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He felt lost

Sina had coly than ever that they were in great danger Growing greater by the day By the hour

3

Before dawn, the thirtieth of April, Vassago bathed outdoors with bottled water and liquid soap By the first light of day, he had safely ensconced in the deepest part of his hideaway Lying on hisup the elevator shaft, he treated himself to Oreos and wars of Reese’s Pieces

Murder was always enor Tremendous internal pressures were released with the strike of a killing blow More iainst all things holy, against coly prissy systes to support the fiction that life was precious and endoithratification of all desires, which only the strong and free really understood After every killing, Vassago felt as liberated as the wind and lorious night in his twelfth year, he had been one of the enslavedto the rules of so-called civilization, though they made no sense to him He pretended to love his h he felt nothing ers encountered on the street As a child, when he was old enough to begin thinking about such things, he wondered if so froaies of false affection and sha others found him, for he could hear the insincerity in his voice, could feel the fraudulence in every gesture, and was acutely aware of the deceit behind his every loving smile Then one day he suddenly heard the deception in their voices and saw it in their faces, and he realized that none of them had ever experienced love, either, or any of the nobler sentiments tohich a civilized person was supposed to aspire--selflessness, courage, piety, humility, and all the rest of that dreary catechisame, too Later he came to the conclusion that ree of insight, and remained unaware that other people were exactly like the was a less than human God had tried to create a world of love, had failed, and had commanded His creations to pretend to the perfection hich He had been unable to io had taken his first step toward freedoht when he elve, he finally understood that in order to be really free, totally free, he had to act upon his understanding, begin to live differently from the herd of humanity, with his own pleasure as the only consideration He had to be willing to exercise the power over others which he possessed by virtue of his insight into the true nature of the world That night he learned that the ability to kill without compunction was the purest forreatest pleasure of them all____

In those days, before he died and came back froo, the name to which he had answered and under which he had lived was Jeremy His best friend had been Tod Ledderbeck, the son of Dr Saist who Tod

In theof that early June day, Mrs Ledderbeck had taken Jeremy and Tod to Fantasy World, the lavish aive Disneyland a run for its money It was in the hills, a few miles east of San Juan Capistrano, soic Mountain had been a bit isolated before the suburbs north of Los Angeles had spread around it, and just as Disneyland had seemed to be in the middle of nowhere when first constructed on farmland near the obscure town of Anaheim It was built with Japanese money, which worried so to own the whole country so involved, which onlyBut finally what mattered was that the atmosphere of the place was cool, the rides radical, and the junk food almost deliriously junky Fantasy World here Tod wanted to spend his twelfth birthday, in the company of his best friend, free of parental control froot what he wanted because he was a good kid; everyone liked hiaate and shouted after theht here at ten o’clock! Right here at ten o’clock sharp!"

After paying for their tickets and getting onto the grounds of the park, Tod said, "What do you wanna do first?"

"I don’t know What do you wanna do first?"

"Ride the Scorpion?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

Bang, they were off, hurrying toward the north end of the park where the track for the Scorpion--"The Roller Coaster with a Sting!" the TV ads all proclaiainst the clear blue sky The park was not crowded yet, and they didn’t need to snake between co herds of people Their tennis shoes pounded noisily on the blacktop, and each slap of rubber against pave and screa as it pluain, and when the ride ended, they ran directly to the boarding ramp and did it once more

Then, as now, Jerees of amusement-park rides had been a childish substitute for the violence he had unknowingly craved After two rides on the Scorpion, with so hts ahead, Jeremy was in a terrificdown the exit ramp from their second trip on the roller coaster He threw one aronna be for sure the greatest birthday anybody’s ever had, just you and me"

The camaraderie, like all camaraderie, was totally fake Deception Fraud Jeremy hated all that phoney-baloney crap, but Tod was full of it Best friends Blood brothers You and ainst the world

Jeremy wasn’t sure what rubbed hiood buddies and seemed to think that Jeremy was taken in by the con--or that soh to be suckered by his own con Recently, Jereaame They deceived even themselves with all their talk of friendship, love, and cobest friends was just a way to get a guy to do things for you that he wouldn’t do for anyone else in a thousand years Friendship was also a ainst the mobs of your fellow citizens ould just as soon smash your face and take whatever they wanted from you Everyone knew that’s all friendship was, but no one ever talked truthfully about it, least of all Tod

Later, on their way from the Haunted House to an attraction called Swa blocks of ice cream dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed nuts They sat on plastic chairs at a plastic table, under a red uainst a backdrop of acacias andwas fine at first, but then Tod had to spoil it

"It’s great corownups, isn’t it?" Tod said with his mouth full "You can eat ice cream before lunch, like this Hell, you can eat it for lunch, too, if you want, and after lunch, and nobody’s there to whine at you about spoiling your appetite or getting sick"

"It’s great," Jerereed

"Let’s sit here and eat ice creaood to me But let’s not waste it"

"Huh?"

Jeremy said, "Let’s be sure, e puke, we just don’t spew on the ground Let’s be sure we puke on soht away, "on somebody who deserves it, who’s really pukeworthy"

"Like those girls," Jereers ere passing by They hite shorts and bright summery blouses, and they were so sure that they were cute, you wanted to puke on the and all you could e was the dry heaves

"Or those old farts," Tod said, pointing to an elderly couple buying ice cream nearby