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cheese.”
    “Noted.”
    “And black olives.”
    “Getting a little pushy, are we?”
    “You’re the one who wants me to eat.”
    “Anything else, your highness?”
    “Yes.”
    Jon snorted. “That’s what I get for asking. What is it?”
    “You have to cook naked.”
    “What?” The car swerved, almost taking out a mailbox.
    Ellis fought to keep his expression serious. “Better slow down or we’ll get a ticket.”
    “You’re joking?”
    “Nope.”
    “Naked?”
    “That’s what I said.”
    Jon tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “May I ask why?”
    “Sure.”
    There was a long stretch of silence, then Jon said, “Well?”
    “It’s my personal fantasy. You know, being served dinner by some drop dead gorgeous naked guy.”
    Jon raised both his eyebrows and looked at Ellis with wide eyes. He laughed, but it dried up when they were almost to the road in front of his house.
    “You okay?”
    “I don’t know. I just feel like…” A knot formed in his stomach, becoming barbed wire when they turned onto his road. They reached the foot of the driveway and turned in. Ellis’s pounding heart skipped a beat.
    The house emerged from behind the tree line shielding it from the road.
    “Die faggot” and “burn cocksucker” accompanied crude illustrations that had been spray painted in red across the front, and all the windows had transformed into gaping holes.
    A speckled pattern left in the wood suggested they’d been hit with a shotgun.
    White remnants of curtains fluttered through the busted front door. Bits of porch swing littered the yard near the truck. The tires were slashed and the windshield was nothing but glass crumbs sprinkled on the ground.
    His home had been violated. His, Jon’s, and Rudy’s home.
    Ellis shoved open the car door.
    “Wait.” Jon grabbed his arm, but Ellis twisted free. “Wait, you don’t know what’s in there.”
    Ellis ran inside, past the demolished living room with walls covered in obscenities and upstairs. Bedclothes and gutted pillows clogged the doorway to his room. Ellis stepped over the crushed picture frames and knick-knacks from his parent’s room.
    Rudy’s bedroom door was closed and the letters that once spelled his name lay on the floor like forgotten bits of alphabet soup.
    “For God’s sake, wait.” Jon stormed up the steps, gun in hand.
    Ellis opened the door just as Jon joined him.
    Cards, drawings, clothes, furniture, it lay in ruins. A dirty stench filled the air. Brown streaks painted the walls. Ellis fell to his knees. The more he stared the worse it became. Little things like Rudy’s books torn in half. His favorite stuffed animals gutted and his drafting table flattened. Anything and everything belonging to his brother had suffered.
    First his brother had been taken from him and now he’d been robbed of Rudy’s memory.
    Ellis’s thoughts mashed together until all he could see was Rudy’s broken body and his broken room.
    Jon took Ellis by the arms and pulled him up. “C’mon. We need to leave.”
    “No.” Ellis tried to shake him off.
    “It may not be safe.”
    “No.”
    “Ellis—”
    “This is my home. He came into my home. He did…” Rudy’s collection of VHS tapes lay crushed by the broken TV. “This.”
    “I know, baby. Let’s go. Please. We’ll come back later.”
    “He’s taken everything from me.” Jon shushed Ellis as he led him down the stairs. Glass crunched under their shoes and bits of wood stuck in the soles. There were pots and pans, and broken dishes leaking out of the kitchen, but it was nothing in comparison to the devastation to the memory of his brother.
    By the time Jon got Ellis outside, every breath he took whistled into his lungs. “He’s taken everything, Jon. Everything.”
    “It will be okay.”
    “No. It won’t.”
    This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Ellis refused to let it. But it was and he was powerless.
    Jon holstered his gun. Ellis hadn’t even realized he’d gotten it