Shadow's Turning- Part 6

Chapter 4

I sat down on one of the armchairs in a daze.

Birch and Lieson hesitated before moving to sit on the couch I’d just vacated.

“What do you mean?” I asked through lips that had gone numb.

“Sometimes, one of them…puts a little of itself in a person.  Not a lot, just enough that you’re slightly vulnerable to charms.  At least, that’s what the evidence points to.  When the sun sets, the one that altered you can sense where that piece is.  And if it can get close enough, it becomes a magnet for the missing part of itself.”  Birch stopped and looked over at Lieson.

“You wouldn’t be able to stop it.  The attraction is too strong.  And as soon as you open the door, you compromise the building’s security.  Easy pickings,” Lieson finished.

I heard what they were saying, but from a distance.  I felt an odd sense of detachment as I carefully examined the words.

“If that’s true, why haven’t we been taken over yet?  Just do this to enough people and we don’t stand a chance.”  A spark of hope lit in my chest.

Maybe they were wrong about this.

“We think they can’t use just anyone.  There’s something different about the ones they choose.  We just haven’t been able to figure out what yet,” Birch said, frustration clear in his voice.  “It also doesn’t seem to be a universal skill.  Of the cases we’ve seen, it’s never been one of the weaker ones pulling a person out.  When you take that into account, plus the fact that very few people get caught out after dark…the numbers just aren’t in their favor.”

“You’re a statistical improbability,” Lieson said, a pitying look on his face.

A statistical improbability.

Fancy way of saying I had shit luck.

“Alright.  If what you say is true, how can you help?  Why do you want me to stay here?”

“Well, we’ll have to restrain you so you can’t follow the call after the sun sets,” Birch said.

Restrain me?  Better and better.

“Restrain me how?” I asked warily.

“We have a room specially outfitted.  I guess restrain is the wrong word to use- we’ll just lock you in until the sun rises.”

“Ok, say you lock me in this room-”

Aka prison.

“- for the night.  Do I have to be locked in every night for the rest of my life?”

I saw the chance for a normal life receding in the distance.

They hesitated and shared another meaningful glance.  That was starting to get really irritating.

Lieson finally answered me.

“If the one you encountered comes tonight, we might be able to break the connection.”

“Might be able to break the connection.  You don’t know?  And how can you even break something like this?”

“We kill it,” Birch said, a slight, humorless smile on his face.