No one else appeared to have heard him. Trey didn’t think they’d let him up, but, oddly, they did, backing up a pace as he struggled to his feet. They laughed, though, as he staggered on his sore and swollen left knee.

“Now hit Cary,” the man said.

Trey glanced at him, between the bodies of the boys surrounding him.

“You know you want to.”

Trey did want to, but he was afraid. He knew he couldn’t hurt Cary, and the beating that would result would be horrific.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” the man said, as if he had climbed inside Trey’s head. And when Trey still hesitated: “Son, do you want to be a victim all your life? That’s the path you’re on, you know.”

Suddenly, Trey was filled with a violent rage. Curling his fingers into a fist, he struck Cary in the center of his face. To his astonishment, there was a spurt of blood. Cary went down and stayed down. Silence in the circle around him. The laughter died in their throats. Then they broke and ran, leaving Trey alone, standing over the fallen bully.

The man strode closer, to stand only paces away from Trey. “How did that feel?”

Trey stared down at Cary, then at his balled fist, the knuckles spattered with blood. “Good,” he said. “It felt good.”

“Sure it did. Now tell the boy what’s on your mind.”

Trey bent down. His heart was hammering against his ribs. His throat was engorged with sick emotion. “If you come near me again…” he stopped; he couldn’t go on.

“That’s all right,” the man said gently. “Start over.”

Trey swallowed hard, almost choked on his saliva. “If you come near me again, I’ll … hit you.”

“Try again,” the man said, so gently this time it might have been the wind skating along the tracks.

Trey’s cheeks puffed out. He was sweating with the effort not to vomit. “If you come near me again,” he said to Cary, “I’ll kill you.”

Then, unable to bear the sight of his triumph another second, he turned away, only to face the man who introduced himself as Preach.

“Do you want that strength, that power,” Preach said, “even when I’m not here?”

Trey nodded his head. There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation.

“All it takes is time,” Preach said. “Come with me.”

“But what about my parents?”

Preach smiled. “They won’t even know you’re gone.”

And, amazingly, they hadn’t.