That little bit of thrumming returned. A static-like sensation trickled up my arm as the cube soared across the pit. It was so high. So high in fact that I thought that it might have been too much for Cindi to catch it. The feeling from before intensified. My heart raced. Except, my worries ended up being for naught. The cube slowed in flight and descended just in front of her. When she caught it, the feeling evaporated and left me alone with Brady.
What the hell was that? I would have been lying if I had said I had never felt that way before. But it's never been a feeling I was conscious of, or cognizant of in the moment. My proximity near that blackbox, however, had intensified it. It wasn't something I could just ignore anymore. It was the same feeling I felt on that terrible day.
I rushed at Brady as he watched the box soar behind me. The glint of my knife must have caught his eyes. It was too late, though. He underestimated me. I could use that. I lunged for him with all the strength I could muster. The blade drew blood. I managed to leave a pretty nasty cut in his left arm before he knocked me away.
"Damn it! You just had to go and ruin tonight. I was so close," Brady said. I wiped some dirt off my cheeks. He towered over me, waving his blade around like a clown playing with a pin. "No one walks away from a knife fight unscathed, kid."
"Don't call me kid," I said. He dashed toward me. I brought my blade up to stop him, but he grappled me before I could use it. His hand gripped down on my freehand wrist and I swiped at the air to put some distance between us. It wasn't enough to stop him from twisting me around and leaving a nasty incision of his own in the side of my shoulder. I cringed and he pulled it out. A little trickle of blood poured out the open wound.
"Had enough?" he said.
I stabbed him back. This time, I managed to hit his freehand as it hovered above me.
"Shit!" he yelped. Blood stained the crease of his shirt. A thin wet splotch of red.
He swiped above me. I ducked and swerved out of the way. He was tired, and in pain, while I still had some energy in the fight. He moved sluggishly and inefficiently. I could see myself getting the upper hand on him if he made enough mistakes. Then, I could get him to back down or give in.
"He said you'd be easy," Brady hissed.
"Who?" I asked. I eased up, thinking I may have misheard what he said. He watched me loosen my stance, noticing the little skip in my attitude, and then he lunged. I underestimated how much energy he had, because it was almost like he turned into another animal. The agility of a panther, the strength of the lion, the speed of a cheetah. A large predator of claws and thick rigid hide.
He was on top of me now. How did I miss that? A shriek of pain leaped out into the yard. He had plunged the shallow knife into my leg, narrowly missing my hip.
"Not so tough now, are you?" he sneered and peered down at me. He licked his lips like a wild dog. The heat of his breath stank. He snarled with a half-cackle half-choke. I swung up with my knife, but before I could return the favor, he pinned both my arms on the ground. The gravel and stone dug into the back of my head like a chronic migraine that wouldn't go away.
"You're a nuisance, you know that? Tricking Lynn like that, driving him away from me like a pussy. He told me to let you go, but he didn't say I couldn't cut you up a bit before dropping you off on the side of the road." He hit me square in the jaw. The pain shot through me with all his weight backed behind it. I reeled from the pain and saw a bright flash of light. My tongue swashed around inside my mouth and found a dislodged tooth. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Little freak."
I spat the tooth out at his face. He brought his arm up to shield his eyes, but it was too late for him to get the blood out.
"Fucking, asshole!"
Then, out of nowhere, I heard someone bolt across the gravel and stone. Brady turned at the last second to see Lynn rushing at him, pebbles and dirt tossed up in the air as he swung for Brady's head. The force of Lynn's punch knocked Brady back into a bench. The loud crack that followed reminded me of a baseball bat hitting a ball straight into the stratosphere, sudden and satisfying.
Lynn stared down at me. He was huffing and puffing. I stared back up at him, curious to what he'll do next. Something about his eyes reminded me of Cindi's or Raiden's. Almost like they were pitying me. Instead of threatening me or winding up for another punch, Lynn reached out to grab my hand and pull me up.
"Go, now," he said. I nodded. Cindi and Raiden were already making their way to the exit. Jesse and the thugs were missing. I assumed they must have been chased off or were following him. Lynn grinned smugly at me. "You took a mean hit there."
"Not as bad as you, it looks like," I said. He was bleeding too. Except for the few island bruises that pocketed his arms and legs, he had cuts all over. He looked down at himself and laughed when he noticed. "Damn, could have fooled me. You're scrappier than I thought."
I was breathing hard too. I was about to say something dumb but nothing came to mind but the pain, which was slowly creeping back up on me.
"Come on," he said. "This way."
I looked back down at Brady, who wasn't fully knocked out but was struggling to lift himself up off the ground. He groaned like he was crawling through hell. A part of me wanted to at least kick him while he was down. I watched him squirm. He was a worm trying to dig into rock. I almost pitied him. I felt Lynn grab my shoulder. I twitched a bit and looked back. He was already making his way out of there.
"I'm coming for you," Brady wheezed. "I'll find you, Court. You hear that?"
"Loud and clear," I said before leaving with Lynn.
Outside the construction yard, I collapsed in a heap of exhaustion. The night air cooled my smoldering chest. It was a cold compress in a feverish mess. We were stumbling around an almost empty parking lot. There were maybe a few cars left behind; old beaters on their last legs, one wheel in the grave and another deflated on the tar.
"Where'd they go?" I said, thinking about Cindi, Raiden, and Jesse.
"Beats me," Lynn scoffed. "Some friends of yours."
I slumped down on the pavement. My legs had given out.
"They're coming," I said.
"I hope so." He slumped down next to me. "You can hit me if you want to."
"What?"
"Hit me." He stared at me, waiting with unabashed contentment. "Come on, dude."
"Why do you want me to hit you?"
"I don't want you to hit me," he said.
"Really? Because it kind of sounds like you do."
"Seriously…hit me."
"I don't have the energy to." That was half-true. "Besides, if we wait too long, we'll have worse things to deal with."
"Well, I don't see you rushing to leave." He was right about that. Maybe they ditched us. What was I going to do? Just wait out there in the cold while Brady and his crew gathered their bearings and figured out we hadn't left yet. I didn't feel like making plans, thinking of ways to get out of there. I didn't want to think anymore tonight.
"Why do you want me to hit you?" I asked.
"Cause I hit you," he said. His voice carried slowly, but not methodically or deliberately. He didn't care about the words and the perfect meaning behind them. It was slow, like he wanted the works to be engraved across some invisible seal. As if he didn't want me to forget it, or ignore it.
"I don't care," I said. Maybe I did a little. I didn't see how that would change things, though. "Besides, you saved me back there."
"Only because you saved me. You still got one over me, though."
I looked at him. He seemed serious. His gaze was affixed on mine, as if he was summoning up all the little strength he had left to brace for the blow. I stood up. A feeling, a spark of anger surged through me, and I did it. I hit him. Right on the cheek. It left a small welt where I had thrown it.
Lynn reeled back, hissing through his teeth. The shock hit me.
"Shit. Could have warned me first."
"Sorry."
"Don't be. I asked for it. Now we're even." He rubbed the side of his cheek. "Your right hook is nasty. I don't remember you hitting me that hard last time."
I just shrugged. He started to laugh. It was infectious enough to make me want to join in. Just as the welt started to fade, a truck pulled into the lot.
Cindi said, without any shame or second thought, "You look like shit."
"Thanks, I guess." I glanced at Jesse in the front seat, his eyes squarely set on the road lit ahead by blaring headlights. Raiden sat shotgun, leaning on his hand as he rubbed a nasty bruise. I sat between Cindi and Lynn in the back. Lynn struggled to fit. He had to bend his legs awkwardly to get them comfortable. Even then, he only barely could. He shuffled around in an attempt to get better leg room. Raiden must have noticed his squirming and leaned his front seat back a little to make the struggle worse.
"Hey asshole," Lynn said. "Give me a break."
"Whoops," Raiden said. "Didn't see you back there string bean." Lynn, irritated, punched the back of the seat. Jesse glanced back at us. The glare he gave Lynn made even him wince.
"So you guys chased them off," I said, trying to change the topic.
"Yup, we gave those Saints a run for their money," Raiden said, haughtily.
"What I'm trying to parse is--" Jesse said. His voice commanded attention. I tensed up as he spoke. "--why are they interested in you three?" He looked at Raiden as he spoke.
"Why are you looking at me?" Raiden said. Jesse leaned his head back a little, toward Cindi sitting behind him.
"Do either of you want to tell me what's going on?"
Cindi, surprisingly, looked away. She avoided his eyes, like a child that knew they were in trouble. Before she could answer I said, "Because of this." I swiped the box from Cindi. It glimmered dimly in my hand.
"What is it?" Jesse asked.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that it's important enough that the Saints and some other powerful people want to get their hands on it."
Jesse nodded.
"Look, I appreciate you guys helping us out," Cindi said, "but we should be fine. We've got the cube and a plan." A plan? What plan? If we had a plan, I certainly wasn't included in it.
"And let some other gang pick you two off like vultures?" Jesse said. "Saints, Royals, Immortals, Warriors. They're all bad news. No, I'm sticking to you two like glue until this mess blows over."
Cindi looked like she wanted to object. Raiden laughed.
"This funny to you?"
"No—hah hah. No it's just that I said the same thing. Damn dude. We really do think alike."
Jesse laughed. "You dumbass. You're gonna drive me into an early grave, you know that?"
"We even look alike," Raiden said. He glanced back at me. "What d'you think, Monty?"
"You don't have to answer him," Cindi said.
"I mean…I guess."
"A real dead ringer," Lynn said.
"They speak the truth," he said. "We really are twins separated at birth."
"What now?" I asked.
Jesse said, "I'm driving you all home. So, fess up and tell me how to get there."
"You can drop me off up here," Lynn said. We were in some undisclosed area of Easttown's border on Lenox. It might be an hour away from Octoberfaire on foot.
Jesse groaned. "Don't think I like that idea."
Lynn sighed. He clamped his mouth shut and slipped into a quiet lull beside me. I listened to his breathing. It was almost methodical.
"Underwood Academy, right?" Jesse asked. He already seemed to know the answer. "Yea, I remember you. You play with Melody."
Lynn poked up his head when he heard the name. He listened a little more closely now.
"Lynn O'Neal," Jesse said. "Yea, I definitely remember you."
"Look if you got a problem—"
"No problem. No problem," Jesse said, interrupting him. "I just heard a lot about you."
"Bad things, I bet." He scoffed dryly. "Something about that damn school. Everyone's out to get me."
"Well, some of it. Some of it is good too."
"Doubt it."
"I don't run around those sorts of circles, if that's what you mean. But that doesn't really matter. That was some good shit out there tonight."
He sounded like a coach trying to cheer up his team after they lost a match. Lynn rolled his eyes.
"No, I'm serious." Jesse gripped the steering wheel. It felt like the whole truck went silent. "Thank you. For looking after these two. I don't know what I would do if I heard that Brady--fucking--May messed with them."
"We're fine…dude," Raiden started to say. Jesse went to cut him off.
"They were packing some serious weaponry. That could have gone way worse. You could have been killed."
"Hey, we didn't ask you to come," Cindi said.
"I damn well wish you did. Maybe then you wouldn't have been beaten so badly. Look at Raiden, he's bruised bloody. Hell, I thought we were a team."
I looked down at my hands, which were scarred in the scuffle with Brady. Cuts along my hands, palms, and arms. Adorned in a wet purple bog of bruising welts. Jesse had been wearing his varsity jacket during the fight with the thugs earlier. I didn't notice them before because they were covered up, but he too had some nasty cuts and bruises. A sinking feeling filled my stomach. I thought I was going to throw up.
"I'm sorry," I said. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have told Cindi about what happened."
Cindi watched me intently. She almost looked betrayed until her features softened and she embarrassingly turned back to the window. Jesse continued to stare straight ahead, his jacket tucked between the center console.
"Shut your whinging up," Raiden said. "If I didn't want to help, I wouldn't have. No one makes me do shit, Jesse. I helped them because I wanted to. It's not his fault, I should have called you."
Jesse chanced a glance at Raiden and nodded. "We can talk about it later. I'm not really looking to throw blame around."
"Well," Cindi said. "You're being kind of an asshole right now."
"Me?" Jesse said. "I was terrified something happened to you two."
Raiden looked back at Cindi. They shared a knowing look.
"How did you figure it out, anyway?" Raiden asked.
"Divanshu texted me."
"Divanshu?" Raiden parroted. "He's the guy who gave us away."
"D's got a good head on his shoulders," Jesse said. An unspoken message, a sharp stab to Raiden. He slumped back. "He wouldn't have done what he did if he didn't have another choice."
"Everyone's got a choice," Lynn said. Jesse glanced back at him. He studied the lanky kid. Just what did he know about him from school? I couldn't tell. Since Jesse's on the baseball team, he walked around the academy with a lot of prestige following him. He was a star athlete, dependable, not bad looking either. He'd seemed like a grade A jock. If I hadn't met Cindi, I would have assumed he was an asshole. Lynn was less preppy, more punk. Except, he didn't have that same sense of theatrical style that Raiden boasted of. He just seemed like he was a stranger in his own skin. He couldn't even sit right.
Lynn began again. "Hey, for what it's worth too, I'm sorry. For Brady."
"That's rich," Cindi said.
Lynn said, "He isn't in his right mind. He's never been like that before, at least never to me. Something about the people he's been running with recently. The Saints. He's been acting differently, like he's not himself."
"I'll forgive him when I hear it myself," Jesse said.
"What?" Raiden said. "Forgive that psycho? For what? Almost killing us?"
Jesse's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. "Monty."
I swallowed. "What?"
He continued. "I'm sorry we couldn't have been introduced to each other in better circumstances. You seem like a good guy."
I didn't know what to think of that. I thought he would say something more blunt or cutting, something like what Cindi or Raiden would say. I didn't expect him to be this courteous, that's for sure.
He said, "I think it's time to tell us the full story."
Lynn watched me through the reflection in the window, waiting on my next words.