Page 157
Story: Electricity
“No!” I looked at them. “We’re the right ones. They’re the crazy ones. We can’t let them win!”
Lacey stood and walked over to my side. “Give them here,” she said.
A slow smile crinkled Danny’s face. The same greasy smile I bet he got every time things went his way.
Then he watched Lacey reach in through her shirt collar and stick the photos in her bra. “Take it from me.”
He leaned in. “Fine.”
Mason finally found words. “Danny, they were going to tell them about the cheating ring and fail me.”
“Get outside,” he said, pushing Mason through the door.
“You’ve already taken enough,” Lacey said, stepping forward, as Danny stepped back onto the cabin’s porch. “So no. You don’t get these.”
“I mean it.”
“What’re you gonna do about it?” Lacey said, taking another step. I was a foot behind her, just in case. “We’re all here. We all see you. We all know what you did.”
Headlights turned on behind Danny, casting him in sudden light. “And I already called the cops,” Darius announced, getting out of his car.
Danny flung an arm up, covering his eyes. All of us were on the porch now, and Danny’s friends were hard to see in the darkness. “Yeah? Fuck the cops!” he said, running down and swinging his bat and taking out the Corolla’s right headlight.
“Hey man!” Darius dove away from the shattered glass.
“What?” Danny asked, pointing his bat at Darius as if to aim. “The cops aren’t here yet—a lot can happen between now and then.” He stalked over to the other side of Darius’s car. “You think they’re gonna take the word of a drug dealer over me? Or a bunch of whores?” With another swing, he aimed for the second light. “Why the fuck would they listen to you? Any of you? Do you know who I am, compared to you? I am Danny fucking Mayweather and I am fucking famous!”
“Not as famous as Colton.” Liam appeared out of the darkness, and Danny whirled.
“Shut up, Liam.”
“Is that why you used his room?”
“Colton gave me the key!”
“So it’s true,” Liam said. And I realized up until that very moment he’d been looking for reasons to doubt me.
Danny swung the bat his way. “You’re the only member of the Lewis family who’s a pussy.”
A cloud rolled in, thick and fast, completely obscuring the stars. The only light was from the lanterns in the cabin, which gave everything a jack-o-lantern glow.
“Time’s ticking, Danny.” Lacey patted her chest where the USB was. “I think you need to just give up.”
Danny looked behind him and saw Darius, to the left and saw Liam. His friends—Bruce and Nathan, I could see now that my eyes had adjusted, and Mason were out there, but everyone’d taken steps back when he’d gotten bat-happy. And all of us on the porch were staring at him. He stood in the clearing, completely alone.
“Danny, we have to get out of here,” Bruce said.
“No—this isn’t happening. This is not how I go down.”
“Just give us the bat, Danny,” Liam said, walking up.
He swung it out at Liam in warning—and Darius tackled him from behind.
They both fell to the ground with a grunt and started wrestling just as rain began to fall.
“Don’t hurt him!” I screamed. It was so dark now the storm overhead was suddenly intense, in that way only midwestern storms could be. I couldn’t see all of what was happening because of it, just hear the violence when they hit, and the sound of their feet and knees scraping in the mud. Then I heard Darius groan. Distant lightning flashed, and I saw Danny’s arm wrapped around Darius’s neck with its light.
“No!” I shouted, running out.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157 (Reading here)
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161