Lies

freak Hunter, this chud deliberately murdered my best friend, Harry.
    He’s a killer!
    Take him! Take him, the murdering mutant scum!
    That voice…
    Hunter touched his neck, feeling again the scrape of the rough rope.
    He’d been hurt so bad. Head beaten. Blood running in his eyes. And his words not working…
    Mind not…
    Brain confused…so afraid…
    Grab on to the rope!
    That voice had urged, pitch rising, bellowing, the mob of kids shrieking and giddy, and the rope had tightened around Hunter’s neck and pulled and pulled and he couldn’t breathe, Oh God, gasping for air but no air…
    Grab on to the rope!
    They had. They had grabbed on to the rope and pulled and Hunter’s neck had stretched and his feet lifted, kicking in theair, kicking and wanting to scream and his head pounding and pounding and eyes going dark…
    Zil!
    Zil and his friends.
    And here they were. They didn’t even know Hunter was there. They didn’t see him. They weren’t hunters.
    Hunter crept closer. Moving to intersect their path. His powers didn’t usually reach more than fifty paces or so. He had to be closer.
    “…think you’re right, Leader,” one of the others was saying.
    “Can we take a rest?” a third voice whined. “This stuff weighs a ton.”
    “We should have gone back when it was still light so we could see,” Antoine griped.
    “Idiot. We waited until dark for a reason,” Zil snapped. “You want Sam or Brianna to catch us out in the open?”
    “We have guns now.”
    “Which we will use when the time is right,” Zil said. “Not in some open fight with Sam and Dekka and Brianna where they’ll take us out.”
    “When the time is right,” one of them echoed.
    They had guns, Hunter thought. Sneaking with guns.
    “Leader will decide,” another voice said.
    “Yeah, but…,” someone began. Then, “Shh! Hey! I think I just saw a coyote. Or maybe it was a deer.”
    “Better not be a coyote.”
    BLAM! BLAM!
    Hunter dove facedown in the dirt.
    “What are you shooting at?” Zil demanded.
    “I think it was a coyote!”
    “Turk, you idiot!” Zil raged. “Blasting away like a moron!”
    “The sound carries, Turk,” Hank said.
    “Give that gun to Hank,” Zil snapped. “Idiot.”
    “Sorry. I thought…it looked like a coyote.”
    It wasn’t a coyote. It was Hunter’s deer.
    They were moving on now. Still grumping at one another. Still complaining.
    Hunter knew he could move faster and more quietly than they did. He could get close enough…
    He could stretch out his hands and bring the killing heat to Zil’s brain. Cook it. Cook it inside his skull.
    Like he had Harry…
    “An accident,” Hunter moaned softly to himself. “Didn’t mean to…”
    But he had.
    Tears filled his eyes. He wiped at them, but more came.
    He’d been defending himself from Zil. So long ago. They’d been roommates, Zil and Harry and Hunter. A stupid argument; Hunter no longer remembered what had started it. He only remembered that Zil had threatened him with a fireplace poker. Hunter had been scared. He’d reacted. But Harry had moved between them, trying to separate them, trying to stop the fight.
    And Harry had cried out. Grabbed his head.
    Hunter remembered his eyes…the way they had turnedmilky…the light going out…
    Hunter had seen that same dying light in the eyes of many animals since then. He was Hunter the hunter.
    Of animals. Not of boys. Not even bad boys like Zil.

    Taylor bounced.
    Sam’s house. Nighttime. Astrid asleep, Little Pete asleep, Mary out at the day care working the night shift, John asleep.
    Sam’s bedroom empty.
    There was still trouble in paradise, Taylor thought with some satisfaction. Sam and Astrid had not made up.
    She wondered if it was permanent. Sam was way hot. If Sam and Astrid had broken up for good, hey, maybe there was an opportunity.
    She could wake Astrid. That would probably be the proper thing to do. But her instinct said no, especially after Astrid had chilled her earlier.
    Boy, was Astrid going to freak when she found out Taylor had gone to Sam first. But this was the kind of thing you took to Sam right away. Too big for Astrid.
    Well, too big for anyone, really.
    Taylor thought of the fire station. On occasion Sam had stayed there. But all she found there was a sleeping Ellen, the fire chief—the fire chief with no water to spray. Ellen grumbled in her sleep.
    Not for the first time Taylor considered the fact that she could be the world’s greatest thief. All