R. Stine - Red Rain

Like a nightmare. I know we are nightmares.

And the strange part: Daniel brought the anger. But Sammy brought the death.

Now Daniel eyed him eagerly. Samuel leaned over Ira, brought his face close to the shivering boy’s, and began to fire up his eyes.

Samuel’s eyes clicked as if someone had bumped a switch. And they began to light instantly. The white around the pupils darkened to pink, and then the pupils disappeared into the growing red glow.

Like the coiled burners on an electric stove, Samuel’s eyes reddened and the heat began to radiate. His eyes were bright fire now, hot neon, red and hypnotic.

So hypnotic, Ira made no attempt to move or look away.

“Easy,” Daniel warned, bumping Samuel’s arm. “Don’t burn him. Back off a bit. You’ll blind him. We don’t want to hurt him. We only want to open his mind. Easy. Easy. We don’t want Mum to see that he is changed.”

“Okay, boyo. I’m being careful,” Samuel whispered. “Hurry. Ethan will be back.” He could see the red-glare reflection of his eyes in Ira’s eyes. “I’m just holding him. Not burning him. Go ahead. Tell his brain who is boss.”

Samuel was always surprised that he couldn’t feel the heat. Burning embers. No. Burning lasers. His eyes radiated blistering heat. But he couldn’t feel a thing.

Daniel leaned over the prone figure. Ira was hypnotized in the red glow.

“Okay, bruvver, I helped you today,” Daniel said, eyes on the glass doors of the house, watching warily for Ethan’s return. “Now we will stick together, boyo. Stick together like bruvvers. Yes?”

Silence for a second. Samuel kept the light on Ira’s face. “Yes,” Ira answered. Robotlike. But he gave the correct answer.

“Bruvvers forever,” Daniel murmured. “Even closer than bruvvers. And we’ll all be together day and night, all together we’ll rule the school.”

“Yes,” Ira said, this time without hesitating. He almost sounded enthusiastic.

Good boy .

Daniel gave Samuel the nod. The job had been done. Ira’s mind had been fixed. Samuel shut his eyes. He could feel a little prickling heat on the backs of his eyelids. He kept his eyes shut until they cooled.

When he opened them, he saw the new pa burst through the gate and stride onto the deck, his chest heaving up and down. “What’s wrong? Hey-what’s wrong?” In a panic.

Daniel helped Ira to a sitting position. “Wave at your pa,” he whispered.

Ira waved.

“Is Ira okay?” The new pa hurried up to them. Samuel saw the sweat stain on the front of his sleeveless tee.

“I’m fine, Dad. We were just taking a break,” Ira said.

“We had an awesome swim, don’t you know,” Daniel said. “Then we did some tricks in the water. And had some contests.”

“Ira can hold his breath a long time,” Samuel told him.

Ira nodded. “I beat my old record, Dad.”

The new pa studied Ira’s face, as if he still thought something had gone wrong. “When I saw you lying on the deck like that. .”

“Just relaxing,” Ira said. “What’s the big deal, Dad?”

“Where’s Ethan?”

Ethan reappeared as if on cue, carrying a stack of towels. “What’s up? Is Ira okay?”

“Of course I’m okay,” Ira insisted.

Ethan squinted at Ira, confused.

“Ethan, want to come to the ocean with us?” the new pa asked, wiping sweat off his forehead with the front of his shirt. “We have room.”

“No. Thanks. My mom said I had to stay home. She went to Cromer’s to get dinner. She’ll be back any minute.”

“Okay. Next time. Let’s hurry, guys. I left Roz and Axl in the car.”

Daniel helped Ira to his feet. He kept his arm around Ira’s shoulders as they made their way to the car. “I see you two are bonding,” the new pa said.

No one replied to that.

At the gate, Samuel turned back to Ethan. “Can I borrow this towel?” He held up the ragged white towel.

“No problem,” Ethan called. “Bring it back next time, okay?”

Samuel followed the others to the black SUV at the bottom of the drive. The boys greeted Roz and Axl. “Put beach towels down on the seats,” she told them. “Don’t get the car all wet.”

“Roz, it’s a beach car,” Pa told her. “It’s supposed to get wet.”

“Wet,” Axl repeated, and laughed.

Ira climbed into the passenger seat next to Pa. Samuel followed Daniel to the back. They climbed up next to the beach basket and supplies.

The car bumped off the driveway, onto the street. At the side of the road, Samuel saw big blackbirds feasting on the carcass of a stiff, dead squirrel.

After they had driven for a few minutes, Samuel poked his twin. Daniel turned from the window. Samuel grinned at him. “You win a prize,” he whispered.

Daniel’s eyebrows slid up. “What did you get?”

Samuel slowly unrolled the towel. Then, grinning, he revealed the prize inside. The iPhone Ethan had used to time the underwater contest.

Daniel started to giggle and soon Samuel was giggling too.

“What’s so funny?” Roz asked.

“We’re just happy lads,” Daniel answered.

At police headquarters on Division Street in Sag Harbor, Andy Pavano didn’t have his own office. There was a cubicle by the men’s room that had been promised him. But it was filled nearly to the ceiling with junk, mainly old computer equipment and fax machines, and no one in the department seemed eager or even willing to clear it out for him.

Maybe they were waiting for him to do it himself, Andy thought. In the meantime, he was squatting in the office of Angie Donato, the one woman in the department, who was out on maternity leave. The only redecorating he had done to make it his own was to turn all her family photos to the wall because her four kids were really ugly. Beasts. No exaggeration.

Waiting for a meeting in which he knew he and Pinto were going to be bounced off the Hulenberger murder case, he sat on the edge of his (her) desk with the phone pressed to his ear, enjoying Sari’s voice even though she wasn’t saying anything promising to him.

The air-conditioning was on the fritz, so a large floor fan hummed and squeaked in the corner, making it hard to hear her. “What did you say? You what?”

“Rod and I are serious about each other, Andy. I mean, I don’t know how serious. But-”

“Sari, please tell me his name isn’t Rod. You’re not going with a guy in a tennis hat named Rod.”

“You’re making jokes. He’s a nice guy. He’s nice to me. He-”

“You know you still feel something for me. At the theater the other night. .”

“I told you that was nothing. Sure, there are leftover feelings. From before. Sure, we both have them. But come on. That’s what they are. Leftovers.”

Marie, the office secretary, began having a heated conversation with a lanky young cop in the hall outside his door. Andy turned his back and tried to drown out their voices.

He missed some of what Sari was saying. He just caught the name Susannah .

“Sari, what? What about Susannah?”

“How long were you married, Andy? Did you cheat on her, too?”

Ouch. That brought a physical pain, a sharp stab to the pit of his stomach.

“That’s cold, Sari. That’s not fair. You don’t know anything about me and Susannah. And I didn’t cheat on you. I-”

“You were a shit, Andy. You were a total shit.”

“How about lunch?”

He heard her breath catch.

“Just a quick lunch at the Paradise. We won’t be serious. No serious stuff. Just talk. Like old friends.”

“You sound too desperate.”

“Does that mean yes?”

She laughed. “Can Rod come, too?”