FISHBONES ⋆ act III
Everything must come to an end at some point. Dev finally hits the water. Content warning for homophobic language and violence.
act I | act II | act III
word count: 2.4k
Dev's mom had called him twelve times in the last twenty minutes, and Dev had answered zero times. He couldn't stomach the idea of speaking to her. After a while he'd decided to turn off his phone, knowing with relative certainty that Isaac would never call him.
His feet were worn and tired from walking, leg muscles aching with every step. Dev hardly felt it, focused solely on the road ahead of him as he turned towards the grassy path that led to the old Stevens’ fishing shack. He didn’t pay attention to anything around him, mind only focused on one thing. Later, Dev would undoubtedly be angry with Isaac for making him walk all the way to the docks. For now, he just wanted to see him.
Pushing the door open to see the empty fishing shack ahead of him, Dev feared for a brief moment that he might have mistaken the symbol on Isaac’s note. Besides the lines of old fish barrels and crates of supplies, the fishing shack looked completely empty. There wasn’t even a boat tied to the dock. The floorboards creaked below his feet as Dev slowly walked down to the dock, eyes wide and searching.
“B-Bird?” His hesitant voice echoed through the empty wooden shack.
Dev heard footsteps behind him. He twisted, tense, stumbling back as a hand reached out to grab him. Too fast, too slow. The other person was on him in an instant, wrapping their arms around Dev and pulling him in for a—
A hug.
Familiar brown curls pressed against Dev’s cheek as the boy pulled himself close against Dev’s chest. Isaac. Dev hugged back immediately, fingers digging into the fabric of Isaac’s shirt and pulling him as close as he possibly could.
“Are you okay? W-why did you—I was scared you’d left.”
Isaac didn’t really respond, only tightened the hug. Dev held him, resting his head on Isaac’s shoulder and slowly moving his hands up and down Isaac’s back. Dev could feel Isaac shake. He’s crying, Dev realized, feeling tears stain his shirt.
“I’m okay, Fishbones,” Isaac mumbled, voice raw. The nickname made Dev laugh, but it came out as little more than a choked cry.
The two boys stood for a moment, wrapped up in each other as neither really wanted to move. Dev wasn’t sure what was going to happen after this—how they would solve it—and all he wanted to do was hold Isaac for a little longer. In that moment, Isaac was the only other thing in the world that existed, and everything else seemed to simply fall away.
Dev hadn’t even noticed that someone else had walked into the shack.
“H-hello?”
Dev and Isaac both jumped, letting go of each other and turning towards the door to see Sam Brown, little and shaking, with his hands awkwardly wringing together in front of his chest. He wasn’t carrying any weapons, at least not as far as Dev could see, but that didn’t stop Isaac from stepping in front of Dev and shielding the boy with his own body.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Isaac asked before Dev even had the chance to. Sam didn’t look at Isaac, instead twisting his head to look past him, directly at Dev. Sam looked terrified. Not just of Isaac, but terrified in general.
“I, uh. I followed you here. Sorry. But I come in peace, I think,” Sam said, eyes still on Dev. He tried to take a hesitant step forward, but stopped himself when Isaac stepped forward as well.
“You think?” Isaac bit at him.
Sam let out a shaky breath before nodding his head, eyes shifting between Isaac and the floor. “No—yeah, I do. I’m sure. I owe it to Rachel.”
Isaac and Dev watched as Sam fumbled with his hands, not daring to take a step forward. Dev reached out to hold Isaac’s hand, and Isaac squeezed him with his own.
“Something happened between them, Scott and Rachel, and she—Scott was gonna get in trouble, and he didn’t want that, so…” Sam fell silent for a moment. “I didn’t want to. You have to believe that. I didn’t want to help him, but he’s—I had to. He would’ve killed me too, you know.”
Dev’s hand had slipped from Isaac’s, both boys nailed to the floor as they attempted to understand everything Sam was saying. He was accusing Scott Hayes—his best friend, Rachel’s boyfriend—of murder.
“What about the note?” Dev asked, a little breathless. “The magazine. I saw you.”
Sam nodded. “We were there that night, a-and we didn’t want to get caught, so…” Isaac took a step towards Sam, hands balled into fists. Sam raised his hands in defense, stumbling back a few steps. “It was all Scott’s idea, I swear!”
“Bullshit,” Isaac snapped at him.
“I’m telling the truth! Rachel wanted to go to the police, and Scott just wanted to shut her up!” Sam fell quiet suddenly, and something heavy dropped to the bottom of Dev’s stomach. He could see it in Isaac as well. The tension released in his shoulders and his head rose slightly, breath audibly catching in his throat. They were both thinking it, but neither of them dared to say it out loud.
“Scott promised me he wouldn’t—told me he hadn’t,” Sam told them with tears in his eyes. “So I helped him. I never wanted any of this. I-it all got out of hand, and—”
The door of the shack swung open before Sam could say another word. He turned and stumbled backwards, into Isaac, almost making all three boys fall over. Dev looked past Isaac to see a person standing in the door frame. He recognized the blue football jersey and the spiky blond hair in an instant. His heart dropped at the sight of Scott Hayes, scowling as he looked at the three boys in front of him. His hands were holding onto a tire iron, knuckles white from the tightness of the grip.
Dev’s stomach turned at the sight of Scott. What would he do? Call the cops? Fight them? He wondered if Scott had followed him as well, if he’d led Scott right to Isaac without even noticing it. It felt like this was the end for them, and all of it would be Dev’s fault.
“So, what’re you faggots doing here?”
Instinctively, Dev reached out for Isaac, who held out his arm to shelter Dev at almost the exact same moment. Scott frowned for a moment before his eyes widened, a mocking laugh escaping him. “I was fuckin’ kidding, but you two are actual fags, huh? Who would’a thought. You wanna tell me somethin’ too, Sammy?”
Sam shook his head, shuffling back another few inches. The three boys were practically out on the dock now, with no way to escape past Scott. Dev could feel Isaac wanting to step forwards, but Dev held him back with a tight pull on his arm. Everything was happening far too fast, and he needed Isaac close to hold onto him.
“Well, I guess the two of you did a good job. Cops been lookin’ for him all day, and here he is,” Scott nodded his head towards Isaac. “Guess we’ll hand him over and we can all go home nice and easy, right?”
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Isaac answered. His voice was tense, and while Dev couldn’t see his face he could tell Isaac was clenching his jaw. “Not after the shit you did to Rachel.”
The smile melted off Scott’s face, eyes shifting towards Sam. He took a step forward, raising the iron in his hands slightly, attention locked on Sam.
“Sammy, what did you do?”
“N-nothing,” Sam said, stumbling back as Scott approached him. He was basically pressing against Isaac now, but Isaac refused to give way. If anything, Dev felt as if Isaac wanted Scott to come closer. He wanted the opportunity to fight the other boy.
Scott raised the metal rod higher, and Isaac pulled his hand out of Dev’s grip.
“Scott, please,” Sam pleaded. “I’m your friend, man. W-we can just go, right?”
“No, we can’t,” Scott replied immediately, eyes shifting towards Dev and Isaac. “‘Cause you had to go and tell these fuckin’ queers everything. You did this with me, Sammy. We’re both goin’ down for this shit.”
Too fast. It all happened too fast for Dev to stop any of it. In one single moment, Isaac shoved Sam past Scott onto the floor, taking a swing at Scott at the same time that the other boy swung the iron down hard against the side of Isaac’s head. It cracked against his skull, and with a painful thud Isaac landed onto the wooden floor, unmoving.
Dev screamed loud and pained, the sound of it echoing out across the lake behind him. Water rushed back into his lungs, choking the cry that threatened to spill out of him. He rushed to grab Isaac, but was stopped by the tire iron pressing into the center of his stomach.
“Nuh-uh,” Scott warned him with a growl.
“Please,” Dev choked out. He could hardly breathe now, the burning in his lungs too painful. He tried to breathe—in, hold, one, two, three, out—but it wasn’t working. All he could see was Isaac’s lifeless body on the ground. It couldn’t end like this.
“All you had to do was shut up,” Scott mumbled, eyes on the horizon behind Dev. “Let sleepin’ fishes lie, or whatever. All anyone ever had to do was shut up! Sam, Rachel…”
Dev was standing on the edge of the dock now, heels hanging over the edge as Scott continued to press against his chest. All Dev could think of was Rachel. Her gray cold skin, her open mouth, the caved-in side of her head. The way she hadn’t seemed entirely real to him. Would Dev look like that when he died? All pale and unreal?
He couldn’t think of it. It felt like giving up, and he owed it to himself and Isaac to not give up just yet. More than anyone, he owed it to Rachel. Owed it to her to not let Scott get away with what he’d done.
“Scott,” Dev attempted, trying to calm both the other boy and himself. “Everything can still be fine. Please. I-I don’t know what happened but, we can work it out. We can. You just have to let us fix—”
“Just shut up!” Scott raised his hands again and swung down hard. Dev didn’t feel the tire iron hit him. Didn’t hear the crack. Didn’t feel himself falling over. Hardly even felt himself hitting the water. All he felt were Scott’s hands as they wrapped around his shoulders, pushing him down into the water. He could barely even fight back, his panic only causing him to inhale wave after wave of salt marsh water. Everything turned black around him, and the feeling of Scott’s hands finally disappeared.
It didn’t matter much. Dev couldn’t move. All he could do was feel the water rushing into his lungs, a cold burn spreading from his chest to every inch of his body.
___
Drowning is supposed to be the most peaceful way to die. According to some people, anyway. After experiencing too much pain the brain supposedly shuts down, and you stop feeling anything. The lights simply go out, and it’s all over.
Dev was inclined to disagree.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that everything hurt.
The second was that something was pressing on his legs.
Dev gasped, hard and painful, jolting upright in the bed he’d been laying in. Something was tied around his arm, and though his vision was blurry he could immediately tell he was somewhere entirely unfamiliar. The room around him was a stark white, with bright lights burning his blurry vision. Hospital, he realized, feeling the wires around his arms and chest. This calmed him somewhat, but not nearly enough.
“Hey, hey,” A worried voice called out, and the weight was lifted off of Dev’s legs. He blinked roughly a few times to see a figure reaching towards him. Dev couldn’t help but panic again, unable to breathe as he pushed himself to sit up straight. Still, the figure leaned forward, putting a hand on Dev’s arm. “Hey, you’re okay. Breathe for me, yeah?”
The voice was soft and a little raw and all too familiar. When he blinked again, he looked into two warm brown eyes, and he finally allowed himself to take a deep breath. Isaac was smiling, but his tear-stained face betrayed him. Dev fell forward into Isaac’s arms as his breathing turned into sobs, crying into Isaac’s shoulder. Isaac wrapped his arms around Dev as tightly as he dared, holding one hand onto the back of Dev’s head to pull him even closer.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Isaac kept whispering, and for the first time Dev truly believed him. They were both alive, and together. After everything, that was all that really mattered. When he finally felt like he could take it, Dev leaned back to look at Isaac.
“Hey Fishbones,” Isaac told him with a teary smile, placing a hand on Dev’s cheek.
“Hey Bird,” Dev responded, unable to smile back at him. There was a bandage wrapped around Isaac’s head, dark curls poking out from under it. Despite the bandage, Dev could still see the bright purple that surrounded what had to be a painful head injury.
“You should be in one of these.” Dev nodded his head towards the hospital bed.
“Nah.” Isaac leaned his head against Dev’s. “I don’t wanna be anywhere you’re not.”
It would be so easy to kiss him. Right there, in a place where anyone could see him. The idea should have terrified Dev. Months ago, it would have. But as he leaned in, he realized he no longer cared who saw them.
He could feel Isaac smile against his lips before kissing back, softly pressing his lips against Dev’s. Somewhere in the back of his mind a million questions were itching to be answered. He wanted to know who saved him, what had happened to Scott and Sam, and what would happen to him and Isaac. He dreaded explaining everything to his family, and even more so dreaded explaining everything to the police.
Still, all of that could wait.
For now, he was alive, and he was kissing the boy he loved. The whole world could crash around him and Dev probably wouldn’t have cared. It would most likely do so, but for now he didn’t feel the need to even worry about it.
For now, they were finally okay.
___
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