Cherry

  I don’t notice at first.

  The night stretches long, pulling me through the usual motions. Washing dishes, sweeping floors, checking the doors. The storm outside rumbles low, but the orphanage is quiet.

  A little too quiet.

  I pause, broom in hand, scanning the room. I listen.

  No footsteps. No dripping water. No mud smeared across the floorboards.

  No Zett.

  I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Maybe, for once, he listened. Maybe he finally stopped, finally stayed in bed like the rest of them. Maybe I should just be gd.

  But I know better.

  I set the broom aside and walk down the hall, past the rooms where the others sleep. A gnce inside his room tells me what I already knew—empty sheets, untouched, like he was never there at all.

  The wind wails outside, rattling the windows, demanding attention.

  Something is wrong.

  I step onto the porch, the cold making it's way through my sleeves. The world beyond is chaos—rain sshes against the earth, the trees bend and shudder under the sky’s fury, lightning cracks through the dark like jagged scars. The storm is alive, and Zett is out there somewhere.

  I hug my arms, forcing my pulse to steady. He’ll come back. He always does.

  Minutes pass.

  He doesn’t.

  “Dammit Zett.” I curse, and before I second-guess it, my feet are moving, taking me down the worn steps, into the night.

  The wind pushes against me. My hair whips across my face, soaked within seconds. Each step through the mud is an effort, the rain drowning the earth, pulling at my ankles, but I keep going.

  "Zett!" I call, my voice nearly lost to the storm. "Zett, where the hell are you?"

  Nothing.

  “Zett!”

  I yell tell my throats dry.

  I can't find him.

  Then—movement.

  Between the trees. Something big coming. Klev warned me about a bear being around.

  I should return—

  I freeze.

  Lightning cracks, illuminating the world in a violent fsh. And there—just beyond the orphanage’s reach.

  Zett.

  Soaked, staggering, barely upright. His arms are hooked around something massive, hauling it through the mud. My breath hitches.

  He lifts his head, eyes finding mine through the rain. And then—

  He colpses.

  "Zett!"

  I sprint toward him, heart smming against my ribs. The mud sucks at my feet, the storm fights to hold me back, but I don’t stop until I reach him.

  He’s on his back, chest rising and falling in quick succession, his face streaked with dirt and rain. But he’s smiling.

  "I got food," he breathes.

  My eyes snap to the sack beside him. Heavy. Bulging. Caked in mud.

  And then—I see it.

  The bear.

  Dead. Its hulking body sprawled across the earth, fur slick with rain and blood, its massive frame half-buried in the filth.

  My stomach drops.

  This isn't a rabbit, a bird, or some half-dead thing he found in the woods. This is a bear—huge, heavy, something that should've crushed him before he even got close.

  Zett killed this.

  Zett—reckless, restless, impossible Zett—dragged this thing all the way back.

  The storm howls around us, but for a moment, all I hear is my brain hammering against my skull.

  "You’re insane," I whisper.

  "Told you," he pants. "If I don’t get strong... I won’t survive.”

  I don’t know what to say to that.

  His body goes sck, his eyes shutting.

  I catch him before the mud does.