Excerpt: Burning the Circus

“We’re leaving after tonight,” said Lee, firmly. “We’re not coming back to everything. We’re going to go be part of something else or maybe nothing at all.”

“You’re leaving?” asked Otis with a tone of mockery. “You’re leaving?” A smile grew on his face, first small and close-mouthed but then bigger and more evil. He had a face for evil, though he never sincerely felt it. Otis didn’t feel it, at least. Maybe someone else inside him did. “You can never leave; don’t you get it?”

Lee’s eyes traced the city street and followed it down as far as he could see. It disappeared into a mesh of neon and white and the taillights of cars as they clogged a bridge and an overpass in the distance. The lights covered everything and shone into the hidden alleys and the sky-scraping peaks. They lit every window whether or not the blinds were drawn. And they fell onto the floor of the room and Lee’s shoes gleamed like dirty plastic even though they were leather. There were no lights on the exit signs. They didn’t show you those.

“We’ll wait til Randi gets here,” said Lee. He rubbed the toes of one shoe onto the top of the other, trying to scrape away the orange light.