I leaned forward, my head hanging out the window, straining to hear their words.
I sensed it was an important moment, one that would have a direct and powerful impact on the future trajectory of my life.
I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath.
“What are you doing here?” Clint said.
Liam, always quick with a snappy retort—often with the result of winding up with egg on his face as he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was—remained silent.
Then he pursed his lips and removed his thumbs from his belt buckle.
His serpentlike smile turned my heart to ice.
“You really don’t remember who you are, do you?” he said.
Even his voice sounded different.
Like there was a distant echo, a scratching noise right behind Liam’s own, as if it was a faulty pre-recording that lacked any humanity at all behind it.
“You were meant to be my great opponent,” he said. “Now look at you. You don’t even know who you are.”
If Clint was perturbed, he didn’t show it.
“She’s not going with you,” he said.
Liam sighed, removed his shades, and tucked them in his right breast pocket.
It felt wrong.
So wrong.
“Run,” I said, the word finally escaping my throat, but failing to carry far beyond my own ears. “Run. Now.”
Clint cocked his head to one side but kept his attention focused firmly on Liam.
Had he heard me? I wondered. How could he?
My voice had been so soft even I could barely hear it.
“If you want her, you’ll have to go through me first,” Clint said.
“Go through you?” Liam said. “So be it.”
He looked up, revealing his eyes for the first time.
I gasped and my heart thundered hard in my chest.
His eyes were no longer the deep brown I had known all these years but glinted golden in the late afternoon sunlight.
Glinted like molten lead.
Yes, something had happened to Liam all right.
Something dark, twisted, and sinister.
Something that had bestowed the same magnetic irises on him that Clint possessed.
How? I wondered. What had happened to him since we saw him last?
He approached Clint with unhurried steps and just when Clint moved to shove him back, the creature—and yes, that was what he was—some kind of monster wearing a Liam costume—shifted and moved so fast his body was a blur.
He struck Clint in the chest, the gut, then ducked under Clint’s wild swinging punch before rising and, using the momentum, brought his fist crashing into Clint’s jaw so hard it raised him off his feet.
Clint stumbled, his former strength leaving him like a river bursting its banks.
Liam seized Clint by his lapels, spun, and hurled Clint like he was nothing more than a bag of bones.
Clint’s entire body went limp as he sailed up and then crashed into the gravel driveway.
The sharp stones tore his clothes and he rolled end over end until he came to a stop in a heap of lifeless limbs.
He didn’t even attempt to rise.
I got to my knees and braced my arms on the window frame.
“Clint!” I screamed.
Liam’s head whipped up and the fiery golden orbs of his eyes pinned me in place and reminded me of the wolfish appearance Clint had when he confronted Liam during their first round.
Only now, I was the prey.
Liam sprinted up the short flight of steps but instead of bolting through the front door, he launched himself at the trellis that adorned the front wall.
His arms and legs were much stronger than I believed and scaled like a spider perfectly designed for such an assault.
He was halfway to my bedroom window when I overcame my shock and began to move.
I fell back off my bed and crashed to the floor.
I was up in an instant and running for the door.
What was happening? I screeched at the top of my internal voice. What the fuck is going on?
I shouldered my bedroom door open and ran into a large figure with grasping hands.
I screamed and shuttled back.
“Hey, hey!”
It took a moment for me to recognize my pop’s gentle voice.
“Pop? Oh, thank God!”
I fell into his embracing arms and nuzzled my face into his chest.
“I heard a scream,” he said. “What’s going on?”
My mouth worked but I couldn’t form words.
I turned and pointed at my window.
“What happened?” Pop said.
“It’s… It’s Liam… At least, it looks like Liam. He got into a fight with Clint and… and… He’s climbing up the house to reach me!”
Pop wrapped his comforting arms around me and rocked me gently.
“Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. It’s all right. Everything’s going to be okay.”
I wanted to sink into his embrace the way I used to when I was a kid but I couldn’t shake the image of Liam scaling up the trellis like that.
Like a spider.
Like a monster.
Like a demon.
I pulled back and gingerly stepped toward the open window, but at an angle in case Liam reached inside to grab me.
A breath of wind made the net billow and flutter like a bird’s feathers.
From this angle, I couldn’t make Liam out anywhere.
I leaned outside a little further but still couldn’t see any sign of him.
At the rate he’d been scaling up the wall, he should have reached my room by now.
But there was no sign of him.
I couldn’t have imagined it, could I?
I shook my head.
Of course not.
Then if Liam wasn’t there, seeing Clint lying in the dirt of the driveway would be my proof of the fight that’d taken place…
Except Clint was no longer there either.
I backed away from the window and buried my face in the palms of my hands.
“I… I don’t understand,” I gibbered. “They were right there, I swear! Both of them! They were right there! Look! Liam’s cruiser is parked down there. He is here. But I saw… I thought…”
Pop’s welcoming arms embraced me once again.
“It’s all right. You don’t have anything to fear. I have you now.”
I have you now.
That didn’t sound like Pop.
And now that I thought about it, his voice didn’t sound the same either…
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck.
It bore that same haunted hollow sound Liam’s had earlier too.
I looked up
