World's End

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WORLD S END

HK jerks the globe from my hand, and moves to SB's side. SB sits on the edge of a broken table. "Now, shall we go over the reasons why you're being an ass, again?"

he asks me.

"I already told you, nothing you can say to me is going to change anything." I take a deep breath, trying to keep my temper. "Listen, SB, we've all been through an ordeal.

I know what you must have suffered. You were out there a lot longer than I was. ..." The words feel as cloying as dust. "But you'll see things clearly again when you--"

"When we what?" he says bitterly. "What do we have to go back to? Nothing, unless we have this." He points at the globe.

"Have you considered honest work? I rather enjoy it, myself."

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HK sneers. "You hypocrite. You wanted the estates for yourself. You think we don't know that?

The only reason you left home was because Father put you in your place."

I feel my face flush. "You mean I should have stayed, and helped you suck our ancestors'

blood?" / would have killed you first. My hands turn into fists. I force them open again.

"That--that doesn't matter now/' I say weakly.

"It's past, it's gone. What matters is that we're all the family we have left. This is stupid--"

"Then why can't we be rich again together?" HK says.

"Why shouldn't we? Isn't there anything you want?

There's got to be something--something you want more than anything. Something you could never have, that you could have now--"

Moon. Her face fills my mind. "Moon. ..." I realize what I have not had time to realize until now--that the impossible has been made possible . . . that to see her again is possible, because of Fire Lake.

"You see?" SB says eagerly. "There is something! I

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