Chapter 73
Volik
Itip my head back and look up at the stars.
Then I turn myself forty degrees. Ready to go home. Ready to leave before anyone comes out to investigate the surprisingly muted sound of a house being crushed.
I focus on a point three hundred feet up.
Then a board creaks.
My attention snaps down to the front porch directly across the street from the house that is no more.
It’s dark. No lights shining outside or in, but there’s a kid. Hands up. Eyes wide. Maybe sixteen. Seventeen. Frozen mid-step like he’s trying to sneak in.
I look back at the pile that used to be a house, then back at the kid. “He deserved it.”
Kid nods his head. “Man, fuck that guy.”
I lift a shoulder. “Weird how his house just imploded.”
“Super weird. But shit’s like that sometimes.”
My lips threaten to smile. I like this kid.
A porch light turns on a few houses down.
I need to leave.
“Funny,” the kid says. “My memory… It’s not great. I’ll probably forget I was ever outside tonight. But maybe by the time I go to college… it’ll be better.”
That urge to smile increases, even as another light turns on. “I think Stalden University has a scholarship for that.”
“Interesting.”
I read the house number behind him. “This your house?”
He nods and tells me his name.
“You will receive an acceptance letter in the mail.”
A door opens somewhere nearby.
And I jump.