Chapter 2
1300 Words
2
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Una objected.
“Fortunately, you don’t have a say in it,” Al quipped.
She scowled at him. “Why not? I’m her friend, too.”
“She’s also a Star, and that comes first,” he insisted.
“Does being a Star also mean being treated in an inhumane manner?” Una snapped.
“She’s being treated perfectly normally,” Al argued.
“You have her caged up!” Una snapped as she gestured to the scene before them.
The pair stood in the dirt-floor basement beneath Paul’s old mansion. Before them was the cell in which Paul had caged himself during his last uncontrollable transformation into a werewolf. Now it was Lilly who stood behind the bars and Paul was on the outside looking in.
Lilly grasped the bars of the cell and smiled at Una. “It’s really no big deal, Una. I don’t feel caged at all.”
Una spun around with her back to the cage and glared at the pair of men. “This is not normal!”
Paul kept his eyes on Lilly as he replied to Una. “For a Star, training is a normal part of their life.”
“Which means cool down and let us do some training,” Al scolded her.
Una opened her mouth, but Lilly’s soft hand on her shoulder gave her pause. She turned to find Lilly’s firm gaze staring into her eyes. “I have to do this.”
Una’s shoulders slumped and her face fell. “But this isn’t right, Lilly. They’re treating you like an animal.”
“She is partially a werewolf,” Al pointed out. “That what makes a Star useful to their Moon.”
Una whipped her head around and glared at him. “That doesn’t mean you have to treat her like one!”
“Una.” Una winced. She knew that tone of voice, and reluctantly glanced over her shoulder. Lilly was giving her the scolding eye. “I’ll be fine. I’m only trying to break out of here, remember?”
Una hung her head. “I remember, but it’s still so. . .so. . .”
“Necessary,” Paul insisted as he studied the bars and his new Star. “If she is to have any chance against those that might seek to harm me then she must learn to use her abilities. One of those basic abilities is the great strength that comes with being a Star.”
“Well, I’ve always wanted to bench press a hundred pounds,” Lilly joked.
Al folded his arms across his chest and laughed. “You’ll be able to do a lot more than that if you can get it going.”
Lilly swept her eyes over the cell. “So what do I need to do?”
“Pry the bars apart with your bare hands,” Paul told her.
Una wrinkled her nose. “Is that it? Couldn’t we have just gotten her a bar upstairs to play with?”
“He’s trying to make this easier on her,” Al explained as he nodded at the cell. “Werewolves don’t like confined spaces, and neither do Stars, so by putting Lilly in here Paul’s hoping to use that instinct in Lilly’s favor.”
“But I’m not claustrophobic,” Lilly revealed.
“The new instinct instilled within you does grant you a certain degree of that phobia,” Paul warned her.
Una snorted. “What a wonderful gift.”
Al grabbed Una’s shoulder and used his own prodigious strength to drag her back to the wall opposite the cell. “How about we just stand back.”
Una frowned up at him. “Why?”
“Because untrained strength sometimes leads to an overuse, and that means the roof of the cell might loudly go from the ceiling to the floor,” Al warned her.
Una’s jaw hit the floor. “But Lilly’s in there!”
“She will be fine,” Paul assured her as he met the worried gaze of Lilly. “You may begin.”
Lilly swallowed the lump in her throat, adjusted her grip on the bars and took a deep breath. “Well, here goes.”
She clenched her teeth and pulled the bars apart. Or, she tried to. There was a slight groan from the metal rods, but nothing more. After a half a minute she stopped and gasped for air.
“I. . .I don’t think this is working,” she informed her friends.
“Focus on the walls and the ceiling,” Paul suggested. “Pay attention to the stagnant air and the dark, cramped space around you.”
Lilly tried to pull the bars apart again but after a few seconds she stopped and shook her head. “I just don’t feel anything.”
“Maybe we should try pulling apart those cheap chopsticks first,” Una spoke up. “That not only takes a little bit of strength but a whole lot of skill.”
“She can perform this feat,” Paul insisted.
Lilly smiled at her friends. “I just need to try harder.”
Lilly tried again and again, but each attempt ended in failure. Even her initial success wasn’t repeated.
Una pursed her lips as she watched her old friend try again without success. That was an hour of failures. “All right, that’s enough.” She snatched the keys from Paul’s hand and marched over to the locked cell door. “No more fun today, boys,” she told them as she unlocked the entrance.
“I can do this,” Lilly insisted as Una stepped into her cage.
“I know you can, but I don’t think your body knows you can,” Una mused as she took Lilly’s hand and gently pulled her out. “Maybe tomorrow night or the day after, but tonight isn’t that night.”
Paul stepped in front of them. “She will not learn by giving up.”
Una glanced at Lilly. “How about you go upstairs with Al? I need to talk to your boyfriend alone.”
“He’s not my-”
Una gave her a push toward the stairs. “Less arguing and more walking, and no eavesdropping!”
“You’re giving out a lot of orders for being the most useless among us,” Al mused.
Una met his gaze with her own steady one. “For once I know what I’m doing, so just give us a moment, okay?”
Al pursed his lips, but reluctantly led Lilly up the stairs. Una turned to the curious werewolf who stood with a curious and patient look in his eyes.
“I know what Al said was true about being useless, but I know more about Lilly than you do,” Una began as she clasped her hands behind her back. “She wasn’t going to tell you this because she doesn’t want to disappoint you, but she was getting frustrated.”
“That is understandable,” Paul pointed out.
“Not for Lilly,” Una argued. “I’ve known Lilly for a long time, and she doesn’t get frustrated. Even when she nearly burnt down Mr. Baxter’s bakery a half dozen times she never quit. Heck, she didn’t even panic. She just got the fire extinguishers and put out the blaze, but this is different.”
“How does this apply to her abilities?” he wondered.
Una pointed at her chest. “With those abilities Lilly feels like the fire’s inside of her and she doesn’t know how to put that out, or in this case pull them out of her. That’s something she’s never had to do; really look into herself and wonder who she is and where she’s going. She’s led a really normal life not to worry about that stuff, and now you’ve piled it on big time.”
“It was never my intention to choose her,” he reminded her. “Being a Star is a matter of fate.”
“Well, fate throws a hell of a curve ball, so I’m just saying that maybe you should slow things down a bit,” Una suggested as a sly smile slipped onto her lips. “Maybe take her out for a dinner date or something.”
Paul turned to the empty cell and studied the dark interior before he gave a curt nod. “That may be a wise idea. I will go ask her-”
“Not so fast,” Una interrupted as she held up a hand. “My advice isn’t free. I call dibs on taking Lilly out, at least for tonight.”
“Where will you go?” he wondered.
Una swept her eyes over the wet walls and wrinkled her nose at the dank odor. “I think a little bit of fresh air is in order, and maybe a donut or two.”
- Writer
