My hands are full of my brother. My weapons are in my waistband, unreachable. We’re frozen here, caught between escape and execution, and all I can do is watch as the guard thumbs off the safety and aims it directly at my chest.
blind bake /blīnd bāk/: verb
1: baking a crust without filling, weighted to hold its shape.
2: running into danger you cannot see, trusting the map someone traced onto your palm.
In the warm dark of the car, Yas and I are hunched over the burner phone on speaker, both of us straining for any morsel of information as to what’s going on.
Through the speaker, Bastian’s breathing comes in controlled bursts as he links his climbing rig up. The rhythm is familiar now, almost comforting, except for the part where each exhale could be his last.
I hear the whine of po
