“Ahhh…”
My brain registered the bearded man too late. His voice was already leaking out, growing louder. He raised his hand to point at us and his flannel shirt flapped open to show his hairy belly. He hadn’t buttoned it up correctly.
“Ahh-”
“Sylas.” A single word, said warningly. It was enough to silence the man.
I turned to stare at the kid. He was staring intensely at the towering man who was triple his size. “Don’t you dare ruin this,” he said.
The man cowered, retreating into the dark room and slamming the door.
The singing from the kitchen paused. We didn’t move, waiting for the sound of footsteps. My constantly Shaping insides churned.
Then the man resumed singing and we stopped holding our collective breath.
“Who was that?” Daria asked the kid.
The kid scuffed his bare foot against the other. “Sylas,” he whispered. “He helps Jenson with the chores. He does whatever anyone tells him to.” His eyes widened. “Sometimes he hits us. But only if Jenson tells him to.”
“Is Sylas gonna tell Jenson about us?” I asked, eyeing the closed door.
“No. He doesn’t speak.”
The tiger cub was still rubbing up against us and batting at shoelaces. I tried to push it away and was surprised at how strong it was, even this young.
“Where’d you come from?” I murmured, petting its coat.
“Hey kid, what’s your name?” Daria crouched to eye level and asked.
“You’re pretty, miss,” the kid said.
Darria paused at the odd comment and then tousled his head. “Thanks kid. Is Jenson keeping you here?”
The kid didn’t blink as he stared at Daria. “Yeah. It’s so boring. He doesn’t let us play outside.”
Weird kid… Probably traumatized.
“Anyway, you were taking us to the other kids?” I prodded gently.
“Uhuh.”
The kid turned and kept going down the hallway. He glanced back at us every so often to check that we were following. This hallway had a bunch of trophies mounted on the walls. Elk, wolf, bear; each of them were just a bleached skull. They were huge specimens too, if I hadn’t done research on antlers I would have thought the elk was a moose by how large it was. It seemed Jenson liked to hunt.
“How’d this Witch manage to get a tiger into Canada?” Daria mused as the cub tried to grab onto her foot.
“It likes to play with us,” the boy said. “We wrestle each other. I win because I’m strong. Maybe you can play with me sometime?”
“Uh, after we get you guys out of here,” Daria said, glancing at me with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t you want to go back to your parents?”
“Yeah…” the boy said.
We came to the end of the hall and the boy opened up a room and flicked on the lights. Two bunk beds lined one wall while the rest of the room seemed to be a workspace. Tools like hacksaws and hammers were strewn about a large table, along with pieces of bone. More off-white bones were scattered around the messy floor.
Three kids sat up from the bunk beds, wiping the sleep from their eyes. A girl swung from the top bed and landed without so much as a stumble before blearily glaring at the boy. “Why’d you…” she stopped as she noticed us.
The boy with the braids in his hair spoke, “I have great news. We’re being rescued.”
The other two kids quickly sat up, one with a ponytail that was nearly as tall as he was. The other was absolutely covered in dirt and wherever she moved, she spread dark smudges on the sheets and frame of the bunk bed. My heart sank when I saw that none of the kids were Jason or Gail.
The kids seemed hesitant and unsure how to react.
“We’re going to see our families again!” The boy explained happily.
“But I don’t wanna go,” the dirty child said, jumping down and picking up a small bone. “Let’s play instead.”
“Jenson is a bad person,” the braided child said patiently. “These are the good guys. If we stick with them, we’ll be able to play lots of fun games.”
Smiles spread across the children’s faces.
“Are their other children here?” I asked. “A boy with dark hair who likes spiders? Or a girl who likes to order people around?”
“There might be,” the athletic girl said, skipping around me, forcing me to turn to follow her.
“Where?”
“Have you ever played duck and goose?” the boy with the ponytail asked, hanging upside down from the bunkbed ladder.
“I don’t think that’s what it’s call-”
The door shut behind me. “I heard someone in the hall!” The girl carrying the bone said, back pressed against the door, eyes wide.
Daria frowned. “I don’t hear anything.”
I grabbed the athletic girl’s shoulders to get her to stand still. “Where did you see other kids?”
She glanced at the braided boy, who kicked a bone, sending it skittering under a bed. He was staring at Daria’s back.
“Uhhhhh. They’re all over the house,” The kid explained while squirming and eventually managing to wriggle free of my grip and ran to the corner, looking scared. “The wicked Witch keeps us separate. He doesn’t want anyone hurting the kids.”
Daria approached the girl at the door and the girl stepped out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye the boy kicked another bone under the beds.
“We should get moving,” I hissed at Daria.
Instead of going for the door however, Daria held out her hand. “Give me that bone, kid.”
The dirt-smudged girl’s eyes widened pitifully and she shook her head, hiding the bone behind her back.
“Look over here!” The ponytail boy sang, jumping from one bunk bed to the next.
They’re too excited… we need to wrangle these kids and figure out a way out of here. There weren’t any windows in this room.
The braided boy walked past me and kicked another bone. It bounced off the wall and I caught a glimpse before it disappeared under the work table.
“Hey, pretty lady,” he called out to Daria. “I bet I could beat you in an arm-wrestle.”
Daria ignored him. The dirt-smudged girl tried to slide past her, but she planted a foot in the way. Suddenly, Daria moved, quick as lightning, and snatched the bone from the girl.
Her brow furrowed as she looked down at it.
“What is it?” I asked.
She held it up to show me. “This one’s human,” she whispered.
The braided boy started to cry. “Jenson makes them grow up too fast,” he sobbed. “Sometimes they don’t grow right. There used to be more of us.”
My stomach twisted.
He ran over and hugged Daria at the waist. “Can’t you stay for a while?”
Alarm bells were ringing in my head. “Wait, that man from before, Sylas. He was a kid, wasn’t he?”
“There are bite marks on this,” Daria said, staring at the bone.
The kids were always moving, as if trying on purpose to stay in my blindspot. My throat was dry. “Hey,” I said hoarsely, “why did you talk to Sylas like that?”
The boy didn’t turn to acknowledge me.
If Jenson can forcibly age the kids…
The hands that wrapped around Daria suddenly didn’t look like the hands of an eight-year old. They were too large.
Surely not?
“Daria, get away from him,” I said.
Daria raised an eyebrow but went along with it, only to find that the kid was holding fast.
“Awwwww. Caught,” he said, rolling his neck. Toned muscles flexed beneath his skin. “Who’s acting wasn’t good enough?”
I backed into the corner of the room as the other children started to grow, limbs elongating, their heads, hands, and feet staying the same size.
“Was hoping to fool you a little longer,” the dirt-smudged girl said, her voice deepening mid-sentence. “Maybe you would have let me ride piggyback?” Suddenly she was taller than I was, muscles tense, skin stretching to accommodate their new size.
Daria twisted to look at me. “Nick, d-”
She didn’t get another word out as she was thrown bodily into the bunkbeds, smashing straight through and into the wall. The wood cracked and gave way. The house shuddered as bits of drywall and splinters scattered. Daria coughed and struggled to pull herself out from being halfway inside the wall.
The braids on the boy-turned-man’s head had come undone, his hair turning bristly and gray. He swaggered forward, head almost touching the ceiling.
“Aw, c’mon Vise,” the one with the ponytail complained. His hair had hardened into a new limb, sharpened to a point at the end which he leveled at me. “Now Jenson’s for sure gonna come spoil the fun.”
“Shut it,” Vise grunted, then stomped on Daria’s chest. There was a crack like a melting glacier and suddenly daylight poured into the room.
The others watched me with excitement, daring me to try and help Daria.
“No fair,” one of the women said. Her face had remained the same, eerily child-like. “Why do you get that one, and the three of us get this scrawny thing?”
“Cause I’m the strongest,” he growled and pushed through the hole in the wall, knocking more wood and drywall out of the way.
The one covered in dirt had barbed hooks running along her arms. She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “It’s too bad. She definitely drew the short straw getting Vise’s attention. He doesn’t let go once he has his eyes set on something. Your girlfriend is going to get her skull caved in, nice and slow. He’s been holding himself back all this time. We all have. Those kids were asking to be toyed with.”
A foot stomped down, shaking the floor. The three turned in unison, surprised that someone had re-entered so quickly.
Startlingly bright crimson hair had fallen in front of her face. Muscles rippled powerfully as the person hauled themselves back inside. She had Vise by the face, dragging him forward unwillingly, gripping him so hard that blood was pouring from beneath her fingernails. He strained against Daria’s fingers, trying to pry her fingers off.
Daria flipped her hair out of the way. Her chest rose and fell from the exertion.
“I want to get one thing straight,” she said, breaking into a smile. “I’m the strongest one here.”