Page 4 of Break Out the Girl

Motherfucker.

There is no way I can climb down this thing by myself. Very gingerly, I edge myself down to a sitting position, leaning my back against the massive trunk.

I’m cold, nauseated, and soaked to the bone.

While trapped at the top of a redwood.

Fuck.

My.

Life.

2: TALIESIN

Four creatures detach themselves from the thick darkness of the woods.

They’re low to the ground, stink of decay and rotting meat, and their eyes glow eerily red.

I’m weak, my arms are shaking, but I step over François's body and plant my feet.

Sirens wail in the background, search lights sweep the woods, but I can only focus on what’s in front of me. Not the fact I just saw Imran turn into a fucking owl.

It’s a different world outside Quo's walls.

One I have no idea how to navigate.

The nearest creature lets out a low, blood-curdling growl. It rears back, letting out a rabid bark—and lunges forward.

I brace for the impact, leveling my pathetic sharpened toothbrush, like that will help, but mid-stride, the creature’s trajectory falters.

A wet, sickening crunch echoes through its torso. I watch, frozen, as the hairy, mangy beast warps and morphs. Its elongated jaws shrink back into a human chin, sending a skinny dude crashing face-first into the mud.

Behind him, the other three creatures (jackals? coyotes?) are already melting back into human forms.

“Fuck,” the skinny dude gasps from the dirt. “The wards… the prison field is hitting us. It’s forcing the shift back.”

I keep my shiv leveled, my pulse hammering in my ears, but Gods, do I recognize that accent?

The kid on the ground pushes himself up from the mud, rubbing a hand over his wild hair. “Bevan? Holy shit, is that Taliesin Bevan?”

I lower the shiv by a fraction. “Charlie?”

“Fuck man, did you…fuck, did you just break out of Quo?”

I don’t bother answering, it’s pretty obvious. “We have to get out of here, now.” In the distance I hear the roar of engines. ATVs. They’ll be here soon. “Can you help?”

One of the group still in the shadows steps forward. “I’m not getting caught up in this,” she growls. The next second, she and her friend disappear into the night, probably morphing back into the wild animal forms.

But Charlie nods. “The sirens are moving east toward the main road. If you stay out here, the ATVs will trap you against the rock-face. Follow us. We know the blind spots in the valley where the patrol can't reach.”

The remaining guy nods. “But we gotta go fast.”

The searchlights are sweeping closer, the white beams cutting through the rain like blades. I look at François, pale and unmoving at my feet.

I could leave him. I should leave him.

My hand tightens on my shiv. He’s a snake in the grass and we don’t need him.