Footsteps slowed as Andrew arrived at the edge, gaze dropping below.
His eyes went left. A pause. Then right, slow and careful. Then left again, tracing the fall beneath - eyes cutting across trees, past jagged stone, down the sheer wall of rock.
"Where are the bears?"
His eyes swept back and forth, scanning the ground beneath. A flicker among the trunks might mean something. Even a shadow could matter now.
Silence filled the space where sound should have been. Among towering trunks, no movement broke the quiet.
Each tree stood like the last, pressed close without room to breathe. Stillness held everything in place. The scene looked exactly as it did when they first arrived.
Ethan stared back at him.
"There are no bears," he said. "I'm surprised you even believed me."
Andrew slowly turned his head.
A small grin played across Ethan's mouth. The sort that lingers when you've gotten your way without anyone noticing. Quiet certainty, showing through like sunlight under a door. It spoke before any word could.
Andrew stared at that face.
Andrew stepped off the path, feet pressing into cracked earth. Each movement measured, like stepping on frozen ice. Eyes locked on where the ground ends.
Distance kept - not trusting how near he might go. All this trouble started when his little brother shouted about two bears tearing at each other below. Said it was messy. Said he had to see.
There were no bears.
There had never been any bears.
The anger moved through him faster than he could stop it.
A heavy fall cracked through the air as he lunged, dragging Ethan down by the collar. Dust puffed at their impact, swirling in a sudden burst from the soil.
Andrew pressed down hard from above, palms locked into place across both shoulders. The earth held firm beneath Ethan's back, unmoving under the weight.
Ethan's head hung past the rim of the drop.
The silence that followed lasted less than a second.
"Hey, what… are you… doing?"
Ethan spoke in a tone no one would recognize. Gone was the grin, wiped clean. Shattered fragments made up his words - voice trembling, raw, not faking any of it.
Fear gripped him. Truly did. Over the edge, his head dangled above nothing, a fall waiting just beneath, none of it something he saw coming.
"Andrew… I'm… really… going to fall off this… cliff."
His words were shaking. Not acting, not pretending. A sharp line pressed into the base of his skull, air empty beyond, each tiny move hinting the earth might release its hold. The floor seemed ready to slip away when he so much as breathed.
His eyes moved toward Andrew's expression.
Andrew wasn't moving.
Andrew just stared at him. Locked onto Ethan, unblinking, muscles clenched like something coiled too long.
Heat from earlier still pulsed under his skin, refusing to fade. Anger shaped his face - raw, unfinished. Not the sort that listens. Not yet.
"Andrew."
Nothing.
"Andrew."
Nothing yet. The gaze stayed fixed. Not a word.
"Andrew."
Ethan repeated his brother's name, slow at first. Then faster. Each word pressed harder than before, voice shaking like thin ice. His stare stayed locked on his brother's face, never slipping.
Then something shifted.
His eyelids flicked open. A little slack returned to his clenched teeth. Vision sharpened, as if stepping again into a place just wandered from.
"Yes?" he asked. The words slipped through, dull and quiet, almost stunned, as if someone had yanked him awake from a deep hold.
"Can you… get off me now?"
A pause.
"Oh." Andrew looked down at his hands, at the position they were both in. "Yes."
He slowly got up and reached his hand down.
Ethan grabbed his hand and let himself be pulled up.
For a second, he stayed still. Air moving in and out. His fingers dragged across the fabric of his shorts, knocking off bits of soil, then releasing a slow exhale - one that started when gravity first pulled him forward.
He thought he was really going to push him.
Not a word came from his mouth. Just silence, while his mind circled the moment.
The ledge stared back at him now - unchanged. Where death had loomed, so close, half a minute past.
His eyes landed on Andrew.
Something had shifted in his brother's expression. Gone now, the rage that filled it moments ago. Instead, a stillness sat where noise once lived.
Pale skin stretched tight, as if veins had quietly retreated. A slow understanding settled - actions arrived long before thought could follow.
"We can go back to the house now," Ethan said.
Andrew looked straight at him.
"Sure," he replied. "All right."
The cliff fell behind them as the ground softened under their feet. They moved toward the tree line, step after steady step.
Not a word passed between them. Footsteps broke the silence, pressing into the earth while the cliff edge faded in their wake.
Ahead, Ethan stared straight forward without turning his head. This stretch of road found Andrew matching pace at his side rather than trailing along behind.
Then the ground made a sound.
A jagged noise ripped up from below them, abrupt as a snapped wire. Silence shattered - broken open by a split starting right underfoot, as if the ground had held its breath just for this.
Ethan had no time to react.
One moment his foot was on solid ground and the next there was nothing beneath him. Moving aside out of reach. Nothing to hold. Ground vanished like it never existed. Then just air where floor should be.
Everything went black.
One moment light, the next - gone. No fade, no drift. Like a switch flipped hard, cutting everything at once. Darkness arrived without warning. Total. Silent. The world vanished mid-thought.
A noise came down from up high, just before it all went away.
Andrew. Screaming his name.
After a while, that was gone too.