AND NOW FOR MY NEXT BAD MOVE

That night was the first time I put any of my Loozer comics up online. Usually, I kept them to myself. But I guess I just felt like my art was the one thing I could do pretty well. The one thing that didn’t make me feel so special, if you know what I mean.

I posted them on Art-Gunk.com, which is this random comics site I learned about when I went to art school in the big city. People could check out my stuff and make comments—good or bad. I didn’t even use my real name. I said they were by some guy named R. K. Whatchamacallit, so no one would know who I was. I didn’t think anyone at HVMS had even heard of Art-Gunk.com, much less cared about stuff like that.

But yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Leo might not be real (more on him later), but how could I post a bunch of comics with a character called Loozer who looks like me and NOT think something bad was going to happen?

Well, I’ll tell you the answer to that question right now.

And the answer is, I HAVE NO IDEA. I’m not exactly a world champion when it comes to looking before I leap.

So basically, without even knowing it, I’d started the clock on a brand-new time bomb, just waiting to go off. The only question was—when?