Dance with Me

in stuff
, but he waited.
Andrew was silent for a few seconds. “Have you ever been so angry you
just wanted everyone to know it?”
Jake thought about it and remembered a time he was really angry
because he had to leave school. But why? It didn’t matter.
“I’ve been really angry,” he said, “but I guess I didn’t need everyone to
know it. But I had someone to talk to. Did you?”
“No.”
Jake wasn’t sure what to say, so he stayed quiet.
“Did you want to get back at the person you were angry with?” Andrew
asked.
“I don’t think it was a person. I think it had to do with being sick or
something. My memories are kind of fuzzy.”
“Fuzzy. Yeah. So are mine,” Andrew said. “But I do remembering
wanting to get back at someone who hurt me. I think I attached myself to
him. I got into his soul, made sure he couldn’t move on when he shoulda
died. I remember I wanted him to suffer, the way he made me suffer. But I
don’t remember what he did. I just know I hung on, no matter what they did
to him to try and save him. I wanted him to 
hurt
!”
At one point, Jake couldn’t hold back any longer. He blurted, “That’s
terrible that you felt so bad.”
“Shut up. Just shut up,” Andrew yelled. “I don’t need your stupid
sympathy!”
“Sorry.”
Several seconds passed.
Then Andrew had more to say. “I remember they tried to kill him. But I
wasn’t going to let him go until I was ready. It’s weird. I remember being so
angry and determined, but I don’t know why.”
It hurt Jake to be so close to this much hate. But he wouldn’t have left if
he could have. Andrew needed him.
“You still there?” Andrew asked Jake.
“Yes. I’m listening. You told me to shut up.”
Andrew laughed. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
Jake was quiet. Then he said, “So where is the person now, the one
you’re angry with?”

---

“I’m not sure. I know I was in him when we got to this big place with
lots of cool stuff. All I can remember after that is wanting to be everywhere.
I can remember being all over the place in all kinds of things. And I
remember this animatronic dog, Fetch. He broke down in a thunderstorm.
Sucky toy. Not made well.” Andrew made a raspberry sound. Then he
sighed. “So I think I was in Fetch, sort of. I think that’s how I got here. I
don’t know why I think that. I just do.”
Jake stayed silent. He was still watching the man unload the truck.
“You can talk now,” Andrew said.
“I don’t know what to say,” Jake said. “I feel bad that you went through
something that was really bad.”
The man reached for Jake and Andrew’s container. Jake had been
wondering what to do about the man. He thought moving what they were in
would startle the man. But now he didn’t really have a choice. He didn’t
want the man to throw Andrew and him away.
So Jake moved, which meant the thing they were in moved. Jake saw the
man stare in alarm. Wanting to comfort the man, Jake reached out to touch
his face.
The man screamed and grabbed his head. Collapsing on the gravel
behind the truck, the man’s body began to wither like he was a sponge
being wrung out by an invisible hand. As his body sucked in on itself, his
eyes fell inward, disappearing. And black streaks ran down the man’s
cheeks.
“What just happened?” Jake shouted. He jumped out of the truck and
stared at the bald man’s body.
“I can’t see, dummy,” Andrew snapped. “What are you talking about?”
“I just thought about touching a guy’s face, and he died! Why’d he
die?!” Jake realized he was screaming, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Why’re you asking me?” Andrew was sounding defensive again.
“The other guy died, too. I just remembered,” Jake said.
“It’s probably me,” Andrew said.
“Could it be Fetch, the dog?” Jake asked.
“Nah, it’s me, I bet.”
“You want to kill people?”
“No!”
“Then why … ?”
“I just want to scare people, okay? Like, you know, give them a zap.”

---

“The zap is killing them!”
“Well, that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“Okay.” Jake thought a second. “So if what you’re doing isn’t doing
what you want, maybe it’s doing something someone else wants. Maybe
something else is here with us.”
“In this thing, you mean?”
“Yeah. Like a hitchhiker or like a flea on a dog.”
“That’s stupid,” Andrew said.
“You were a hitchhiker on the man who killed you. Why can’t someone
else hitchhike with us?”
Andrew was silent for second, then he said, “It just sounds dumb.”
“The thing is,” Jake said, “that if you did do it somehow, whatever is
causing you to do it could be in everything you got into.”
“I infected them. I remember now.”
“What?”
“I infected everything I threw my anger at.”
“Okay. So everything you infected could hurt people. Innocent people.”
“Hey, I’m not like that. I just wanted to hurt the bad guy.”
“But you said you infected stuff with your anger. You didn’t think that
would hurt them?”
“Shut up.”
“Fine, I’ll shut up. But we’re going to go find all the stuff you infected.”
“How’re you gonna do that?”
“You won’t help me?”
“Why should I?”
Jake thought for a second and then tried something. He wasn’t sure he
could do it. But …
Yes, he could! He could feel Andrew’s thoughts. He’d be able to find the
stuff Andrew infected, even without Andrew’s help.

---

Copyright © 2020 by Scott Cawthon. All rights reserved.
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Document Outline

• Title Page
• Contents
• Step Closer
• Dance with Me
• Coming Home
• About the Authors
• Teaser
• Copyright