“Karch says you were holding out on him, tryin’ to keep this place for yourself.”

“Whatever. The whole place is his now. Let his fuckin’ hunters set up camp. None of us are gonna argue or fight him for it.”

“Yeah, you made sure of that, didn’t you?”

“Nothin’ I could have done to stop ’em.”

“You stood right there while they killed Danny and Aaron and Mike. You may as well have killed ‘em yourself.”

“Nothin’ I could have done.”

“Uh huh.“

“Danny led ‘em right to us.”

“Uh huh. So you’re sayin’ he deserved what he got? They all deserved to end up in pieces?”

“Maybe I am sayin’ that. Maybe I’m a Hunter after all.”

“Is that why you painted the place with those vengements? To say that they were marked for death and deserved what they got? Cause it seems like maybe you put ‘em up to warn the other kids not to come back here.”

The door banged open and Karch and his guys came in. He glared around the empty room and said, “Who you talkin’ to, Merridew?”

“Nobody,” I said. And that much was true. Because I wasn’t anybody anymore, not a Hunter, not the protector of the Pool Boys. I was just a crazy fuck who talked to himself. And I couldn’t even believe my own bullshit anymore.