Page 135 of The Devil We Know

To scream into the void…

I miss you

Come back

I barely manage to choke out the last word, emotion rushing over me like a suffocating blanket attempting to snuff out creativity.

Declan grabs my stool, yanking me closer to him so our legs are touching. His hand moves to mine, and he squeezes, pulling my hand over and placing it on his thigh. I scoot as close as I can get with the guitar in the way, but then his lead guitarist, Connor, appears on his other side, his hand extended.

Declan smiles gratefully, removing his guitar and handing it over without hesitation, decades of trust illuminated in that one exchange.

Connor sits on the stool that has magically appeared on the other side of Declan, then sits quietly, waiting for the cue to continue.

Declan takes a shuddering breath and then nods. Connor picks up the melody, knowing exactly how to play it as Declan collects himself.

Then Declan opens his mouth and sings,

We went a decade without a word

years gone by sitting on the sidelines

of our own individual reality,

too stubborn to take the first step

Reconciliation, a foreign concept

Not realizing the clock is ticking

A veritable time bomb, just waiting to

Explode our initial expectations of

All the years we thought we had plans for

Now, all time is lost to us,

Time to refocus and rebuild

A future in stone now turned to glass

And the knowledge that just like you

Time and space and the fucking

Landscape of our future…

It’s all…gone

Gone, never to be made up

No amount of pretending

will resurrect the impossibility

That I will ever get on with it

That there will come a time

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