Nate dunked his cookie in the cup, holding it for a moment to let it soak up as much as it could before it would crumble apart. He then sucked it out dry before eating the whole thing, most of it soft with a bit of crunchy part on the end. His brother sat across from him, slowly chewing, the hard cookie crunching with each bite. Usually he’d be catching up with Nate, but he was quiet even on the bus ride home.

“Mark… Mark, Mark!”

“What, Nate?”

“Can I have another cookie?”

“Go ahead.”

Nate knew something was up. He dunked his cookie into Mark’s cup and stared at him. His brother was still looking away and didn’t notice. Nate frowned as he pulled the cookie out.

“Mark, I got crumbs in your milk.”

No answer. Nate ate his cooking looking at his brother. 

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Meech wasn’t at school.”

“You said he hasn’t been at school since last week.”

“I heard something today about it.”

“I thought he was just sick, isn’t that why he’s at the hospital so he gets better.”

“Tim says he overheard his parents talking to Meech’s, that he’s in the hospital because he tried to commit suicide.”

“Suicide?” 

“It means to kill yourself.”

“I know what it means, why would he do that?”

“I don’t know.”

He’d never heard Mark ever say anything so quietly, he was loud when he whispered. Nate reached across the table and held his hand.

“Sorry.”

Mark put his other hand over Nate’s and smiled at him, but Nate could tell it wasn’t a happy smile. 

“We should go play before dad gets home.” Nate said, pulling his brother lightly.

“We should.”

Mark got up and put their cups on the counter, Nate followed and then grabbed his hand again to make sure he’d come. If he let him win a few times, it should make him cheer up and be himself again.

—

The four of them sat outside while all their parents talked in Meech’s room at the hospital. After their dad got home, Mark told his dad what he heard and wanted to know if it was true. Mark had gone to his room and didn’t come down to eat. Their dad called Tim’s parents and then Meech’s, they made plans for Tim and Mark to see Meech. Nate insisted that he wanted to see Meech too, when Tim’s sister, Jesse, heard that Nate was going she also insisted on going. Jesse and Nate had always been in the same class like Meech, Tim and Mark, but they didn’t talk much.

Jesse was playing on her tablet while their brothers were whispering to each other. Nate’s dad had a tablet but it was old, he told him that it didn’t have any games on it, but he used it for DMing. Meech had told him that meant he talked to girls on it since he was single, but Nate went on it once and all it had was books and notes. 

She stopped, locking the screen, and looked back through the windows. “What do you think they are talking about, I thought they wanted us to come see him.”

“They didn’t want you two to come,” Mark said standing up.

Jesse was about to respond when the door opened and their parents came out, Meech’s dad said they could go in. Mark went in right away and Tim shuffled in behind him, pausing at the door for a moment. Nate hopped out of his chair before Jesse and followed them in. When he saw Meech, he slowed down, part of him wanted to leave as he suddenly felt wrong. He was as pale as the sheets, almost looking like he was blending into them, just one big pile on top of the bed. His eyes didn’t smile along with the rest of his face when Mark and Tim said hello, and they were surrounded by a shadow. His one arm had a tube coming out of it and bandages covered his wrists. There were some straps hanging off the side of the bed. Machines beeped and chimed.

As Mark, Tim and Meech talked, Jesse came and stood beside Nate, looking at Meech intently. Nate looked at Meech’s chest where she was and noticed something as she said, “what’s that?”

She took a step forward and pointed, Meech looked at her and his eyes lit up. He pulled part of the gown down. “You can see it?”

“See what?” Mark said, his mouth stayed open a bit as he looked at Meech.

Nate only saw a little shadow on his chest at first, but when he pulled the gown out of the way and everyone was looking at it, a handprint became visible. It was dark and elongated, it looked wet. Nate also stepped forward next to the bed and reached out to touch it, but Tim grabbed his hand.

“Meech what is this?” Mark said.

“You all can see it?” Meech started to cry. “No one believed me, no one would listen to what happened.”

“What happened to you, Meech?” Tim asked, letting Nate’s hand go.

“He was in the house, weird things were happening. There was the sound, thudding, he kept making the sound.”

“Who was in the house?” Mark asked. The monitors had begun to beep more.

Meech looked at him, he grimaced and more tears rolled down his face, “the herald.”

The beeping had gotten faster and Meech started yelling, “he calls them, I hear him all night long, he’s calling them. They’re all coming!”

A nurse came in with the parents and moved the kids away, she used a needle on the tube in his arm. He kept shouting the same thing over and over, but his voice quickly quieted down and he fell asleep. They were being ushered out of the room, Nate looked back and saw the nurse strapping his arms.

—

On the ride back home their dad apologized, saying they probably shouldn’t have seen him yet, that Meech wasn’t well enough. He wanted to know if they were okay and they both said yes. Nate thought about the hand print, it was oozing, he thought he had even seen it moving a bit before the nurse had come in. The sun was low behind them and the shadow of the car stretched out, Nate noticed they were driving by their school and stopped at the intersection. In the window he saw something and gasped, making Mark look over, it looked like it was staring at them then disappeared. Mark turned to look at Nate who nodded. Mark looked back at the window as they started to drive away, but Nate could not.

Nate had wondered where they were going because their dad was not taking the normal way back home after they had passed the school. A small glimmer of anticipation grew into full excitement as he saw a fire truck catching the warm light from the sunset – dairy queen was on the other side. 

Nate and Mark sat down at the old stone table while their dad went inside to get their desserts. Nate got up on the round bench seat and jumped to the next one, walking around until he got to Mark again and sat on the table.

“Mark.”

”Nate.”

”What’s a herald?”

Mark looked up at him. He paused for a moment. “It’s like an announcer, they tell you what’s going to happen soon.”

Nate looked at the windows, it was hard to see where his dad was because of all the posters and decals. “Who’s coming?”

Mark exhaled noisily, “don’t worry about it, Nate, he’s not well, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Did you see what was on his chest?”

“It was probably just a bruise, the paramedics or someone probably did CPR on him.”

“It didn’t look like a person’s hand.”

“What else could it be?!” He slammed a hand on the table and turned around.

Their dad came out with their cones, Mark had a caramel dipped one and his dad a chocolate dipped. Nate did not like the icecream being hard on the outside and always got a plain cone. He got off the table and sat on the bench next to Mark who refused to turn around until their dad say he wanted to talk to them.

“You boys know that if anything is going on, no matter what it is, I won’t be mad, okay? You can let me know, even if you think it’s really stupid or embarrassing, if it’s something you don’t want anyone else to know about that’s okay, I won’t tell anyone, but let me know, sometimes it helps to talk about things that you may not want to talk to your friends about either.”

He was using his serious tone that usually meant he was upset but his face didn’t look that way, Nate thought he looked sad.

“Sure,” Mark said. He looked away.

Nate nodded, “Yes, dad.”

“I mean it, boys, if you tell me something and I seem mad, it might be because I’m worried, I won’t be upset with you though.”

“Okay!” Mark said, “got it.”

Their dad sighed, “good. Okay, good, yeah. You boys know, I’m going back onto night rotation again tomorrow, so look out for each other okay? I’ll put plates in the fridge for your dinners. And Nate?”

“Yeah?”

“Make sure Mark doesn’t stay up too late,” he winked.

“Bedtime at 8 o’clock!” Nate said in Mark’s ear.

He stuck his tongue out at him, “Not a chance, that’s when babies like you go to bed.”

“He told me, so that means I’m the responsible one.”

Their dad laughed, “you both should go to bed at 9, I’m going to check my secret microphones at 10 to make sure its quiet.”

“You don’t have any, I checked everywhere.” Nate said. He and Mark had even gone into their dad’s room and were careful to put everything back where they found it.

”They wouldn’t be secret if you could find them so easily, I’ve hidden them with ninjutsu.”

Mark rolled his eyes.

“You still don’t think I was a ninja when I was younger do you? What about all those times you never found me when played hide-and-seek?”

“I’ll use mind’s eye ninjustu and find them.” Nate gestured with his hands and fingers, bringing them up his forehead.

“We’ll see if you have enough energy to beat mine!”

Mark crunched into the base of his cone as Nate and their dad laughed together.