It was finally raining. After months of dry, scorching, unbearable days rain finally poured from the sky. The rain spilled down the sloped roofs of old houses and filled the dry riverbeds. Cactus flowers stretched up to the sky, reaching as high up as they possibly could to let the raindrops drizzle down their steams.

When Jay felt the cold rain hit his hot back he sighed and closed his eyes. He stayed kneeling in the field where he had been working all day, savoring the cooling feeling. He kept his eyes shut tight so that he would never forget the sensation as the rain poured down against him.

"Jay!" He heard someone call from far away and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Look!" Riley called out again as he bounded out of the schoolhouse, where he had been playing marbles with the other children. His small legs raced down the road toward the farm where his brother worked. "It's raining!" He cried with pure joy and the rain poured down his face and soaked his clothing. The sheer strength of it had already seeped through the coat he was holding and he dropped it to the ground to run faster.

Jay stayed kneeling in the dirt and he grinned at his brother. He was quickly approaching at a speed that Jay knew was going to hurt when they collided, but he opened his arms for Riley anyway.

Riley swung the pasture door open with all his might and flew through the field, kicking up dirt behind him in big messy streaks. He whooped with joy and threw himself hard against Jay. When they collided Jay wrapped his arms around Riley and stood. Then he began to spin, swinging them both through the air as Riley locked his arms around his neck and screeched with joy.

Jay placed Riley on the ground and watched as his younger brother danced in the rain. He wiggled around in circles and the rain danced with him. It poured down and cascaded off his frame, making it look like he had wings.

Riley spun around and slipped in the mud. He fell hard on his side with a loud thump, but he threw himself down on his back and beamed up at the sky as the rain flew into his grinning mouth and poured down his cheeks. Jay didn't know if Riley was crying happy tears or if it was just the rain.

Jay sighed again and looked up at the sky too. He shut his eyes as he felt the rain coat his face and flood through his thick, black hair. Riley's laughter mingled with the pattering sound of the rain, until the rain began to beat down even harder and Riley's giggles were drowned out.

"Boys! Come inside before it gets dark!" They heard their mother shout and the moment ended.

"Come on, Riley." Jay said gently and he offered a hand to him.

Riley frowned from his spot in the mud, "Just a few more minutes." He whined.

Jay shook his head. "Let's get on home before you catch a cold." He practically had to shout to be heard over the rain.

Riley pouted for a moment before he took Jays outstretched hand and stood, mud and water sliding from his body. As they passed the coat Riley had thrown down Jay picked it up and tucked it under his arm.

They trudged to the door where their mother was waiting. Her wild curly hair stood high around her shoulders like prickly thorns on a cactus. Everything about her, from her hair and her muscled arms was tough and inflexible. She stood in the doorframe with her arms crossed tight, and she watched the boys closely when they stepped onto the porch and out of the rain. With a quick and practiced movement she produced a towel and held it out to Jay.

"You two ain't coming in my house like that."

Jay took the towel gently and Riley grinned at their mother.

"Did you see the rain?" He asked her and he wiped some dirt from his brow, leaving a long stripe of mud across his face in the process.

"I see it now." She answered, and she shut the door behind her.

"Let's go dance in it some more!" Riley prompted and he bounced on the heels of his feet. It made it very difficult to towel him off while he moved like that. Riley was always moving, bounding through the town or shimmying in place when he was being forced to stay still.

"We ain't allowed outside after dark, remember?" Jay answered as he ruffled the towel over Riley's head to dry his wavy hair. Rules had been much stricter since that night in the field. Most days Jay tried not to think about it.

Riley pushed the towel up from his eyes so he could see, "But it never rains Jay! This is special!"

"It'll rain again someday." Jay told him as he ran the towel gently over Riley's arms.

"Someday…" Riley said sadly and Jay placed a hand on his face, tilting his head back up.

"Chin up, kid." He said gently as he wrapped the towel tightly around Riley's shoulders.

Riley smiled gently as Jay watched the happy light return to his eyes, it was never gone for long.

"Hey," he began and nudged Jay. "Come on, I wanna show you something."

Jay nodded and followed Riley inside, where their mother stood by the window watching them. "You'd better wash those clothes."

"We will!" Riley answered mindlessly as he hurried Jay to their room.

Riley dove onto his bed, his muddy clothes quickly dirtying the blankets beneath him. He reached behind his pillow and grabbed an old tattered object. "Look!" He cried and shoved it at Jay with a grin.

Jay raised an eyebrow and took it carefully in his hands, as if he was afraid he'd break it just by holding it. "It's… a book?"

"Yeah I got it from school." Riley smiled in excitement and pulled Jay down beside him. "Can you read it to me?"

Jay shifted uncomfortably, "Ain't you learning to read in school anyway?"

"Yeah, but I wanted you to read this one for me." Riley explained. "Please?" He pushed and he leaned against Jay.

Jay tilted the book and watched as it fluttered open. Pages spun past before settling and he tried not to grimace at them. All he could see before him were strange shapes and haphazard ink scratches. He couldn't comprehend the words, he had never learned how. He placed the book on his lap and fiddled with the pages. He wished there was a way he could learn quickly, right now, so that he wouldn't have to disappoint Riley.

"Go on!" Riley pressed and he squirmed a bit, as it was always hard for him to wait for very long.

Jay felt his heart tighten and he ran the tip of his finger up and down a tear in the book. "I can't."

Riley sat up, "What do you mean? You don't want to?"

"I just can't, I'm sorry." Jay repeated. Each word began to quiet so that it was hard to hear him at all.

"Do you want me to get a different book?" Riley offered, he tried to meet Jay's eyes but he wouldn't look up from the small divot in the book.

"No it's not that. I just can't. I'm sorry." Jay answered and he closed it gently.

"Please Jay…" Riley pushed, but Jay said nothing.

When Jay kept his head down Riley realized he had made Jay feel sad, and while he didn't know why, he wanted to make it better.

"Maybe I could read it to you instead?" Riley offered, and after a moment Jay brightened a bit.

"Yeah… I'd like that." Jay answered and Riley sat up and opened the book.

Riley hadn't read for very long before his words began to clump together and he slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep. Jay took the book from him carefully and closed it before he returned it to its safe spot behind his pillow. He grabbed a blanket and situated it over him and Riley snored gently.

Jay lay down on his own bed a few feet away, and he was beginning to fall asleep when he heard a loud sound from outside. It pierced through the night and shook him awake again, forcing him to jerk back into a sitting position. He couldn't be sure, but it sounded like a scream.

Riley still slept soundly and Jay crept to the window. When he peered outside he saw a light flicker on in the old shack on the outskirts of town. Jay frowned and he moved to the window in the kitchen. The form of a man entered the shack and shut the door behind him. Whoever had just entered the shack looked incredibly familiar to Jay, but he couldn't place whoever it was from so far away.

His mother was asleep in the old chair in the kitchen, her arms still wound tightly around her and her head leaning on the stove. Jay holstered his gun on his back before he slipped past her quietly.

He crossed the road to stand beside the old schoolhouse where he could get a closer look. The form stepped out again and went around the shack and Jay took another step forward.

"Oh, hi!" Came a startled voice from beneath him and Jay jumped, almost tripping and falling on the person he had practically stepped on.

Jay steadied himself against the door of the schoolhouse and looked down, "Connie?" He asked. "What are you doing out here?"

Connie stood and laughed nervously, "Couldn't sleep. I'm still crammed in with all the other kids in the community house." She wrung her hands together and smiled at him.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked him and Jay looked away.

"I was just looking around."

Connie frowned and followed his eyes to the dark mountains and roads. "Looking at what?"

Jay blushed and shifted uncomfortably, "I thought I heard something."

"Heard what?"

"I don't know. It's dark, you should go back inside." Jay answered, still not looking at her.

"You can tell me, Jay." Connie offered gently. Jay breathed in and he finally looked at her directly.

"I thought I heard something coming from the shack. And then I saw someone." Jay didn't want to tell her it had sounded like a scream and that he thought he recognized whoever he had seen there. He glanced at the town around them and tried not to fret over what a terrible liar he was.

Connie pushed her short blond hair behind her ears, "Where's Riley?"

"He's asleep." Jay responded quickly, "He's fine."

"Let's go look then." Connie suggested.

"I can just look myself." Jay answered. His words almost always came out harsher than he meant and he gave a halfhearted smile, worried he had hurt her feelings.

Connie shrugged, "I can look by myself too, but why not go together?"

Jay studied her for a moment before he began walking forward, and Connie followed and matched his long stride.

"We'll be quick, right? We'll just look and make sure everything's okay and we'll head back." Jay affirmed and he reached back to make sure his gun was still secure.

Connie nodded quickly and she pulled her coat tighter around herself, "Yeah, of course."

She steadied herself against a rock to keep from falling when Jay turned left abruptly and they approached the shack.

The old building leaned to one side so far it was a marvel that it hadn't collapsed yet. Large wood planks were boarded over its windows with jagged nails that bent in all different directions like clawing fingers. Both could see a very faint light peeking through the cracks in the boards. When they crept to the front of the shack the door sat slightly open, beckoning them in.

The howl of a coyote boomed out of the mountains and they both glanced at each other nervously.

"We'll be quick." Connie repeated to Jay and they slipped inside.

The inside of the shack was just as run down as the outside, the wood was rotted and the floor was covered with stray pieces of scrap metal and dust. However, it was surprisingly empty. There was no table, no beds, and nothing that would explain the scream that Jay was so sure he heard.

Connie ran her hands across the back of her neck as she crept around the room slowly.

"This is strange." Connie spoke softly as she examined the walls. She ran a finger across a faint outline of a rectangle on one wall. "Someone used to live here." She remarked.

Jay realized she was right, as he looked closer he could see the faint outline of where things used to be, like a drawing that had been erased.

"I always thought there would be something in here." Connie told him as she moved gracefully around the small space with a critical eye. "Something odd or just a bunch of junk, but something."

"I guess I was wrong. Maybe I just imagined the sound." Jay offered, although he didn't really believe himself.

"Maybe." Connie answered and she glanced at him quickly.

She ran her hand along the wall again. Just as Jay was about to suggest they leave, Connie took a sharp breath in and hissed it back out in surprise.

"Look!" She whispered and Jay left his spot by the door to join her.

Her delicate fingers rested upon a small brass handle. It had been concealed behind a piece of wood that jutted out just slightly.

"Should we see what it does?" Connie asked. She drummed her fingers against it nervously and chewed the inside of her mouth.

Jay looked back at the door. "It probably doesn't do anything."

"Yeah, but maybe we should check?" She questioned and she stared at Jay, waiting for an answer.

He fiddled with the strap on his back, "Okay, but then we'll go back."

With a careful tug Connie pulled the handle back and a loud grinding noise sputtered to life. The noise continued to groan through the air, and Connie's eyes widened when the floor beneath them began to shudder and pull apart.

"Whoa!" Jay exclaimed and he grabbed Connie's hand and pulled them aside before they fell.

The floor opened and revealed a staircase that descended down into a dark room. Jay and Connie stood still, staring down the steps and listening for any sound.

Connie still held his hand tightly in her own as she collected herself. "Thanks."

"It's probably just more of nothing down there." Jay muttered and Connie gave no answer as she began to pull him down the stairs.

When they reached the end of the stairs a long chain hung from the ceiling, just barely in reach. Jay grasped it and pulled the chain down and light illuminated the small room.

All around them lay tools of all different shapes and sizes. Some Jay recognized and knew well, some he had only seen in passing from the general store. Hundreds of farming tools, hunting tools, and barrels full of guns lined the walls and pushed upwards toward the ceiling. Jay could pick out the tools that had gone missing over the years as they sat there gleaming in the dim light. There were so many Jay would not be able to count them. Every single one was smashed and broken beyond repair.

Guns lay gutted, their most vital parts gone or mangled. Tools sat bent and worn down, handles were splintered and broken in half. Jay was familiar with almost every tool, but not one was usable anymore.

"I don't understand..." Connie began. She reached out and picked up a melted handle from the large pile.

"We've been missing tools and weapons for years now. They must be going here." Jay answered quietly. He didn't know why, but he felt a strong sinking feeling growing in his body. It pulled down every organ inside him and made him feel like he was slowly being crushed. There was an inevitable sense of doom falling over him but he couldn't place the culprit.

"But why would someone do this?" Connie urged and she dropped the gun like it had bitten her.

As Jay looked closer he realized the large red symbol painted on each wall, slightly obscured by the piles of stolen tools and weapons. It was a large horned animal, standing great and tall. Jay felt his blood run cold when he realized it was the very same symbol painted on the man they had found dead years ago.

"You're not supposed to be here." Came a quite voice behind them and Jay whirled around with his gun high.

Connie yelped and stumbled backwards, her back hit something sharp and she winced.

"Who let you in here?" The voice demanded again. He stepped down slowly, the darkness slowly pulling back so that he could be seen in the light. His eyes were red and they looked like they were uncomfortably large for their sockets. His mouth was set in a thin, red line and his large hands were set in fists at his sides.

"Dad?" Jay asked in disbelief, his hands trembled as he held his gun high at his fathers face.

"Put that down. Now." His father demanded.

He crept down another step. His veins pulsed and bulged and his eyes were somehow too small and too large all at the same time and it made Jay's heart pound. There was something happening to his father, something pushing and forcing to get out of him that he had never seen before.

"What is this? What is this place?" Jay asked as his heart sped up. He lowered his gun slightly and stared at his father.

"Put it down, Jay." His father demanded and his chest heaved.

Jay trembled and shook his head. "But I don't understand-" He began.

When Jay didn't move his father raised a large, meaty hand and grabbed the gun out of his grasp. He threw it back down and it skidded across the floor and clanked loudly as it joined the pile of weapons.

Jay stared at his father in a stunned silence. He stared at his gun that lay among the graveyard of broken weapons. "Dad, why are these here? Who did this?"

He gave no answer as he leered closer; his thin lips drew even thinner as he began to herd them into a corner. "Don't ask questions about things that ain't your business."

"Did you do this?" Jay questioned, he felt sweat break out on his skin and crawl down the back of his neck.

Upon hearing the question the veins in his father's head surged, they bulged and wriggled under his skin and he took in a deep angry breath in, he seemed to grow at least a foot taller.

His father stared down at them, towering over them and he breathed in slowly. "Get out." He hissed.

Jay stared up at him with wide, bewildered eyes.
"Get. Out." He said again, and he grabbed Jay by his shoulder and Connie by her hair and shoved them hard toward the door. They stumbled and fell on the stairs and he seethed and grit his teeth.

"Leave!" He cried.

Jay grabbed Connie's hand and they fled back to town, only stopping when they had run out of air and couldn't go anymore. They stopped back at the schoolhouse and stared at one another.

"Jay…" Connie stammered and Jay shook his head.

"I- I don't know." He ran his hands through his thick hair and took a deep breath.

"But why-" She began again, she wrung her hands together hard, turning them white.

"I don't know." Jay said again.

"Has he ever-" She pushed, but Jay stopped her again.

"No."

They stood in silence catching their breath as their adrenaline slowly dripped away.

Connie looked to her right and left and she bit the inside of her cheek again, "Are you okay?"

Jay said nothing, his mind racing far too fast for him to think.

In the next instant she stepped forward and hugged him, tucking her head into the gap between his head and his shoulder.

"Thanks…" Jay said quietly and Connie stepped away quickly like she had done something wrong.

"Sorry- I just-"

"Jay!" Someone called out and Jay looked up to see his mother leaning out the window of the house. "Get back here!"

Jay cringed and looked back at Connie, but she was already heading back to her own home with her head down. She looked back at him over her shoulder and gave a small, nervous wave.

His mother opened the door for him when Jay came back inside and she shut it tightly behind him.

When she turned back to look at Jay she shook her head disdainfully. Jay took in a breath to speak, but she cut him off with a raised hand.

"Don't. Just go."

Jay hovered for a moment, but he knew it was always better not to push his mother and he slipped back into his room.

Jay shut the door behind him and turned around. Riley was already awake and squinting at him from his nest of blankets. His hair was even wilder when he had been sleeping. In the gentle light Jay could see the dark freckles that dotted his bronze skin and framed his tired eyes. He looked more and more like Jay every day and sometimes it surprised him.

"Where'd you go?" Riley asked, and then he punctuated his question with a yawn. He rubbed his nose and let his hand fall back down beside his head.

"Nowhere." Jay answered quietly and he lay down on his side facing Riley.

The moment his body relaxed Jay felt tears unexpectedly fill his eyes. He blinked rapidly to try and rid them, but they were stubborn and only multiplied in his vision.

"Jay?" Riley asked, concern filling his voice. "Why are you crying?" He questioned softly. He abandoned his nest and crawled to sit beside Jay.

Jay rubbed at his eyes and breathed in. He didn't know why, and he wished he could stop.

When Jay said nothing Riley placed a hand on Jays face and wiped a tear away. "Jay, what's wrong?" He laid himself over Jay and squeezed him tight. "What is it?" He asked again.

"Will you read to me some more?" Jay asked quietly, his voice came out unsettled and small.

Riley pulled away with a soft frown and tilted his head at him. "What? Why?" He asked.

"Please?" Jay asked and Riley waited for a moment before he reached back and grabbed the book from its usual spot.

He cast another worried glance at Jay, but he lay down beside him and opened the book. "Green leaves rustled in the spring wind as the day began again…"

Jay shut his eyes and focused on Riley's voice as his racing brain began to slow.