Teedie had actually seen some high school guy porking his girlfriend a little ways up from the stream that ran through the middle of the woods.
Teedie couldn't believe the Cool Dudes didn't want to go and check out the spot for themselves, just because it was too far away from where Sr. Gina and Teedie's mom were setting out lunch. As he made his way alone through the woods toward the creek, he was thinking: "Cool Dudes" my butt. What a bunch of wimps.
"Sister's gonna be callin' us back any minute," O'Keefe had said.
Teedie shrugged. "So what?"
"So she told us not to go too far off," said Romano.
"What's'a'matter with you guys," Teedie whined. "You don't believe me, is 'at it? You don't believe I saw 'em, is 'at right?"
Paul Lauber was shaking his head. "Nobody's gonna be there today."
Teedie shot back, "Yeah, but they might be."
"What about your mom?" Miller said. "Won't she be pissed if we all of a sudden just disappear?"
"Who's gonna know?" Teedie snapped. "I'm not gonna tell her. And none of you guys're gonna tell her. Right?"
Before anyone could answer, they heard Sr. Gina calling for them to come in for lunch. O'Keefe and Miller and Romano turned around and started back for the picnic area. Paul hesitated for a moment before turning to follow the other boys.
"Hey, waitaminit!" Teedie shouted to their backs. "Hey!"
Paul called over his shoulder, "C'mon, dude! Time to eat!"
"Forget it!" Teedie shouted back. "I'm goin' down there! The rest of you guys're just chicken..." He began to flap his arms. "Bukkk-bukkk-bukk-bukk-bu-kaawwwwwwwk!"
But none of them turned around to come back. Not even Paul.
Teedie watched them going off toward the picnic area. He scowled, then spun on his heels and headed away in the opposite direction. "Screw 'em," he muttered under his breath as he climbed down an overgrown path through the brush, holding his arms out to either side of him to keep his balance. The path was trampled along the side of a hill that sloped sharply, angling downward toward a gurgling stream less than twenty yards away.
Teedie emerged from the woods into bright sunlight. The cool clamminess that had enveloped his skin when he was in shadow evaporated. The creek lay directly ahead of him. Sunlight shone off the clear water like it was coming off a mirror. He raised one hand to his forehead to shade his eyes from the glare.
Then he saw it, that quickly, much to his genuine surprise. Across the creek on the other side, almost out of sight, hidden in the brush was a flash of white, the color of pale flesh.
Teedie broke into a leering grin. For a moment he considered calling out to his friends, then decided against it. You guys blew it, he thought. Don't say I didn't give you a chance.
He crouched, moving as surreptitiously as possible, all the while keeping his eyes on the flash of white. He couldn't tell yet what it was exactly, whether it was male or female, or how many people, or even if they were moving because the brush kept blocking his view. But that was good, because it meant they couldn't see him either.
He kept out of sight, going several yards past the spot, until he came to a bend where the water narrowed to shallows and the tops of several rocks lay exposed. He glanced over and saw that he was out of sight of whomever was on the other side.
He slipped out of the brush and scampered across the creek, approaching the spot as silently as he could. In his mind's eye he could visualize the guy and the girl he and his father had caught only a few weeks ago. Remembering that Dad had been just as turned on by the experience as he was, Teedie reminded himself that he would have to tell his father about this discovery as well.
He pushed aside the brush, and his eyes widened as he saw what lay there. It was a body, all right. But it still had on all its clothes. And it wasn't a grown-up's body, either, but the body of a young boy who was about the same size as Teedie himself.
The boy was not alive.
The body lay partially covered by leaves, as if someone had attempted a perfunctory burial. The boy's exposed flesh was almost translucent. The head lay twisted at an odd angle, and the neck was dark with ugly bruises. The face was turned toward Teedie, who was staring, frozen, from the bushes. Birds had gotten to the face. The flesh had been pecked and torn, and the eye directed toward Teedie was ripped from its socket, leaving a gaping, blood-crusted hole.
Teedie stood there, until something in his mind told him what it was he had found, and he began to scream.
Then he was running; splashing through the water of the stream; scrambling onto the bank on the other side; imagining that the ruined face floated in front of him; seeing the gaping sockets where its eyes had been. Blindly, he pushed his way through the brush that tore at his arms and whipped at his legs, all the while screaming.
Because he could hear footsteps.
The footsteps were behind him, pursuing. The sound so stoked the boy's fright that it felt to him as if his heart would burst in his chest. He heard the footsteps, was vaguely aware of a voice that pursued him as well, but could only tell himself to run... to run... to run...
Until he stumbled and fell.
He tripped over the exposed root of a huge tree and went flying through the air, twisting his right leg awkwardly. He landed hard, hearing a sickening snap, then feeling the sharp pain between his ankle and knee; a fiery agony, that when he tried to push himself back up to his feet, immediately sent him collapsing to the ground.
His leg hurt so badly that it burned. He reached down and could feel the lump beneath his jeans where the broken bone was jutting against the inside of his skin.
In that instant he knew that he would never get away. He knew that whatever it was that had killed the boy whose body he'd found was going to get him, too.
The footsteps were much closer.
Teedie bit his lower lip hard to keep himself from crying out and revealing where he was. But it did no good. He screamed, one final time.
