Before We Disappear

by Shaun David Hutchinson

“What’re you so glum about today?” Ruth asked. “I’m fine.” She threw me a skeptical frown. “No one who’s fine ever says they’re fine.”

“Laszlo’s like a monster who remembers what it was like to be a man and has fooled himself into believing he still is one.”

“Running from you would be like running from the air in my lungs.” I took his hand and held it to my chest. “Don’t you get it yet? I can’t breathe without you, Wil. You told me once that home doesn’t have to be a place. Well, what if home is a person? Because you feel like home to me.”

“I’ll steal your heart,” he said. “You cannot steal a gift freely given.”

Jack pulled me back and kissed me again. So long as Jack held me, the cage could not.

“I’m a burning building, Jack,” I said. “Only a fool would run into one.” “Then I’m a fool on fire.”

He was a reminder that we’re all a few bad choices away from being someone else’s villain.