where Hollis now lived, behind his own eyes. Lapping like waves against his feet.

And something in him just... surrendered.

He drifted.