forKING&COUNTRY: Shoulders

Shoulders: Part One

"Moriah!" He screamed, his fingers struggling with his jammed safety belt. "Hold on! I'm coming!"

Moriah clung to the seat she'd been sitting in mere moments before, terror glazing her dark eyes. Even under normal circumstances, she was terrified of heights-- "Joel! Help me!"

He shouted in desperation and hammered at his belt, the sharp wind whipping about his face in brutal slaps. Around the open door he could see the pilot's head bobbing limply against the flight controls. "Hold on, love!"

The storm jolted against the plane and rattled his teeth--

The sharp taste of blood--

Moriah's screams as her fingers lost their grip on the seat--

His own screams of pain and loss as the place plummeted from the sky--

"MORIAH!!!" His eyes snapped open, his heart hammering in his chest. He flailed for purchase on something, anything to stop Moriah from falling, to keep the plane in the air even after the pilot had been knocked unconscious--

Something hit the floor and shattered. He lurched upright, still half-asleep, locked in the nightmare where Moriah screamed his name as her body was ripped from safety--

Lanky but strong arms wrapped around him. "Joel, it's okay. It's okay." A soft voice repeated in his ear, over and over in the vain hope that it would somehow drill into his head and take root in his broken mind. "It's alright."

The final wisps of the nightmare drifted away; Joel burst into wracking sobs and buried his face in his hands. "No, Luke, it's not alright. She's gone. Gone forever."

A small ghostly figure appeared in the open doorway of the room. "Dad?"

Luke lifted his head and forced a quick smile. "It's okay, Jude. Go back to bed."

Phoenix appeared at his brother's elbow, his hands pressed to his ears. "The screaming was SO LOUD."

Joel clutched his bandaged arms to his chest and wept. His body trembled against Luke's, shivers of loss wracking his exhausted frame. "Moriah..."

She's gone...She's gone...She's gone...