Page 10 of The Gathering
Seer’s single chuckle clouded the air before he aimed his twinkling eyes at him. “You’rewondering.”
A chill rode his blood that had nothing to do with the cold as he eyed the Seer. He wasn’t sure how to feel about making it into one of hisdreams. “So… what am I wondering? While I’m wandering?”
Seer’s laugh cracked the silence wide open as he turned his upper body at him. “Well, I was kind of hoping to learn that fromyou.”
Bacon jammed his hands back in his pockets, head shaking with all the bones in his body.
“Come on, little brother,” Seer murmured, easing back onto the bench with a deep sigh. “Confessit.”
The words left his mouth as a whisper but hit Bacon’s mind like hurricane force winds.
Fuck me.
He clenched his fists in his coat and looked around, sucking air into his tight, burning lungs as a barrage of shit hit his tongue.
“Been a while,” Seer said easily when all Bacon managed was a screaming silence. “We got time.”
Time. Yeah. Fuck.
Bacon shot off the bench and paced a few feet. “I can’t sit for this,” he said, catching Seer’s calm nod as he filled the air with plumes of breath full of all the silent conversations he carried with himself. Stupid conversations. Childish shit. “You know what? Fuck it,” Bacon said, facing Seer with his arms open. “I gotta tell you, I am so sick of… shining pots and pans and solving daily recipe crises and—andrapingmy mind for food storage solutions.” He shoved his fists back in his pocket, dropping his head. “And Iknowhow this sounds.”
“Theo,” Seer called, voice silk and steel. “Look at me son.”
Bacon pried his eyes off the ground and surrendered to his blue gaze.
“You need more. And that’s okay. At the very least you need a change of scenery every now and then. We all need that.”
Bacon held his stare as guilt gnawed at his guts while hope bubbled up inside him. “Look… I know feeding people is… important. I’ll always be a cook, that’ll never change. I love feeding people. What?! I do,” Bacon swore when Seer grinned then chuckled.
“You don’t need to convince me of that. You think I always want to see things? To know things?”
Bacon stilled, surprised at what he was implying. “Well, that’s a pretty damn… kickass gift,” he said, his conviction fizzling out at the look in Seer’s clear gaze. “Fuck,” Bacon barely said, making his way back to the bench and sitting, holding his stare the whole way.
“Shocked?” Seer muttered lightly, humor hinting in the single word.
Bacon realized his mouth still hung open.“Soshocked,” he confessed quietly. “I’m trying… to get it. How you could get tired of…”
“Because everything I learn and see comes with a burden. I see things that need fixing, and I can’t because sometimes I don’t know how, or it’s not my job to fix. I see things I can’t unsee, I know things I can’t unknow. Things I never wanted, never asked to see and know. And people…”
Seer drew a heavy breath that pulled at Bacon’s lungs.
“Well,youknow,” he said with a tired resolve. “Nobody wants to be near the one who sees shit that’s nobody’s business but God’s.”
It suddenly hit Bacon in his spine. What he was saying.
He raced over the years he’d known the man, looking for evidence of what he was realizing. And there it fucking was, in every recollection. The man who was treated like the dirty secret reaper, not a brother. Not even a friend.
Fuck.
Seer clapped a hand on his shoulder, shaking it lightly. “Don’t mourn over a darkness that no longer haunts me, son.”
His words added to the weight in his chest and gut. “I didn’t realize, brother,” Bacon said, a rasp scraping the words.
Seer’s hand moved to his neck. “I know,” he said, his words warm silk, fingers a steel cold assurance. “You’re a good man. And a good cook,” he added lightly, patting his neck.
****
Bishop wanted to run.
