Chapter 144: Remembering Liam

I walked for a while, down the beach, away from Hensley house and Shenka and the truth that hurt so much the only thing I could do was move my body so it wouldn't fall to pieces around me.

A pair of children shrieked happily as they ran through the surf, mothers watching from their towels close by. A man and his dog jogged at the shoreline, a pair of young men tossing a Frisbee in the heat of the sun, slim, muscular bodies golden brown.

Normals, all of them, their lives simple. At least, simple compared to mine. I found a piece of driftwood, sat down on it when I just couldn't go any further, pulling my knees up, arms around them, staring into the ocean.

How easy it was to fall into the lull of the motion of nature, to inhale and exhale the world around me and ignore the soft, distant pattering of power against my shielding. My tools trying to reach me. My loved ones...