Joey clenched his jaw, grabbed the knife, and stabbed the bleeding man in the ribs.
He rushed to her aid, knife in hand, and without hesitating, planted the blade into the cleaner's back.Īs the group stared at Frank in shock, he ordered them to finish the job. Hearing her stifled cries, a dark impulse took over Frank. But a cleaner who was still there grabbed Julie as soon as she came near. They snuck inside easily enough, as the building was supposed to be empty after closing hours. One evening, Frank dared Joey to vandalise the store that had recently fired him. Nothing was off-limits when they put their masks on. It came to a point where they would do anything he asked. Bullying, vandalism, and theft were essentially their weekend plans. He lined up nights of debauchery and rampage, testing their limits. Frank saw it as an opportunity to shape their lack of experience into something powerful. Their time together was the perfect break from the boring conformity of their small, insignificant everyday lives. They would hang out at an abandoned lodge up Mount Ormond. He met the impulsive Joey, who liked to show off, and the shy, naïve Susie, who was Julie's best friend. Frank attended the parties she threw where everyone was younger than him and easily impressed, which he liked. Frank did everything he could to get into another adoptive family, but he changed his mind when he caught the attention of Julie, a beautiful girl who was convinced that she deserved better than a life in Ormond, and Frank, as an outsider, was her ticket out. Ormond was a small, stale place a remote town of six thousand inhabitants where grey winters drag on for most of the year. Clive was too busy trading cheques from Family Services for drinks at the bar. It would be the longest time they'd spend together. They'd been on the road for seven hours before reaching a small bungalow in Ormond.
His last move had been three years prior when his last foster dad, Clive Andrews, had picked him up from the adoption centre. No matter how many times he'd lashed out, threw tantrums and got into fights, they'd kept moving him to new, unfamiliar houses. At six years old, he'd been taken away from Calgary to start a circuit of foster homes. Yet Frank was a man of potential, who could light up a room despite his bleak childhood. He'd stopped attending school after being kicked out of the basketball team for shoving a referee into the stands.