Free Gravestone by Travis Thrasher Page B

of the hill.
    “I always knew I’d be knocking on your door one day.”
    “Where are your boys? And your baseball bat?”
    Gus laughs. He seriously couldn’t seem to care less about the way he looks, the oiliness of his skin, the just-got-out-of-bed hair.
    How can someone look that oily in the middle of winter? Especially after an ice storm.
    “This isn’t my idea, you know. My father figured this would be the ideal opportunity to meet you.”
    “Uh, no thanks.”
    “No, Chris. If you’re smart, you will walk down the hill with me and get in the car.”
    “So, what? School is open?”
    Gus nods. “They don’t have many snow days, and they’ve already used a couple. Half the school won’t show up.”
    “Good to see how dedicated you are.”
    “I was in Florida all last week. That’s my dedication.”
    “Where’s your tan?”
    “What are you talking about?” Gus says. “I’m a vampire. We don’t like the sun.” He laughs and then tells me to get my stuff together. Fast.
    In a weird way, I get the feeling that he knows I’m by myself.
    I recall the voice laughing underneath me in the middle of the night.
    Maybe it was him.

22. Ichor Staunch??
     
    I brace myself for this meeting with a man I know I’ve seen before. Yet when I look inside the Hummer, I wonder if my eyes are playing tricks the way everything else seems to be.
    “Hello, Chris.”
    I know that voice I’ve heard that voice in the darkness.
    Bold, bright eyes look at me in a way that Gus can’t and will never be able to. He kind of looks like Gus, though.
    “Why don’t you have a seat?” the driver says as he pats the empty seat next to him. The SUV smells new.
    This is Ichor Staunch?
    The guy is wearing a blue dress shirt and a black sports coat. He doesn’t have fangs and a Count Dracula cape.
    “Come on, I’m freezing,” he says.
    I do what I’m told. I shut the door and figure that I couldn’t run away from him if I tried. I buckle my seat belt in case we tragically veer off the side of the road after I grab the wheel in a brave act of stupidity.
    Stop it, Chris.
    The guy behind the wheel is not Gus’s father. No way possible. Even though he sorta looks like him, there’s no way. I saw Ichor Staunch that day I walked downstream, the day I spied on the lawn of their house.
    You weren’t sure that was his father. That could’ve been anybody.
    “Late night last night?” the man says.
    He’s got graying brown hair that’s still thick and combed to one side. He doesn’t look like some evil businessman or dark Sith Lord or the Boogeyman. He looks like just another grown-up on his way to work.
    “Gus, does this boy talk?”
    The Southern accent is strong but seems to be held at bay, as if it could go off when necessary.
    “Oh, he talks all right. Talks way too much if you ask me.”
    “It’s impolite to not reply to people, Chris.”
    That voice belongs to the one I heard in the hole when I was abducted and shoved in the middle of the cabin. And it belongs to the voice that warned me about Jocelyn, the one that threatened me and my family after they took her.
    “Sorry,” I say.
    “Ah, you can speak. That’s good. I’d like to hear what you have to say.”
    I nod.
    “So I’ve heard from Gus that you’ve had a difficult time adjusting to Harrington High.”
    “No.”
    “No, sir,” he says.
    “Excuse me?”
    “No, sir. ”
    I repeat his words. His order.
    “I wanted to make sure that you realize that Gus is harmless. And Gus, you are harmless, right?”
    “Right.”
    Gus sounds timid, like a little puppy. I glance back and see him sitting there in complete and utter obedience.
    “Here’s the thing about being me,” Mr. Staunch says. “I’ve earned the right to bully people. Bullying doesn’t have to stop when you become an adult. You know? But as for my son, he doesn’t quite understand the logic and etiquette of bullying. You are the new student, so he sees you as fresh meat and thus decides to