In This Together

Chapter Five

After that came a lot of crying. Luke cried as Delaney crouched next to their father, begging him not to be dead. Their mom tried to hold herself together, but every night after she disappeared behind her bedroom door, the crying could be heard. Strangers they'd never met and extended family members they hadn't seen in ages cried at the funeral. Delaney didn't. He had been in such a daze since it all happened.

The police had questioned the two of them and Delaney went through the motions, answering the questions as honestly as he could just like he'd been instructed by the strange group that had shown up that night, wielding guns and very little explanation. At the funeral, everyone expressed their condolences. He could remember responding, but none of the actual words that passed between him and anyone else. And now, as he sat in his old bedroom, he could hear Luke calling his name, but his thoughts were too far away to comprehend that he should be responding.

Luke came into the room to find Delaney sitting in front of the computer, staring blankly at the screen. They had both slipped away from the reception taking place downstairs. There was only so many times you could hear 'I'm sorry for your loss' from total strangers before it started to lose meaning and you had to take a break from it all.

"Delaney?" Luke said again, shutting the door softly behind him. His brother still didn't respond, so he crossed to where Delaney was seated at the desk, leaning in to read the screen over his shoulder. Some of the information on the page jumped out at him. The header on the page read 'LAMIA' in bold letters. This was the stuff Delaney was reading when he first suspected that it wasn't a human killing people off. Luke felt guilt wash over him. He could imagine exactly the thoughts his older brother was having right now, and none of those thoughts were good ones.

"Don't do this, Delaney," he said warily.

"Do you think there's anything we could have done?" Delaney asked, ignoring Luke. He exited out of the web page and swiveled in the chair to face his brother. Luke didn't say anything so Delaney kept talking. "I wasn't so far off, you know," he said. "But someone told me I was crazy and obsessive." He was told there were many names for whatever those creatures were, lamia could have very well been one of them.

Luke could feel the resentment and bitterness rolling off of his brother. He took a few steps back. Delaney scared him when he got mad. He could remember shouting matches between a younger Delaney and their parents. Luke would always find somewhere to retreat, usually the basement or his room, until Delaney stormed out of the house, coming back only after he'd cooled down. The day he told his parents he'd joined the Marines, he didn't come back for almost a full week. Luke had no idea where his brother had gone during that time, and while sometimes he was still curious about it, he could never bring himself to ask Delaney about it.

"Please don't do this," Luke repeated. He looked from his brother to the door. He should slip back out and let Delaney work through whatever mood he was in, but he also knew he was partway responsible for how the older guy was acting. He should have believed him, or at least given him the benefit of the doubt and let Delaney play Nancy Drew for a little bit longer, even if he hadn't truly believed him.

Delaney stood up fast, sending the chair sliding back and clattering into the desk. Luke flinched, and under any other situation, Delaney might have felt bad but there was a levy that was cracking open and all of his anger was finally spilling out, even if that anger was misplaced.

"I shouldn't have let you get to me," Delaney said, hands balling into fists as he stormed toward Luke. He opened his mouth to say more, and Luke was sure he was going to get screamed at, probably hit, but then Delaney just closed his mouth. He got very quiet, which was even worse, Luke thought.