Reggie nudged Nathan forward. “Do it.”
Nathan stepped into the room. This was a horrible thing he was about to do. Even if people were bad, you weren’t supposed to bite out their neck. This was wrong. He’d be taken to jail or an even worse orphanage, perhaps one where they made you drink paint.
Or he’d be a hero, having saved his fellow orphans from a most terrible man.
Murderer or hero?
Murderer, hero, or spineless coward who did exactly as he was told?
He’d go with “hero.” That felt best.
Nathan knew that if he kept thinking about it he wouldn’t be able to create the upcoming violence, so he walked right up to the comfortable-looking bed, avoided the temptation to swipe a piece of cheese, and leaned his face down toward Steamspell’s sleeping body.
Steamspell opened one eye.
Nathan gasped.
Steamspell opened the other eye.
Nathan had learned to control his bodily functions at a remarkably young age, yet it was only with the most intense concentration that these skills did not fail him now.
“You wretched cur!” shouted Steamspell as he sat upright. “What’s going on here? Why are you in my bedroom? Why is your mouth open in a biting position?”
Nathan looked back at Reggie for help, or at least at where he thought Reggie would have been if the need for help arose. Reggie had fled. It was an act of cowardice that Reggie assumed would haunt him for the rest of his years, but he actually got over it within a matter of hours, deciding that it wasn’t his fault that Nathan had fallen for his natural charisma and listened to him.
“Were you…were you…” Steamspell spoke as if he couldn’t believe the words that were about to come out of his mouth. “…were you planning to kill me?”
The line between the virtue of honesty and the usefulness of lying was sometimes a thin one, but not in this case. “Absolutely not.”
“Fibber!” Steamspell shouted. “Homicidal fibber! If that’s the kind of environment you want, I’ll show you how to murder somebody!”
Both of Steamspell’s hands shot out, grabbing for Nathan’s throat. Nathan ducked and ran out of the room as fast as his legs would carry him. The other boys who’d been watching stepped out of his way, all of them thankful that they hadn’t been the ones born with the sharp teeth that had caused Reggie to hatch this particular scheme.
Steamspell followed right behind him. “I’ll kill you! Don’t think I won’t!”
Nathan ran through the orphanage, having no doubt whatsoever that Steamspell did indeed mean to kill him. He could never have imagined that somebody would actually want him dead! (He remained unaware that anybody had wanted him dead when he was a baby.)
Nathan ran down the stairs, almost tripping over a three-year-old who slept there because it was more comfortable than his mattress. “Help!” Nathan screamed. “Help me, somebody! Anybody will do!”
Not all of the orphans were intelligent, but none of them were stupid enough to get in the way of an enraged Bernard Steamspell, and there were no immediate offers of assistance. As Nathan reached the bottom of the stairs, he felt that he was increasing the distance between himself and his pursuer, but yelped in terror as he felt Steamspell grab the back of his shirt.
Fortunately, Nathan was wearing the official orphanage garb, which consisted of clothes that were purchased because they were very, very cheap. (The clothing that the boys were wearing when they were admitted was taken away from them and sold to better orphanages.)
So his shirt tore off in Steamspell’s hand as Nathan darted across the room toward the front door.
Did he really want to do this? Did he really want to rush out into a world of traps and wolves and hunters?
Yes. It was better than being strangled.
He reached the front door and turned the knob.
It was locked!
He changed direction and ran toward the kitchen. As he ran, it occurred to him that the front door would have been locked from the inside, and he would have been much better off taking the half a second to turn the lock.
Behind him, Steamspell was beginning to wheeze. The constant beatings had given him superior arm strength, but did little to assist with a chase.
They ran in a circle around the kitchen. Though Nathan saw many items that he could grab and throw, there wasn’t time to do so. After their second circle around the kitchen, Nathan hurried back into the main room,
“Go Fangboy!” shouted one of the boys, momentarily forgetting himself. He quickly fell silent and stepped behind a taller boy.
“That’s right! Go Fangboy!” shouted another boy, who was so into the moment that he didn’t care if Steamspell beat him later. It wasn’t as if he’d thought that his most recent beating would be his last. Why not enjoy a few seconds of exuberance?
Nathan raced back to the front door, twisted the lock, turned the handle, opened the door…and felt Steamspell’s hand clamp tightly on the back of his neck. Steamspell kicked the door closed again.
“Well, well, well, thought you could get away, did you? Not so tough when your victim is awake, are you? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t squeeze right now and pop your head off?”
Nathan couldn’t speak.
“I should make an example of you right here. If there’s one thing I won’t tolerate, it’s attempts to kill me in my sleep. Get ready to join your parents, boy! Have you come up with your reason yet?”
Nathan still couldn’t speak.
“My God, are you so pathetic that you cannot even think of one reason that I should not pop your head off? What about the fact that it will hurt? That’s a good reason right there, one I came up with on the spot.”
“Please—” Nathan finally managed to say.
“Please what?”
“Please don’t kill me.”
Steamspell loosened his grip on Nathan’s neck. “I’m not going to kill you, you disgraceful ingrate. I’m going to give you what you want. You want to be free of me and the shelter I provide? Have at it. Who do you think will help somebody like you on the outside? Nobody, that’s who!”
Steamspell opened the front door and beckoned with exaggerated grace.
“You’ll see how it is. Your mommy and daddy may have protected you from the world, but in real life, people are afraid of monsters. They hate them. When people see you, first they’ll shriek, then they’ll shove a shotgun in your face, and then they’ll pull the trigger, and that’s a promise!”
“I don’t believe you.”
Steamspell grinned. “Well, Fangboy, then you won’t live much longer. You can live like an animal or die like one, but either way, you’re going to be an animal. Get out.”
Nathan ran out the door, and then he kept on running. He was scared of traps and goblins, but he was more scared of Steamspell changing his mind. He ran and ran and ran, fleeing deep into the forest.
SIX
After ten or fifteen minutes of running, Nathan took a moment to reflect upon his good fortune. He’d somehow avoided every landmine, every bear trap, every ravenous wolf, every quicksand pit, and every other trap that Steamspell had set up to keep little boys from escaping the orphanage. He was blessed!
Now he just had to keep running until he found a road. Somebody would eventually stop and help him. If he told them how bad things were, they wouldn’t make him go back to that horrible place, would they?
No, they’d just press a shotgun to his chest.
Laugh at him, or scream in horror.
Then shoot him.
“Die, Fangboy!”
But what else could he do? He had to trust somebody. He couldn’t live out in the woods on his own.
Could he?