Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Read the contract, son. You have to be one year in to be vested. When that one year is up, we’ll have ourselves another chat. Now sign your name on that line.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then Collin, God help you. Because this town needs what you’re offering and if you bow out, people will get hurt. You don’t really think that man who broke into your house to steal your sister was just a random event, do you?”
“What? What’s that mean?”
“Sign. The paper. And at the end of the year, you’ll know.”
“I don’t like the sound of this. It sounds a little bit like extortion to me.”
Jim Bob laughs. “Do you know what your daddy did after you left?”
“In regards to what?” He’s about to answer, but I put up a hand. “Never mind. I don’t care if he went crazy.”
“Crazy.” Jim Bob thinks about this word for a moment. “I guess that’s one way to think about it. However, your daddy did some good things for this town. And some of the greatest happened after you left.”
“Well, that’s special. Thanks for letting me know.”
“He had big ideas for this Revival. Came up with an engineering miracle. Four-season festivities, that’s what he gave us before he left. Four-season festivities.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well, it’s gonna rain on Sunday, so you’ll find out soon enough.”
Ten minutes later I’m rolling down Main Street towards the Revival, dollar signs and mysteries spinning through my head. I call Amon as I ease my truck to the side of the road near the main entrance of the park where the tent stands like a testament to my life here in Disciple.
He answers on the first ring. “Listen—”
“What do you know?”
“Jim Bob just texted me. I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. I know exactly as much as you do.”
“Which is what, specifically?”
“We’re to do security for this season. We collect a million dollars each on January first. And then we learn the truth about the Trinity Towns and become vested members of the… whatever it is.”
“Whatever it is? What if it’s some death cult, Amon?”
“I don’t think it’s a death cult.”
“But you don’t know. He said the man who tried to snatch my sister that night wasn’t a random event. What do you know about that?”
“Far less than you do. Since I wasn’t there and we weren’t even friends back then.”
“What if we don’t want in? I mean, after one year? What if we want to leave?”
“We might have a fight on our hands.”
“And you’re OK with that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? We’re trained killers, Collin. We have enough weapons in our new bunker to start a war. I’ve got a kennel full of K-9’s who speak four languages and we’ve got the entire population of able-bodied men outside of the Trinity on our payroll. Which, when one looks at it objectively, qualifies us as an army. It’s a nice paycheck for a little bit of time. And how can you not be dying to know what the hell is going on? I mean, if we learned anything while we were gone, it was that this place is weird. Right?”
“So why would we join up, Amon?”
“Because it’s in our blood, Collin. It’s in our blood.”
“Did you know about this before we bought the compound?” But even before these words are out, I know that he did. Amon was the one who pointed out that the compound was for sale. He was the one who got me interested in it.
He didn’t push it on me. Just printed out the online listing and left it with my shit, a note attached. What about this place?
Amon has gone quiet.
“You set this up.”
“It’s not a set-up, Collin. It’s destiny.”
When I pull into the back alley behind McBooms on Thursday afternoon I am greeted with the sight of Collin Creed’s Jeep, and the man himself, leaning against the driver’s door with his arms crossed and his shades down. He’s grinnin’ at me.
I smile back at him. It’s hard not to get excited about his return. I mean, we were fated to be together and we made all those plans back when we were young. Maybe this is just how it was supposed to be?
He goes one way, I go another, and we meet up later in the middle.
We are different people now. But not so different, either.
I spent all of today thinking about him. He’s stayin’ at my house. We’re living together. In his childhood home, which I have redecorated to look like we’re living back in a better time.
It’s… kinda dreamlike, if I’m being perfectly honest. A little bit magical too.
Growing up in Disciple isn’t like growing up anywhere else in the world. There’s something special going on here in the Trinity Towns. I mean, I know it’s all a show. I know the motorcycle club that runs Revenant isn’t really full of murderers. It’s an act.