Infernal Revelation : Collected Episodes 1-4 (9781311980007) Read Free Page A

fuck this town," Juan said.
    "Fuck it," Gideon said, not talking about
the town. "I got to get to class."
    "Why?" Hugh snorted.
    Gideon didn't answer, grabbing his backpack
and swinging down to the water-tower ladder, frustration and
annoyance buzzing in his skull. Hugh and Juan were probably going
to kill the whole day on the tower, drinking and smoking, throwing
rocks at the windows of the model houses nobody ever looked at
across the tracks. Gideon had spent most of his junior year with
them there, talking bullshit philosophy, listening to them talk
about girls they wanted to bang, wasting away the hours.
    It didn't feel like enough anymore. It was
just... pointless. Superficial. This was it, senior year, and all
Gideon could see ahead was this yawning abyss of shit minimum wage
jobs in a world that was circling the drain. He wanted to help, to
do something to make the world a better place, but with school,
with Bill, with everything, he just felt powerless.
    But what Juan and Hugh were doing, what he
used to do... it just felt like killing time, waiting to get old so
he could stop giving a shit.Waiting for the world to end.
    Gideon dropped the last few feet to the
gravel and grabbed his bike. He spared a last glance up towards his
friends, then past them, past the water-tower to the Church of
Christ Everlasting billboard. Religion was, in his opinion, just
another snake-oil panacea sold to keep the sheep blind to the wolf
in their hen-house, or some shit, and Evangelical mega-churches
were even more full of it than most. No matter how progressive they
pretended to be.
    It always brightened his day to see the
phallus someone had spray-pained on church-founder Reverend
Carter's lips. The sheriff had, of course, suspected Gideon, going
so far as to check his hands for spray-paint, but there hadn't been
any proof. Like he wouldn't wear gloves.
    Gideon's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the
billboard. Someone had added something to it. Shading his eyes with
his hand, he was able to make out some kind of geometric symbol
between Carter's eyes, circles and triangles connected with
straight lines. It didn't look like paint... it looked like someone
had taken a blow-torch to it.
    He smiled as he hopped on his bike. That was
pretty cool, whoever had done it, whatever it meant.
     
    ***
     
    As if the dreams
weren't bad enough, a dull aching headache dominated Lily's first
day back to school.
    "I wanted to come back Monday," she said,
"Just making it up and down the stairs was a huge deal."
    Derek slipped an arm around her shoulders.
Though they'd been on the phone every night since she'd woken up,
the first time they'd managed to see each other was when he'd
picked her up for school.
    "I'd have stopped by to see you, but your
dad said you needed your rest." He lowered his visor against the
rising sun, orange light painted across his lips and chin.
    "I know," Lily took his hand in hers. "He
was probably right."
    "You're just lucky it happened over break.
You didn't miss anything too much."
    Lily drew her hand away. "I don't feel
lucky."
    Derek turned his pickup into the school's
parking lot. "You know what I mean. You're alive. No broken bones.
No brain damage."
    She nodded and unclipped her seat-belt. "I
just want to get back to a normal schedule. Classes. Track.
You."
    Her boyfriend pulled into a parking spot
and, finding her hand again, squeezed it gently. "I can help you
with that last part."
    Derek climbed out of the truck. Lily had a
brief moment of vertigo as he passed in front of the hood, a sort
of queasy deja vu that lasted a moment but almost took her senses
away.
    He opened the door. "Are you okay?"
    "Yeah, just... yeah."
    He helped her step down to the curb and
slipped an arm around her waist.
    What was that? Derek in front of the car was
so familiar in such a strange way. Was that part of the dream? A
part she couldn't remember?
    "Don't forget your bag," he said.
    "Right."
    They walked together towards Laton High
School's