Suddenly the boat came to a stop. The others probably didn’t notice, but Matt had been on boats for a long time. He felt the small shift in direction stop and the motor stop. It seemed like Tim had at least worked that out.

“Someone tell me what this means,” Matt said before Pru wrenched her arm away from him.

“What are you doing, Matt?” Pru said, not knowing he had seen two other tattoos exactly the same. The realization seemed to dawn on her as she looked at her own wrist. The fact they didn’t care enough to even know what he was talking about was somehow even worse than the act itself.

“Edmund, Robert, show me your left wrists,” Matt said.

“Don’t be crazy, mate,” Edmund said.

But Matt’s look obviously convinced them to do what he said, because they looked at each other and both held up their wrists. The word on each wrist was too small to read from any distance but he knew what it was. On Edmund’s and Robert’s.

All of them.

“Why? What is...?” Matt said, whirling around, not knowing where to look. “Have you all joined some crazy cult or something?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Edmund said, grabbing Matt. Matt tried to force himself away. But Edmund wrapped his arms around him.

“Tim,” Rachel called.

“Are you okay?” Edmund said in Matt’s ear.

“I’m fine,” Matt spit, and Edmund let go of him.

Matt just stood there, in the middle of them all. He didn’t know what to think. Thoughts came fast and short. He couldn’t clutch on to any of them long enough to decipher them. What was happening? Why—

Tim had entered the cabin and suddenly a calm came over the space. Even Matt felt it. The others seemed to freeze, waiting for their leader. Matt looked at him and saw him jump down into the cabin, calm as always. “What’s going on?”

“Ascend,” Matt said, trying to temper his speech. “What does that mean?”

“It’s just a word,” Tim said, like that was that.

Matt tore his eyes from Tim to look around before returning. They had all adjusted their bodies to gravitate toward Tim. It was like seeing some weird congregation worship a priest. “Just a word...tattooed on all of your wrists.”

“We just...wanted something to remind us of each other,” Tim said.

“Everyone except me, huh?” Matt spit.

Tim sighed. “Matt, your lack of self-worth isn’t endearing. In fact, it’s starting to piss us all off.”

“I have done everything for this group.” Matt was fighting back tears. “And you all repay me by ignoring me, sneaking around behind my back, talking about me, freezing me out...”

“Matt...” Rachel started, stepping toward him.