Page 79 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
“Dunno,” Cal says, shaking his head. “But we’ll figure it out. We always do.” He studies me for a moment and then looks up at the sky. “It’s about to get dark.” I shiver when he says that, can’t help myself. Hearing Callum Park say the word dark in that deep, husky voice of his activates every primal instinct I have, from survival to fucking and everything in-between. “Do you want to play a game?”
“What sort of game?” I ask warily, looking back at him.
“A game of shadows,” he tells me, stepping back. “You hide, and I try to find you.” There must be something on my face that gives away what I’m thinking because he throws his head back in laughter. “Oh, Bernie, don’t look so scared. You’re the one person I would never hurt.” He drops his head back down and then reaches out to push some hair back from my face. “You said you wanted to learn to creep in the shadows, right?”
“I did, but I wasn’t aware it was going to be a game of hide-and-seek.” I think about the cemetery and Neil’s mocking voice and that horrible “Tiptoe Through the Tulips with Me” song. I take another drag on my cigarette and put it down. “But okay. Yes. Teach me.”
“Let’s make a wager: you manage to hide for fifteen seconds and I’ll give you something nice.” He flips his hood back, and I have to hold in a small gasp at the beauty of his hair. It really is the color of sunshine and spun gold; I wish I saw it more often.
“Nice, how?” I query, shaking out my hands. “Oral sex? That’s Hael’s favorite thing to bet.”
“Even better than that,” Cal says, pulling a pack of gum from his hoodie pocket. He unwraps a single stick and folds it into his mouth. “Now,” he puts his hands on either of my shoulders and leans in close to my face, smelling like mint and sweet things. The scent is completely at odds with his aura, this dangerous swirl of smoke and long-buried bones. “You run; you hide. I’m going to count to sixty in my head.”
Callum releases me, and I feel this surge of adrenaline take over that I didn’t expect. It feels like a serious PTSD reaction to the idea of hide-and-seek, one of Neil’s favorite games to play with me and Penelope as children. I almost choke as I turn and sprint into the yard, around the corner of the house and toward the old playhouse. It’s been here for years, slowly rotting away.
Hiding inside the house seems too obvious, but there’s a space underneath it that I know I can crawl into, a hole dug by Aaron’s first and only dog. I remember her, actually, this beautiful golden retriever that his father took to a bar one night and ended up trading in exchange for some of his debt. Nobody ever bothered to fill the hole in, so here it is: big enough to hide a body.
I hit the dirt on my knees and shimmy underneath, cursing under my breath at the pulling in my side. I cannot fucking wait to get these stitches out.
As soon as I’m under, I do my best to control my breathing. It seems impossible though, with the adrenaline making my heart pound like a heard of galloping horses. You can do this, I tell myself, but then I glance over and see Kali’s rotten face in the darkness. My breath catches, and I almost scream.
“Hide-and-seek?” she mocks. “How fitting. One of your worst nightmares, and you’re using it as a game.”
But I’m not.
I trust Cal’s instincts. If he thinks he can teach me to move the way he does by playing children’s games, then I’ll do it.
A hand clamps on my ankle and drags me from the hole as I do my best to swallow a scream. Callum releases me as soon as I’m free of the playhouse, standing up as I roll onto my back and stare up at him.
He smiles.
“You made too much noise running over here. Slow and steady wins the race, Bernie.” Cal nods at me again, pushing up the sleeves of his hoodie to reveal his tattoos. The desperate ballerina on his arm stays slumped over, mourning a dream that will never come true. “Try again.”
Callum turns away, and I stand up. This time, I take his advice into account and move as slowly and quietly down the cement walkway as I can. Since I’m moving more slowly, I can’t cover as much ground, settling for crouching behind a trellis covered in winter-dead roses, as black as a corpse’s fingers and in desperate need of trimming.
I’ve not fully settled into a crouch before Callum appears beside me, like a demon summoned from the lengthening shadows of early evening. This time, I do jump, but he just laughs at me.
