Thomas let it go for the sake of getting to the point quickly. “It’s alright. What are you asking me for? Just drop the act and tell me.”
“Can we feed our next kill to Jake?” Avi said in a rush, clapping his hands together the way he did when he was having a hard time emotionally regulating.
Thomas was sure his own jaw had unhinged in shock.
Avi didn’t notice. Now that he’d blurted out the question, he was practically vibrating with anticipation.
Thomas blinked at them. “What?”
Asa rushed forward, then stopped abruptly. “Okay, look. So in science class today, Mr. Pierce let us watch a documentary about snakes in the Everglades ‘cause it's the day before break and he said that a reticulated python could digest an entire human in just a couple of hours. We…we wanted to see if that’s true.”
Thomas stared blankly, attempting to process this information, then closed his eyes, digging his palms in like he could somehow wipe away this conversation. “Your science teacher told you that pythons can swallow an entire human body?”
They nodded in unison.
“Whydid your science teacher tell you this?” Thomas asked. He wasn’t paying two hundred thousand dollars a year to this school for teachers to spontaneously give his impressionable sons advice on getting rid of a body. He very much doubted Mr. Pierce had more expertise in the matter than Thomas. When they both exchanged another long glance, he did sigh. “Please tell me you didn’taskhim this.”
Their gazes snapped back to him, all wide eyed innocence. “No, Dana Culligan asked,” Asa hurried to say.
Too quickly.
“Whydid Dana Culligan ask this question?”
“Cause she’s weird?” Avi hedged, looking at Asa.
Thomas knew he wasn’t getting the whole story. He leaned back in his seat, staring, saying nothing, watching as the silence started to eat away at Avi.
Asa, as always, remained steadfast.
“We asked her to ask Mr. Pierce,” Avi finally blurted.
Asa shot him a look of betrayal that had Thomas worrying if Avi was going to need another trip to the emergency room to make this confession up to Asa. As much as Thomas had triedto quell their bizarre fascination with hurting and being hurt, Asa still hurt Avi, and Avi not only let him, but encouraged it. Thomas had finally managed to convince Asa that hurting Avi too often caused people to ask questions. For a while, Thomas had thought they’d stopped, but then he’d realized they’d just gotten far more creative with their…playtime.
“What the fu—heck, dude?” Asa said to Avi, exasperation obvious.
Avi took the steps necessary to stand beside his brother, then grabbed his arm tightly, as if trying to make amends. “But we didn’t start the conversation. David did. He said he’d watched aNational Geographicdocumentary that said a reticulated python could get to over twenty-six feet and that they killed people…a lot of them and then, like, swallowed them whole and there was nothing left cause their stomach acid dissolved them. Even their bones,” he said as if it were witchcraft.
Asa nodded. “And then Chris said that was bullshit–uh, bullcrap–and that snakes couldn’t eat humans and then he was going to ask the teacher, but then he chickened out because his dad already thinks video games and stuff are making him too violent and he was worried Mr. Pierce would like tell his dad ‘cause they golf together sometimes.” Asa rolled his eyes at that. “So he said we should ask Dana to ask him ‘cause she’s got this weird goth thing going on and she talks about dead shi—stuff all the time.”
“She was totally excited to ask,” Avi said, nodding his head rapidly like he was trying to Jedi mind-trick Thomas into believing him. “She has abigcrush on Asa,” he added, like it was the funniest thing in the world. Once more, Asa gave Avi the look. Avi shrugged, flushing. “What? Shedoes.”
“And why should I let you feed a human being to your snake?” Thomas asked.
He could say no outright, but he didn’t want to discourage their independence too much and this was a far safer option than the acid, lye or any other caustic chemicals. And he wanted them to be able to not only make a case but defend it with logic. It might come in handy if there was ever a criminal trial one day.
“Because it’s like a science project?” Asa tried.
Asa’s hand came up, pointing a finger. “Yeah, It’s, like, totally educational.”
When Thomas said nothing, they kept trying.
Avi floundered. “Cause we got straight A’s last semester?”
“Cause we stopped hiding Mr. Capra’s shoes when he came for our fencing lesson?” Asa said.
Thomas had to bite his bottom lip to keep a straight face as Avi nodded along. “Adam and Archer could watch too. Oh. Oh. We could do it for family night. That’s only two days away.”
“I don’t really relish the idea of us bringing a dead body into the house…” Thomas said.
