Return to Celio (17 page)

He laughed at me. “Listen to you. I’m giving her the more comfortable option. She gets the chair. You, I’m going to tie down to that cot next to the bed.”

I’m sure I blanched. Podredo stepped closer to me and leaned in, rubbing his crotch in an exaggerated manner. I gagged at the sight.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I find pregnant women repugnant. I couldn’t get it up even if you got naked and started touching yourself...not with her in the room with that big, distended baby-belly. Eck.”

Granted, it was not a flattering statement to Sandra by any means, but at that moment I was eternally grateful he’d made it.

Once he’d tied us both up, he removed all of his clothing, shamelessly. I began panicking, thinking he’d lied to me regarding his intentions, but then his skin started rippling and sprouting fur. A popping noise followed by some sort of crunching sound unnerved me as I watched in wide-eyed fascination Podredo changing himself into what I can only assume, based on Darrios’ description, was a plicken.

Icy fingers of dread took hold of me. I grunted in frustration as I struggled against my restraints, but they wouldn’t budge.

“I know what you’re planning to do and it’s not going to work,” I said, trying not to sound desperate.

He turned slowly to face me.

“It isn’t going to work. He’s going to know. One of them will know it’s you and it’ll be a lot easier for them to kill you when you’re this small. You’re not going to get away with this.”

He gave me a smug grin and flipped me the finger as he scurried out the door. I twisted and writhed, desperately trying to free myself, praying Darrios would notice the burned up arm. The problem was that plickens had very tiny arms. He could conceal it easily if he got creative.

“Why are you bothering? It isn’t going to happen. You’re wasting your time and your energy,” Sandra said, dejectedly.

“I have to get loose. I have to warn Darrios.”

“Are you insane? Even if you did get free, that disgusting animal has a head start on you, and what makes you think you could even get back to Inland by yourself? Not only could you get lost, have you forgotten about the viocomen and the scabras? You wouldn’t last five minutes out there without Darrios.”

I stopped fighting and blinked back tears. Sandra was right. I’d barely made it to Inland with Darrios, and even then, I didn’t come through unscathed. My neck still throbbed.

“What are we going to do?” I asked. “We need a plan for when he comes back.”

“I hate the thought of Eva having to see him,” Sandra replied. “We have to get out of here, I just don’t know how we’re going to do it.”

“Evan and Darrios will find us. Podredo’s right. Darrios will know exactly what happened and then they’ll come.”

Sandra’s eyes met mine. “And that’s precisely what he wants,” she said flatly. “He’s planning on it. If anything happens to—”

“Don’t say it. Nothing is going to happen.”

“You don’t know that. What if he gets the jump on them? What if they never come?” Sandra started to sound panicky. “Then he’ll come back and...Oh God! We’ll never get out of here.”

Movement caught my eye. Eva. She stirred and stretched. She was waking up.

“Sandra, look at Eva. You have to get her attention. Maybe she can get us untied.”

Sandra nodded, chewing her bottom lip, watching her daughter anxiously. Eva sat up and glanced around the room. Her mouth spread into a wide grin when she saw Sandra.

“Mommy,” she squealed, scooting off the bed. Sandra laughed, tears streaming down her face.

“Yeah, baby, it’s me. You’re okay.”

“Why are you crying, Mommy?”

“Because I’m so happy you’re awake.”

“Why do you have ropes on your hands?”

Sandra shot me a look and then turned back to Eva.

“Maggie and I got caught up by a man who isn’t very nice. He tied us up.”

“Why? Is he here?” Eva asked nervously, moving closer to her mother and glancing around the room.

“No, honey, he’s gone, but I was hoping maybe you could try to untie me. Do you think you can do that?”

“Sure, Mommy, I’ll try.”

Eva ducked behind Sandra’s chair and began tugging at the knots. When she couldn’t get them undone she blew out a frustrated breath.

“I’m sorry, Mommy, I can’t. It’s too tight.”

“It’s okay, baby, try Maggie’s.”

Eva skipped around the bed over to the cot and went to work on my ropes. I guess all of my pulling and thrashing around had loosened them some, because after a few minutes, Eva grinned and triumphantly hollered, “I got it!”

As soon as she pulled the rope away from the rail it was tied to, I shook my hand free. Between the two of us, we undid the other one. I sat up and tore at the ropes holding my legs.

“Thank you, Eva. You must be very strong.”

She smiled proudly, tipping her chin up. I hurried over to Sandra and began working on her restraints. It took some doing, but I finally managed to get her loose. She rubbed her wrists and then outstretched her arms to Eva, who practically leapt into them. Sandra hugged her tightly until Eva started squirming to get down.

Her attention was drawn to a small cage in the corner housing several small, furry rodent-esque creatures. I jumped when they moved.

“Jesus, I didn’t notice those before. What are they?”

Sandra waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about them. They’re harmless. I can’t imagine why he’d even keep them.”

“Probably as a snack,” I muttered.

“We were going to make a plan?” Sandra reminded me.

“He mentioned setting a trap. Why don’t we try that?” I suggested.

“Good thinking.”

I looked around for something we could use to capture him or immobilize him, but came up with nothing. Sandra went into the kitchen area and came out carrying a very scary-looking knife in one hand and an equally threatening cleaver in the other.

“You are an incredibly resourceful woman,” I said. “Disturbing, but resourceful all the same.”

“I don’t know if I can kill him, Maggie, especially in front of my daughter.”

“What if he threatened her?”

“You think he’d hurt a child?”

“In a heartbeat, if it got him what he wanted.”

“Then we have to stop him.” She glanced at Eva. “We have to.”

“The problem is we can’t capture him because he can change into anything and get away. We have to surprise him,” I said.

“We are going to have to try and kill him, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I think we are. It’s the only way, Sandra. It’s him or us.”

“I choose us.”

“Me too. Give me the knife.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“We need to act like we’re still tied up and make sure Eva pretends to be sleeping, you know,
with her eyes shut tightly?”

Sandra nodded.

“I’ll mouth off to him, get him all riled up. When he comes after me I’ll stab him. Once I do that, you hit him with the cleaver from behind.”

Sandra visibly paled. “I don’t know if I can do this, Maggie. Just envisioning it makes me woozy.”

I checked to see if Eva was listening to us, but she was still riveted by the furry, little creatures in the cage. I took a step closer to Sandra and placed my hand on her shoulder.

“Sandra, we don’t have a choice,” I said barely above a whisper. “If we don’t do something we’re sitting ducks. He will kill us, probably you first, being pregnant and all. Then he’ll do God knows what to me and Eva and once he gets bored, we’ll be dead too. We can’t wait for Darrios and Evan. How do you think Evan is going to feel if he bursts in here and finds you and Eva dead?”

“Stop it!” Sandra hissed. “Just stop it. I’m scared okay?”

I sighed. “I know you are. So am I, but unless Darrios and Evan charge through that door before Podredo does, it is up to us to save ourselves and your children...both of them.”

Sandra turned the cleaver over in her hands. She glanced over at me and I noticed a tear slide down her cheek. She rubbed her belly with her empty hand. “I won’t let him hurt my babies. I’ll do anything to protect them, even if it means I have to kill that son of a bitch with a meat cleaver.”

Something skittered over my feet and then under the bed.

“Ahh!” I screamed, jumping behind a chair. “What the hell?”

Eva giggled and then slapped her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry, Mommy. It was an accident.”

“What was?” Sandra and I asked in unison.

“I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to pet them.”

She pointed to the cage, now missing the half dozen or so little animals that had been locked inside only moments before.

“Oh my God,” I blurted out, staring at the empty cage, and then allowing my eyes to dart around the room in search of the escaped little fuzz balls. One scurried across the floor in front of me. I gasped, jumping back.

“Maggie, I told you, they won’t hurt you. Focus please, will you?” Sandra crouched down and hugged Eva. “It’s okay, honey, but I need you to listen very carefully to what Mommy has to tell you, all right?”

The toddler nodded, obediently.

“Remember I told you about the bad man who brought us here?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to frighten you. I need you to be a big brave girl. Can you do that?”

“He’s coming back, isn’t he, Mommy?”

“We think he might be. But we’re going to try to fool him. Maggie and I are going to make him think we’re still tied up. You have to pretend like you’re still asleep, like you were before. Lie on your side facing the wall and keep your eyes closed, no matter what you hear, okay?

“Okay, Mommy,” she said, her voice slightly quivering.

“That’s my girl.”

“Where’s Daddy? Why doesn’t he come and get us?”

“He’s trying to. That’s why we have to do this. To give Daddy more time to figure out where we are.”

A few minutes later, we heard a commotion outside and then Podredo’s voice.

“Take that, motherfucker! The hunter is mine.”

Something screamed. Sandra clutched Eva to her and covered the child’s ears, staring at me wild-eyed.

“He’s here, Sandra. C’mon, get Eva up on the bed. Hurry.”

She snapped to it, picking Eva up and setting her onto the bed. “Remember honey, just pretend you’re asleep and keep your eyes closed until I tell you. It’ll all be over soon.”

Eva did as her mother instructed, but it was easy to see the child was terrified. We all were. Sandra and I got back in our positions but I doubt either one of us had taken a breath.

I knew our plan was shaky, but it had to work. I didn’t know what we’d do once we killed Podredo, assuming we were able to. We’d still have to wait for Darrios and Evan to come and get us back to Inland. That is, if Podredo hadn’t succeeded with his plan.

The door opened, redirecting my attention to the situation at hand. I glanced over at Eva, who convincingly, seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

“Fucking scabras,” Podredo muttered, coming through the door sideways, dragging a large bundle the size of, oh God, a body.

He looked over at me, then to Sandra, not giving Eva the slightest notice. “They tried to take my prize.” He dropped the bundle to the floor and then stepped over it to shut the door.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t take my eyes off the lifeless bundle lying there.
Please don’t let that be Darrios
screamed inside my brain.

“So aren’t either of you even a little curious to see what I’ve got here?” he asked sweeping his arm over the bundle like a game show hostess over a prize.

Sandra looked at Podredo and then to me, terror in her eyes. Podredo noticed it too and he smiled cruelly. He took a step toward me. Nothing but trepidation filled my chest, making it difficult to take in any air.

“What about you, whore of the hunter? Don’t you want to see what I’ve captured?”

I desperately tried to hide the fear in my eyes. I didn’t want to give Podredo the satisfaction. He bent over the heap on the floor and pulled back the corner of the cloth. Sandra gasped and wasn’t able to stop herself from covering her mouth with her hands. It was Evan. That definitely changed our plan.

“Oh God, no!” she wailed.

Podredo narrowed his eyes when he realized her hands were free. Sandra jumped up off the chair and ran to Evan, dropping to her knees and cradling his head against her chest.

“Please, baby, please,” she sobbed. “Please be alive.”

The next sequence of events happened in what seemed like light speed but at the same time ran through my mind in slow motion.

“How did you get out of your restraints?” Podredo demanded.

Eva, hearing her mother’s panicked distress, sat up, and upon seeing her mother weeping and rocking her unresponsive father back and forth, scrambled off the bed and cried out, “Mommy...Daddy!”

Podredo reached out to grab the child, but she ducked out of the way and ran behind her mother. He stomped toward them and that’s when I made my move. I leapt off the bed and with every bit of strength and rage I could muster, I drove that knife right between Podredo’s shoulder blades.

He grunted and whirled around, looking like some sort of deranged dancer, trying to reach for the large metal blade protruding from the center of his back, but neither his arm nor his stump were long enough to grab it.

“You fucking bitch!” he screeched as Darrios burst through the door, bruised and bleeding. Two other men I didn’t recognize followed right behind him, other hunters, I imagined.

Podredo glanced over his shoulder at the men and then back to me, giving me an evil smile right before he changed into what I can only describe as a tarantula, only with one burned up leg, large filmy eyes, and scaled wings. The knife clattered to the floor.

I froze, my eyes unable to leave the angry, hairy little beast crawling toward me, blood oozing from its back. I heard myself whimper.

Funny, back home, spiders were the scariest thing I had going. They’d been my worst fear, but now, considering all I’d been through, I thought I might just be able to step on it if I got the chance. Yuck.

“Maggie, don’t panic. Stay calm,” Darrios said in an overly-calm tone of voice.

I shook my head, backing up slowly. I heard Evan moan. At least he was alive, thank God. I heard Sandra laughing and crying at the same time, not noticing as the big spidery thing continued toward me. Darrios tried to flank it, but it kept coming. I backed into the wall, nowhere left to go. This was it. Oh God, I really was going to have to do something. I tried not to hyperventilate.