Photo
His eyes glazed over as he stared at the photo. He'd lost count of all the many hours he'd spent stared at it over the years. It was the only thing that gave him comfort, the only thing that ever did. He breathed out deeply and closed his eyes. He still heard the screams. Even after all the years. He wasn't sure how many. He tried not to remember the number but he knew it was in the double digits by now.
He still remembered waking up that morning, so long ago, and feeling his mark tingle. His mark had shown up when he was 15 and he waited for over 17 years to feel it. It seemed like it was any old normal day at the park. He fed the girls, ran them through drills, tried to scare off his boss, Hoskins. Same old stuff. Until his real boss, Claire asked him for a favor. And everything went wrong. And he was running for his life and trying to fight a killer dinosaur.
He hardly felt it when the mark started burning. He barely spared a moment to glance around. His soulmate was there, somewhere in the crowd, about to be attacked by a swarm of pteranodon. Beside him, Claire was searching for her nephews. And then she was running. He turned to follow and that's when he saw the kid. Their eyes found each other through the crowd and he swore he felt his heart skip a beat.
And then a pteranodon swooped down and snatched the kid before anyone could move. He felt his heart rip in two as he watched. And he heard the screams that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Less than a minute and his life was shattered. All he was left with was a picture the kid's brother sent to him, taken earlier that day when they arrived.