“Mason?” The voice was familiar, haunting in ways, but so damn comforting too. I looked up, finding myself kneeling on a riverbank where a golden mist hung in the air. Across the eerily still water was a boy with warm eyes and a bright smile. Merrick looked just as he had the day he’d died, youthful, full of life, but there was an ethereal quality to him here in this strange place. “I’m sorry,” the words I’d wanted to say to him all these years spilled out and his form burned a little brighter. “It wasn’t your fault,”
SHUT UP
