Creatures

Chapter Twenty-Eight

We’d been taught, all our lives, that someday we might be pursued. We’d been taught that on some single, fateful day, we might become hunted prey. Remember all those horror movies that ended with a bunch of angry villagers carrying pitchforks and torches and chasing down the monster? Well, the monsters in those movies were our relatives. We’d been trained for this day, which everyone hoped would never come. But we had never expected that the hunters would be our own friends.

“So now I guess we know what kind of a purge he had in mind,” I puffed as we ran down the hall. Beth and Jake were right behind me.

“What did you get me into, man?” asked Jake, wheezing as he ran.

“What do you think they’ll do if they catch us?” asked Beth.

“I don’t plan on finding out,” I said.

“I knew being your friend would end with something like this. I just knew it. You’ve been flipping off the adults since day one. It was only a matter of time. And now I’m guilty by association. Why did I have to be your buddy? All because you didn’t laugh at me that one day.”

“Shut up, Jake,” I said.

Jake had no intention of shutting up. “I should have just sucked up to Danny and Thomas like all the other guys. I should have been their court jester. I could have done silly little toad-tricks to keep them all amused, but noooo, I had to go with the rebel, the prankster, the powerless boy.”

“Jake,” said Beth, “Please shut up.”

“I’m tired already,” said Jake. “All day and night did he say?”

“Where are we going anyway, Connor?” asked Beth.

“They’ll expect the attic, they’ve seen us up there. So I’m headed for the basement.”

We got to the basement door and rattled the doorknob. It was locked. We stood there for a moment, hands on our knees, breathing hard.

“Locked,” I said. “We’ll have to find another way down.”

“This can’t be happening,” moaned Jake.

Beth just looked at me. No doubt she expected me to pull a rabbit out of my hat, as I had during Hussades. I looked back at her, thinking to myself there were no more rabbits in there. In fact, there wasn’t even a hat.

“Maybe we should really run for it,” said Jake, looking at me seriously. He had some of his wind back and could talk clearly. “Let’s just open a window and head for the woods. We could make it before the fifteen minutes are up.”

“Ten left now,” interjected Beth.

“Whatever, we have time,” said Jake. “We could be home in two hours and just forget this whole thing. What are they going to do? Make us move out of town?”

I looked at him seriously. “Maybe.”

“You think so? What about our families?”

I just stared at him. “If we shame ourselves in front of Vater I think anything could happen. Our folks could be too ashamed to stay here. People move out of Camden for a lot less reason than this.”

I turned my attention to Beth, who watched us closely. “You’ve got no big stake here, Beth. I think Jake’s right in your case. Just take off. No one will feel bad about it.”

“Except us, that is,” said Beth. “I’m not a quitter. You should know that about me by now. Look, Connor, we’ve been running away from things since I got here. Maybe it’s time we planned out some moves of our own.”

I looked at her and slowly, I grinned. “You really do think the way I do.”

Jake moaned. “Okay, I’m out!”

I turned to him and my grin vanished. “Jake?”

“No, I’ve had enough Connor,” he said, heading to the nearest window. He jimmied the lock, but it was frozen shut. He tried several more while he talked. “You are my best friend, but I’m not going to get run down in this spooky place. I’m bailing.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Beth put her hand up in a gesture to stop me. Hard words died in my throat.

With a grunt and a crunching sound, Jake got one of the old-fashioned windows to crack open about a foot. He put one leg out into the snowy outside world. Cold air blew in, cooling our faces.

“Don’t freeze to death out there,” I told him.

He looked back at me, and I saw the pain in his face. He didn’t want to do this, I could tell. “I’m sorry,” he said.

I grabbed his hand and gave it a shake. He and Beth hugged, and then he was running around the side of the house, plowing through about two feet of snow.

I couldn’t believe Jake was gone.