Revenant Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dodger.
    “Oh thanks, Dodger,” says Katie, a small girl with perfectly white, straight teeth and bright blue eyes. “There’s a word for that?”
    “Yep.”
    “Hm. Never knew that. Petrichor... it kinda sounds like rain haha.”
    I don’t follow. No one else seems to, because Brianna and Dodger both ask “what?”
    “Like, you ever notice how a word kinda sounds like its meaning? Like bubbles. Bubbles just sounds bubbly and silly. And death is a super dark sounding word...”
    This was Katie in a nutshell. Trying to find these connections in things no one else saw. Her tangents are quite entertaining most days, but not this one. I turn my attention away from Katie and mindlessly roll my neck. Something pops there, and I wonder exactly what that noise is that happens whenever you crack your neck or knuckles. The thought is there for a moment and a moment only. The next, my eyes catch those of a boy sitting across the room.
    I don’t know his name. He’s tall and strong with a crew cut and arms that look perpetually flexed. I’m pretty sure, but not certain, that he’s on the JV football team. It seems that he’s looking not quite at me, but at Dodger next to me.
    “Hey, Dodger,” I say in a whisper. “I think that guy over there is checking you out.”
    She looks. “Eh, I don’t like the jock type. ‘Sides, it’s you he’s eyeing.”
    I don’t believe her initially, but a few minutes later the boy gets up and walks over to our table. He stops right beside me and lays his enormous hand on the table next to mine. He smells like body spray and has the demeanor and charm of a politician.
    “Hey, Scout isn’t it?” he smiles. I’ll admit it, he has a nice smile.
    “Yeah. Do I know you?” I don’t. At least I don’t think so. But he did seem somewhat familiar.
    “Alex Fowler. Been to the games? You may have seen me play.”
    “That might be it...” It’s a lie. I care for football as much as abstract art i.e., not at all.
    “You see the game against West High? Caught the winning pass. Was kind of epic.”
    “Okay...”
    “Look. I’m just going to go for broke here and say I think you’re really pretty and I would love to treat you to... dinner? A movie? Coffee?”
    “Yeah, sorry, totally booked.” I try to turn my back on him, but he stops me.
    “I think you would really love to go to the movies with me this Saturday, don’t you?”
    I don’t know what the hell came over me just then. An irresistible force came over me. Somehow, I found myself saying yes to his offer.
    “Did you just say yes?” Brianna asks once he’s out of earshot.
    “Yeah, you don’t date ever ,” says Katie.
    Dodger’s silent. For a while, I’m silent too. I try to search for a reason why I said yes, and I come up empty. It feels like several minutes go by before I shrug and say “yeah. Guess I did.”
    Brianna and Katie give me high fives. However, I notice Dodger isn’t looking very happy. Her eyes trained like a sniper’s red light on Alex Fowler. 
     
     

 
    Act Three: Hunters
     
    My arrow is straight and true. It hits the target on the first ring surrounding the bullseye and embeds itself in there.
    “You’ve really got some skill, Scout,” says my uncle Hunter, who is suddenly a frontrunner for the most-accurate-name award. “Most people take about a month to get that close.”
    “My dad says there’s been so many slayers in the family for so long, that fighting’s just finding its way into our genes.” I draw back another arrow and take aim, hoping to fire it exactly to the left of my first. It’s Sunday, and my father and I are at my uncle’s cabin in southern Washington. They’re giving me a crash course in archery and general vampire-fighting skills. We’re out in his front yard right now, facing a row of half a dozen circular targets.
    The outdoor environment invigorates me. It’s morning, the crisp air chills me and gets my blood racing a bit faster. My senses become sharper and