Inhalt

The Letter

Rick Deacon found a thick letter underneath his pillow one night in April after a rat ran out of his room with a squeaky wink at him before scurrying off to the bathrooms where clearly Chen would be putting on clothes.

Secret messages. Subterfuge. Interesting.

He opened it, unfolding several pages of neatly-penned, masculine handwriting. Rick silently read the words.

I know I will be marked as a traitor for doing this, but I have no other choice. It is either this or letting Butch Cassidy’s thugs daily beat the tar out of me. So here it goes.

Confessions of a Gulinger Mobster

First off, it started not long after the last changeling came to the school. Bobby (a.k.a Butch) gathered together his overly brawny friends to form a protection league for the Mafis in case we ever got into trouble with a Ghoulie. Or at least that was the original plan they presented to us. But like in Animal Farm, when he tasted power, Butch soon became overthrown by it Butch decided he loved it so much that he quickly became what some of us Mafis secretly call the Gob Father. Not to his face, of course. If we did, he’d beat it in, I’m sure. The Ghoulies don’t know anything about the Gulinger Mafi Mob, as the Gob Father only regulates Mafi dealings.

Here’s the thing: Butch said that the Ghoulies have their godfather—creepy Tom Brown who I swear doesn’t even touch the ground sometimes when he walks. Some people say he’d got wings. Is it true? I don’t know. I never go to the showers to find out. But Tom and his gang of misfits pretty much run the school, Butch said. They sneak in and out all the time, and hardly get caught. They break the rules and hardly get in trouble. No. Tom Brown is always in detention. Scratch that. They don’t always get away with things, but Butch makes it sound like they do. He made a list, a really convincing list. I mean, they got the last headmaster fired, someone Butch had wrapped around his finger, if they didn’t know it. And they got a Ghoulie to replace her, someone he can’t manipulate. And though we didn’t have a mob back then, Butch could get the school to do what he wanted, when he wanted it without contest. That is, until Deacon showed up.

But first, my confession: I was part of the mob enforcer group. What that means is that we bullied Mafis for any cash, computer games, favors, what have you—all under the nose of Tom Brown’s gang. Butch figured that Tom’s gang would want a cut in on the action if he found out, and Butch wanted to keep things strictly between the Mafis. But now I am not so sure that was the real reason.

“Thickhead,” Rick murmured, turning the page over.

I did Butch’s bidding for the greater portion of fall and winter, up until March when Deacon accidentally bumped into me in the hall and didn’t bite me like Butch said he would. All Deacon did was say ‘excuse me’ and went on his way.

Rick raised his eyebrows, examining the next line.

Butch keeps saying that the Ghoulies would sooner disembowel us than be friends with us, even ones like Matthew Calamori. He’s the mind reader, Butch says will read your mind if you talk near him. Butch and his thugs keep an eye on us whenever we get near Calamori. If he sees a guy even talking near him, his thugs corner him and torture him in an empty room. He also watches Calamori. If Tom Brown wasn’t Calamori’s best pal, I think Calamori would be the first taken down. Then Lee. He is too familiar with Deacon, so Butch won’t touch him. We call guys like

Impressum

Nächste Seite

Nächste Seite

Seite 1 /