Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Rocks and dust kicked up around the tires as they skidded. A tree loomed
in front of them, a great old thing with cracked bark leaking sap like tears.
Wallace reached through Hugo, wrapping his hands around the handlebars,
squeezing the brakes as hard as he could. They squealed and the scooter
wobbled. The back tire lifted off the road momentarily before slamming back
down as the scooter stopped, the front tire inches from the tree.
“Holy crap,” Hugo muttered. He looked down as Wallace pulled his
hands back. “If you hadn’t—”
Wallace was off the scooter before Hugo could finish. He turned toward
the road.
Cameron’s face was turned toward the stars, mouth open, black teeth
bared. His arms were limp at his sides, fingers dangling. He lowered his
head as if he could feel Wallace watching him, eyes flat and cold.
The hook in Wallace’s chest vibrated as hard as he’d ever felt it. It was
almost like it was alive. The whispers were now a storm, spinning around
him, the words lost, but Wallace knew then what they meant, why he’d felt
the drive to leave the tea shop in the first place.
It was Cameron calling to him.
Behind him, Hugo lowered the kickstand on the scooter before switching
it off, but Wallace wasn’t to be distracted. Not now. He said, “Cameron.
You’re still in there, aren’t you? Oh my god, I hear you.”
Cameron blinked slowly.
Wallace remembered how he’d felt in the tea garden, Cameron’s hands
wrapped around him. The happiness. The fury. The bright moments of the
sunshine man, of Zach, Zach, Zach. The thunderous grief that overtook him
when all was lost. He’d been told later it’d only lasted seconds, their strange
union, but he’d felt a lifetime of peaks and valleys. He was Cameron, he’d
seen all that Cameron had seen, had suffered alongside him through the
extraordinary unfairness of life. He hadn’t understood the nuances then; it’d
all been too much, too fast. He didn’t think he could understand it now, not
completely, but the bits and pieces were clearer than they’d been before.
Even as Hugo screamed for him to stop, Wallace reached out and took
Cameron’s hand in his. “Show me,” he whispered.
And so Cameron did.
Memories rose like ghosts, and Zach said, “I don’t feel good.”
He tried to smile.