That Which Lurks, Page 2

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  They drove away from the city and towards their hometown of Nelson, where their dad had raised them alone after mom died giving birth to Hunter. He had raised them both like boys, a style Hunter turned out well suited to. But after acquiring her belief of Dad's supposed misdeeds, she had transformed herself, throwing away her tomboy image in favor of outward womanhood. Still she was hard as plywood underneath the hair and makeup, as their fight today had showed.

  "God," Josh asked, "do you really think Dad raped you? How could you think that? He loved you so much. How proud of you was he when you became captain of our school's wrestling team and won us the championship? He would've known how much that would hurt you. How could he risk destroying you?"

  "I don't know Josh," she said in a stiff tone. "People do absurd things all the time, you always hear it in the news. Even in Nelson, you remember when Father Joe went crazy and shot up the bank. Besides, Dad never found another woman after Mom died. He must have needed an avenue to pleasure himself."

  He considered his response and almost laughed, almost. "He masturbated. Besides, how do we know for sure that was Father Joe? They never found the money and that green deputy shot him before he got a chance to talk."

  "Come on, five people saw his face up close. Let's not talk about this anymore, alright? You don't believe Dad raped me. I know he did. But in a few days it won't matter because he'll be dead anyway. Then we'll deal with the paperwork, split his assets and go our separate ways again."

  "I missed you Hunter. Bar hopping just isn't as fun without my bro backing me up."

  She smiled for the first time since their brawl. "I wouldn't be much of a bro anymore."

  "Sure you would. You still got it. Lost of a little of your fighting skills though. First time I managed to beat you."

  "Hey! That fight wasn't concluded."

  He touched her shoulder. "You were knocked out cold."

  "Yeah, and what happened the last time you thought you had me knocked out and kept hitting me? I ended up breaking your arm."

  Josh supposed she probably would've fought back from her seemingly helpless position if he tried anything more threatening than to take her to the car. "All right. We'll consider it a draw."