Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

26 - The Past is Far Behind Us...

Always...

"We have enough time left for another round, if you'd like to give it a go again," Doc offered after checking the time on the monitor. Etho hesitated, as he did any time he was given a choice, but finally ended up wanting to use the bow one last time for the day.

As Doc turned on the contraption for the second time, Etho went through the steps in his head again. Feet squarely planted. Bow in left hand, string and arrow in right. Two fingers above the arrow, one below. He stopped for a moment to readjust the padding on his arm, then went back into position. He knew which target would pop up first, so he fixated on that.

One deep breath in. One deep breath out.

The only real difference between then and now was that the target wasn't moving and it was much harder to see out of his scarred eye. Either way, the center of the target now had an arrow-shaped dent in it, courtesy of him and the cheap bow he was using. He was disappointed that he only figured out the island had an outdoor archery range on it a few days ago after spending a whole month there.

"Nice shot," Iskall said, sounding both impressed and slightly scared at the same time. They were the one who ran the archery range, or at least looked after it. Truth be told, they knew next to nothing about archery themself, but they didn't want to leave the range unattended after the former owner left the business. "You do this often?"

"No, just thought I'd try it today," Etho said sarcastically, getting a chuckle out of the Swede. One thing he appreciated about Iskall was that his dry humor was never lost on them. "I've been doing it since I was a kid," he finally admitted.

"That sounds fun, did you go anywhere for it?" They asked.

"Mindcrack." Etho answered.

"Oh, I've heard of that place," Iskall said, "wasn't it all over the news some time ago? I swear I remember seeing it breaking headlines back when I was in high school, but I can't for the life of me remember why it was."

Etho could. He didn't want to drag up those memories, not now and not ever, but it was like something was forcing the words out of his mouth.

"That... incident on the bridge. The burnt bridge," he replied. He vividly remembered the accident being on the news too in the days that followed it, only because the TV was one of the few things he had when he kept himself in his room all day. Luckily, because they were all underage, neither his old friends nor him were mentioned by name in any of the publicized police reports, but the live feed of the massacred bridge a few days after definitely didn't make him forget it. Not in the slightest.

"Oh yeah! Jeez, where you enrolled there when that happened? Sounds like it woulda sucked," they asked.

"It did..." Etho answered again. He was way more than just enrolled, but that part of him that was forcing the words out couldn't force him to go any further now. It felt like his hands couldn't grip the wood of the bow any harder. Iskall either didn't notice his nervous posture or didn't bother to say anything. In fact, they were going to continue the conversation had Etho not cut them off.

"I should be getting home now," he said, handing the bow to Iskall, who took it. "Joel worries when I stay out too late."

Iskall chuckled, spinning the bow around in one hand for a moment before tossing it up and catching it again as if it were a stick. "Really? Your soulbound worries about you when he can feel if anything happens?"

"He's like that," Etho said quickly. He suddenly felt really uneasy, with no idea as to why. Like a sixth sense was trying to tell him he was in danger, when he had no way or reason to think so himself.