Free A Hollow Dream of Summer's End by Andrew van Wey Page B

it like you threw the flashlight."
    "Dude, what's your problem?"
    "I don't have a problem. I also don't have a flashlight."
    "Yeah, and you wouldn't have anything if I didn't throw it." Aiden felt warmth run up his body. "I saved your life."
    "Yeah, so? Whose stupid treehouse are we stuck in? Whose stupid house did we go to?"
    The heat built, climbing. Aiden felt his fists ball up, tight. "I didn't make you come here," he said. "Plus, it's not like I knew some freaking monster lived in the woods, okay? What's your prob?"
    "My prob? What's my prob?" The lanky boy's voice hardened, primed. He stood up, swaying. Aiden saw a fist inside the pocket of the hoodie, another one at Freddie's side. Dark veins, pale skin.
    He's losing it, Aiden thought. Just like he did with Dong Hyun, or Lloyd in P.E., or Brian or...
    "My prob is that we're stuck in some tree, and that thing's down there. You threw our only flashlight away! We don't have any way to get out, or call out or anything! That's my prob!" Freddie pointed a finger, red and swollen, right at Aiden's face. "It's your fault! All of it!"
    The heat rose from a simmer to a boil. Aiden slapped his hand away. "Don't take it out on me! I'm only trying to help."
    Then Freddie was upon him, fists swinging. It happened so fast, a blur really. A left and a right cross sent him back, more open-handed slaps than full on punches. One popped his ear and he heard crickets and bees and felt warmth.
    Fists flew from both kids, angry haymakers that went too wide or too narrow and bounced off shoulders or missed altogether. Freddie pinned Aiden but couldn't get enough torque to land more than a glancing blow. And all throughout the assault that heat rose. Hotter, hotter. His hands seemed to pull him up from beneath his friend like a marionette on strings. Rising, fighting, shouting, and the treehouse went sideways.
    And suddenly Aiden was the one on top. Suddenly Freddie was beneath him, hands scratching at Aiden's face, fighting him off. Suddenly the four inches Freddie had on him didn't seem to matter at all. Strength, fire, heat that was what mattered. Aiden was a lucid flame, fists alight.
    "Guys..."
    "Stop it!" Aiden shouted and struggled with his friend. "Stop it!"
    "Guys..."
    "Fuck you!" Freddie frothed and flailed. "This is all your fault!"
    "Guys...help..."
    "STOP IT!" Aiden shouted, pinning the lanky boy to the wood.
    "Please... help me... guys..."
    And then Freddie stopped fighting and Aiden did too. They had both heard it. A faint voice, quiet and tired. Exhausted perhaps. It came from far off, from the shadows.
    It came from below, they realized at the same time.
    "Is that—"
    "—Brian?" Aiden cut in.
    And with that, Aiden got up and Freddie wriggled free. They raced over to the window. Nothing but darkness and wet grass outside.
    "Brian?" Aiden called. "Brian, buddy, is that you?"
    "Brian!?" Freddie shouted, almost a cry. "Brian!?"
    "Help me," came the voice, faint enough to be a whisper.
    "The hatch," Aiden said as they scampered over and threw it open.
    Thirty feet below, among the dirt and tanbark at the base of the redwood, standing over the fallen flashlight, was their friend.
    Brian stood, swaying and grey. A beard of wet darkness covered his chin, his neck. He had been stripped of his shirt, his pudgy girth hanging over a drawstring on his cargo shorts. One of his shoes was missing. His skin was cold and dirty on one side from where he had lain for hours. Leaves clung to his neck, his shoulders, his wide chest.
    "Holy shit, he's okay!" Freddie said. "Brian, we thought you were dead—"
    "Ladder," Brian said softly. "Ladder down."
    He hadn’t been killed, Aiden realized. Only injured.
    "Okay, buddy," Freddie answered, gathering the rope and wood rungs. "Did you get away—"
    "Stop," Aiden said.
    "What? It's gonna come back any second now," Freddie snapped. "We've gotta get him up!"
    "No," Aiden held the ladder back. "Look."
    "Ladder," Brian said from below. "Laaaa-duh