Chapter 1

Somewhere, in the middle of the day, a woman screamed.

Some time after that—well, immediately after that—in that same somewhere, someone else yelled, "Omigod! Laney, are you alright?!"

"I-it's h-h-him…" Laney stammered, her voice raspy, as if she had spent the last two days screeching at students who refused to 'settle down'. Which she hadn't.

"… The mailman? Yeah, he's here pretty often, every day almost!"

"NOT HIM, RETARD! IT'S-" She dropped her voice to a whisper, "Jones…"

"… Jones who?"

Her eyes widened to impossible measures and her jaw fell slack. "YOU DON'T REMEMBER?! AT ALL?! BILL JONES! He's who all the news reporters have been talking about for the past four days. He MURDERED someone in Georgia! Good God Charlie, do you EVER pay attention?! How did you pass high school? How the hell did you pass middle school?!"

"Ummm… SHHHH! HE'LL HEAR US!"

"Well then lower your damn voice Charlie!"

Charlie was crouched around the corner of their parents' white-picket-fence house with his twin Laney as they stared out across their yard. Yes, they were still living in their parents' house. Yes, their parents were on vacation, and yes, it was only a temporary solution until the two of them could find their own apartments. Preferably separate apartments. No, neither had a steady relationship. Or job. They were, as they put it 'between jobs'. To be honest, they were a bit like overgrown children.

"… isn't there some sort of reward for him?" Charlie questioned, as a plan began to crawl out of the womb that was his mind.

Laney bristled, "Um, no?! What do you think he is, a dog?!"

As Charlie's plan died he mentally wailed, but it was so young! Then he looked up. "Hey! Where'd he go?!"

"He—well, would you lookie that, we've lost him."

"He was like, a foot in front of our faces, how could we loose him?!"

"Well," a smooth southern drawl sounded behind them, "you have to keep your eyes on him. Otherwise, he might just sneak up behind you."