The Second Dawn

Part Two

Read Part One : The Second Dawn

I pushed myself off the couch. My knees cracked like something old giving way. Climbed the stairs slow. Every step felt hollow, like it wasn’t connected to the world anymore.

Lucas’s door was cracked open.

He wants you to see.

A cry for help?

No. He wants to break you.

Inside: a low amber light from the desk lamp, throwing long shadows across the carpet. He sat cross-legged in the center of it all, head bowed over his phone like he was praying. Sheets of paper scattered around him, spirals, lattices, ink bled to the edges like veins. Some still wet, still shining.

I opened the door.

“Lucas.”

He didn’t look up.

“Dad. Go to bed.”

“What are you watching?”

He turned the phone away, curled it to his chest like it needed protecting from me. I stepped forward and took it. He didn’t fight.

The screen was paused on some kind of video. A man in a hooded robe stood in front of a concrete wall painted in giant spirals. Kneeling figures surrounded him, their faces smeared into s…