Ageless War

Sixteen || Rumor Has It

Ollie McLoughlin

Eagle County, Colorado

Thursday, January 30th, 1944

6:22 am

Everett opened his eyes before I could get another word out. He sat straight up and covered his ears, soon squeezing his eyes shut once again.

    "Ira," I whispered harshly, "you need to snap out of it."

    "I saved him, Ollie," Ira repeated.

    Exasperation built up a pressure in my chest, and I ground my teeth against each other. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet looking into his eyes as my hands rested on his shoulders. "Ira. Percy is dead. He died twenty-eight years ago. I need you to come back, right now. For Joseph."

    When he heard Joseph's name, it was as if a light had been switched on. He squinted for a moment before looking down at Everett, clearly beginning to remember.

    "What happened?" Ira asked, looking back at me, but by the guilt in his voice, I could tell he knew exactly what happened. He licked some of the blood off his lips.

    "You have to get cleaned up, mate. We have to go," I told him. "Take off that shirt and wash your face and hands. Quickly, mate, they're getting ready to get the hell out of dodge."

    Ira nodded numbly, speeding down the hall and out of my sight.

    I knelt down in front of Everett, praying the blood had circulated fast enough. If he had died after drinking Ira's blood, we would have a much bigger problem on our hands. Though I could hear his heart, I carefully moved my hand up to press two fingers against his neck. He flinched and jerked away before I could get an answer.

    "Everett, we need to go. We need to go, can you stand?" I pushed the words out with urgency, desperate for this nightmare to be over.

    "The ocean asked me that once..." he mumbled without giving any explanation.

    "Everett," I said his name once again, trying not to yell.

    Finally, he opened his eyes; I watched his pupils dilate from the sudden rush of light as he focused on mine.

    "I'm alive?" he asked, removing his hands from his ears and carefully feeling around his chest.

    "Yes. You're alive. But listen to me, we n—"

    "What happened?" he questioned as he speared the blood across his lips, horror spilling from his words.

    "You fell," I replied bluntly, fed up with this game of questions. I grabbed his hand and hauled him to his feet. Right on cue, Ira appeared beside me, looking as clean as he always used to, wearing a new shirt that was a size too big.

    "Let me help," he implored me, not waiting for an answer before walking around to the other side of Everett and wrapping the kid's arm around his shoulder. I followed suit and together we made our way down the hall. Between the two of us, Everett's feet barely touched the ground; we took advantage of this, moving from a walk into a jog, the omnipresent, earsplitting sound of the alarm being a very good motivator.

    Ira shoved the metal door open, and we were greeted with a gust of frigid air and the demanding shouts of Sergeant.

    Joseph saw us and ran over immediately, looking at Ira and unable to hide his relief. "You're okay," he blurted, exhaling heavily. He looked to Everett, who was already gaining color back in his skin. "And... so is he," he stated, though it sounded more like a question than anything.