His eyes were glassy and his heavy features were contorted with fury. At his sides his big hands were already working themselves into fists.

"Oh, Jesus," Mark whispered. "Let's get out of here."

With Linda at his side, Mark spun around and ran toward Colorado Street and the bright lights that lined its sidewalks. There would be people there-the rest of the high school crowd leaving the café, and the audience from the movie theater across the square.

His breath was coming hard as he ran, and his heart was racing. Although Linda was keeping up with him, he could hear Jeff's feet pounding on the sidewalk behind them, closer every second.

There was only another block to go, and then half a block.

It was too far. Suddenly Jeff crashed against him from behind. Letting go of Linda's hand, he yelled at her to keep going, then crumbled to the ground as JeffLaConner's furious blows struck him in the stomach.

"Stop it!" Linda Harris screamed. "Jeff, what are you doing?"

Mark was on the ground now, face down, and JeffLaConner sat astride him, his fists pummeling the smaller boy. Linda yelled at Jeff again, and when he seemed not even to hear her, she tried to pull him away from Mark. One of Jeff's arms came up, swinging wildly, and caught Linda's rib cage. Stunned, she fell to the pavement, too, then staggered to her feet, gasping for air. Her eyes burning with tears, one hand clamped against her bruised ribs, she staggered the rest of the block, then turned onto Colorado Street.

"Help!" she called out, but even to herself her voice sounded like no more than a hoarse whisper. She paused for a moment, bracing herself against the post of a streetlamp, fighting to fill her lungs with air. Then, once more, she shouted, "Help! Someone, please help me!"

A block away she saw three boys come out of the café and waved frantically to them. For a single, awful moment she thought they were going to turn the other way, but then they saw her, and in seconds her brother and two of his friends were running toward her.

"Down there," she gasped, pointing into the darkness of the side street. "It's Jeff! He's gone nuts! He's beating Mark up!"

Robb Harris stared at his sister uncomprehendingly until a sudden image of Jeff exploded into his mind-an image from earlier that night, when he'd seen Jeff gazing at Mark and Linda, his whole body trembling, his face blazing with anger. "Holy shit," he muttered. "Call Dad," he told Linda, then shouted to his friends, "Come on!" With Pete Nakamura and Roy Kramer chasing after him, Robb dashed down the sidewalk toward the spot where he could now see Jeff and Mark struggling on the ground.

Linda, her ribs starting to ache now, ran down Colorado Street toward the brightly lit café, stumbled through the door and reached for the pay phone. It was only when she fumbled for a quarter that she realized she no longer had her purse. She uttered a sob of frustration and turned toward the counter at the back, where Mabel Harkins was slowly counting the money in the cash register. Except for Mabel, the café was empty.

"Sorry, honey, I'm all closed up," Mabel said, glancing up from her counting as Linda approached the counter. Then she stopped counting and stared. "Jeez,hon, what happened to you?"

Linda ignored the question. "Can I use your phone, Mabel? I have to call my dad."

Immediately, Mabel pushed the phone by the cash register across to Linda, but when the girl, her fingers trembling violently, tried unsuccessfully to punch the buttons, Mabel pulled it back. "I'll do it," she said. "What's the number?"

On the third ring Jerry Harris answered. "It's Mabel Harkins," the waitress said. "Down at the café?" Without waiting for Jerry to respond, she continued, "Linda's down here, Jerry, and she's awful upset. Just a sec." She handed the phone to Linda, then listened as the girl tried to tell her father what had happened.

"Idon'tknow why he did it," she said at last. "We were just walking along the street and he was up ahead of us. It was like he was waiting for us or something. Anyway, Robb and some other guys are trying to break it up. Can you come over, Daddy?"

She listened for a moment, then told her father where Jeff and Mark were. Finally, her hands still shaking, she hung up.

Mabel handed her a glass of water. "Here,hon," she said. "You just sit down and drink this, and try to calm down."

But Linda shook her head. "I can't. I-I have to get back there. I can't just leave Mark alone-"

"He's not alone," Mabel said firmly. "And there's nothing you can do right now. You just sit down and get yourself calmed down for a minute, then we'll both go see what's going on."

Jerry Harris appeared upset as he hung up the phone. "What is it?" Blake Tanner asked. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, exactly," Jerry replied. Already on his feet, with Blake right behind him, he went into the living room, where he told Blake and his wife what Linda had said.

"Oh, Lord," Elaine breathed. Her eyes shifted to Blake. "You go with Jerry and I'll call Sharon." She was already picking up the telephone as the two men hurried out into the night.

Mark had managed to wriggle free of Jeff twice, but it hadn't done him any good. Neither time had he managed to get more than a few feet away before Jeff tackled him again. Now, withJeffs fists pummeling him, he gave up trying to get away from the larger boy and was instead merely doing his best to defend himself from the rain of blows that seemed to come from every direction.

His nose was bleeding and he could taste the salty flavor of blood in his mouth. He thought there was a cut over his right eye, too, and his ears were still ringing from a blow to his head.

Now Jeff was on top of Mark again, his eyes fixed blankly on the object of his rage. His mind had almost ceased to function, but as he felt his fists hammer into Mark again and again, a sensation of satisfaction coursed through him. He'd show the little jerk-he'd show everyone!

A few seconds later, when Robb Harris, Pete Nakamura, and Roy Kramer arrived on the scene, Jeff wasn't even aware of their presence, so engrossed was he with the damage he was inflicting on Mark Tanner.

Nor did Jeff hear Robb's voice as Robb shouted at him. "What the hell are you doing, Jeff? You're going to kill him!"

Robb stared at the struggling figures, only half recognizable in the darkness. It wasn't even a fight, he saw instantly, for Mark, pinned to the ground, was doing little more than trying to shield his face. And Jeff, his own face a nearly unrecognizable mask of mindless fury, seemed oblivious of what he was doing. It was like watching a dog worry a half-dead rat, Robb realized with a sickening sensation. At any moment he expected Jeff to pick Mark up and start shaking him.

"Help me!" he shouted to Pete Nakamura. "We've got to get him off Mark."

As a porch light snapped on across the street, and then another one farther down the block, Robb moved in on one side of Jeff, grasping his arm.

With one quick movement, Jeff twisted himself loose from Robb's grip, then swung at him, his fist clipping Robb's jaw. Robb howled with the sharp pain and reeled back, his right hand automatically coming up to touch his injured jaw.

Jeff's first swing at Pete Nakamura caught the other boy in the left eye. Roy Kramer hurled himself onto Jeff's back, his arms snaking around Jeff's neck.

As Roy's grip tightened around Jeff's neck, Jeff seemed to hesitate for a moment, his arms dropping to his sides. Then a gurgle of fury erupted from Jeff's strangled throat. Heaving with exertion, he thrust himself upright, carrying Roy Kramer on his back. He spun around, as if expecting to find this new enemy behind him, then dropped to the ground and rolled over. As his weight pressed down on Roy, the other boy's arms loosened for a moment, and suddenly Jeff was free. He rolled again, then crouched low to the ground. His eyes, glistening in the light of the streetlamp, darted from Robb to Pete, then back to Roy, who was lying on his back now, trying to catch his breath.