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.