Warning Signs

Done all”—Zach looked over the split body, the precision of the cut chest muscles—“this?” Bram stood. “Maybe the back was under snow, but the head and neck got eaten by something? The thought of his father finding evidence of any of Zach’s soft feelings made his heart clench with anticipatory humiliation. Jesus.” Zach ached where his body had pressed against the trees, where the stick had cut him. Zach listened to the crack of trees, the strange instrumentals of the wind through the woods, until at last he forced his body to break its clenching tension.