Page 27 of The Intruder

“No,” Anton chokes out as blood drips out of the corner of his lips. He always acts like he doesn’t care about anything, but right now, he looks really scared. “Shit. Please, don’t—”

I stand there watching, not sure what to do. Devin has a knife, but Anton doesn’t have anything at all. And that’s not fair. That’s, like, two against one, except even worse. Whatever Anton did to piss Devin off—and Anton pisses people off like it’s his job—he doesn’t deserve this.

Before I can think too much about it, I pick up a giant rock lying in the dirt. At first, I’m worried it might be too heavy for me to lift over my head, but actually, it isn’t. It’s just the right size. It’s light enough for me to lift, but when I creep up behind Devin and bring it down on his skull, he goes down hard.

I’m surprised at how easily that rock took him out. Devin dropped like a ton of bricks, and now he is lying in the dirt, right next to Anton, who is scrambling to his feet, breathing hard. Devin’s eyes are closed, and he’s not moving. Not even a little bit.

“Holy shit…” Anton wipes the blood from his face with the back of his sleeve. “Ella, you killed him.”

21

No. No.

I did not just kill someone. That did not just happen.

I stare down at Devin’s body and the small pool of blood forming under his skull, a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Except then he groans and shifts slightly on the ground.

“Oh,” Anton says. “I guess he’s still alive.”

He sounds disappointed. He draws back his Nike sneaker and kicks Devin as hard as he can in the ribs. Devin groans louder.

“Come on,” Anton says to me. “We better get out of here.”

“You’re the one he’s mad at,” I point out.

He rolls his eyes at me. “Yeah, and you think he’s going to be thrilled with you after you slugged him with a rock? Come on, Ella.”

When I don’t start moving on my own, he grabs me by the arm, and then we run for it. We get out of the park, and even after, we are still sprinting to get as far from Devin as we possibly can. Anton was right—it was smart to run. Devin may not be dead, but he’s probably pissed off, and also, he has a knife.

When we finally stop running, Anton grabs his side, wincing. Now that we are in the light, I can see how badly he’s hurt—Devin really messed him up bad. His right eye is starting to swell, and so is his nose. There’s blood all over the lower half of his face, both from his nose and his split lip, and it’s staining the entire front of his gray T-shirt.

He sticks his index finger in his mouth and flinches. “I think he cracked one of my teeth.”

“That sucks.”

“Sucks more for him.” Anton grins at me with bloody teeth, even though it must hurt a lot with his lip split open like that. “That was awesome, Ella. Thanks.”

Today is the first day he’s called me anything but Smella in the whole time I’ve known him.

“Well, it wasn’t fair,” I mumble. “He had a knife, and you didn’t.”

“Yeah, you don’t know that guy like I do. He’s a complete psycho. I don’t know what the hell he would’ve done if you hadn’t come along.” Anton shudders as he wipes his bloody nose with the back of his sleeve. “Shit, I’m a mess. I gotta get cleaned up. You live around here?”

“Yes,” I answer without thinking before I realize I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

“Okay,” he says. “Let’s go.”

I stare at him. “Go where?”

“Go to your house. To, like, use your sink and shit.”

I don’t want Anton at my house. It’s out of the question. I don’t want anyone at my house, but definitely not him. “Sorry, I can’t have visitors.”

“Come on, Ella.” He frowns. “If my dad sees me like this, he’s going to kill me. Please can I use your sink for two minutes?”

The way he says it, I get the feeling he’s not just being dramatic. That if his dad sees him beaten up like this, he’s going to be in bad, bad trouble. I know the feeling.

“Fine,” I agree. “But just use the bathroom and then you have to leave right away. Okay?”