3. Sir Lizardkiller
There's another town which isn't far away from Green Lake. This one is different. It's not a ghost town, it's growing. A boy lives there. He has a name, but he loathes it and won't use it.
He has decided to be a lizard-killer. This is because his family has just gotten back from visiting Vulture's Hole. They have family there, a distant cousin or two. He knows now what happened in Vulture's Hole to make it what it was. And he has decided to kill all the lizards. He found a gun that belonged to his father, and went out to practise on scorpions. But there weren't any. So he started thinking instead.
Something strange happened while he was in Vulture's Hole. His parents were inside talking to people. He'd gotten bored and gone outside and sat in the sun. He wondered if he should go off and explore. He was about to do just that when he saw someone walking towards him. It was a girl with dirty red hair and clothes that were too small for her. She was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. She saw him watching her, and he wondered suddenly if she was going to curse him somehow. She looked capable of it.
But she walked right up to him.
"I need somewhere to hide," she said matter-of-factly.
"Why?"
Then he noticed: she was carrying a bag and it was loaded with food: apples, cans, bread. No chocolate though, he noticed. Pity. He loved chocolate.
"Did you steal all that?" he asked in awe.
She nodded.
"So you must be hiding from the people you stole from, right? Well, I'll find you a hiding place, you come with me."
"I'm not hiding from them, I'm hiding from my father," she said quietly, and looked at him as if he was stupid. But he didn't mind.
"Why?"
"Because I wasn't supposed to come with him, but I didn't want to dig, so I hid in the back of the car, and so he wouldn't get angry I stole food for him, but he got angry anyway."
His mind spun.
"Don't you have money?" It was the first thing that came into his head.
"I will have someday."
His parents would come out soon and they'd want to know who this girl was. "Come with me. I'll see if I can find somewhere."
And he took her hand. She tried to wrench it away but he wouldn't let her. They hurried through deserted street after deserted street. Past an inn called the Dead Fish.
"Maybe in there." he said thoughtfully.
They both went inside. The bartender barely gave them a second glance. They hid under a table, the tablecloth covering them up.
They looked at each other.
"So what's your name?" the girl demanded.
"I'm not telling," he said, blushing slightly. "It's a stupid name."
"Well, I don't have one."
"Really?"
She nodded. And then she attempted to ignore him, which was difficult when you considered that they were hiding together under a very small table.
She broke the silence first, though.
"It's stupid to have a name and not want it," she said accusingly.
He shrugged. "You can call me something else. A nickname. Just not my real name."
"Like what?" the girl asked.
He thought. "Anything will do. Sir Lizardkiller," he said with a grin. "Did you hear about what happened here? All that time ago?"
And she gave him a look that chilled his bones. A look that said she knew perfectly well, and that she knew more than he did, and that whatever had happened had been a good thing.
He didn't look at her after that. His parents must be worried. They were probably looking for him right now. In fact, he could hear footsteps. It was probably them. They'd find this girl here as well. What would they do about her? His mother might even suggest they take her home and look after her...
The footsteps came closer.
And the tablecloth was whipped off the table, and he found himself staring up at a face. A man with red hair and crazy eyes. This was her father. And suddenly he felt like he wanted to be anywhere else, anywhere, just as long as he didn't have to face this man.
But the man had no interest in him. He pulled the girl to her feet instead.
"Found you," he hissed.
And the boy who didn't want his name suddenly leapt to his feet.
"Wait a minute...you can't..."
But a fist flew out of nowhere, and suddenly he was on the ground, seeing stars before his eyes. He struggled to his feet, ready to fight, or yell, or something. But the girl was being dragged away, though. She looked back at him.
"Thank you, Sir Lizardkiller," she said with a sigh.
And then she was gone.
The boy finds a scorpion, but can't quite bring himself to shoot it. He gives up and goes inside.
He can't help wondering if he'll see that girl again. There was-is-something odd about her. Something terrifying. Something that went even beyond the look in her father's eyes and the bruise on his face.
He puts the gun away. For now.
Far away, in her cabin, the girl sleeps. Her sister lies awake. She wishes she wasn't here. She doesn't know of any place, but she knows there must be something. She envies her little sister. She got out, and even if she got beaten for it, well, it was still freedom, sort of...
Except of course it isn't now.
She can't sleep at all. When morning comes she goes out to dig, and falls asleep in the hole. Her father wakes her up, laughing at her, saying that the hole will be her grave if she goes to sleep in it again.
Words do not frighten her anymore.
They don't frighten her sister, the redhead, either. She will use them to her advantage one day, she thinks.
The sun beats down.