by Elin Wyn
I burst into the room, expecting to find a guard there, but there was no one.
“Megan?”
No guard, but no Megan either.
Skith.
Megan
“Look, Mommy.” Going down on her knees, Arabella leaned against the wall of our cramped little cell and placed both hands there.
“What’s that?” I asked, peering over her shoulder.
There was a small panel on the side, one that had been painted the same color as the wall. It looked like an air vent. Arabella had found us a way out but, unfortunately, there was no way we’d able to remove the bolts on the panel.
Or so I thought.
Needing no encouragement, Arabella used her tiny fingers to dislodge the bolts. She used her fingernails to turn them, her brow creased as she focused, and then pulled on the panel. Incredibly, it came off the wall.
“We can go now,” she announced, her matter-of-fact tone leaving me speechless.
My little girl was growing up fast.
“I found it the first day I was here, but I was afraid to go by myself.”
Well, maybe not too fast.
Pointing at the gap in the wall she had created, she analyzed it attentively. “Do you think we’ll fit?”
“I think so,” I nodded. Carefully, the two of us crawled into the opening, and I did some awkward contorting to place the panel back. “You did very well, Arabella,” I smiled, and seconds later we were crawling up through a maze of air vents, moving slowly so that our moves remained silent and unannounced.
“Keep going, sweetie, just keep going,” I whispered, sweat trickling down my back as I kept on crawling through the vents.
They were narrow—and seemed to be getting narrower as we progressed—and they were freezing. Just how cold did Ted think this place needed to be?
Moving kept us marginally warm, but what would happen when we stopped?
Still, I couldn’t care. I just gritted my teeth and kept going, urging to Arabella to keep her pace up.
“Where to, Mommy?” she asked me, and I pursed my lips as I realized that the vents split just ahead.
Since I didn’t know anything about the compound’s layout, I had to take a guess and hope for the best.
“Right, sweetie,” I told her, and she gave me a little nod. Dutifully, she crawled toward the vent that led right and I followed after.
I kept my eyes on her and, despite the situation we were in, I felt a small smile spread across my lips.
Arabella was afraid, I knew, but she refused to show it—she wasn’t behaving like a kid, but like a brave young woman.
And she was smart, too. I couldn’t be any prouder.
Of course, I would have preferred to be feeling all this pride miles away from this place, but we were doing our best.
“Mommy, I can’t go any further,” Arabella whispered, looking back at me over her shoulder. “It’s too tight.” Pressing myself against the side panel, I looked over her and saw that she was right. There was no way Arabella would be able to fit further into the vents, let alone me.
“We’re gonna have to climb down,” I told her, crawling back a couple of feet until I found a movable panel. I held my breath as I listened, trying to see if there was anyone in the room below us, and only when I was sure the room was empty, did I pull the panel off.
Awkwardly, I put my legs through the opening and dragged my butt across the vent surface until I was hanging by a thread. Holding my breath, I allowed myself to fall, my knees popping the moment I hit the floor.
All in all, it hadn’t been so bad.
Compared to being locked up and waiting for that madman’s next move, nothing was.
“Now you, sweetie, I’ll grab you.” Without a moment’s hesitation, Arabella mimicked my performance from seconds ago and launched herself into my arms. I grabbed her easily, and smiled as I put her down. “Now let’s be real quiet, okay?”
Running my tongue over my parched lips, I looked around the room.
It looked like it had been turned into a storage space, shelves crammed with plastic boxes lining the walls.
Quickly I rifled through them, but it looked like medical supplies, chemicals, things I didn’t know what to do with, and would be afraid to use recklessly around Arabella.
The only thing I’d found that might possibly be useful was something like a hard-plastic stick, with a bulbous end. It might make a reasonable club, if my attacker was four feet high and didn’t move very fast.
But then, half hidden behind the corner of one metal rack, I saw a set of control panels.
“What do you do?” I murmured.
“I’m still cold, Mommy,” Arabella whispered. I pulled my hoodie off and tugged it over her head, rolling the sleeves up so she could use her hands.
The cold.
I looked at the panel again, considering. It was huge and complicated, but other than its size, it really didn’t look all that different from a regular air conditioning unit.
Bonven wanted things cold.
And I was opposed to him having anything he wanted.
Frantically, I pushed at the buttons, then grabbed the plastic club-thing and started bashing away as rage swept through me.
He took my baby. He took me. I’d been an idiot and fell for it and if I didn’t get us out of here he was going to sell us to...
Oh.
Sparks flew as the panel’s housing cracked, and I used the club to drag apart wires.
“I think you broke it, Mommy,” Arabella whispered, eyes wide.
“Good.”
There was just one door, and I unlocked it as quietly as I could.
Holding my breath, I peeked out of the room, to find a deserted corridor, the flickering lights on the ceiling giving a ghostly appearance to the place.
“Let’s go,” I whispered, taking Arabella’s hand in mine. We walked aimlessly through a maze of corridors, and hope slowly started seeping out of me. We were never going to find a way out.
The last inkling of hope I had vanished when I heard the thud of heavy boots right behind us.
“Hold it right there,” a man cried and, when I started running down the hallway, the sound of a loud gunshot made my eardrums pop.
I froze in my tracks, my heart beating at a thousand miles an hour, and spun on my heels, to find one of Bonven’s thugs staring me down. In his hands was an automatic rifle. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”
“Just let us go,” I pleaded, pulling on Arabella and placing her behind me. “We just want to get out of here, please.”
He didn’t say a word. The emotionless expression he had gave way to a blood-curling grin and, still with his rifle raised, he started walking toward me.
“Of course I’m gonna let you go,” he laughed, the sound of it making me nauseous. Before I could do anything, he slapped me with the back of his free hand.
I felt Arabella tug on my hand, as if she wanted to charge against the man, but I wrapped my arms around her and held her still. “You dumb bitch,” the man spat. “Just keep walking. We’re gonna tell the doc about your little escapade. He’ll reward you handsomely for it.”
I had no choice.
Walking at gunpoint, I kept on moving down the corridors, following the guard’s directions, until I found myself standing in front of two large metal doors.
“Open them,” the man barked, and I held my breath as I pushed the doors open. I stepped onto a balcony looking down into the lab.
We were on the upper floor, a set of metallic stairs leading way down into an open space filled with large vats of God knows what, all kinds of machinery whirring and buzzing.
Bonven stood in the center of the room, his back turned to us as he messed with his computer. At the far end of the lab, two more guards kept watch.
Prodding me with the muzzle of his rifle, my captor urged me on, and I started walking down the stairs. They creaked under my weight and only then did Bonven turn back.
�
�What’s this?” he asked, completely focused on the guard. “These two were meant to stay in their cell.”
“They were trying to escape, doc,” the guard said. “I found them next to Lab C.”
“Huh.” Running one hand through his thinning hair, Bonven shook his head.
Then, looking straight at me, he offered me a nauseating smile, one that seemed to stretch his skin over his skull. “Didn’t like your cell, Megan? Were you trying to look for more suitable accommodations?”
He laughed dryly, tapped something on his keyboard, and the loud machinery finally quieted down.
“Screw you,” I growled, but my words only seemed to amuse him.
“You didn’t have such a temper back then,” he chuckled, and then went down on one knee, his eyes level with Arabella’s. “How about you? Do you have a temper like your mommy?”
Hiding behind my legs, Arabella opened her mouth to say something.
Then, clamping her mouth shut, she showed Bonven her middle finger.
We’d have to talk about where on earth she’d picked that up later.
But for now, I was ok with letting it slide.
“Just like your mother,” he hissed, slowly getting back up to his feet. His grin had disappeared and given way to a frown.
“My guards will have to teach you some manners,” Bonven continued, and I could tell his threats were making him more excited.
What had I ever seen in this man?
God, I felt nauseated just thinking about how I had admired him once.
He was nothing but a sick, power-hungry bastard.
Terror clawed at my stomach, and I flushed.
Or maybe it was finally getting a little warmer in here?
But that probably wouldn’t matter in the long run.
“I have to be careful so I don’t ruin your pretty face, but there are a lot of things I can do that won’t leave a mark. A physical one, at least.”
He stepped back to grab what looked like a needle from his lab table, then walked toward me with a threatening swagger.
“Hold her still.” Bonven’s guard pushed Arabella away towards the lab worktable, then grabbed me by the arm. Twisting it, he forced me to go down on my knees.
“This here,” he said, placing the needle right in front of my eyes, “will introduce you to a whole new world of pain. You’ll feel things you never imagined to be possible, and they’ll stay with you for the rest of your life. Just a little parting gift. You don’t have to thank me.”
I gritted my teeth and prepared for the worst, holding my breath as Bonven moved the needle toward my neck.
I closed my eyes, ready to feel a quick prick on my skin, but there was nothing.
Instead, I heard a series of small explosions coming from somewhere upstairs.
“What the hell is going on?” Bonven cried out, and I opened my eyes just in time to see him jump back, eyes wide. I looked back over my shoulder and toward the upper floor, the sound of gunfire coming clearly from the corridor outside, and that was when the unimaginable happened.
The door to the lab swung open as one of the guards crashed against it; staggering, he went straight toward the metal railing and fell over it, crashing right beside me with a loud thump.
The man that had been holding me joined the other two guards, guns at the ready, as they aimed toward the upper floor.
As for Bonven, he immediately scurried away from me, placing himself between his guards.
Coward.
I grabbed for Arabella, where she’d been reaching for something on the worktable.
“Look, Mommy! It’s so-”
“Show me later, baby,” I whispered, then tucked her into the curve of my body, trying frantically to figure out where we would be safe.
“Who’s there?” one of the guards cried out. “Show yourself!” One fraction of a second later and the guard collapsed, a bullet hole in his forehead. Incredibly, I only heard the sound of a gunshot after.
“Here I am,” I heard a familiar voice shout, and then Ryant burst into the room.
He vaulted over the railing, landed on the lower floor with a perfect roll, and positioned himself right in front of the guard, one knee on the floor.
He moved so fast that his limbs were a blur.
Before the other two guards could take aim, Ryant leveled a handgun and shot them down, perfect round holes in each of their foreheads.
His aim was almost inhuman.
Well, he wasn’t a human, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that.
Slowly standing up, Ryant then started walking toward Bonven. With his jaw hanging open, Bonven took one step back and bumped against a desk, a dozen vials that were sitting there rolling off of it and onto the floor.
I saw Ryant raise his weapon but, before he could deliver the finishing blow, a dozen guards burst into the room from a door at the back.
“We gotta go.” Grabbing me by the hand and forgetting all about Bonven, Ryant dragged us toward a side door and kicked it open.
He did it right in time, as bullets flew past my ears just before I stepped out of the room.
“Ryant,” I breathed out, picking Arabella up and holding her against my chest. “How the hell did you find me? Where did you even get a gun?”
“The guards really need to work on holding onto their weapons more tightly,” he answered, which wasn’t really an answer, but given that Arabella was soaking in every word, it was probably for the best.
Looking back at me, he gave me a smile and a wink. “I made you a promise, and if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I always keep my promises.”
“I don’t even know how to thank you.” I gasped.
“You can think of it once we’re out of this place.”
With that, we ran.
Ryant
“Here,” I whispered, pushing a door open and ushering Megan and Arabella inside a dark room. I hadn’t had much time to study the compound’s layout, but I was pretty sure that on the other side of this room would be a corridor that led directly outside.
Closing the door behind us, I pressed my ear against it and held my breath as Bonven’s small army passed by.
“Oh, God, how are we gonna get out of here?” Megan asked me, nervously biting on her bottom lip. She cradled her daughter tight against her chest, and I smiled as I found Arabella studying me with her dark blue eyes.
She looked just like her mother, and it didn’t take a genius to know she’d grow to become a stunning young woman.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I said, trying to sound as calm as I could. I just hoped that what I was about to do wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of Arabella.
“The guards are swarming the place, so we’ll have to rush out of here. And I have a plan.”
“What plan?”
“Well, I’m going to shift.”
“Oh, boy.”
“Then I want you to hold on to me as hard as you can, and I’ll get you out of here.”
Offering Megan a comforting smile, I started to strip, then froze, meeting Arabella’s curious gaze.
“I’m going to need to replace these,” I muttered, then closed my eyes and focused. Seconds later, the familiar feeling of the shifting process washed over me, my body growing more powerful in an instant.
When I opened my eyes, I was pretty sure I’d find Megan’s daughter horrified by what she had seen, but it was just the opposite.
Her expression was one of pure excitement, and she was clapping her hands together.
“It’s so cool,” she squealed, and Megan had to remind her to keep her voice down.
Pointing with my head, I motioned for Megan to get the door on the other side of the room.
She opened it, and the three of us stepped out and went down the dark corridor; just as I had expected, it ended in a service door that lead straight into the courtyard.
Lowering my body, I waited as mother and daughter climbed on top of me, their
hands instinctively holding my antlers.
Once I was sure they were secure, I took one deep breath and readied myself.
This was it.
Showtime.
Using my forelegs, I kicked the exterior door down and rushed outside, my hooves kicking up the snow as I zoomed past the buildings. A couple of the guards patrolling the perimeter started firing at us, but their aim was sloppy and untrained.
Not a threat.
Even though my lungs were burning from the effort, I got us to the main exit in less than a minute, and then lowered my head and smashed my antlers against the fenced gate.
It didn’t fall over, but it swung back just enough for me and the girls to slip through.
One of the men guarding the gate still tried to go for his handgun, but I just tossed my antlers and threw him up in the air.
I could hear the faint whistle of bullets as they zoomed past my head, so I picked up the pace.
Their bullets might not penetrate my hide, but I had to get Megan and Arabella to safety.
With that one thought in my mind, I headed straight into the woods, and I just kept on running.
I ran until my heart felt on the verge of giving out, the blood inside my veins turning into acid, and then I just ran some more.
When I finally stopped, I was as exhausted as I had ever been—but my girls were safe.
Lowering my body onto the ground, I let them dismount, then I ambled toward a line of trees.
I walked around them and only shifted back once I was out of sight. In my pack I had two more pairs of jeans, but I had no more shirts.
Not that it mattered. I didn’t plan to stay in this shape for long.
“I don’t think they’re going to find us here,” I said as I stepped out from behind the trees, barechested. Arabella’s eyes widened as she saw me, and she squeezed her mother’s hand tightly.
Even though she hadn’t seen me transform back into a man, she was still excited about the fact that it had happened just a couple of feet away from where she stood.
“They won’t give up this easily, Ryant. They’ll just keep on—”
“I know that,” I cut her short.
Placing one hand on her shoulder, I used the other to push a stray lock of hair away from her face. “I’m going to take care of that, Megan. I want you two to stay here and wait for me, alright? This won’t take long.”
