You don’t think you’ve ever felt this at peace.

The sun glows soft and orange, dipping low over the horizon like it’s ready to rest. For a while, the only sound is water falling, crashing gently against the rocks below. The kind of quiet that leaves too much room for thinking.

Lee hasn’t said much since pulling off the road. He’s crouched near the lake with his knees to his chest, watching the water spill over the edge. The mist clings to your skin, cool and weightless.

You haven’t known him long, just a chance run-in at a convenience store back in Indiana. Yet in that short time, something’s settled. He’s one of the only people who understands. One of the only people who doesn’t make you shrink.

A few months on the road with him, and you’ve learned how rare it is to be around someone who doesn’t flinch at the worst parts of you. A companionship you never knew you could have, someone who doesn’t see your cravings as monstrous. You spent your entire life trying to hide or ignore it, yet the only way you could ever truly feel like yourself was by embracing it.

You think of Lee as an example, the carefree, reckless way he is. But you can’t help but wonder if he’s truly happy like that. If he wishes there were a way to live normally. If you would have chosen to be born that way, too.

“You never told me your first time,” he says, breaking the silence you’d been basking in. He looks at you over his shoulder a second later, his eyes studying you in that careful way only he can.

“Told you mine. The babysitter.” He turns back to watch the gentle waves of the lake.

He’d told you a few states back that his first victim was his babysitter. She’d been kind to him, but he couldn’t stop himself when he felt the hunger. He told you about the guilt that followed, how horrified he was by his own actions. His father finding out didn’t help. It was what forced Lee into a life of wandering and secrecy.

You didn’t judge him; you just listened, because you’ve done the same and you know how valuable it is to have someone who understands. He’d shared it to help you feel less like an outsider, and the only way you could repay him was with the same kind of honesty.