Finders Keepers (8 page)

“Wait, it’s not Sky’s turn…” Taylor said.

Sky folded his arms across his chest and looked from Taylor to Ellie, one of his eyebrows arched slightly, and then back to Manny.
 
“It depends on how you define better.
 
Is better more experienced?
 
Then I would guess Taylor.
 
Or is better the one you can’t stop thinking about leading up to the kiss and can’t get out of your mind after?
 
I imagine a kiss with Ellie would be more like that.”

If only the earth would open up and swallow her whole.
 
This is exactly why Ellie hated this game.
 
It was all about flirting and lying and pushing the limits, all of which would be back in place tomorrow.
 
None of this was real.
 
Everything would be status quo by morning and in the meantime she’d have been led on this wild goose chase of an emotional roller coaster, all of which was amplified by the fact she felt extremely vulnerable.
 
Manny likes Taylor.
 
Period.
 
Her legs underneath her were tingling with thousands of tiny pinpricks.
 
She pushed up from the floor, wobbled, and then righted herself.
 
Stamping helped dissipate some of the numbness in her calves.
   

“I’m going to heat up some more water and then try to call Barnes-Jewish and see if they’ll give me any information on my parents.
 
Does anyone want anything?”
 
She knew her face probably looked as if she had a lobster of a sunburn, but she hoped the dim light would hide at least some of it.
 

“I want a dare,” Taylor said.
 

Ellie did an about-face on her heel and headed toward the kitchen.
 
In an odd bit of poorly planned DIY remodeling, her father installed a new kitchen sink in the counter closest to the entry way between the family room and kitchen.
 
As Ellie crossed from carpet to tile, on her immediate right was the breakfast nook with their dining table, and on her left was the sink.
 
Much further down the way was the dishwasher and refrigerator.
 
The island in the center had their stove, and a double oven was on the far wall.
 
Everything was so spread out that when someone cooked, they were constantly making circles around the island to get what they needed.
 

Ellie didn’t turn the lights on when she rounded the corner because the sink was so close she could still see well enough from the fire.
 
She reached across the sink to turn on the faucet.
 
Her mind was on her parents.
 
Did her aunt actually say they were at Barnes Jewish Hospital?
 
She’d been there once with her father, but maybe they’d been sent somewhere else.
 
SLU Hospital?
 
Her fingers flinched at the cold of the stainless steel.
   

 
“Hello again,
Eliiiza
.”

Ellie whirled around and dropped the mug.
 
It smashed into the tile and splintered.
 
Pieces bounced across the floor and over her bare toes.
 
Standing in the shadow of the refrigerator, stood the boy from the hospital and park.
 
Sky’s brother.
 
Loose waves of dark hair curled around his ears.
 
A patch covered his left eye.
 
He wore the same black leather jacket this time with jeans and his motorcycle boots.
 
Except for the patch he looked almost normal.
 
Hot, even.
 
Until he smiled.
 
His grin was
predatorial
, and when he stepped toward her, his one good eye reflected yellow-green.
      

She stumbled backwards pressing her foot into a broken shard of ceramic.

“As I see it,” he said, “you have two options.
 
Come with me, and your friends stay relatively unharmed.
 
Scream and I will stand by and watch while they come to get you...like they got your parents.”

She strangled the sound in her throat until only a small whimper escaped.
 
Her foot was wet with blood.
 
He moved toward her, silent in the darkness.
 
When he was close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body close to hers, she put her hand up in front of her.
 
“I haven’t done anything.
 
You’ve made a mistake.”

“You took something that didn’t belong to you.
 
You see, the bird belongs to my family.”

Okay, that was weird, but at least Pinstripe hadn’t been some science experiment gone wrong which is what Ellie had started to consider last night when she was supposedly all hopped up on ibuprofen.
 
“But I don’t have him anymore.
 
And I would have let him go.”
 
Her voice sounded small compared to his.
 
“I was just trying to help him.”

“I know that now, angel.”
 
The way his one good eye moved thoroughly over her, as if reevaluating her worth just by looks, turned her cheeks red and her veins to ice simultaneously.
 
“The problem is he’s grown very attached to you and now he doesn’t want to return where he belongs, which makes you both valuable and dangerous.
 
To everyone.”

Ellie limped backwards, her hand still blocking him from coming too close.
 
He gently, but firmly pushed her hand down to her waist and then closed the gap between them.
 
“I don’t want to hurt you Eliza.
 
The only way to protect everyone you love is by coming with me.”

 
“I don’t understand.
 
He’s just a bird.”
 
Maybe he really was an escaped science experiment/secret military weapon or something.
 

He said, “I can see why he likes you so much.
 
Your innocence is like a breath of fresh air.”
 
He tugged on a loose lock of her hair.
 
Then suddenly he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers hard and quick.
 

***

           
There were two senses that Sky had better than most everyone else—sight and sound.
 
That’s how he heard Ellie when she’d been attacked under the tree at the park.
 
That’s how he heard her now.
 
She whimpered, and he hurdled the couch to reach the kitchen.
 
He careened around the corner, his eyes having just a few moments to adjust to the unlit surroundings when he saw her, and then Gibbs.
 
And he was kissing Ellie.

           
Gibbs pulled away from Ellie abruptly, even pushing her away slightly, but when he acknowledged Sky it was with his usual condescending smirk.
 
The punch in the face wasn’t physical, but it felt as real as if actual blood were spurting from Sky’s nose.
 
He froze, too stunned to react.
 
Ellie turned her face toward him.
 
Her eyes seemed larger than life.
 
Then she fisted her hands together and swung her elbow smashing it right under Gibbs’ rib cage.
 

           
Sky launched himself at Gibbs, and Ellie scrambled to get out of the way.
 
His shoulder plowed into his brother’s stomach and the two slammed into the counter behind Gibbs.
 
Sky wrestled with him until they both hit the ground.
 
The noise of their crash brought Taylor and Manny running into the kitchen.
 
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Manny go straight for Ellie.
 
Sky couldn’t help it.
 
He checked to see her reaction.
 
Gibbs swung and smashed his fist into the side of Sky’s head.
 
His head jerked to the side as pain exploded through his cheek bone.
 
Taking advantage of Sky’s disorientation, Gibbs shoved him off and bounded toward the others.
 
He knocked Manny aside.
 
He looped his arm around Ellie’s waist and dragged her to the back door.
 
Sky clambered to his feet and lunged for them.
 
The dive fell short.
 
His fingers grabbed air.
 
Bare feet kicking out from the bottom of frayed blue jeans was the last he saw of Ellie before the door slammed shut.

6

“Welcome to Goblin City.”

           
There was black, and then more black.
 
Her eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness.
 
She knew they were underground.
 
She’d grabbed onto a large tree root and hung on as if death itself were pulling her under, but the boy still managed to drag her through the hole and then down.
 
Down, down, down.
 
Her fingernails filled with wet earth as she clawed at the mud-packed walls where they passed.
 
A long, cramped tunnel opened up into a larger cave.
 
Her abductor had to duck to pass through the tunnel, and then he was able to straighten when they reached the larger enclosure.
 
No longer could Ellie feel the walls within reach.
 
The coolness in the tunnel was replaced by softly moaning autumn winds.
 
There must have been a door, or gate, because she heard and felt it swing shut behind her.

           
He set her onto her bare feet, but pinned her arms behind her.
 

           
Remember the door
.
 
She took a picture of it in her mind with all her available senses.
 
The smell was stale.
 
The memory of her night in the thrift shop resurfaced.
 
She swallowed her gag reflex.
 
Cold wind.
 
The sound of the door on its rusty hinges.
 

           
The blackness around her slowly settled into darkness, and then a gray dimness.
 
The cave was the largest she’d ever seen.
 
It reached seventy or eighty feet in the air, and was at least three football fields long and nearly as wide.
 
They stood above the floor of the cave on a ledge.
 
Below them were stone stairs built into the wall which switch-backed all the way to the ground.
 
A narrow path led from the bottom of the stairs into the city.
 
The floor of the cave was like the back of an alligator.
 
Bumps and ridges rose from the floor.
 
Ellie squinted.
 
The bumps were small houses and the ridges stalagmites.
 
Tilting her head back, she could see the same pattern, stalactites and what appeared to be more dwellings on the ceiling.
 
The ones above her reminded her of the mud hornet hives which always formed in the corners of their back porch.
 
Her breaths came short and fast.
 
This was impossible.

           
She turned to look behind her.
 
The door was short and arched to fit the cave entrance.
 
The wood was weathered and discolored.
 
There was an old key lock, but no handle.
 
Gibbs pushed her forward.
 
She reached the first narrow step and looked down.
 
From where she stood she could see the cave floor several stories beneath her.
 
Her head spun and she swayed on her feet.
 
Gibbs pulled her back just before she pitched over.
      

           
“Hey, easy there.
 
You’re not afraid of heights are you?”
 
He laughed.
 
Ellie cringed.
 
She approached the top step again this time avoiding looking at anything other than the rock directly beneath her feet.
 
It didn’t matter that her rational mind was telling her to put one foot in front of the other, when it came right down to it, her legs refused to descend.
 
Her thoughts drifted to the door.
 
If she couldn’t go down, then her only other option was escape.
 

           
As if sensing her change in attention he said, “You can fight me every step of the way and you will still end up right here.
 
But if you come with me willingly, I promise I will make sure that your parents stay safe where they are at.”

           
“What is safe?
 
I don’t even know what condition they are in.
 
They could be dead, then what good would your protection be?”

           
“Your mom has a few lacerations and maybe a cracked pinkie finger.
 
Your father is practically unscathed.
 
They were barely going 35 miles per hour when they swerved off the road.
 
Your dad’s Subaru has a dented bumper.”

           
“That’s impossible.
 
They wouldn’t be flown to St. Louis if they weren’t seriously injured.”

           
The boy cocked his head to one side and grinned.
 
“Ellie?
 
This is your Aunt Laura.
 
Your parents have been in a car accident.
 
They are being life-
flighted
to St. Louis.
 
I’m driving up from Little Rock and will be there in about five hours.
 
Possibly six.
 
And, would you like fries with your order?”
 

           
Her mouth hung open.
 
It was her aunt in a boy’s body.
 
He’d done a perfect imitation of her.
 

           
“They’re fine, for now,” he said in his normal voice.
 
“You decide if you want them to stay that way.”

           
She wrestled with the decision.
 
Sixteen years of nature and nurture seemed to, at last, agree and shout in favor of resistance as her best means of survival.
 
But what about her parents?

           
The bits of broken stone dug into the cut on the bottom of her bare foot.
 
Her toes were stiff and numb.
 
“What do you want with me?”

           
“With you?
 
Nothing.
 
Simply put, princess, I just don’t want you to get in the way.
 
You have become an unforeseen distraction.”
 
Something about the way he looked at her made her feel as if he wasn’t just referring to her relationship with the crow.

           
He moved toward her, and with the drop behind her, she didn’t dare budge.
 
“I don’t want you to kiss me again,” she said.
 
“Ever.”

           
He held her gaze.
 
She held her breath.
 
He reached up and traced a finger across her cheek and down her jaw.
 
Then he shrugged his shoulders as if to say “your loss” and turned to climb down the steps.

           
She knew he could have dragged her all the way down, or worse, made her go first and pushed her from behind like he had threatened to do, but when he realized that every time she got close to the stairs her whole body balked, he lost his patience and offered to carry her instead.
 
Had she been able to properly control her movements below her knees, she never would have sunk to that sort of humiliation.
 
Ellie buried her face into his t-shirt and never looked down.

           
A little path led from the bottom of the stairs into the city.
 
The boy took her hand, lacing her fingers in his and pulled her along it.
 
She favored her left foot, but managed to keep up by a combination of limping and hopping.
 
As they passed by the little dwellings, she noticed that most of the houses were unoccupied.
 
Boards covered windows, other structures were missing doors.
 
What she could see of the insides, the places were devoid of anything except cobwebs.
 
In spite of the situation, she found she was gripping her abductor’s hand tighter and tighter.
 
The whole scene was like a cross between a ghost town and haunted house.
 
As they neared the center of the cave, she saw a few flickering lights in windows.
 
Before they were close enough to actually see in any of those houses, the boy turned down an alley.
 
Coming out the other side, they turned again.
 
Down a few more pathways and then another turn and Ellie was completely lost.
 
Just when she thought she wouldn’t be able to walk much further, the boy stopped.
 
They’d come to a dead end—another wall of the cave.
 
In front of her was a rope ladder.

The climb up was worse than the stairs down, and this she had to do entirely on her own.
 
He made her go first and she took one shaky step after another, concentrating on the next rung and not looking down.
 
Only once, when he spoke to her, did she glance at him and the entire cave floor swayed beneath her.
 
Her knuckles went white and shiny from the death grip she had on the rope.

“Easy there.
 
Keep going.
 
Push up on the trap door when you get there.
 
Don’t worry, I’m right behind you.”

When the trapdoor finally did come within reach, she couldn’t let go of the rung she clung to in order to push up on it.
 
They had climbed to one of the wasp-like dwellings on the cave ceiling.
 
Just thinking about how high they were and what kind of drop lay below her made Ellie’s vision swim.
 
When it became apparent she would go no further, Gibbs climbed up behind, pressing himself against her as he lifted the trap door open.
 
Only when there was visible solid ground did Ellie climb the rest of the way.
 

They climbed up into a small, dimly lit room.
 
Light filtered through a door that was propped open by an orange Nike.
 
Hooks on the walls held jackets and coats of various sizes, and a shoe rack in the corner was similarly covered in a various assortment of tennis shoes, boots, and even designer heels.
 
This is where Gibbs yanked off the eye-patch and winced.
 
Gibbs gave her about two minutes to regain her footing and slow her breathing, then he pulled the door open and propelled her through it.
 

 
“Say hello to the gang.”

As afraid of Gibbs as Ellie was, an entire room full of goblins (GOBLINS—even with the city spread out in front of her she hadn’t believed it) was considerably more unnerving.
 
She pressed closer to Gibbs’ side as he seemed the lesser of two evils.
 
His smug grin was barely suppressed.
 

Six other people (if you could call them that) occupied the large room which could be considered a lounge or common area.
 
There was a sagging couch and couple of oversized bean bags.
 
A foosball table stood in the far corner and on the opposite end was a tiny refrigerator.
 
A boy with silver hair and long, stick-like green limbs cocked his head to one side and stared at her.
 
His eyes did not blink.
 

“Well, not the whole group, I guess.
 
Dodge and Lola are out.
 
Sky’s missing of course.
 
And Sarah.”
 
Gibbs tugged on Ellie’s pony tail and then placing his hand just under her shoulder blades, he pushed her forward.
 
“This is Eliza.
 
Play nice for a few minutes while I tie up some loose ends.”
 
He walked to another door, his ear to his cell phone before Ellie even thought to open her mouth.
 
Two girls who had identical brown braids and yellow/gold eyes scrunched their noses at her and sneered.
 
A small, short boy wearing an oversized Pink Floyd tee wiggled his fingers at her.
 
His smile was sharp, or maybe those were just his teeth.
 
Each tooth ended in a razor point like a shark’s.