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FIRST

My na account is an install it, I am probably dead If I ae herein, I am now—or soon will be—one of the most famous people on the planet If no one ever reads this, it will be because the world as we know it has ceased to exist and huone forever I ae person, and instead of universal recognition, I prefer the peace of anonyeddon and fame, I’d prefer to be famous

ONE

THE LOST BOYS

1

Elsewhere, night falls, but in Moonlight Bay it steals upon us with barely a whisper, like a gentle dark-sapphire surf licking a beach At dahen the night retreats across the Pacific toward distant Asia, it is reluctant to go, leaving deep black pools in alleyways, under parked cars, in culverts, and beneath the leafy canopies of ancient oaks

According to Tibetan folklore, a secret sanctuary in the sacred Himalayas is the ho storht, too, has a special home, our town is no doubt the place

On the eleventh of April, as the night passed through Moonlight Bay on its ard, it took with it a five-year-old boy na

Nearthe residential streets in the lower hills not far froe, where my murdered parents had once been professors Earlier, I had been to the beach, but although there was no wind, the surf was mushy; the sloppy waves didn’t make it hile to suit up and float a board Orson, a black Labrador mix, trotted at my side

Fur face and I were not looking for adventure,our ues both of us hts than not

Anyway, only a fool or a ht Bay, which is sierous co enough, a lifetime’s worth of adventure will find you

Lilly Wing lives on a street shaded and scented by stone pines In the absence of lampposts, the trunks and twisted branches were as black as char, except where h bark

I becaht swept back and forth between the pine trunks A quick penduluht arced across the pavement ahead ofto shout but defeated by breathlessness and by a quiver of panic that transformed Jimmy into a six-syllable word

Because no traffic was in sight ahead of or behind us, Orson and I were traveling the center of the pave to the curb

As Lilly hurried between two pines and into the street, I said, “What’s wrong, Badger?”

For twelve years, since ere sixteen, “Badger” has been my affectionate nickname for her In those days, her name was Lilly Travis, and ere in love and believed that a future together was our destiny A list of shared enthusiasms and passions was a special fondness for Kenneth Grahaeous Badger was the stalwart defender of all the good animals in the Wild Wood “Any friend of er had promised Mole, “or I’ll know the reason why!” Likewise, those who shunned me because of my rare disability, those who called me vampire because of ht, those teenage psychopaths who plotted to torture hts, those who spoke maliciously of me behindto Lilly, whose face flushed and whose heart raced with righteous anger at any exhibition of intolerance As a young boy, out of urgent necessity, I learned to fight, and by the time I met Lilly, I was confident of my ability to defendto ht with claw and cudgel for his friend Mole

Although slender, she is hty Only five feet four, she appears to tower over any adversary She is as forood-hearted

This night, however, her usual grace had deserted her, and fright had tortured her bones into unnatural angles When I spoke, she twitched around to face me, and in her jeans and untucked flannel shirt, she seeically animated, confused and terrified to find itself suddenly alive, jerking at its supporting cross

The beaht bathed round the instant she realized who I was “Chris Oh, God”

“What’s wrong?” I asked again as I got off my bike

“Jione”

“Run away?”

“No” She turned from me and hurried toward the house “This way, here, look”

Lilly’s property is ringed by a white picket fence that she herself built The entrance is flanked not by gateposts but by ainvillea that she has pruned into trees and trained into a canopy Her alow lies at the end of an intricately patterned brick ay that she designed and laid after teaching herself masonry from books

The front door stood open Enticing roohtness lay beyond

Instead of taking me and Orson inside, Lilly quickly led us off the bricks and across the lawn In the still night, as I pushed rass, the tick of wheel bearings was the loudest sound We went to the north side of the house

A bedroolowed, and the walls were striped with aht and faint honey-brown shadows from the folded cloth of the pleated shade To the left of the bed, Star Wars action figures stood on a set of bookshelves As the cool night air sucked warmth from the house, one panel of the curtains was drawn across the sill, pale and fluttering like a troubled spirit reluctant to leave this world for the next

“I thought the as locked, but it mustn’t have been,” Lilly said frantically “Someone opened it, some sonofabitch, and he took Jimmy away”

“Maybe it’s not that bad”

“Some sick bastard,” she insisted

The flashlight jiggled, and Lilly struggled to still her treside the house

“I don’t have any money,” she said

“Money?”

“To pay ransom I’m not rich So no one would take Jimmy for ransom It’s worse than that”

False Sololittered like ice, had been trampled by the intruder Footprints were impressed in trodden leaves and soft damp soil They were not the prints of a runaway child but those of an adult in athletic shoes with bold tread, and judging by the depth of the ie person, most likely male

I saw that Lilly was barefoot

“I couldn’t sleep, I atching TV, soellation, as if she should have anticipated this abduction and been at Jiilant

Orson pushed between us to sniff the imprinted earth

“I didn’t hear anything,” Lilly said “Ji…”

Her usual beauty, as clear and deep as a reflection of eternity, was now shattered by terror, crazed by sharp lines of an anguish that was close to grief She was held together only by desperate hope Even in the diht of her in such pain

“It’ll be all right,” I said, ashamed of this facile lie

“I called the police,” she said “They should be here any second Where are they?”

Personal experience had taught ht Bay They are corrupt And the corruption is notand a taste for power; it has deeper and ins