Bearclaw Valley a seal on the subject

It wasn't so simple— he had to pull himself together before walking into the meeting. For a long time he stood just outside biting down on his shaking hands.
Merrick howls, his phone rings, he scrabbles at it, holds his ruined ear close to it. Come home, it said. The world washes in and out of electromagnetic interference. His voice was beautiful. It was terrible. Taylor explodes in through the door and howls alongside them with coarse and shuddering yells. All the while he's thinking, from one god to the next, from one god to the next.
He had bled for this. Everyone here, they had worked their fingers to the bone for this. He pulls up the flowers by their roots, and is surprised when he doesn't see red.