“Roxanne?” Tommy called into the darkness. There was no response except for a sudden, sharp -clink-.
Tim pulled his gun out of its holster, stepping toward the entrance to the back room. He looked at the boys, then at the front door. “On three,” he whispered.
They nodded.
“Three!”
The three of them bolted for the door and across to Derek’s house. They looked behind them, seeing nothing. Derek’s driveway was only a few feet away.
Tommy tripped on the sidewalk and fell to the ground, hitting the side of his face and drawing blood. White helped him up, looking around again. Nothing to be seen but cold, damp streets. They walked up to the front door and burst in. Derek’s father came rushing in from the dining room, and Tim just held up his badge and tried to catch his breath.
Friday.
That was the first thought on Xander Drew’s mind when he woke up the next morning. Every Friday was like a thousand years for him, with the boring drudgery of schoolwork to contend with. Each minute dragged on as if it were an hour and it was nearly impossible to get any work done because he couldn’t stop thinking about the weekend if he had wanted to. More specifically, tonight. This was the night of Grendel’s big party. It was to be (how did Sara put it?) the social event of the season.
The next thought to cross his mind was: school.
He brought his watch up to his face and pressed a button on its side, illuminating it in indigo light. The black numbers on the little screen read 8:50. The homeroom bell rang in five minutes. He jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of tattered jeans, running down the stairs. His hair and skin were sticky, wet and more than a little warm. He made a mental note to take some of the covers off of his bed before he went to sleep tonight.
Halfway down he saw Sara, who was completely out of breath.
“School,” she managed to stammer. Apparently she had slept in too.
“Yeah, I... Why didn’t my computer’s alarm clock wake me?” he thought out loud.
Sara stood up straight. “Yeah, mine didn’t either.”
They both pondered it for a moment, until Xander flicked on the hall light. Nothing happened. “Power’s out.”
Sara flicked the light off and on. “You’re right. It’s probably off at my place too.”
Moreover, my CPU’s fried, Xander remembered. But I can’t tell you that.
They both thought about that a minute more, before they realized that they were already late for school. Xander grabbed his book bag and opened the door for Sara, then followed her out and started to run.
When she didn’t run he stopped, figuring that she was tired from running to his house. She didn’t say anything, merely nodding at him for waiting.
He motioned to put his arm around her, but she jerked away quickly.
He looked at her awkwardly for a minute, then started walking next to her. As they walked down the same road that they often had before, she noticed a growing pain in her side and bit her lip to steel herself against it.
She remembered that day, all those years ago. It was her sixth birthday. When most little girls turn six they have a party with all their wild friends and eat cake until they puke, but not Cathy Kennessy. She spent her sixth grade birthday in an old, musty car with her parents driving to Coral Beach. It didn’t matter to her where she was going at the time. All she knew was that all of her friends were back home in Pittsburgh and she was in the car. Because they were moving to a new place where her Daddy could get a job and make lots and lots of money.
They arrived at her new home at eight o’clock in the night and it was almost her bedtime. But she didn’t have a bed yet, so she would have to sleep on a mattress on the cold floor.
From across the street came a little boy. He was about her height, his face covered in freckles. They looked at each other for a minute, almost wondering exactly what to think of one another.
The boy broke the silence. “Wanna play?”
She looked at him for a minute, then replied, “Okay. What’s your name?”
“Michael David Harris. What’s yours?”
“Cathy Elizabeth Kennessy. Do you know how to jump rope?”
“That’s for girls...”
Cathy smiled at Mike from across the classroom. He winked at her briefly, then went back to finishing his question sheet. Not exactly love at first sight, she thought calmly as she went back to her own sheet. But it’ll do for a story our kids‘ll hear until they want to strangle us with it.
Fourteen years old. That’s when Sara Johnson thought it was all over. She was riding in the back seat of her boyfriend Justin’s new car. He had just gotten his license and they were celebrating. In the car with her was Grendel in the back, and Cathy up front. She hadn’t been dating Mike for very long then. They had just come from one of Derek’s parties and Justin was about to bring them home, but he’d had a few too many drinks at the party. The car hit a bump in the road and started to swerve. The next thing she knew, she was being thrown from the car and onto the sidewalk. She didn’t know how long she was out, but when she woke up there were red and blue lights flashing.
Police.
God,
