Villain

Stella would not spill her guts this easily to him. Not now, and certainly not with Kevin here. She would not even think it or else he’d see right through her. Instead she kept her mind busy, concentrating on the present. “Is that what you’re here for, Gabriel, to collect?” she asked.

“When I come to collect, Stella, you will have no doubt about it.”

Shifting from looking at one to the other, Kevin demanded, “What the hell is going on here?”

“You stay out of this,” Gabriel spat.

“Now wait a damn minute here—” Kevin began, but then his glare vanished, and his face began to pale. “It’s you! You’re that pathetic, crazed lunatic… You’re him!”

Gabriel grunted. “Please. Call me Villain. Everybody else does.”

“You’re the asshole who cursed this town and dragged it with you to your personal, stinking hell!”

“Kevin, stop!” Stella told him.

Kevin was beyond listening, beyond reasoning, his warm eyes now reddened and angry and wild. “You’re the bastard who killed my uncle! You’re the fucking loser who’s been haunting this town ever since that silly girl killed herself over you!”

“Kevin!”

It was too late, for Gabriel grabbed Kevin by the collar and slammed him back against a tree trunk, his teeth bared. “You can call me anything you want, and I don’t give a fucking shit, but don’t ever speak of her again, or I swear I’ll think nothing of killing you, too.”

Stella rushed forward. “Gabriel, please,” she said, pressing a shaky hand to his arm, his bicep bulged and tight with tension under her palm. “Just let him go. He’s been fed stories all his life, and he knows no better than to believe them.”

Gabriel was panting, his nostrils twitching.

Slowly, his dark, glimmering eyes moved from a panting, sweaty Kevin, to settle on her. “I need to talk to you.”

She could have melted right then, in a warm, liquid pool of all that was mushy.

“I can’t now,” she said, glancing past her shoulder, worrying what would happen if anyone passed by and word spread out that the Villain was out harassing the townsfolk. “I’ll try to come by tonight.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“Stella, don’t listen to him,” Kevin told her. “He’s a murderer, a killer. He’ll kill you, too!”

Gabriel pulled Kevin forward then slammed him back again, his knuckles white from the tight grip he held on Kevin’s collar. “If I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

“Gabriel, go now,” Stella insisted. “I’ll be by as soon as I can.”

He looked troubled, desperate. “No. I need to see you. Now.”

“I—” She colored everywhere. “I need to see you, too, but I can’t now.”

“Son of a bitch, you killed my uncle!”

Gabriel turned, eyes narrowed into slits, his face inching so close to Kevin’s it made him cringe. “Yes! It’s me. I did all those things and then some. How about adding one more sin to that long list of mine, hmm?”

“You didn’t really kill his uncle, did you?”

Gabriel turned to face her, his face deadly solemn. “I burned him.”

Chapter Five

That night, everyone in town had heard the Villain was out of his hole, and they locked and barred their doors to keep him away, including Stella’s mother.

That afternoon, after the incident at the park, Kevin had successfully proved to Stella what a complete sorry judge of character she was. He had followed her home only to humiliate her in front of her mother, calling her names and getting himself slapped in the face when he’d called her a “fucking whore.” Stella hadn’t ever slapped someone, but because it had been well deserved, she had to admit it felt very, very good, even though her palm stung.

Shocked by all that was transpiring, Stella’s mother had drawn herself up as high and tall as she could, and with a hard, steely gaze, told Kevin, “Leave. You’re no longer welcome in my house.”