Honorbound Read Free Page A

him.”
    “Stamford?” The name sounded familiar. “You mean the guy that got…”
    “Beheaded?” He winced. “Yes. We found out about the curse too late, by then bad things had already started to happen. Accidents. Each one was worse than the last. We tried just drawing blood, sacrificing animals, none of it worked. Alfred refused to kill anyone, and he died for it. The same thing will happen to you.”
    We stared at each other in silence. He was crazy. He had to be crazy. A curse? It was ridiculous. Even so, there were whispers in the back of my head. I swear I had put the sword away. The broken desk, the vase, the grisly end of this Stamford guy. I shook my head.
    “So, you’re telling me that if I don’t kill someone, I’m going to die?”
    He nodded. I stood up from the table.
    “I can’t believe I ever started to buy into this. You want me to kill someone. You’re insane.”
    I slipped by him and stormed to the door. I heard his chair sliding over the bells of the door but I was outside before he could follow me.
    It was a good thing Sarah hadn’t come. I decided not to tell her about any of this as I stomped off the curb into the street. Then I heard the horn.
    I remember the next few moments in clips, like watching a slide show. I see the giant flat face of the city bus bearing down on me. I’m hit in the back by something, hard. I see a corridor of dark blue sky between the buildings. I hear screeching tires, and a wet thud that I’ll never forget. Then I was getting up off the sidewalk.
    The bus was stopped where I had just been standing. Its face and the street around it were painted in crimson. The man in the tweed suit lay crumpled and broken before it. His glasses were at my feet.
    That bus was going to kill me. That bus was going to kill me and he shoved me out of the way.
    A crowd started to gather as the driver and passengers poured out of the bus. I didn’t know what to do. So I ran.

    I had never run like that in my life. I didn’t stop the whole way home. There was no time to wait for the elevator, my feet only touched every third stair. I barely got the key into the lock. Only once I was inside, my back pressed against the door, did I let myself breathe. Could it be true? Could everything he said have been true?
    The apartment was quiet. Mom must’ve been working late or running errands. I needed to tell someone. I needed advice. I needed Sarah.
    This time I took the elevator to catch my breath. When the doors opened, I thought I heard yelling from down the hall. The door to Sarah’s apartment was cracked open. I started to knock then heard a crash from inside. I shoved the door open and ran in.
    Sarah was curled up on the floor in the living room, sobbing. Her hands were covering her face but I could see a trickle of blood creeping through her fingers and dark purple bruises welling on her arms. Her dad stood over her, fists clenched. An end table lay on its side behind them, the lamp and the rest of its contents scattered across the floor.
    Her dad turned to me when I ran in.
    “What do you want?” he yelled.
    His voice was thick and heavy, and I could smell the alcohol on him from the hallway. I tried to find something to say, but nothing came out. He lurched over to me and grabbed me hard by the back of the neck.
    “This is none of your business.”
    He threw me into the hallway. The door slammed shut behind me and I landed face first on the carpet. My stitches throbbed. I don’t think I really felt the pain though. All I could see was Sarah. Her sobbing. The blood leaking between her fingertips. The bruises. The look in her eyes.
    I was in my room. I don’t remember if I took the stairs or the elevator, but there I was, in front of my dresser. In front of the sword. My knuckles went white as they tightened around the hilt. I do remember the trip back up, I took the stairs two at a time.
    I could hear him yelling again. I rattled the door. He had locked it. There was a thump