My heart slammed into my ribs.
Someone was inside.
I reached behind my bedroom door, wrapped my fingers around the old baseball bat, and stepped into the darkness.
Then I heard it.
Laughter.
Not polite. Not forced.
Deep, chest-shaking laughter I hadn’t heard since before the accident.
It stopped me cold.
I followed the sound toward the garage.
That’s when I saw them.
Four men in worn leather vests stood around my father’s wheelchair. One of them was rolling out a Harley Davidson that hadn’t been touched in nearly three years. Dust still clung to the chrome.
“You guys are gonna get me killed,” my dad said, grinning like a teenager.
“That’s why we came early, Ray,” one of the bikers said. “What Ethan doesn’t know won’t stress him out.”
Another man held up my dad’s old leather jacket — the one I’d hidden in the attic after he went blind.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Dad protested weakly. “Can’t ride if I can’t see.”
The biker smiled.
“You don’t need eyes, brother. You just need memory.”

The Moment I Stepped In
I walked into the garage, bat raised.
“What the hell is happening?”
All four bikers turned.
The biggest one — a guy everyone called Bear — lifted his hands calmly.