Project Hero

by Briar Prescott

“I work as a coach at hockey camp. The kids have practice, not me. I mean, I skate a little, but it’s mostly just yelling at them to tell them what they’re doing wrong.” I stop and Law bumps into me. He’s big and warm and standing so close to him feels good. Too good. I step away. “Is that why I’m here? You want to practice your yelling on me? I’ll probably give you lots of reasons to get frustrated, just a fair warning.” “I’ll use all my best curse words,” he assures me with a twinkle in his eyes. “Lead the way,” I tell Law with a resigned sigh, and not a minute later, I find myself face to face with a row of treadmills. “Ah,” I say, doing my best to emulate the dude from History Channel. “Ancient torture devices. In the Middle Ages people who were accused of being witches were made to run on those archaic machines until they collapsed of exhaustion and admitted that they were, in fact, in cahoots with the devil and were practicing witchcraft.”