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Hamish bit his lip. “I’m sure we can arrange that, but, Rory, I know you’re hurting, but she would’ve been proud of you, just like your dad would’ve been.”

Rory closed his eyes. “I want these cuffs off my wrists.”

Hamish nodded and picked the key off the desk.

As soon as the cuffs were removed, Rory rubbed the skin they’d been pressing on and marvelled at the indents.

“Better?” Hamish asked.

“Not quite.”

Rory sprung up and punched Hamish in the face. Hamish hit the floor with a thud and called out as he clutched his nose.

The door burst open at Hamish’s shout.

Rory didn’t fight the officer grappling with him. He held up his hands for the cuffs and allowed himself to be dragged out of the room and back to the segregation unit.

18

The kids in Rory’sclass bragged about watching horror movies. They tried to outdo each other, claiming to have seen the most violent and frightening movies out there. Erica happened to be a horror movie lover and owned a bookcase full of scary DVDs.

Rory watched them with the volume down, the lights on and Erica within reach. His friends at school didn’t know that, but he acted brave and unaffected in front of them.

He’d foolishly bragged his big sister could sneak him into a screening ofSaw. She’d worked at the cinema at the time, and the staff were allowed a few free tickets a month.

Rory couldn’t turn the lights on in the cinema or turn the sound down. Erica had sat beside him, munching popcorn and occasionally giggling at the mediocre quality and the godawful acting. Halfway through, Rory took hold of her hand and squeezed it so tightly he was surprised they didn’t somehow merge into one.

Between the violent flashes of lightning, Erica had turned to him with wide eyes. She’d seen how terrified he was, and without a word, she linked their fingers and pulled Rory from his seat. Rory squeezed his eyes shut, held his breath and trusted Erica to lead him out into the foyer.

They didn’t bring it up again until Rory passed twenty years old. She teased him. Rory accepted it because yeah, he’d been an idiot, claiming to like something he hated, but it was a good-natured ribbing.

Erica had got him out of there as soon as she realized he was in distress.

When he stepped into the morgue at the hospital and tracked his eyes along all the metal doors, he realized this fear that left him breathless was never going to leave him, and Erica wouldn’t be there to pull him away from the horror when it all got too much.

He was completely alone.

“I’ll give you a few moments,” Morris whispered.

Rory stiffened at her voice and gave her a dismissive nod. Hamish hadn’t come with him. He imagined Hamish was elsewhere in the hospital getting his nose fixed.

Rory took another step inside but refused to look at the trolley in the middle of the room. He wrinkled his nose, noted the room smelled clean, fresh, not giving away its purpose at all. The walls were painted white, and the metal doors were polished to a mirror shine.

It was cold.

So cold goosebumps ran down his arms and up the back of his neck.

The morgue itself didn’t fill him with fear, but the trolley did.

There was no creepy groaning, or shadows, or wolves howling, or people screaming.

Thunder didn’t rumble, and lightning didn’t flash.

This horror wasreal, and Rory took a deep breath before finally looking.

When their dad died, they stood side by side, hands linked. Rory’s fingers twitched, needing that connection, but no one was there to hold him.

True horror wasn’t screaming, bloodshed and fear. It was silence, and no movement. It was seeing someone you loved, there in front of you, but gone. It was holding your breath to hear someone else’s and hearing nothing.

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