The Traveling Vampire Show

“Sure. Go.”

Trying again, Smack said, “You don’t wanta keep your mommy waiting.”

Rusty acted as if he hadn’t heard that. To Scotty, he said, “You really gonna let us go?”

“Gonna let you go, fatso.”

“ Me?”

“You.”

“What about them?”

“What about ’em?”

“You gonna let them go, too?”

“What’s it to you?”

Lips twisting all crooked, Rusty said, “I don’t know.”

“You going or aren’t you?” Scotty asked.

“I don’t know.”

“He don’t know much,” Smack said, and chuckled.

“I’ll give you till three,” Scotty said. “You’re still here, you get what they get. One.”

Rusty’s mouth fell open. Appalled, he glanced at me, at Phoebe.

“Two.”

He raised a hand and blurted, “Wait! Wait! What’re you gonna do to them?”

“Whatever we want,” said Tim.

“Three.”

“WAIT!” Rusty cried out, tears coming to his eyes.

“Missed your chance, lardass.”

“Did not! It was a time-out!”

“That’s what you think.”

Tim spoke again. “Missed your chance, porky.”

Scared as I was—and I was straining not to mess my pants—it occurred to me as peculiar that these two skinny snakes were making cracks about Rusty’s weight when their own pal, Smack, was about a ton heavier than Rusty. Showed how much they cared about their buddy.

Suddenly in tears, Rusty pleaded, “Gimme another chance. C’mon. Please? It ain’t fair.”

The three creeps thought that was funny. They laughed and glanced at each other and shook their heads.

I didn’t find it very amusing.

“Let him go,” I said.

Scotty smirked at me. “Gonna tell your daddy on us?”

“Just let him go, that’s all.”

To Rusty, he said, “You wanta leave?”

Sniffling and sobbing, Rusty nodded.

“Okay, you can leave.”

“Th ... thanks.”

“But first you gotta suck my dick.”

For half a second, I thought he was kidding. But then he unzipped his jeans. Walking toward Rusty, he reached into his fly and my stomach sort of dropped because this was getting worse than I’d ever thought and if they did perverted sex stuff to Rusty they’d do it to me and Phoebe, too, and then maybe they would have to kill us so we wouldn’t tell on them.

About two steps away from Rusty, Scotty whipped out his tool and said, “Get on your knees and open wide,” and Phoebe shot an arrow into his leg.

It punched through Scotty’s jeans and thunked deep into the side of his right thigh. He squealed, jerked up his leg and grabbed near where the arrow had entered. On one foot, he twisted away and hopped a couple of times. Then he fell sideways. He landed hard on the ground and squealed some more as the pieces of broken bottles jabbed into him.

Instead of attacking us, Tim and Smack just stood there. They looked at Scotty, then at Phoebe, shock on their faces. They couldn’t believe Mr. Tough Guy had gotten himself shot down. Especially they couldn’t believe the shooting had been done by a skinny little tomboy with a bow and arrow.

Squirming on the ground and whimpering, Scotty cried out, “Get her, guys! Get ’em all!”

By then, Phoebe had another arrow on the string of her bow.