A horrible sick knot formed in Al's stomach. Unable to see more than his brother's back, it was too familiar and too terrifying a place to be, when every nerve thrummed in the tense fear that any given second, he'd see something emerge through his brother's back, stealing him away yet again.
After the millisecond of frozen terror that twanged his nerves like a too-tight piano string, he leaped over a chair and was to the door in a flash, pushing his brother aside. Not again. Never again. He was going to protect him.