She found him in the living room one evening, alone with the firelight flickering across his face. “You okay, hon?” she asked, settling beside him gently. “You’ve seemed… far away lately. Not your usual self.” Her voice was soft, lined with genuine concern. Lucas hesitated, then decided to share.
He didn’t look at her as he spoke. Eyes fixed on the floor, he recounted the moment from Disneyland. The gangway. The noise. The searing flashes. “It was like my head wasn’t mine for a second,” he said quietly. “It felt like… like something I’d forgotten. Or buried.”