My slice of pound cake remained stubbornly uneaten on the kitchen table as I told my mother I need to do homework at the library. I hopped on my bicycle and headed to my old house. Well, specifically, my underground bunker under the shed of my old house. It was way too expansive to rebuild under the lawn of my new awesome house.
I rode up the tallest hill in my town and stopped at the house on the very top. Stashing my bike in the bushes, I hopped the fence into the backyard. The shed was locked, of course, but I had learned the new combination after painstaking spying.
Inside, the new owners had filled the little wooden shed with all kinds of garbage, but it was for the best, as they obscured a high-voltage sign that we’d left behind when we’d moved out. I lifted the sign and tapped “guardian” in Morse code on the wall. The floor retracted behind me and revealed a set of wooden steps. I walked down to level negative one and closed the entire contraption, covering the stairs and locking the shed with one button.
The first level was the only level that existed before I lived here. The previous owner had fitted it with blue carpet, painted the walls blue, and mounted a now broken TV on the wall. I’d never bothered to change any of it. If anyone discovered it, they’d think it was a normal basement built by an over paranoid person.
No one else was here, so I crossed the room and unlocked the closet. Inside sat a set of concrete stairs that I had added. They led to a medium-sized underground warehouse that my writer had constructed for me to hide in if a dangerous breach were to hunt me down. We’d known this day was inevitable, but if my writer hadn’t been so crazy in their world bending, it wouldn’t have come so soon.
I descended the concrete stairs to solitude. It was really all right. I didn’t need people, right? Shadow would be enough company until we apprehended the breach. I wondered who they brought for backup. Probably Kaity. She’s a badass. But it would be problematic to remove someone from such an established universe and plop them into this mess. Whatever!
I swung open the door and on the other side, I saw poor Nathan duct-taped to a carbon fiber chair glued to the concrete floor with PVC epoxy. I know that because I was the one who used excess epoxy to glue that very chair to the acoustic center of the warehouse. For some reason, however, the entire warehouse was empty otherwise.
But more importantly, there was only one reason why Nathan would be here in my bunker with my writer. After his strange behavior before Soulless and his absence today at school, I felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Not to mention the whole flashlight incident
“Oh, zut! Nathan, you’re the breach?” I asked in awe. “Shadow, I really should have seen that coming.”
My dear writer in the form of buff me turned and smiled. “It’s okay, sweetie. I was being very vague for.”
Nathan definitely seemed more annoyed than I had ever seen him before. A large bruise covered the left side of his face. Shadow probably tortured him. Based on his record, he was most likely dangerous.
“Which one of you did I ‘enlighten’?” he suddenly asked. My writer and I laughed together.
“Nice pun, Nathan,” I said. He had a thing for puns that was almost cute.
“Of course, Claire’s the one with soul-sight,” my writer explained. “The scars are for effect. Do you prefer a different look?”
My writer shapeshifted to a short teenage boy with brown hair and dark glasses. I recognized the form. “Danny?” Why him?
“What are you doing?” Nathan demanded. “You’re not Daniel! I will not succumb to your heinous schemes!”
My writer smiled. “I’m God. I can do whatever I want to.” They became a tall, teenage boy with close-cropped coppery hair bright blue eyes with a bit of gold around the pupil.
I smirked at Nathan. “They’re so awesome that way.”
“You’re awesome, too, dear,” my writer said.
Nathan groaned. “Get a room.”
I took a step back, staring in shock. “Excuse you?”
“Should I shut him up?” my writer asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Make it painful.” My writer probably lived a sheltered life, but I didn’t shy from violence.
“I love your ideas, Claire,” my writer said.
Nathan struggled in his duct tape bonds. “Wait, what did I do? There’s no need to be rude!”
My writer pulled a baseball bat out of a spacetime rift and smacked it over Nathan’s face. He blacked out almost instantly.
“You know that wasn’t necessary, right? I could have just made him sleep, and it would have been way more painless,” my writer said.
I shrugged. “He knows everything, doesn’t he?”
“As far as I can tell, yes. So how was school?”
“I actually have homework today,” I said pointedly
“The reset will take care of that for you.”
“I actually want to learn, you know.”
My writer crossed the gap between us and enveloped me in a hug. They were the only person who hugged me other than my immediate family. “You’re the most special person in your world. As long as I’m around–”
“And what if you leave?”
Shadow stepped back. “I wouldn’t leave without making sure you’re ready for the world.”
“Okay.” I stared past my writer at Nathan. “What about him?”
“I’ll deal with him. In the meantime, I have something planned for you.”
“What?” I frowned. “But the breach–”
“Has been contained, as you can see. Go and enjoy some quality time with your friends. I’ll even invite sweet Ren. It’ll be fun!”
They took my hand and suddenly I was on the good old Dyson Sphere with Jack, Robert, Cole, Mark, and Myren.
ns 18.68.41.142da2
