This second-person point of view story centers on Vic and his family when they are new to the city of Angelus. Vic is having trouble fitting in and has become very anxious, and when he is alone in the house he goes to hold onto the rifle that his father keeps unloaded. His father, a police officer who is new to Angelus (and who will soon abandon the family, as is revealed in other stories), keeps the breech-bolt hidden, and Vic doesn’t go near it, though he knows where it is.

There’s news around school about a kid who was recently expelled and has been questioned by the cops, and students are asking Vic about it, which helps him start to feel like he fits in. At the same time, Vic’s father seems clouded and distracted at home. Then, at a school dance, a student turns up dead in the bathroom, and soon after another person is found hanging in their bedroom. Suddenly, Vic sees trouble everywhere, and he becomes aware of the way his father’s job puts him in the middle of all the trouble, though it is unclear if the town is really becoming more violent or if Vic is seeing what was already there.