Eat'em by Chase Webster Read Free Book Online

box. Without it, the room contained no magic. My father used to love the planetarium, but now it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be reproduced with a cheap smart phone app. A device small enough to fit in my pocket could be pointed at the sky, day or night, and the universe would be labeled – zoomed in with a pinch. A telescope that could be used anywhere.
    “This is magical, Jacob,” Eat’em used me as a ladder to get to the projector. “Look at that, yes. Do you see that?”
    I rolled over and crouched behind the projector stand. My throbbing skull would have to wait. Dread pressed against my heart. A dour aura pulled at my nerves and a change came over me. I pushed away my fear and gave myself to a feeling far more sinister. My hand searched the opposite side of the projector stand and my fingers found the plug.
    “Hey!” Eat’em shouted. “Don’t unplug it! I must know what it does, yes!”
    The old man moved impossibly fast. Faster than anyone I’d ever seen. He leapt sideways through the open hallway, defying gravity as he jumped several rows of chairs. All of his muscles tensed as he leapt, flying toward me like a two hundred pound baseball. The twenty-pound projector was my DeMARINI baseball bat and I aimed for the stands.
    Both the projector and the old man’s skull shattered on impact. Fragments of bone, plastic, and metal shards exploded from my fists. Sour blood splattered from the impact as the man who knew my name crumpled into the back of a row of seats and dropped to the floor.
     
    I should have felt remorse, maybe shock, but I felt powerful. I should have been afraid, but I was calm. I should have been confused, but I was clear-headed.
    Adrenaline worked wonders in my system, and I knew it was only a matter of time before it wore off and I collapsed under the stress of what I’d done. For the moment, I had to disappear. And as diverse as the crowd may be on campus, running around sticky with blood was sure to get me noticed.
    I left Eat’em to mourn his shattered projector and hurried into the planetarium lobby to lock both sets of double doors leading into the building. The planetarium itself was closed, but I ran the risk of someone using the building as a shortcut to get from one class to another. The doors were glass, so I just had to count on nobody putting too much effort into looking inside.
    On the opposite side of the lobby stood a supply closet and a small stand that sold souvenirs and UT swag, including mugs, pens, and a couple boxes. An open box of gym clothes beneath one of the shelves looked rummaged through. I grabbed a pair of blue shorts, a grey shirt, an orange hat with a mustang on it, a towel that matched the hat, and a container of hand soap from an open locker before making my way back to the bathroom crime scene.
    I used the sink to wash up. Soap suds and blood pooled at my feet, as I scrubbed hard at my skin. I rinsed my hair over and over until the water ran clear. The clothes I brought went into my backpack, which I grabbed from the counter where I left it, and I dressed in my new outfit.
    I looked like a college student. Or at the very least, I looked like Steve Buscemi playing a college student. I scraped what blood I could from my fingertips and ran the faucets with the drains closed until the water ran over, onto the floor.
    “Can we get Frosties after this?” Eat’em sulked into the hallway from the planetarium. “I need something to take my mind off the magical box you took from me, yes.”
    “Sure,” I didn’t care. Hopefully, Val wouldn’t mind the diversion, and if so, I’d deal with Eat’em’s pouting then. “Whatever you want, buddy. You ready to go?”
    “Yes.”
    I hesitated to look at the girl beneath the stall, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. As awful as I knew I would feel later, I left her where she lie as I took a pen from my backpack and very carefully punctured the nasty bag beneath the urinal.
    Cleaning the bathroom wasn’t