Page 108 of Hollow

I see him older, with Kat, sitting on a hay bale in a barn and giggling over something.

I see him as a teenager, mind drifting off in school as he notices the way the boy beside him swallows, how he likes the look of his neck, and how ashamed that makes him feel.

I see him older now, and he’s in a church on his knees, and he’s giving a pastor head. He feels excited, he feels dangerous. He’s never felt so alive.

Then he’s older again, and it’s the same pastor from before, and he has Brom bent over at the altar, fucking him from behind. He’s enjoying it, he’s loving it, and then suddenly, the doors to the church swing open, and another man appears. He threatens Brom. Tells him that he can’t show his face around Sleepy Hollow again.

The next image that hits is of him outside Kat’s window. Him desiring her but torn by a conflict inside. He knows he has to leave, but he doesn’t want to leave without her. He can’t bear the idea of life without her.

Then they’re in the barn, and he’s fucking her, and she’s bleeding beneath him, and she’s nervous and in pain, but she’s submitting, and he loves it. He loves her.

He loves her and knows he has to leave.

Suddenly, Brom pulls back, puts his hands on my chest, and shoves me.

I come out of his head and back into my body, and I’m stumbling backward into Kat, her hands going to my arms to steady me.

I stare at Brom, eyes wide, panting hard, and he stares back at me, his expression like a wild animal. He blinks, chest heaving. His beard is wet from my kiss, his erection visible against his pants.

“You didn’t run away because of Kat,” I manage to say to Brom, and Kat’s grip on my arms tightens. “You ran away because you had an affair with the pastor and you were caught.”

“What?” Kat exclaims with a soft gasp.

Brom doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t need to because I know all the memories I just unlocked are now raining down on him. His eyes blink as if they’re processing each one, a lifetime flashing before his eyes.

“You were caught by someone,” I go on. “The police chief, the mayor, someone like that, and they told you to leave, or you’d bring shame down on your family. They said you could never show your face here again. So you left. You had no choice.”

“Pastor Ross?” Kat asks Brom. “He left the year you disappeared.”

Brom presses his lips together, swallowing hard. “I…I didn’t know what to do.” He looks at Kat, pain radiating off him. “I thought I would ruin my family. I thought maybe, maybe I would come back one day, later, after the magistrate was gone. I was waiting to come back to you, daffy. Biding my time until I could see you again.”

She goes to him. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why couldn’t you tell me that night?”

“I tried to,” he explains. “I tried, and I was scared. I was scared that you would think differently of me, that you wouldn’t love me anymore, that you would think I didn’t still want you, because I did, Kat. I did, and I do. I wanted to prove to you that I wanted you more than anything, and I…I…”

He puts his head in his hands, fingers in his hair. Oh, my poor sweet boy. So pretty and so broken. I want nothing more than to put him back together.

“I remember everything,” he cries out, the sound muffled in his palms. He lifts up his head, his hands falling away, and his eyes meet mine in a thunderbolt of recognition.

His eyes are so dark, so wild, so beautiful.

And they finally see me again.

“Crane,” he says softly, in the sweet, obedient voice that I heard so many times.

I grin at him. “Abe.”

He grabs Kat’s hand, giving it a squeeze before letting it go, and then he comes toward me and puts his arms around me, embracing me, his head on my chest.

I put my hand on the back of his head, my fingers in his thick strands, and hold him there. My gaze goes to Kat again, and she’s crying, tears rolling down her cheeks, but she’s smiling too. She looks so impossibly beautiful. I feel strangely full, like my heart never knew I could love two people at once, desire them both equally.

“Come here,” I say to her.

She gives me a grateful yet shy smile and walks over. Both Brom and I part to let her in between us. Her skin is cold, perfumed with the night air, and it’s only now that I’m noticing she’s just in her nightgown and it’s freezing outside. Some gentleman I am.

We envelop her between us, now the center of our attention.

“My sweet witch,” I say to her, pressing a deep kiss on the top of her blonde head. “We’ve been neglecting you. You’re the most important part here. You’re the glue that holds us together.”

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