Page 13 of Changeling
Each of them were armed with at least one type of iron weapon just in case—Nathan had his knife since it was less daunting than using a gun in the Gatehouse, and he had to remind himself these days that he didn’t like guns to begin with—and a few of what looked like butterfly nets. They quickly split up to cover the entire building.
As Nathan was nearing the kitchen pantry, he ran into Jim coming from the other direction. Despite what had happened during the night, Jim hadn’t been acting oddly so far today, which Nathan took small comfort in.
“Great. Now Sasha or Alex is going to find it first,” Nathan grumbled.
“What makes you say that?” Jim asked.
“Whoever is at the most disadvantage always runs into the bad guy first. Now we’re paired up and they’re both alone—disadvantage. Didn’t you watch theHalloweenmovies?” Nathan asked incredulously.
Jim rolled his eyes as he moved past Nathan to enter the pantry. “I vaguely remember being held down and forced to watch some when we were kids, yeah.”
“So you see my point,” Nathan stressed, following behind his brother cautiously. It was a large pantry.
“Well Sashahashad a lot of sex,” Jim smirked back at him. “That’s one of the horror movie cardinal sins, right? Geez, how the hell haveyoumanaged this long?”
Very funny. Nathan was about to make some snappy comment about how of course thevirginwould say that since he—or usually she—is the one who always survives the horror movie, when there was a rustling from the corner and Jim jumped instinctively back beside him. They both positioned their weapons—silent, waiting. Jim had a net ready in his off hand, but Nathan really wanted to just kill the thing, regardless of any backlash.
“There!” Jim shouted as a blur of fur, rounder but no larger than a tomcat, rushed toward their feet.
By the time Nathan had a clear shot to lunge with his knife, he would have been stabbing his own toes more likely than hitting the creature. It scurried between Nathan’s legs, and Jim thwapped Nathan in the shins with the net while trying to catchit. Their momentum was all off and the space was too tight. Even trying to move unbalanced the brothers, and suddenly Nathan was falling. He landed hard on his back with barely enough time to flinch at how Jim would soon be on top of him.
That more painful impact never came, thankfully, Jim having managed to shoot his arms out and catch himself with hands braced on either side of Nathan’s head.Thatwould have hurt.
“Nice reflexes,” Nathan gasped out; falling to the floor like that had still hurt a little. So much for thinking horror movie rules applied to real life.
“Sorry,” Jim grimaced.
“Forget it,” Nathan said. “Where’d Gizmo go?”
Jim looked up past Nathan toward the entrance. “Out. Come on,” he said, getting to his feet and helping Nathan back up to his feet as well. “Damn, this guy’s fast.”
“Told you,” Nathan said as they raced back out into the kitchen. At least now Nathan wasn’t the only one who had been made to look like a fool.
“Over there!” they heard Alex yell from out in the hallway.
Jim and Nathan immediately picked up their pace.
“It’s too fast! Sasha, get down here!” Alex called just as Jim and Nathan burst out into the main area.
Nathan saw the ball of fluff skitter across the floor right for the stairs, probably hoping to escape back up into the attic somehow. Sasha appeared up on the landing, a net in one hand and a dagger in the other. The creature skidded to a halt before reaching him and attempted to head the other way again, but the others had moved in to surround it from behind.
Before any of them could attack or try to catch it, Nathan flinched as it leapt inhumanly fast towardhimand started climbing adeptly up his body. He froze, unsure of what to do. But this time the creature did not bite him or open any wounds. Itclimbed all the way up to Nathan’s neck where it curled around his shoulders, shivering in fear and cowering behind his head.
“What’s it doing?” Jim asked from beside Nathan.
“Hiding,” Nathan realized as he said it, though he had no idea why it was hiding onhim. He could feel the way the little claws were retracted, the fluffy creature not at all putting up the fight he had been expecting.
The thing really did look like Gizmo from theGremlinsmovies upon closer inspection, only it was entirely grey like a tabby cat and had tiny human-like hands that gripped either side of Nathan’s head. It didn’t look quite as vicious during the day; it just looked scared.
“Looks like you made a friend yesterday instead of an enemy,” Sasha said, joining the rest of them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Oh really? Thought you were going to war against me, little fella.” Nathan tucked his knife into his jeans and slowly reached up, coaxing the creature down from around his neck. Eventually, he got it down into his arms, though it clung to him tightly, still shaking.
“What is it?” Jim asked, as they all hovered closer.
Not a fucking raccoon, Nathan wanted to say, but refrained.
He glanced up at the others, hoping someone else might have an answer.
