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Will tossed his empty and cracked another beer He’d already thrown up once that night, but he’d kept drinking Gates was easier to take when Will was drunk, and so was the crushing pain ofanyway?" Will said

"I don’t know," Gates said "The party?"

"Which one?" Will said, but he didn’t really care

"The first one, buddy The best one, our pizza party Co the boredom in his voice

"What the hell’s the ed

"Please tellyour life I told you to keep away froonna let her treat you like dirt?"

"I don’t want to talk about it," Will said

"Well, I do This isit ’cause if you’re in a bad place, then that brings me down"

"I’m fine"

"I’m fine," Gates mimicked Will with a slack jaw and a dead voice

"What are we gonna do e find this thing?" Will said, trying to shift gears back to the hog

"I just want it back," Gates said with a twinge of annoyance "It belongs to et it?"

"Because you let it go in the first place"

"Hey," Gates said and bashed his spear into the nearest locker for effect "If you were gonna be like this, then why’d you coe to tell Gates off, but Gates was acting so odd that he felt a twinge of fear as to ould happen if he did

"Did you hear that?" Gates said, his annoyanceinto excitement

"Nope"

"Listen"

Will tuned into the silence, and then he did hear so It was faint like the distant sound of so ice off a driveway, but deeper, darker, wetter

Gates eyes ide, and for a o," Gates said, hushed, and snuck forward

They crept up on a darkened classroom Will and Gates planted themselves on either side of the doorway and peered inside Just froround One room to pile up all the nastiness and trash fro it all to the due business lately

A loud snort blasted out of the darkness

"Light it up," Gates whispered

Will softly set down his beers and pulled his Maglite from the back pocket of his jeans He clicked it on and pointed it into the rooh as four or five feet A s, wet clothes, and rotting food

"There!" Gates said, still whispering "Go back"

Will traced the beas and he saw it "Oh god," Will said, holding the bea It was on its side and its head lay flat on the floor

Thick, coarse hair Black Stiff It covered the hog’s entire body Long white whiskers angled off its rulistened in the bea with it?" Will said

"It’s sleeping, I guess"

"Why is it sweating? Do hogs sweat?"

"I don’t know," Gates said

"It looks sick, ain, and it sounded like a belch of air froed sink Both Will and Gates ju up He covered his ’s breath was fast Will felt like they should help it, but he didn’t kno to even start He and Gates just stared at it like it was the engine of a broken-down car

Will trailed his light across itsthin tail waggled violently He shined his spotlight on the tail It was still, then flailed around with ed

"Oh, motherf--" Will said

Around a dark hole in its rear end, a donut of flesh pushed out