The three children who had rapidly grown into adults stared dumbfounded at Daria’s manhandling of Vise, their assumed leader. Vise was bigger, but Daria was clearly overpowering him, to the point where he was trying to tear at her skin with his fingernails in order to get her to release his face.
Daria only tightened her grip. “You guys had me a little concerned there for a moment, but now I see that you’re all cheap tricks and no substance.”
I relaxed a little, seeing that she was alright after being thrown through the wall.
“Are you guys Wolves?” Daria asked, licking her lips.
“Try us if you want to find out,” snarled the woman with the face that had remained eerily child-like post-transformation.
“Thought so,” Daria said, then slammed Vise’s head into the floor. She leaned on him, keeping him in place. “Nick, they’re Shaping themselves. Which means they’re Wolves and for some reason they haven’t let it slip to their Witch that we’re here. Get going and find the real kids. I’ll handle things here.”
I hesitated. Four Wolves versus one? How cocky is she?
The one with the scorpion tail turned it on Daria. “Jenson would end you both in the blink of an eye. He doesn’t play with his food like we do.” He sneered, gesturing to the bones littering the floor. “We haven’t had a target with this much meat on the bone in a while. Vise was taking it too easy. But now that we’ve warmed up, you’re both goners.”
“Fuckin bitch!” Vise yelled. He let out an enraged shout and rose up, veins popping in his neck and shoulders as he shook with strain. He managed to get to his knees and shake Daria off of him. Vise scrambled to his feet and backed up so he was among his allies. “Now you’ve done it,” he growled, wiping blood from his nose. “I’m going to make you scream.”
Daria flipped him off as she rolled her neck from side to side. “It isn’t every day that I get to really cut loose.”
She noticed my hesitation. “Nick, I get that you doubt me, we just met after all. But just imagine the pay off if I win. You would have utter confidence in me from then on, right? Take a chance. I won’t lose. Not with my girl watching.”
Fine. I dashed for the hallway. The Wolves didn’t move to stop me, deciding to gang up on Daria. She was practically radiating confidence, I’d just have to pray it was well-founded. And she was right, I needed to find the real children now. I already knew where one of them was.
Exiting the bedroom and running back down the hallway, I quickly reached the room Sylas was in, then froze as the music turned off.
Jenson wasn’t singing anymore. Footsteps approached me and I heard him muttering to himself. Obviously he felt the house shake.
I quickly threw the door open and went inside the pitch black room, then quietly shut it behind myself.
The footsteps rounded the corner and then paused.
“Hello, Mr. Pretty.” Jenson cooed. “Are those idiots roughhousing again?”
The tiger cub chuffed loudly.
“That’s no good,” his words took on a dangerous tone. “We’ll have to have another conversation about appropriate actions within the house, I-”
He stopped as Vise let out another loud shout and a resonant thud shook the walls.
“Perhaps it’s time for a fresh set of helpers,” he muttered and started towards the sounds. But then he paused again directly in front of the door I was leaning against.
After a second of silence, he spoke loudly, “Sylas, are you breaking the rules? Is Avery in there with you?”
I stayed quiet.
“Sylas,” Jenson said with false sweetness dripping off his tongue like venom. “I know someone is in there with you.”
I pulsed Nell with urgency through our connection. I could use a little help right about now.
On cue, a loud knock echoed down the hallway, coming from the opposite side of the house.
“Oh, now what on earth could that be,” Jenson said with an exasperated sigh.
He stepped away, heading back the way he had come.
Not what I was expecting, but I’ll take it, I thought as I felt for the lightswitch. After some clumsy searching, my fingers found the plastic casing and I flicked the lights on.
The room illuminated, allowing me to see the small bed in the corner and the makeshift toys that littered the ground, planes and cars made of scraps of wood and folded paper.
A large shadow loomed over me, blocking the light from falling on me. Sylas’ expression was unreadable, his mouth covered by his long beard and his deep set eyes hidden in shadow.
I swallowed. “Hey buddy…”
With his calloused, meaty hands curled into fists that looked like they were made for chopping wood and his tall stature, it was hard to see him as a lost child instead of a fully grown adult.
“Ah…” he uttered a single syllable.
For a moment, I thought he would attack me, but then I saw the depression made in the mattress, how he had to curl up to sleep in a bed made for someone a third his size, and my heart broke.
“It’ll be alright, Sylas,” I whispered. “Do you need a hug?”
Sylas’ eyes widened.
“Uh…”
I raised my arms, inviting him in.
He immediately wrapped me up in a tight hug. He squeezed me while crying, speaking in indecipherable babbling.
I rubbed his back. “This is the last time you’ll ever see that man,” I promised. “We’re getting you out of here. Come on.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the door. He obediently followed and I peered out into the hallway. The sounds of fighting had gone silent and I could barely make out Jenson speaking at the front door.
“Please come inside for a cup of tea and we can discuss this more.”
“Thank you,” Nell replied.
Was Jenson distracted enough that he wouldn’t notice the extra people within his range? I had to bet on that as I crept down the hall with Sylas in tow.
Sylas murmured something and pointed at one of the closed doors.
“In here?” I whispered.
He nodded.
“Thank you.”
I slowly pushed the door open. The woman we’d seen through the window before was sitting on the bed, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. It wasn’t long enough to reach her bare feet.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Penny,” she replied in a shaky voice. “Are you here to save us?”
“Yes. You can talk, that’s good.”
Penny stood from the bed, wringing her hands. “I know it’s hard to believe, but… I’m only nine years old.”
“Lots of stranger things have happened,” I said, still a little distrustful. Back during our briefing, we’d been shown pictures of some of the kids before they went missing. Penny was one of them, but it was hard to extrapolate that picture into the person I was looking at now.
“How come you can talk and Sylas can’t?” I asked.
“I don’t know. He was already here and all grown up when I was brought here,” Penny said.
I peeked back into the hallway. The tiger cub was watching me from the bend, tail swishing back and forth.
“How many kids are here?”
“Just one more, Avery,” she replied. “There were others before, but they’re gone.”
My heart sank. “Gone?”
“Taken away. Jenson didn’t say where.”
Nell’s voice filtered through the open doorway, “As I was saying, I’m an investigator from the local PD. We’ve had some reports of people seeing children in this household.”
There was the sound of a kettle being placed on a stove.
“I see. That’s quite serious,” Jenson said. “After all, my neighbours know that my late wife and I didn’t have any children.”
“We have to take these reports seriously. I think you know why.”
“I’m not sure what you mean. Elucidate me, investigator.”
“Missing children. There’s quite a few in the surrounding areas.”
“Oh? I don’t keep up with the news, I’m afraid.”
I turned away from the conversation and took Sylas’ hand. “Where’s Avery?” I asked Penny.
“In his room near the kitchen. Jenson doesn’t let us out until night time,” Penny’s voice quivered. “If he catches us, he’ll punish us. He takes out our bones and makes us grow them back really quickly. It hurts so bad.”
Sylas groaned and nodded, squeezing my hand tight.
I led them out of the room and approached the corner where Nell and Jenson’s voices were coming from. Sylas flinched as the tiger cub darted away like it was pretending we were after it.
We rounded the corner and I saw at the end of the hall opened into a kitchen with tiled flooring. The back of a chair was in view with someone sitting in it.
Penny pointed to a door that was very close to the kitchen.
I motioned for them to wait here. Sylas reluctantly let go of my hand.
Jenson spoke as I snuck forward, “Tell me, investigator, are you a new hire? Because I am friends with the local law enforcement. They didn’t mention you.”
“It’s an active investigation. It wouldn’t do for the public to know too much,” Nell lied easily.
I was close enough now to see the back of Jenson’s head. He had a bald spot and more gray hairs than not.
“Of course, although I’m a little hurt that the police chief would do this. We’ve shared drinks together. It doesn’t seem like something he would do.”
Moving at a glacial pace, I twisted the doorknob while agonizing over every small creak it was producing. The latch slid open and the door swung open.
Creak.
The hinges groaned loudly.
Nell and Jenson went quiet. A high-pitched whistling rang in my ears. Jenson got up to take the kettle off the stove, facing away from me, and I slid into the room, shutting the door.
“And the neighbours as well, why would they report me? I bake them sweets and take care of their animals when they go on vacation.”
“Maybe you don’t know people as well as you think you do,” Nell replied with a hint of anger.
The sound of tea being poured and then the creak of Jenson returning to his seat.
“Perhaps you’re right.”
I felt around in the dark until I touched someone’s arm. They flinched but I clamped down, keeping them still while I found their face and held my hand over their mouth to stifle their yelp. Then I took their hand and gently pulled them with me. They didn’t resist.
I opened the door once more, this time being sure to stop it before it reached the point where the hinges made noise.
I took one step into the hall, feeling Avery’s pulse through our held hands. Now we just had to make it to a window. A few more steps and the children would be free.
Avery halted.
I tugged, keeping my eye on Jenson, but Avery wouldn’t budge.
I looked back and my stomach dropped.
Avery’s scruffy, grown-up face was contorted in horror. He stared at his own arm, where a bone was working itself free from his body, twisting back and forth like it was hooked on a fishing line. Finally, the pain was too much and Avery let loose a scream.
“Ah,” Jenson sighed appreciatively. “I was right to play along. It’s so much easier to wait for everyone to gather beforehand.”
My head pounded as Jenson stood and turned to face me. A tall man teetering on the edge of middle-aged to senior, his button-up shirt, belt, and slacks making him look the part of a retired homeowner. He looked mildly annoyed with his hands in his pockets, as if I was merely a door-to-door salesman ruining his Sunday afternoon.
“Did you take me for a fool?” he asked calmly as Avery sank to the floor, sobbing. “I knew the second this ‘investigator’ came to the door that she was a Witch. I could not grasp her.”
The sound of a bone knocking against the wooden floor shot straight through my skull.
I launched myself at Jenson, bones of my own erupting from my skin.
“No, Nick!” Nell screamed.
I halted and pulled back my hand that had been reaching for Jenson. It felt weak, I could barely lift it. I let the bones recede and saw that my hand was now withered, the skin spotted with age.
“Your Witch was right to warn you,” Jenson said. “She knows that I am powerful.” He pointed at the wrinkles around his sunken eyes. “Do you see how old I am? Have you ever seen a Witch my age? I have decades of experience in Shaping, honing my abilities. You stand no chance.”
He eyed Avery writhing on the floor, clutching his arm that now sagged without the proper support. There wasn’t an ounce of sympathy in Jenson’s expression.
“I suspected that I shouldn’t have let that mother go when she came to my door, begging for her son back. She doesn’t realize that I inflicted mercy upon her. With her addled brain, she wouldn’t have to face the truth. That her son was forever changed.”
“Bastard,” Nell said.
Jenson shrugged. “Say what you like, I’m not a sadist. I don’t get enjoyment from this work. But it allows me to live a good life. That’s what everyone wants, no?”
I launched slender antlers out as spears, seeking Jenson’s face. They crumbled into dust before they reached him.
Jenson looked down. Unaware of the danger, the tiger cub had come to rub against his legs. He reached down and petted the tiger’s head. “So precious, Mr. Pretty. You deserve a treat.”
The tiger shook its head, looking a little unsteady on its feet. It chuffed and pawed at its face. Something small and white plinked to the ground. Sharp canines. Its skin stretched as muscles began to swell. The tiger’s hair bristled and it opened its mouth in a snarl. Fresh teeth emerged from bleeding gums. Its shoulders broadened until it took up most of the hallway. Claws scratched gouges into the tile. The fully grown tiger stared at me with large amber eyes, its hackles raised.
“Go get’im.”
Jenson slapped the back of the tiger and it sprang towards me with deadly grace.