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I sneak a few hours of shut-eye post-dahen the sun’s chased the moon off and I’htinechaos Only it’s not entirely me It’s a beast with s instead of teeth, claws instead of nails, blood-soaked hair
Grubbs Grady-monster extraordinaire
When I stu has been taken care of Loch tellslike demons (His choice of phrase is unfortunate) She had to leave at eleven but left hie to make sure nobody slacked off
"That was so up petals fro room floor "I’d love to kno you did it"
"It was h an open
"A ic," Charlie insists "It asn’t it, Grubbs? I’ve seen the books lying around, about wizards, witches and wotnots It was real ht?"
"No" I force a thin sic"
"But the books-" Charlie exclaio see what state the kitchen’s in
As I’ic! You’re a real ass sometimes"
"I don’t care what he says," Charlie sulks "I knohat I saw It was real ic I’d bet a ’s as clean as we can get it, oodbye and make their way home to recover before school on Monday Bill-E and Loch stay on-they’ve arranged to spend the day here Bill-E waits till Loch’s in the toilet, then asks how I’
"Fine," I lie as ives a sickly ruht," Bill-E says "After we’d gone to bed It wokebut not ure out how you pulled off the trick with the bottle"
I grunt, saying nothing
"Grubbs," Bill-E says hesitantly, "I knoe’ve never discussed the family curse You filled me in on the basics in Slawter, but you’ve never offered more infor tied into a olf I finally told hi only the part about Dervish being his uncle, not his father I’ve never told Bill-E that we share the same dad I want to, but he feels a special bond with Dervish, believing him to be his real father I’ve never had the heart to shatter his illusion
"Well," Bill-E continues after an uncomfortable pause, "I know I almost turned into a olf and that you and Dervish saved me You faced Lord Loss and won back my humanity But is the cure definitely permanent?"
"Yes"
"I’m safe? For certain?"
"One hundred per cent," I sain "YourAre you safe too?"
I don’t answer for a second Then, quietly, I lie "Yes"
"I won’t have to lock you up in the cage in the secret cellar?"
"No," I laugh edgily I hate that cellar I’ve only been there once since we defeated Lord Loss, when Dervish’s night to destroy his sanity "I’ that got loose Now stop worrying-you’re getting onhis hands dry on his trousers, and the questions stop, though I sense Bill-E doesn’t fully believeclean But he doesn’t suspect the worst or anything near it He trusts me Thinks of me as his closest friend Doesn’t believe I’d lie point-blank to hi this serious
How little he knows
A long, anticli around the house, all three of us bored, flicking through TV channels in search of so the re hiic
"This is crap," Lochthe TV and CD player to stand-by He juether "Let’s wrestle"
"I’m not in the htly, trying to sting me into action
"No," I yawn
Loch scowls, then switches his attention to Bill-E "How about you, Spleenio?" He grabs the shorter boy by the waist and swings hi out
"We’ve got a live one," Loch laughs He throws Bill-E to the ground, then falls on hiasps, face red, slapping at Loch like a girl, half-laughing fro
"Leave hi my headache
Loch stops and stands "Sorry, Bill-E," he says "Let ht hand Bill-E reaches for it and Loch whips the hand away "You’re the sultan of suckers, Spleen," he chortles, strolling towards the kitchen, shaking his head with aers at Loch, then at me "Gossel’s scum," he hisses "I don’t care if he is your new best friend He’s the scu out with him"
"Don’t take it out on et Loch off your back? Then face hiirl He bullies you because you let him"
"No, he bullies me because he’s a bully," Bill-E retorts, furious tears in his eyes
I shrug, too exhausted and sore-headed to argue "Whatever"
Loch returns and Bill-E shuts up, but he glowers like an old man whose pipe’s been stolen, then stor home?" I ask as he buttons it up
"No," he snarls "I’inally planned to do"
"Huh?"
"You reinal plan If there hadn’t been a party" I stare at him blankly and he nods in the direction of the forest
"Oh," I chuckle "Lord Sheftree"
"What’s that?" Loch asks
"Nothing," Bill-E says quickly, shootinga go atthe friend-the brother-he deserves)
"You know the stories of Lord Sheftree, the guy who used to own this place?" I ask Loch
"The baby and the piranha, yeah, sure"
"Grubbs" Bill-E growls, not wanting to share our secret with an outsider
"There’s a legend about his treasure" I take gried expression
"Treasure?" Loch echoes, interest piqued
"Apparently he had hoards of gold and jehich nobody ever found They say he buried it soround, waiting"
Loch squints at me, then at Bill-E "This true, Spleenio?"
"Get stuffed"
Loch’s face stiffens "I asked if it was true," he says, taking astep forward
"Yeah,away from Loch
"Any idea where the treasure is?" Loch asks
"Up your butt," I chip in, and both Loch and Bill-E laugh, the tension vanishing in an instant
"Nah, coain "Is this on the level or is Spleen-boy paying end’s real," I tell him "I don’t know about the treasure We’ve been all over the forest, dug ht, Bill-E?"
"Yeah," Bill-E sighs, resigning hi our secret with Loch "But you bury treasure because you want it to be hard to find There wouldn’t have beenit where any passer-by could find it It’s out there, I’" He trails off into silence, eyes distant
"I thought you were rich anyway," Loch says to me "Why are you bothered about a pile of buried treasure?"
"I’ if it did exist and we found it Bill-E and I used to spend a lot of our weekends searching for it Even though we never found anything, the searching was fun"
"You’ve given up?" Loch asks
I shrug "Bill-E goes looking every so often, but it’s been a while since I bothered"
"He’s been too busy wrestling with lunk-heads," Bill-E says sourly, but Loch lets the remark pass
"I’ve never searched for treasure," Loch says "How do you do it-with a metal detector?"
"No," Bill-E says "We walk around with shovels looking for likely spots Then weturns up, we fill in the holes and move on
"Sounds ahs "Like Grubitsch said, the searching is fun You’d need proper, expensive equipa an eye at roan, wishing I could just go back to bed for a few hours
"It’d beat sitting around here doing nothing," Loch says
"But it’s raining," I protest
"A light drizzle It’ll clear soon C’ different"
"Not for Bill-E and me"
"But it is for me," Loch presses
"Why don’t you and Bill-E go by yourselves?" I suggest
"No way!" they both exclaih, temporary (very te if you coo home I still have some hoain "Don’t be a bloody bore, Grubbs"
"OK," I groan, rising reluctantly "Give et some shovels Bill-E knohere to find the Bill-E on the back "You leave it to the Spleenster and ," Bill-E says stiffly "On the very off chance that we find any treasure, it’s ours You don’t have any rights to it, understand? I don’t want you going all Treasure of the Sierra Madre on us"
"Treasure of where?" Loch frowns
"It’s a black-and-white movie," Bill-E explains as he leads Loch away "I’ll fill you in on the plot while we’re fetching the shovels It’s all about treasure hunters and the destructive nature of paranoid greed"
The fresh air clears ing I’d still rather be in bed Loch’s loving it though, digging wildly, accidentally hitting Bill-E with clods of earth every so often to break the lad I’ain, even if we do have an extra (unwanted) passenger in tow
"We’ve found a few bits and pieces over the years," Bill-E explains as we give up on our third trial dig and refill the hole "Old coins, scraps of clothes, half a knife"
"Anything worth money?" Loch asks
"Not really," Bill-E says "One of the coins would have been valuable if it had been in better condition, but it was very worn and part of it wasDervish let me keep it"
"Why were they buried if they orthless?" Loch asks
"They weren’t," Bill-E says "The level of the ground’s constantly changing Things fall or are throay Grass and weeds grow over theround’s wet New earth blows over theround acast-offs and stuff that’s been forgotten Heck, even the giant Sphinx in Egypt was half-buried once and almost lost forever"