Ebonridge University – there were so many stories associated with this place, it wasn’t even funny. But this was home. His dorm room was on the third floor, seven doors down. Room 307. And he shared it with the one person who could make him feel safe when the world was falling apart – Skylar.
Tyler didn’t waste any time as he gripped the door handle, pulling it open and jogging up the three flights of stairs to his dorm room. The sun had barely started to peek out above the trees when he’d finally emerged from the ground – his grave – so he knew it was still pretty early in the morning. However, not early enough for the hallways to be completely empty, unfortunately.
“Skylar?!” came a deep voice behind him. Tyler recognized it almost immediately as Skylar’s close friend Adam. Slowly, he turned toward the voice, trying his best to act natural. But he could see it all over the other man’s face when he saw the state Tyler was in that he was anything but normal. “Dude, what the hell?” he demanded. “You skipped class yesterday, and now you come stumbling in here looking like you just went ten rounds with a brick wall and lost?! Do you even see a problem with what you’re doing?!”
Unsure how to answer, Tyler merely shrugged his shoulders. Adam thought he was Skylar. Of course he did. They were identical twins. Tyler had never pretended to be his brother before, but it couldn’t be that hard, right? “I…um…I know,” he finally managed, clearing his throat as his vocal chords scratched against each other from lack of use. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just…I needed some time to myself after…everything.”
Adam’s face softened at his friend’s explanation. “I get it, dude,” he assured him. “I just worry about you.” Puzzled, he tilted his head. “What were you doing yesterday, anyway? Going to a wedding?” He motioned toward the clothing Tyler was wearing, nose scrunching a bit. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you crawled out of the ground, or something.”
Without thinking, Tyler barked out a laugh. “Yeah, obviously that’s what I was doing yesterday,” he teased. “No, I just got caught in the rain, that’s all. None of the Ubers were out and I had to walk here.”
Frowning, Adam asked, “Why are you here, anyway? I thought you were spending the next few weeks at your parents’ place since they were leaving for some cruise for the next 2 months?”
Slowly, Tyler nodded. So that’s where Skylar was. “Oh…yeah, I am. I just needed to come back here and grab a few things from my room,” Tyler explained. “I was just headed back over there.”
Shrugging, Adam explained, “Well, if you want me to give you a ride, I’m headed out that way. I can drop you off if you want. That way you don’t have to walk back there. I mean, I know you’re all about fitness and whatnot, but you kind of look like shit. No offense, dude.”
He wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity for a ride. He quickly followed Adam to his beat up SUV and climbed into the passenger seat. The seat belt felt like a vice when he locked it in place, holding him in so he had no escape. He wasn’t much for socializing – he wasn’t good at it like Skylar was. He kept to himself most of the time, so this was torture.
Thankfully, Adam didn’t seem to notice that he was unusually quiet. Or if he did, he didn’t mention it. The ride seemed like it lasted forever, although it was really less than an hour. Tyler couldn’t get out of the car fast enough when Adam parked in the driveway. He quickly thanked him for the ride before he headed to the front door.
Familiarity washed over him as he tipped the planted pot sitting on the porch backwards to reveal the spare key his mother kept there. He didn’t waste any time, snatching it up and unlocking the front door. That same sense of familiarity washed over him as he walked through the threshold, his eyes darting around the room to take in all of the family photos on the walls. He remembered each and every one of them like they’d been taken yesterday. But looking at them now, all he could focus on was one person – Skylar.
He needed to find his brother.
Moving through the house, Tyler allowed his fingers to brush against various objects, letting the memories flow through him. Once he’d cleared the first floor, Tyler gripped the banister, his eyes ticking to his knuckles as he ascended up the steps. Still, he didn’t feel any pain. His knuckles were broken and bleeding, but there was no pain.
At the top of the stairs, Tyler had a choice to make. If he turned left, he would walk into his old room. But if he turned right, he’d be led to Skylar’s room. Quickly, he turned toward the right, pushing open the door to Skylar’s old room.
The door opened to chaos. Everything from the shelves lay scattered across the floor, as if it had been swept down in a single violent motion. But the mirror beside Skylar’s bed—that was worse. A jagged hole split the center, cracks spidering outward to the edges, as if someone had driven their fist straight through it.
Quickly, Tyler turned toward the door and headed down the hallway. If Skylar wasn’t in his room, then he had to have been in Tyler’s. As soon as he pushed the door open, he felt relief hit him like a truck. There he was, curled up in Tyler’s bed with photo albums all around him, sleeping. Unlike the scene he was met with in Skylar’s room, Tyler’s room was immaculate – just the way he’d left it.
His movements were slow as he closed the distance between himself and his brother. Each step dragged, like something was holding him back. This was the moment he’d been waiting for since he woke up in that coffin. It felt like it had been an eternity, though he knew only a few hours had passed.
Under his weight, the bed dipped, causing Skylar to stir. He mumbled something under his breath before he settled down again, curling in on himself impossibly tighter. For a moment, Tyler just watched him – Skylar was so beautiful when he slept. But he didn’t look like he was peacefully sleeping. There was pain etched on his features, and Tyler hated it.
His fingers tingled as he reached out to touch his brother. His knuckles brushed soothingly down the other man’s cheek, Tyler tilting his head to the left as he watched Skylar’s brow smooth. “Sky,” he whispered, his voice still scratchy from the lack of use. “Wake up. I’m here. I’m back.” Skylar’s skin felt hot under his cool hands. “I’m right here, Sky.”
Long lashes fluttered open to reveal sleepy, ice blue eyes. Emotions played behind his eyes for several seconds as his sleep fogged brain finally caught up with what was in front of him. A small yelp escaped him as he pushed himself to the edge of the bed, Skylar’s hands fisting in the sheets as he stared, open mouthed at his brother. His brother!
“Tyler?” Skylar breathed, eyes searching his brother in disbelief. The ritual had been a flop. He’d waited for hours and nothing happened. Tyler hadn’t come back. At least that’s what he’d thought. But now…his brother was sitting right here with him. He’d touched his face. But maybe Skylar was dreaming. Or worse. Maybe he’d finally gone crazy. “Are you…really here?”
A wide smile came to Tyler’s lips when Skylar spoke. “Yeah, I’m really here,” he assured the other man. “I-I don’t know what happened. I woke up in a coffin. Everything was dark and I…couldn’t breathe.” His fingers twitched on the bed beside him, just another reminder that he still wasn’t in pain. “I went to our dorm room, but Adam told me you were here. He thought I was you, though. He gave me a ride here.” Looking around the room, Tyler asked, “Where’s Mom and Dad?”
A coffin. Oh God…he’d left him in there! Skylar’s eyes ticked down to Tyler’s hands, his heart sinking when he saw the mangled mess that was once Tyler’s knuckles. “Tyler, I am so sorry,” he breathed, shaking his head as he felt tears spring to his eyes. “I didn’t even think about that.” Mom and Dad? “Um…oh, they went on a cruise,” Skylar explained. “I came here to get away from everyone.” He wasn’t sure if there was proper etiquette on how to tell someone they’d just come back from the dead, so he figured it was just best to dive in. “After you…died, they needed some time away. This whole house reminds them of you.”
It didn’t take a genius to realize that something supernatural had occurred. The details were still a bit fuzzy, but Tyler was sure Skylar could clear everything up for him. “Sky, what happened?” he asked, biting into his bottom lip as he locked eyes with his brother. Skylar would make everything right again.
What happened? Skylar didn’t even know where to start. His entire world felt like such a blur since losing Tyler. “Um…what’s the last thing you remember?” he asked, unable to stop his eyes from wandering to the cuts on his brother’s hands. He’d need to get those cleaned up. The last thing Tyler needed was an infection.
The last thing he remembered was the coffin. But he knew his brother meant before that. “I don’t know,” he answered with a small shake of his head. “We were at the lake? It was getting late and I was feeling the alcohol. You put me in the car? Then I just remember a really loud noise. And then I woke up six feet under.”
“There was an accident,” Skylar explained. “Another car ran a stop sign and hit us head on. And…you died.” He could see the confusion on his brother’s face. Honestly, Skylar felt like he was screwing this whole thing up. But how else was he supposed to explain this?! Ripping the band-aid off quick was the best way, right?!
This was a lot to take in. At the same time, it explained why he’d woken up in a coffin. “Oh,” he breathed, unsure how he wanted to proceed. “How…am I here, then?” His eyes ticked up to his brother then, fear mixed with accusations warring inside him. “Sky…what did you do?”
Without thinking, Skylar shook his head. “Don’t do that,” he argued. “I did what I had to. Don’t you sit there and pretend that if the roles were reversed, you wouldn’t have done the same damn thing.” His hands moved to grip Tyler’s biceps, shaking the other man slightly. “You know there’s no way in Hell I could live in a world without you in it.”
It was true – Tyler couldn’t even deny it. He had no legs to stand on with that argument, so he just kept his mouth shut. “Did you have to sell your soul for me, or something?” he joked, cracking a smile. “Like in the horror movies?”
Relief washed over him when Tyler joked about this. “No, it was just a shit ton of money to get all of the ingredients for it,” he teased right back. “And our car is totaled, so we’ll have to figure something out with that, too.” God, it felt so good to have his brother back. But he couldn’t help but feel like an asshole for not digging him up first. His eyes ticked back down to Tyler’s hands, guilt washing over him once more. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to get you out of there before I brought you back.”
Seeing that Skylar was spiraling about his hands, Tyler quickly brushed it off. “It’s okay,” he assured his brother. “It doesn’t even hurt. I’m just…glad to be back. And that you’re okay. I mean…if we were in an accident, things could have been so much worse for you.”
Skylar bit his tongue before he could argue that the worst thing in the world was being here while his brother was lowered into a grave. Instead, he focused on something he could fix right now. “Let’s get those cleaned up and bandaged. I just got you back. The last thing I want is for you to get riddled with an infection.”
Without argument, Tyler pushed himself off the bed and followed Skylar into the bathroom. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, shock hitting him hard. He looked like shit – his hair was caked with mud and there were dirty streaks all over his face. Not to mention the tuxedo he was wearing was absolutely ruined. “Um…Sky, I think I should get a shower,” he suggested. “I think it might be easier than just cleaning me up piece by piece.”
Well, that made a lot more sense. But that didn’t satisfy his need to bandage up those hands. “Okay,” Skylar answered. “But you have to let me bandage your hands afterward. I mean, you’re the pre-med student – you should know better than anyone what happens if wounds aren’t treated properly.”
Tyler smirked at Skylar’s joke, shaking his head. “Yeah, I’ll let you bandage my hands after,” he promised. “Now get out so I can clean up.” He closed the door behind his brother, ignoring the pang of sadness that hit him at his brother’s absence. It wasn’t like Skylar was going anywhere. Hell, he was probably waiting right outside the door for him.
Once he was alone, Tyler started stripping out of his clothes. As he removed the suit jacket, he kept his eyes on the mirror. He watched as his fingers unbuttoned his shirt. One by one they opened, revealing more of his flesh. Through the dirty patches on his skin, Tyler could see there were bruises on his torso – one on his left rib cage, and another right over his heart. From the impact of the car accident, he was sure.
His pants were the next thing to go, quickly followed by his boxer shorts. Taking one last look at his naked body in the mirror, Tyler climbed under the hot spray of the shower. He wasn’t sure if it was all in his head or not, but the water felt…incredible – it was warm and inviting. He took a few minutes to just revel in the feel of the warmth, his hands pressed against the shower wall as his head hung, staring at the dirty water as it circled the drain before disappearing.
After about thirty minutes, only after the water started to cool down, did Tyler climb out of the shower. Luckily, Skylar had brought a towel and a change of clothes in for him while he was showering. Skylar was always looking out for him. His partner in crime. He didn’t waste time as he pulled on the boxers his brother brought him, followed quickly by the gray sweatpants. Finally, he pulled the black tank top over his head, staring at himself in the mirror once more.
He didn’t feel like himself. He still looked the same, but there was something off. Like maybe when he’d come back, he’d left a piece of him in that grave. But he couldn’t put his finger on it. Sighing, he pushed the door open and walked into the hallway, moving to his room once more.
Skylar was ready with the bandages, antiseptic, and ointment. He had everything spread out on the bed, the photo albums he’d been sleeping with earlier tucked back on the bookshelf where he’d grabbed them from to make room for his supplies. “Sit down,” he instructed when Tyler walked into the room.
When Tyler did as he was told, Skylar took his brother’s hand into his own, inspecting the wounds. He wanted to apologize again, but he didn’t want to sound like a broken record. Besides, it wouldn’t change anything. Tyler would have the memory of digging his way out of his own grave forever now – and it was Skylar’s fault.
But maybe cleaning the wounds and bandaging him up would be enough to make it a little better, at least. His movements were gentle as he cleaned the cuts, Skylar’s eyes ticking to his brother’s face to study his features. “Does it hurt?” he asked, frowning when Tyler shook his head. Either his brother was lying, or he was being very stoic – whichever it was, Skylar made sure to make quick work of his task.
As soon as the final wrap was finished on Tyler’s left hand, Skylar smiled at him. “Well…not too shabby for a criminal law student, huh?” he teased, trying to ignore the pit in his stomach. Tyler hadn’t shown any sign of pain at all during the whole process. His knuckles looked like he’d gone ten rounds with a brick wall, but he hadn’t made any fuss about it. That was very unsettling.
“Thank you,” Tyler smiled, allowing his fingers to wiggle as he tested his bandages. “They look great. And I feel a lot better. I appreciate it.” His head tilted to the side as he allowed his eyes to rake over his brother. “You always take such good care of me,” he mused, a soft smile on his lips.
Now, it was Skylar’s turn to smile. “Well yeah, you’re my little brother,” he reminded the other man. “Of course I’m going to take care of you.” Suddenly, it occurred to Skylar that Tyler was missing one very important thing. “Oh, hey, I have one more thing for you,” he said as he climbed off the bed and headed to the desk beside the window. When he turned around, he held out a pair of black, plastic-framed glasses. “You kinda need these back, huh?”
His glasses. Honestly, Tyler hadn’t even realized he didn’t have them. But he wasn’t about to dive into that right now. “Thank you,” he smiled again, taking the glasses from his brother’s hand and putting them on his face. “Oh, yeah,” he chuckled then, locking eyes with his brother once more. “That looks a lot better.”
Tyler was back. Skylar could barely hold back his tears. But he couldn’t let them fall – he didn’t want to spoil this moment. However, he couldn’t help but allow the words, “I missed you,” to fall from his lips. He wouldn’t let that hang in the air, though. No – this was a happy moment. “Are you hungry? I feel like I haven’t eaten in days. Let’s go downstairs. I’ll make you a grilled cheese sandwich.”