He was
surprisingly heavy, dense. Hefting his end of the sheet one-handed,
hefting that mysterious weight, he remembered picking up Ed-Fred-Geoff
in the cave that first day, remembered the weight of the
brother-in-the-brother-in-the-brother, and he had a sudden sickening
sense that perhaps Davey was so heavy because he'd eaten them.
Once they had him bound snugly in the sheet, Danny stopped thrashing and
became very still. They carried him carefully down the dark stairs, the
walnut-shell grit echoing the feel of teeth and flakes of skin on the
bare soles of Alan's feet.
They dumped him unceremoniously on the cool mosaic of tile on the
floor. They stared at the unmoving bundle for a moment. "Wait here, I'm
going to get a chair," Alan said.
"Jesus, don't leave me alone here," Kurt said. "That kid, the one who
saw him -- take -- your brother? No one's seen him since." He looked
down at Davey with wide, crazed eyes.
Alan's shoulder throbbed. "All right," he said. "You get a chair from
the kitchen, the captain's chair in the corner with the newspaper
recycling stacked on it."
While Kurt was upstairs, Alan unwrapped his brother. Danny's eyes were
closed, his jaw hanging askew, his wrists bound behind him. Alan leaned
carefully over him and took his jaw and rotated it gently until it
popped back into place.
"Davey?" he said.
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