Shadow's Turning- Part 7

All I could do was gape at them for a few seconds, the sheer idiocy of the idea short-circuiting my brain.

“Kill it?!  Are you insane?!” I said as controlled as I could be.

“No, we’re not,” Lieson said, a condescending look on his face that I had the urge to slap off.

Or maybe punch off.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be out of the way, behind a charmed door,” Birch added, giving Lieson a warning look.

“Or, you could go back to your place and wait for nightfall,” Lieson said irritably.

“Let me get this straight.  You want me to be bait for you?  That’s what this is about?  Do you think killing one of these things is even going to make dent?!”  If I got a little shrill there in the end, it was justified.

“No, we want you to be bait for you.  Or have you forgotten about the part where you have to be locked up after sunset?” Lieson shot back.

“And what happens if you don’t succeed?  The chances of you dying instead of it are pretty damn high.  I’ll be stuck in a locked room with no way out!”

“You won’t be stuck.  Someone will check in on us tomorrow,” Birch said.

“This is insane,” I whispered to myself, raking my fingers through my hair.  There was no reasoning with them.

And they weren’t going to let me leave.  Although, if everything they said was true, leaving wasn’t a good idea either.

“Look at the world around you, princess.  What about it seems sane to you?” Lieson said in a tired voice.

“We’re taking all the risk here.  If we’re wrong or we’ve misjudged, we’ll pay the consequences.  If we’re right, you won’t have to worry about what you’ll do when the sun sets,” Birch said in a reasonable voice.

I licked my lips, absorbing what he said and looking for any other issues that could crop up.  That I was even considering this told me how desperate my situation was.

And that I at least half-way believed them.

It wasn’t like I had a better explanation.

“You get one night.  Then I’m gone.  I’ll figure something else out,” I finally forced out.

The tension in the room decreased as I capitulated.

I hoped it was the right move.

Birch ordered some pizza and we ate as we waited for the day to pass.

There wasn’t a lot of talking, all of us subdued as we watched the clock.

One of them was always with me, not trusting me not to bolt if I was given the chance I guess.  They weren’t completely wrong- the thought had crossed my mind.  The only thing keeping me there was that I was more afraid of leaving and dealing with this on my own than staying.

As the sun began to dip, Birch took me down to the basement.

It was actually clean and finished, with cream colored walls and carpeting.  Half of the space was walled off with an open door in the center.

Leaning in to flip the light switch, he gestured me inside.

A small bed took up one side, and an overstuffed armchair with a small coffee table and a television were arranged at the other end of the room.  Another door was cracked open and I could just make out the sink, so it must have been the bathroom.

“The inside isn’t charmed, so don’t worry about touching the walls or anything.  This whole room is protected on the outside.  There’s snacks and water in the fridge there,” he said, pointing to a small fridge I hadn’t noticed in the corner.  “I’m locking you in from the outside.  You can lock yourself in from the inside too and bar the door.”  He looked around the room.  “Don’t try to get out if you hear something- you won’t be able to.”

With that comforting thought, he closed the door.  I heard the deadbolts slide into place, and then his footsteps as he climbed the stairs out of the basement.

Moving to the door, I turned the deadbolt and levered the bar into place, not really feeling much safer.

Then I sank down onto the bed, staring at the wall.

Now all I could do was wait.