Anpolis: Prologue

Prologue

I’ve heard whispers about the new kid.

Word is he’s been going around stealing people’s watches, rings, pens — anything he can lay his little filthy hands on, and robbing their houses. Sometimes, he even abducts their pets just to return them a week later completely shaven. They say he got that barely noticeable scar under his right eye when someone woke up in the middle of the night, saw him and beat the crap out of him. He had to spend the next three nights in a hospital, not because the owner showed good faith, but because a police officer saw his thrown body near the post office and called it in. Turns out his mother was a hooker that got beat to death by her pimp when she refused to get back to work the day after she gave birth to him. His daddy’s in jail for dealing drugs. He visits him two times a year and usually the second one lasts shorter than the first one.

They say that kid’s got something twisted in him. Some screw that got loose, or maybe a demon that’s been controlling him ever since he was a toddler. He’s killed. Many times before. Nobody knows why the police hasn’t made him yet (you’d think with so many rumors, even the cops would bother to look a bit more into it) but you can see it in his eyes. Green eyes that could belong to an angel and all you see are the blood thirst and the paranoia swimming from pupil to pupil. Oh, and that god forsaken smile... Perfect teeth that dug into his aunt’s flesh when he was barely seven years old just because she made macaroni and cheese when he had clearly stated he wanted pizza for dinner. She left him in a foster home after that night and disappeared from his life, never to be seen again. He didn’t mind. As far as he was concerned, that woman shared his mother’s blood and he hates his mother. He’s never met her and he’s thankful for that every day.

Last month he was seen outside church. Perrysdale’s a small town, people talk, and for the past six months, people’ve been talking about him. Kid that appeared from nowhere probably looks for trouble like a thirsty hound looks for water, no way to know if he’s finished school or if he’s still going. The parents went crazy the first week and no school principal would answer if they had him as a student. They believed in privacy and crap like that. So in return, they started pulling their kids from the only Perrysdale High School and the other two middle schools to keep them safe. Seventeen-year-olds being under curfew because a guy was out there. The school council reacted, Perrysdale had a track record of county’s best student performance for the past eight years after all, so they reassured them that yes, Creepy Kid wasn’t a student. School halls filled once again.

Heh, that must have made him laugh.

Anyway, he was circling the church that Friday and an old couple was watching him from the small park opposite the church and got worried. Lovely couple, they haven’t been around much lately. They said the kid looked worried, arms in jacket, slouched shoulders, muttering something over and over again until he came to a halt. Mrs. Welsh said he raised his head and looked at them and for a moment, he looked peaceful. Creepy Kid was actually quite handsome and made an impression on her. She said she felt a bit bad for that single minute. She had believed all those rumors about him being a “bad boy” and had agreed the previous week that he must had skinned that cat alive, but he now only looked like a misunderstood young adult who had come to Perrysdale to find himself a home only to be treated as an abomination that people were too scared to remove from their town.

Mr. Welsh said the kid started smiling. The heavenly light was lost, he started turning into a demon. Sinister look on his face, his body straightened up. He looked angered, amused, pleased and probably a bit horny but Mr. Welsh decided not to use that kind of language in front of his fragile wife’s ears. They both agreed he seemed ready to pass the empty road and come up to them but they left as quickly as they could. By the time they looked back, “the demon was gone, vanished into thin air as if the devil himself had dared appear in front of God’s house to take his supplicant under his wing”. Mrs. Welsh’s input.

For the next three weeks, everyone started discussing about PPD’s intention to finally get more intimate with him, maybe even pay him a visit at his house, ask some questions, and hopefully lock him up or, better yet, send him to NYPD’s hands. A big city like New York can certainly take care of him and Perrysdale will be finally left in peace. Problem is, nobody knows where he lives. And certainly, no one has ever asked.

It’s been unanimously agreed that every townie leave him alone, keep their distance and lock their homes at night. Some have even started sleeping with their guns and set cheap home security systems in case the young murderer decides to go on a killing spree in their town. He hasn’t done it in Perrysdale yet.

I’ve heard whispers that the new kid is bad news, but it’s okay. All that’s, of course, not accurate. I’ve never robbed anyone.