Infernal Revelation : Collected Episodes 1-4 (9781311980007) (11 page)

He'd been preoccupied, of course, with the
other stuff. The "hand wreathed in flames" stuff. When he'd come to
terms with it, when he'd verified that, yes, there was a scorch
mark in the brambles, Barny had accepted the simple truth that he
could self-immolate without hurting himself at will.

It was hard to believe, but why fight
against obvious truths? He'd always known that he was a superior
being, and now it appeared that he had somehow become a full-blown
Nietzschean superman.

He could roll with that. The questions of
'why' and 'how' were elusive, but less important than the simple
fact that he was.

Barny had spent the rest of Friday and much
of Saturday in the desert 'practicing' to mixed success. With great
concentration he found that he could raise the temperature of his
skin enough to turn sand to glass, which was, incidentally, more
than sufficient to ignite the clothes on his back.

Barny didn't care. He was too giddy with the
potential implications to mind a nude stroll back into town, and
nobody saw him anyway.

But this -- seeing Lily tear around the
track as a blur, faster than anyone had any right to run -- Barny
realized that he was not alone in his superiority.

It was a disappointment. It was a
relief.

And it made sense. Lily was a physically and
intellectually superior girl. Not as strong or smart as he was,
perhaps, but good enough that if he were to spontaneously develop
superior gifts, she might receive lesser ones. And fire was
definitely more impressive than speed.

"So that's why," he muttered, football in
hand, watching her leave the track.

"Heads up!" Kyle took opportunity of his
momentary distraction to launch himself at Barny. The defensive
tackle, who easily doubled Barny's own weight, slammed into the
center and bounced right off again.

Barny scarcely took notice, dropping the
ball onto his stunned teammate's lap and starting off after Lily at
a jog. There was much to discuss.

***

Gideon coasted along
on his bike, arms crossed. He didn't have anywhere in particular to
go, and was mostly just putting off going home when he saw Lily
leaving the athletic field. He'd been trying to get in touch with
her since Friday night, calling her cell, texting her, and even
dropping by her house. She wasn't interested in talking to him. She
wasn't interested in talking to anyone, apparently -- he'd stopped
by Saturday evening to see her boyfriend being turned away at the
door.

It was bad, and it concerned him. She seemed
to have withdrawn even more completely into herself. He didn't
expect her to be overjoyed at Melchizedek's bizarre revelations,
but they at least meant that she wasn't at fault. Instead of being
relieved, she seemed to have just withdrawn further into
herself.

He really needed to talk to her, see what
was wrong, see if he could help. She'd stormed off, and he didn't
want to abandon Delilah with their visitor to go chasing after her.
He wanted to find her, help her confront what she'd seen and heard,
help her come to terms with it somehow.

He'd talked to Delilah, of course. Right
after Melchizedek left they'd had a long conversation, about the
shadow-cloaked figure, about whether or not he was full of shit.
She'd been skeptical but open-minded, but Gideon had been full on
ready to believe everything the stranger had said. It made sense.
Gideon had, you know, always felt like he was special. Like he was
unique. Like he was destined for, you know, more.

He'd told her so. Delilah had stared at him
and then changed the subject.

But really, what Gideon was concerned with
now was Lily. Delilah said she needed time. Gideon knew Lily needed
a shoulder to lean on.

He would be that shoulder.

He wheeled his bike around and headed
towards Lily. As he did so, he spotted Barny walking towards her
with an intense determination.

"Shit."

CHAPTER FIVE

Lily heard Barny as he
approached, but didn't slow down for him.

"Lily, wait." He jogged up alongside
her.

"I'm in a hurry."

Barny jogged ahead of her, turned around,
and continued backwards. "This is important."

Her only response was a glower.

"I saw you at the track. You were going
pretty fast."

"Good. I'd hate to give all the trophies
back."

A grin quirked across Barny's face. "No, I
mean really fast. Really fast."

"Thanks?" She tried to jog past him.

He matched her pace, glancing over his
shoulder. "Conspicuously fast."

She stopped, arms folded. "Cut the shit,
Barny. What do you want?"

He stopped, leaning forward and speaking in
a lower tone. "People were noticing, Lily."

"Noticing what?"

Barny's eyes narrowed, but he was cut off as
Gideon appeared out of nowhere, skidding his bike to a stop between
them.

"Lily! You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." She didn't know who to glare at,
so settled for alternating between the two of them.

"Fuck off, Cermak," Barny said. "This
doesn't involve your fat ass."

"You fuck off," Gideon said. "I'm not afraid
of you."

"You fucking should be." Barny grabbed
Gideon's handlebars.

"Boys," Lily muttered, jogging off and
leaving them behind.

***

Barny let go of
Gideon's handlebars and started after Lily. The redhead wheeled
around and blocked his path again.

"You really don't want this, fat boy," the
football player said.

"Neither does Lily," Gideon said. "Leave her
alone."

Barny glanced after the jogging girl. "Who
are you, her fat stalwart defender?"

"Maybe I just think you're an asshole,"
Gideon said. "Who isn't so tough without, like, five other dudes
backing him up."

Barny closed his hands on the bike's
handlebars. "Oh, this is going to be good. A field test. Give you a
lesson in respect, you fat fuck."

"The fuck are you talking about?"

"Don't worry." The metal bar he was holding
began to glow. "I won't kill you."

"What the fuck!" Gideon slipped backwards,
off of his seat and away from the tremendous heat.

"I'm just going to ruin your fucking
day."

With a single swipe of his arm, Barny hurled
the bicycle a dozen yards down the street.

"What the fuck--"

Barny grabbed Gideon, lifting him up by the
collar and waistband, hefting him overhead like he was a bag of
leaves. The sudden movement stole the breath from Gideon's lungs,
and it was all he could do to grasp weakly at the arms lifting
him.

"Let's see how far I can trust you."

"Barny, wait--"

There was a wrenching sensation, and Gideon
was flying headfirst through the air. He didn't know what to think,
how to respond, so he went limp and let himself go, slowly turning
as he went, feet flipping over his head before he landed, flat on
his back, on the lawn across the street. He was more stunned than
hurt, but found it hard to draw breath, hard to even believe what
had happened.

"Not so far." Barny was walking towards him.
"Need to lose weight if you want to make it as a Frisbee, you fat
fuck."

Gideon scrambled to his feet, numb with
terror, and started to run towards the house's back yard. He was
too scared to think rationally, too scared to plan, acting on
instinct. His only hope lay in the unconscious knowing of where
Laton's best short-cuts were.

"You had your chance to run," Barny called
after him. "But I'll give you a head-start. Ten. Nine..."

Roberts. Gideon was in the Roberts back
yard. Their west fence was low enough for him to vault with a run,
so he made for it.

He hit the Roberts' chain-link fence, hands
on the smooth rail as he hauled himself over it, adrenaline giving
him the strength to move quickly. His landing was more of a jar
than he expected, though that could have been because Barny had
just thrown him like ten fucking feet.

His fear slowly melted into horror as he ran
across the Ross's yard. Barny had melted his bike. Barny's strength
was superhuman. Was he an orphan? Gideon didn't know, he couldn't
remember. But it made a horrible sort of sense.

Barny was one of them. Only somehow, Barny
had already manifested the unnatural heritage of whatever their
father was.

Why, of all people, a sadistic fuck like
Barny Carter?

"Ten!"

Gideon heard the shout only moments before
Barny barreled into him, knocking him off of his feet to sprawl on
the Ross's lawn. His shoulder hit the ground first, and he felt
something separate, followed by a wave of agony. He couldn't help
but scream.

"Oh, relax," Barny said. "I said I wasn't
going to kill you."

He took two swift steps, then kicked Gideon
sharply in the ribs. Pain exploded through the redhead's body as
the force of the blow lifted him and sent him crashing through the
Ross's sheet-metal garden shed.

***

Barny stopped, the
grin slowly fading from his face. He hadn't meant to actually kill
the little bitch. He had to get a handle on this newfound strength.
Power without control was meaningless.

"Hey, Gid. Gideon." He started a brisk walk
towards the ruins of the shed. "Shit."

Barny stopped as Gideon slowly stood, panels
of metal siding falling from his back.

***

Gideon felt...
different.

He'd been in some serious pain when he'd hit
the shed. When Barny had kicked him in the ribs, it had felt like a
bright white star-burst of pain had exploded inside him, and he'd
blacked out for a second.

When he'd recovered, the shed had collapsed
on top of him, but he felt fine. He found he could stand up without
pain, without effort, and his shoulder -- which he was sure he'd
dislocated -- wasn't even hurting.

He felt better than fine. His blood felt
like it was positively vibrating in his veins. His arms and legs
felt strong, powerful. He felt charged.

"Shit."

Gideon looked up, eyes focusing with
unnatural acuity on a dismayed Barny Carter.

"Why you?" Barny ran a hand through his
hair. "Baker I get. But you?"

"Sorry." Gideon felt almost weightless as he
picked up a sledge-hammer from the wreckage.

"This doesn't make any sense." Barny glanced
behind him. "I thought I had it, but now I don't know what the
fuck."

"Get used to it." It wasn't much of a
battle-cry, but Gideon wasn't feeling very clever.

All his life he'd been picked on. By his
father. By other kids. He got in fights often enough to be able to
stand his ground, but bullies never fought fair. They brought
friends. They jumped you. They had an alibi if you complained, but
Gideon wasn't a snitch. The school faculty, his dad and the
deputies, they were just another scale of bully. The asshole
fractal.

So Gideon dealt. He could take more shit
than the redneck asshole fucks of Laton could think up, and it made
him strong. Not strong enough to stop it, but he could give the
bullies a more obvious target than Juan or Hugh or some younger
kid. It was all he could do to help them.

Before now, that was.

Barny was fast -- Gideon had seen that --
but he didn't anticipate how fast Gideon had become.

He crossed the distance between them in a
blink, thrusting the hammer into Barny's gut like a pool cue. The
football player crumpled.

Without dithering, without pausing to
consider how much he could be hurting him, without concern for
accidentally killing the bully, Gideon swung the hammer as hard as
he could in an underhand arc.

The flat head connected solidly with the
side of Barny's face, sending him up in an arc of his own, to land
and roll a few feet away.

Gideon stormed up to him. "Take it, you
fuck!"

Barny had recovered enough sense to roll out
of the way as Gideon slammed his hammer down. The impact dug an
impressive divot out of the Ross's back lawn.

"That's how you want to play it?" Barny
lashed out with a punch that hit Gideon between the eyes.

It wasn't painful, but Gideon staggered.
Barny grabbed the head of his hammer.

Gideon shook his head and gave a roar,
pulling the hammer back out of Barny's hands. "No!"

He brought the handle up, cracking it
against Barny's jaw. The bully clutched his face, staggering
back.

"No, fuck you, no!" Gideon screamed. "You
don't get this! This is mine! Fucker! Mine!"

Barny took a few steps back, still holding
his face. "What the fuck are you talking about, you psycho?"

Gideon didn't know. The moment? His revenge?
Momentum? Didn't matter. Thinking was a waste. He just wanted to
grab Barny, to make him pay for years of torment, to crush him, to
smash him, to make him stop.

Stop what?

Just stop.

Barny had stumbled over to the Ross's patio.
He grabbed the umbrella from the picnic table, snapped the head off
in his hands, and pointed the jagged end at Gideon.

"Just hold on!" Barny said. "Calm down!"

Gideon roared, slapping tip of the pole away
with his hammer and launching himself like a human missile at his
tormentor.

Barny dropped his pole and raised his hands,
but Gideon hit him hard, slamming him back and into the glass patio
doors. They crashed through, landing sprawled in a heap on the
kitchen floor, a shocked Reverend Ross staring down at them.

They stared back up at the reverend in his
purple bathrobe, coffee in his hand, donut in his mouth.