A Hunt for the Liars: A Hunt for the Liars, #1

By Mari Hegger

The book is a mystery around the lives of five boys, that despite not knowing each other at a first moment, share a past marked by deaths, and destroyed friendships and loves and also a psychopathic stalker looking for revenge for all they have done. Michael Hemingway is an expert in new technologies, that's why Omega soon recruits him to his side, and along with that, takes the chance to destroy the boy's life in case he doesn't cooperate; Alessandro Hill sees his world be completely destroyed when, by accident, he enters the world of drug abuse; Rodrigo Rocha starts a relationship with an older woman in exchange for money, while he tries hard to hide a robbery involving murder; Daniel Downey, a Drag Queen, has his family destructured when he finds out his father is gay, Omega will definitely use this to turn his life into a hellhole, and Eric, he is a poor rich boy from whom his father and his best friend hide a big secret. All five of them know that while Omega is walking on the city streets, none of them will ever be safe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jun 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227075772

Book preview

Chapter 1

Michael

Michael ran his fingers through his hair to get it away from his face. He was in his bedroom, laying in bed, his sheets blue and partially messy. The wallpaper in his bedroom was also blue — maybe it was already possible to realize that Michael’s favorite color was blue — and checkered, there were shelves with his favorite books systematically organized in alphabetical order by name of the author. By his side, there was a nightstand with one of the books from the series Pretty Little Liars. Killer was the one he was currently reading. Michael had his earphones stuck in his ears, while he listened to his favorite song of the moment: When I see You Again, by Whiz Khalifa.

His long-distance boyfriend wasn’t online yet. His name was Lior, actually, it was Lion, but Michael took the liberty of nicknaming him ‘Lior’, because it would be something unique and maybe memorable. Lior — or Lion, as you wish — had black hair and blue eyes and, by his pictures, his teeth were very white. In Michael’s favorite picture — that only by chance was his cell phone’s background picture —, Lion was wearing an open shirt that flashed his six-pack, he wore his extremely straight hair flipped to the side and, although they had never talked about it,

Michael thought Lion used to straighten his hair. Lion lives in Espírito Santo, in the city of Colatina. While Michael, virtually on the other side of the country, lives in Rio Grande do Norte, in the city of Caicó. They haven’t met yet, however, they had spent the whole year talking about the trip Lion would take to Caicó, in order to meet him, they had planned everything, even how they would kiss for the first time.

Michael still remembered the day he met him:

It was the twenty-first of January of that same year. Michael was bored, laying in that very same bedroom, he grabbed his laptop, going through his files in search of something to do. He was on vacation and had no friends, thus he didn’t have anything to do, much less where to go.

He took a deep breath, as he had no friends, he decided to make some on an online chatroom. He typed the keywords and chose the first website that showed up, there weren’t a lot of people, five at the max, three girls and two boys, and then, Michael typed:

Michael_13: Hi

Lysia_Maria: Hi, what’s up Michael? 

Michelly: You’re new here, aren’t you?

Michael_13: Yes I am, what do you guys talk about?

Gaybriel: About our personal lives... about basically everything, we are each others’ confidants. Tell us something interesting about yourself.

Michael_13: I’m just a child.

Gaybriel: How old are you?

Michael_13: Let’s say this information is in my username.

Gaybriel: LOL, sorry for asking though, BRO.

Michael_13: No problem. How old are you?

Gaybriel: Seventeen, I´m quite old. But then, tell us about your sexual preferences.

Then Michael got scared, he hadn’t spent a single day pondering about that. He didn’teven know if he had sexual preferences, in his heart, he had always felt like an outcast. He had never, not even once, pondered about any serious matter, much less about whom he felt attracted to or not. Then, he decided to think about it at that moment and answer something that wouldn’t hurt any of his rights.

Michael_13: I´m bisexual... I guess. Sorry for the I guess, I still haven´t thought about it much.

No one answered anything, anymore. For endless ten minutes, Michael just stood there staring at the screen longly, his eyes were already wet, maybe those people were homophobes and he shouldn´t have said that so directly, Michael wondered that that boy was gay, given that his name was Gaybriel, he thought it should have some truth in it. After waiting for some more minutes, he realized he had lost his online friends, Michael felt like garbage, it looked like he had the power to keep people away from him.

He threw his laptop a little bit to the side and laid on his back, staring at the ceiling and again asking himself: After all, what I am?

He did not know. It was a tough question and should be thought about carefully. He wondered if he still could choose his sexuality.

He grabbed his laptop again and typed: How to decide on my sexuality.

He clicked on several websites that would only tell him the same thing:

There is not a way for you to decide on your sexuality, you might have already been born this way.

Just to test it, Michael accessed two porn websites, one of gay content and one of straight content, and by watching one video on each, both left him horny. So he would be correct, in some way, to say he was bisexual.

The chatroom was still silent, and he threw his laptop to the side again and laid on his back thrusting his earphones in his ears and turning on the songs on shuffle. You know that feeling when your cell phone seems to know exactly what song to play? Well, that’s what happened at that moment. The song that started to play was Segredo, from Barão Vermelho.

And what the song conveyed was exactly what Michael wanted, a true love, it didn’tmatter the gender, race, or any other thing. Michael only wanted someone who would call him and care about him, that would ask him if he was fine and really wanted to know the answer. Michael just wanted to be happy.

A noise resonated across the room, coming from his laptop, he opened his eyes and there was someone calling him privately. The one person he really wanted to talk to in private: Gaybriel.

Gaybriel: Why didn’tyou talk on the main chatroom anymore?

Michael_13: I have no idea. I waited for you guys to say something, but as nobody spoke a thing, I thought you were homophobes.

Gaybriel: I am gay, man. Take it easy, we´re not, at least, not me. You thought my name’s really Gaybriel? Isn´t it kind of a ridiculous one for a mother to name a child?

Laughing for himself, Michael answered:

Michael_13: So, what’s your real name, after all? Don’t lie!

Gaybriel: Lior.

Michael_13: Sounds a little worse than Gaybriel.

Gaybriel: I´ve made a typo, sorry. My name’s Lion. Like the animal. I´m a beast, baby.

Michael_13: Nothing better, Lior.

Gaybriel: Made a typo too?

Michael_13: Oh no, no. I´ll give you this nickname from now on.

Gaybriel: Do you use Whatsapp? I’d love to see your picture. I might be talking to a murderer, right?

Michael_13: I’d say the same.

And thus Michael gave him his Whatsapp number, and they spent a long time talking, talking about their favorite books, bands, singers and songs, even their personal lives were discussed. So Michael thought he had found a friend, until Lion asked him a question he did´t know if he was ready to answer:

— Would you like to be my boyfriend? — the boy had sent the message, followed by several heart emojis.

In the beginning, Michael got scared, clicked on Lion’s picture and started to imagine a future for them both. The two getting married at church with the Game of Thrones theme song playing on the background, as it had always been his dream, the two heading to an orphanage to adopt three kids, whom they would name Fred, Jorge and Luna.

Would it be possible that this so thought-about future could come true with Lion?

— How are we going to do it? You live so far away. — Michael texted thinking about the large distance that separated them.

— Distance will only keep us apart for a few months. I can go to Caicó at the end of the year, is that all right? — he texted.

— I’m still not sure. Convince me.

— Michael, I cannot force you to do something you don’t want to. But I really like you, man, despite our four-year-old age difference. We could stay together, who would separate us?

My parents, thought Michael, but his fingers didn’ttype that.

He knew that, if his parents found out, they would at least send him to a monastery in the United States.

— Ok, let’s try.

And this was how Michael had met him, twelve days from now it would be thier nine-month anniversary. Michael didn’teven know how that was possible, he had never been a very sociable boy. Even now, he still didn’thave any friends and his only company being Lion, he considered him The Love of His Life.

The only problem with Lion was that he was a little jealous, but Michael didn’tconsider that as something negative. He saw it as someone who liked him so much to the point of trying to protect him, but he lways asked Lion not to exaggerate.

And then the scene was repeated, at that moment, Michael was still laying in bed, bored, he had already watched all the episodes of the series he enjoyed and wasn´t in the mood for reading at all — he was going through a heavy literary hangover crisis.

His cell phone buzzed the same whistle sound, the pattern for all cell phones from that brand. Michael took the cell phone in his hands and saw Lion’s text:

— Hi love. — texted Lion.

— What’s up, Lior? — he texted back.

— Everything’s fine here, what about you?

— Can you Skype me? — Michael texted. The message was followed by shy laughter emojis.

— Sure. — he answered.

Michael got his laptop, turned on his Skype waiting anxiuosly for his boyfriend’s call. Until three icons appeared, one showing Lion’s picture, the other was green showing a telephone symbol pointed up and the other, the last one, was red, with a telephone pointed down. Michael clicked on pick up and Lion’s image showed up on the screen.

Michael laughed, blushing.

The boy had his hair messy, his skin wasn´t white as normally; under the bedroom light, his skin took over a shade of yellow. He wasn´t wearing a shirt, thus his muscles were showing, Lion was a person who loved to take care of himself, he worked out, went to the gym and even practiced martial arts, Michael just didn’tremember what kind of martial art Lion practiced. Lion was also only wearing briefs.

— Where were you? — asked Michael.

When he looked at himself at the window below, Michael, realized he was even more torn down than Lion. His hair was badly cut and his recent beard was unshaved.

— At the Martial Arts Academy, you remember that I fight, right? — he asked. His mouth moved slowly, the Internet connection, slow as always, delayed the images and sounds a little bit.

— Yes — he said.

— When will your classes finish? — asked Lion standing and grabbing some candies that were on his nightstand. When he stood up, Michael could see his beautiful ass, big and well-shaped.

— After the Federal Institute’s test. About the Twenty-third of the month — he answered.

— Ready for High School? — Lion inquired, the boy seemed really interested.

— I don’t know... I’m a little afraid of everything — answered Michael, clenching his fists and digging his nails on his palms.

— Don’t you worry, baby — said Lion with a smile. — High School is one of the best times of our lives. When it’s all over, you stop and think, damn, why can’t we go back in time?! While it doesn’t come, try to make this vacation the most epic ever.

Michael smiled at Lion, he knew that he could always count on his long distance boyfriend,

— You can count on me for whatever you need — Lion went on. — Whoever said that in order to be by someone’s side... you have to be closeby?

— Physics, maybe? — he replied ironically. Both cracked up laughing, Michal loved these moments When the two comprehended a joke and considered it funny. Changing the subejct

a little bit, Michael proceeded: — Lucky you that only has one year left after this to finish it.

— And I’d give it all to start all over again like you. Make friends...

— I wish I could make some friends... — said Michael out loud, interrupting Lion. — Sorry, I interrupted you. Go on.

— No problem. I even prefer you don’t have any friends. — Michael incially laughed thinking Lion was joking, but, moments later, Michael stared at the screen and the boy was normal. — I’m serious. This way I don’t need to worry about you cheating on me!

Michael said nothing and shrugged his shoulders.

— And what about your trip to Caicó? — asked Michael smiling as he imagined them kissing as he had planned.

— Babe... queria conversar sobre isso. Infelizmente não vai dar para eu ir esse ano. — I wanted to talk to you about it. Unfortunately I won’t be able to go this year. — said Lion. Authomatically, tears were already coming down Michael’s eyes, if Lion couldn’t see him that year, then they would have to spend another whole year without meeting. —  Don’t baby, don’t cry, please.

— Then explain to me... Why?! — replied Michael, casting the tears away from his eyes.

— My band, love. There’s too many concerts, we can wait another year, can’t we? — asked Lion. — We are completing nine months together.

— I know... OK. I can, or even better, we can wait.

The videocall went off as if on purpose, the last scene Michael got to catch a glimpse of, was of Lion before turning it offthe boy smiling full of love.

Michael’s bedroom door opened and his mother came in, he closed the laptop quickly finishing to dry his tears and stared her in the eye. The woman was about thirty-four years old, had black hair, though after a while she had begun to dye it blonde, her eyes were light brown and her face a little stained due to sunlight. She was wearing a tank top and shorts anyone could find thrown around her wardrobe.

— Get up and let’s go — she ordered pointing to the door with her car keys.

— Where to? — asked Michael, standing up and grabbing his cell phone.

— To your Grandma’s — she replied. — Get ready and I´ll be waiting in the car.

Michael nodded, took his cell phone and texted Lion through Whatsapp:

Lion, I had to go, I´ve gone to my Grandma’s and there’s no signal there. I´ll be back later. XOXO, love you.

He waited for a little while for the answer that didn’tcome, his mom had left the room, he changed his clothes fast and left the house. It wasn´t so big, had two bedrooms, one for his parentes and one for him. It was made out of bricks, the living room was small, but the balcony was large and would serve as a garage.

He stared at his cell phone one last time to check if there weren´t any messages and there wasn´t a single one, thus, Michael shrugged, got in the car and left to his grandma’s home. He didn’tstop thinking about his boyfriend for a second. Michael believed Lion was the love of his life, but despite everything, he still had his doubts.

Chapter 2

Alessandro

Alessandro put on his Ray Ban sunglasses and sat down on one of the plastic chairs. It was Friday morning and he had skipped class to bathe in the pool with his two best friends — Denise and Mayara.

There were only the three there, it was a large place, there was a deep and long pool for adults, with several plastic sun loungers around for them to lay and sunbathe.

Denise stood up, grabbing her sunscreen, she had dark hair and a very thin nose, her shoulders were straight, however, she had a back problem that made her be slightly curved. Mayara had long and dark hair similar to Denise’s, but Mayara’s were dryer. Alessandro, behind Mayara’s back, stated that the girl was a little bit retarded. Sometimes the girl would talk nonsense and make awkward comments,

That was Alessandro’s birthday, he was turning fifteen years old, so his best friends were comitted to provide him with the perfect day. But to be honest, Alessandro was upset and feeling blue to celebrate anything, his ex-boyfriend was still tormenting him, and he was afraid of falling in love with the boy again.

Roberto, his best friend, tried way too many times to make Alessandro make up with this ex-boyfriend, called Iago. Even after Iago had hurt his feeling on a lot of occasions. Alessandro used to say he didn’tlike Iago anymore and that he didn’twant anything to do with him anymore, but, in his heart, Alessandro thought he loved him.

— Is everything OK, Alessandro? — asked Denise, removing her hair from her eyes and the spreading sunscreen on her legs.

Alessandro didn’tknow what to answer, he would love to say "no" at that moment, but if he answered that, there would be a lot of questions to follow. Would it be something he was ready to answer? No.

— I’m great — he said standing up, he pushed his green swimming trunks a little down, which allowed to see his hip bones.

Everybody found Alessandro incredibly thin, all the bones in his body were showing and, because of that, he almost never took off his shirt in public. He didn’tthink of himself as na ugly person, Alessandro walked to the edge of the pool, put his hands on his hips and faced his reflexion, he had dark and short hair, his nose was thin and bent, he had two birthmarks on his face, one in each of his cheeks, his skin was extremely white, like a vampire’s.

He sat on the edge of the pool putting his feet inside it, the water was cold, as always.

— I don’t know... You look a little weird — said Mayara to anyone in special, but Alessandro deducted it was for him.

— It’s no big deal, girls — he replied slightly angry. — Get my cell phone and play some music on shuffle.

Denise grabbed Alessandro’s iPhone from inside his black backpack, unlocked it and played Katy Perry on shuffle, starting with Last Friday Night. Alessandro smiled wondering how that song could match his day. Finally, he threw himself into the pool and at the moment he was diving, Denise screamed:

— Nooooo.

Alessandro got scared, first he got confused, and soon after he raised an eyebrow, staring at her.

— What? — yelled the boy.

— Don’t let your face neither your hair to get wet — ordered Denise, her sight skipped to Mayara that agreed with a smile. — Tonight we have a party, right after we go to your house we´ll head there, I know you won’t go with your hair smelling like chlorine.

Alessandro smiled, nodding. He didn’teven want to go to that party, but two things made him agree to it: it was a place he had never been to and it was his birthday.

Denise’s cell phone buzzed and the girl smiled when she opened the text message.

— Who is it? — asked Alessandro a little jealous.

— Diego — she declared. — Any problem if he comes here? Mayara has also called Hudson.

Alessandro blushed in anger a little, that would have to be T-H-E-I-R day. Without this boyfriend thing and so on, Alessandro didn’thave anyone, so that he would be the third wheel on his birthday.

— What can I do, right? You already called them anyway — said Alessandro shrugging his shoulders, he placed his hands on the edge of the pool and lifted himself, getting out of it. He wrapped up in his green bathrobe and while he turned to go to the bathroom, Mayara held his arm. — What happened?!

— Wait here... the boys brought someone for you to meet — said Mayara blinking at Alessandro.

The boy gave a half-smile, he literally didn’twant to meet anyone now.

— You didn’tneed to, really. Not meeting anyone sometimes is fun — said Alessandro.

— Come on, give the boy a shot — said Denise. — If you don’t like him, what’s the matter? No one.

Alessandro nodded, at least he wouldn’t be the third wheel alone. He sat again in his plastic sun lounger and waited.

— Wiil they take very long? — he asked. — I really need to go to the restroom... you know what the pool does to me.

Denise nodde, but Mayara denied.

— No, I don’t — said Mayara, laughing already. — What does the pool do to you?

— Swimming pool water has too much chlorine, I don’t know exactly what happends... much less do the doctors. — Alessandro was also laughing. — But my bladder gets really... loose.  

— Please, try not to say these things in front of the boy that’s coming here, allright? — asked Denise.

Alessandro nodded, but he was already despising the boy even before he got to know him. He didn’tenjoy dating boys who tried to change who he was, if it is to like him, than may it be for whom he truly is.

— Go to the restroom quick, they´re already out there — said Denise. — I’m calling my dad, so that he can let them in.

Alessandro stood up, before he left, he looked behind and said:

— Anyway, what’s this boy of mine called?

— Danielo Bielecki — replied Denise, calling her dad’s number, Mr. Rodriguez.

Alessandro had turned to leave, when Denise added:

— But you know him for another name, Dande eis his pseudonym.

Alessandro kept walking shrugging his shouldres, how could he know this Dandee? He had no idea who it was and this name couldn’t connect him to anyone. Anyway, he kept going, passed through the pool turnstile and got in the men’s restroom.

It was a large space, everything in that pool área was large, there were white  and slippery tiles everywhere, including on the walls, the sink was a big marble stone with a metal faucet, there was a mirror of about three meters in length glued to the wall and four stalls. Every time Alessandro would take a pic in this restroom, the images created a strange shade of blue.

He got into one of the stalls and it took him about tem minutes, soon after, he headed to the sink to wash his hands. When he was leaving the restroom, he took his towel from his waist and put it on his shoulder.

When passing through the turstile again, a sudden hunger hit him and he decided to go buy something to eat, but as that was his birthday, Mr. Rodriguez — that owned that pool club — told Denise that she and her friends could ask for whatever they wanted without the need to pay for absolutley anything. Alessandro wouldn’t take so much advantage over it, so, he went slowly walking towards the counter where food was served and there was the most handsome bartender in the world cleaning the marble counter, he had blue eyes and dark skin, wore na apron and had very white teeth.

Alessandro approached smiling, he always hit on that bartender, but Denise said he was  married — to a woman!

— Hello, Alessandro — He greeted him as the boy approached.

— Oh, hi, Ken — said Alessandro. — How are you doing?

— I’m fine — he answered smiling. — Would you like something to eat? Enjoy, because the boss is feeling generous today.

Alessandro laughed, he had always know Mr. Rodriguez’s fame of being a penny-pincher, but he was always funny when Alessandro was in his house.

— I will. What do you suggest? — asked Alessandro running his eyes through the menu, but not being interested in anything in special.

— Well... as it is not lunchtime yet, you may have some snack or some ice cream, just to take the edge off your hunger — said Ken. — What do you think?

— Right. You can bring me some snack — replied Alessandro.

The man nodded his head, walking towards the shelf where the snack Alessandro requested was.

— Which flavor? — asked the man.

— Onion and parsley — added Alessandro, excusing himself for not being specific in the first place.

The man waved to show there was not a problem, handed him the snack, Alessandro nodded thanking him and, finally, left giving a discreet blink to Ken.

Alessandro walked back to the pool opening the bags of snacks and feeling the delicious onion and parsley smell run through his nose. He sat down on the plastic sun lounger again and offered some of his snack to the girls, but both denied.

— Allright, there’s more left for me — said Alessandro shrugging his shoulders. — So, where’s Dandee, Diego and Hudson?

— They´re coming, Mr. Rodriguez allowed them in now — said Mayara.

— Right — replied Alessandro smiling in mockery. — I´ll get some sleep ...