The Sleeping Planet Chapter One

November 4th 1997

Selma leaned back, sinking into the floppy leather upholstery, stopping only when her feet had disappeared between the cushions.
Except for the videogame the clubhouse in which she sat was quiet.
It was an eerie still quietness that permeated every surface, every corner, and every crevice of the room and the spaces beyond. A quiet so profound that if Selma were to switch off her video game she would hear the mosquitos desperately fleeing from their victims, the birds frightfully departing from their nests, the animals timidly scurrying from the woods, and the trees helplessly swaying from the wind. Most of all Selma would hear the sound of reality breaking around her.

That sort of quiet had always unnerved Selma, and there were not many things that frightened the girl.
Selma swallowed and took in a shallow breath.
The quiet unsettled her because it meant things had already begun to change--she could feel the changes overcoming her like a dozen worms crawling upon her flesh, strengthening her arms, speeding up her reflexes, sharpening her senses until she could see the beginnings of what she knew to be a fragment of the world falling away, in a back corner of the clubhouse.
A few moments later she could see the grey being that could help her if it chose. It was standing in front of the fracture, but it would not act, like always it just watched.

Selma put the game to full volume and reset the settings to expert. She sighed, the game was no longer challenging or distracting now that things were changing, she kept playing as to not look at the figure in the corner of the room.
She’d speak with it soon enough, first she needed things to change some more. She needed to far enough through the change hear there voice.

Selma’s boots and jacket lay buried between the dozen or so boxes that were stacked around the room. Everything, except the path she habitually took from the couch to the door, was covered in a layer of dust.

Selma abruptly looked up when she heard the echoing creak but just as quickly goes back to her game. Shaking her head she whispered soothingly. “Don’t worry. It’s just the wind blowing tree branches against the roof. Yeah, just branches.”
She wished the figure in the corner would disappear. It seemed to be stand stubbornly still to spite her. It seldom did what she wished.

A stack of boxes, an overturned milk crate and a large bag trapped Selma on the aging couch. Felling claustrophobic Selma kicked over the bag. It fell against the dusty stack of boxes and caused an explosion of dust to float into the air.

The dust floated into the moonlight that tumbled in from the open window and into a handful of dream catchers. The largest dream catcher, the one that hung directly above Selma seemed to quiver all on its own in the wind that blew mysteriously out from inside the room. The boxes cast strange dark shadows that punctured the light streaming across the door.

For a moment the shadows looked alive, but then the boxes settled, the wind rested and the shadows froze. Selma forehead creased with worry, as the creaking started again and became louder and more ferocious a resounding screech.

Selma steadies her self and took a peak at it, the thing in the corner. Its grey feet floated above the ground. It was human looking, for the most part; it had two legs and two arms, ten toes and ten fingers but it was missing a nose and both ears. This one wore grey jeans and a grey sweater.
Its large brown eyes stare curiously back at Selma.

Selma sat up trying to focus her tired eyes on the Gameboy but the shaking had spread from her hands up her arms to her shoulders.

The sound, the loud terrifying sound of something ripping and then of something splintering made Selma catch her breath.
The forest around the clubhouse was no longer quite, suddenly it sounded like everything was running away. It was a wild rush of animals, birds and bugs but louder then that was the wave of darkness that hit Selma and chassed everything that ran. Selma sat up and prepared herself as the changes to her body, the forest and the clubhouse became all too real.

Slowly, Selma turned her head toward the thing in the corner, again. For the first time in a very long time it was not looking back at her with its strange brown eyes.

In fact, it had turned away from Selma giving her a view at the back of its bald grey
head. From the angle she sat it looked like a mannequin she had sometimes seen in shops. Selma shivers as something dark began to grow behind it. A web of darkness was spreading out above, around, and through everything surrounding it.

The grey figure suddenly flew back through the opposite wall as another larger wave of darkness exploded from the fracture.

It took an entire minute for the grey creature to reappear poking first it’s head, then it’s upper body out of the wall from where it had disappeared.  All the while the dark web grew. Soon it blocked Selma’s path to the door crashing and creaking through the air and emitting waves of darkness. Selma knew it was pointless to run it could reach her from miles away, but the urge was sill there. Still even now she kept thinking of escaping through the window behind her and running. Selma stood up and set her jaw, she would not run.
“Hey you!” She yelled at the grey creature. It looked at her curiously but anything Selma wanted to say was interrupted by a loud crashing sound.
The sound echoes through the clubhouse as a piece of space disappears and Selma had her first glance of Oblivion that day.

The jagged hole changed shape as the pressure of space around it tired to collapse and heal the wound in the universe. Around the hole were tiny cracks that reached out in all directions like some sort of spiderweb.

Selma looked out the window in awe, she could see now; the web was always there, always pulling at her pulling her in.
They were everywhere; these fractures stretching out and up fracturing the sky.  She had just never been able to see them before her powers were growing.

It was only a matter of time now before she fell asleep and before her soul was pulled in, unless the grey creature interfered.

The grey thing had retreated further behind the wall. Selma watched its brown eyes widen, it had forgotten Selma completely and more importantly it looked afraid. The sound was too loud for her communicate with the creature so she just watched it panic.

It must be young Selma reasoned; none of the others Selma had seen over the years reacted as badly to the cracks. They moved away, but they never ran, they never looked afraid.

She shook her head as other newer sounds emerged from the cracks; as the fissures from other spaces and other times opened in the place beyond. There, she can hear the sounds of a train running over its tracks, of a girl yelling out food orders, of a grunting man on horseback and of a car honking at a swearing pedestrian.  Suddenly Selma felt exhausted, it is just moments away the sleep without rest, only bad dreams that become all too real.

“Buuurrrupp”. Selma looked down lazily she had dropped her game. She picked up the Gameboy, level six with two lives left.
Selma pressed the button that allowed her to keep playing; she mustn’t let herself fall asleep, not until it was safe. If she fell asleep she’d be sucked into that crack and into a world of torn between what is and what could be.

With every tick of her necklace watch the clubhouse seemed to change; the shadows jumped, the moonlight danced, the shutters groaned, the wind whispered. Selma fell back against the couch.
Fear alone, wasn’t a strong enough motivator. It faded the longer you waited, as the comfort of normal life and soft beds invade your senses, killing the darker parts of your imagination. The parts that hold your superstitions, the parts that keep you safe.

Selma blinked, she can still see the up-side-down milk-crate and the unfinished drink it supports. Selma can still taste the sweetness of its sugar and the bitterness of something that should have kept her awake. Selma’s head nodded forward before snapping up again.
She was stronger then this, she should have been able to beat it. To out last the change as she had done so many times before something was wrong; she had been drugged.

Selma’s vision blurred as she tried to recall how and who at the Center had managed to drug her. She hadn’t eaten any of their food.


Ten hours earlier…

Selma looked between the bottle of green juice and her nurse lifting her eyebrow in question. At her nurse’s prodding she leaned forward in her stool eyeing the drink with suspicion.

“It’s something new I put together for you.” Nurse Jenny said turning away from the light that seeped through the barred windows. Jenny’s long white hair seemed to glow in the sunlight. She gave Selma a rare smile.

Selma looked doubtfully at the drink and then shook her head warily. She wasn’t interested in ingesting something that looked it was made from grass.

Her stomach was growling and her mouth was beginning to feel like sandpaper but eating or drinking now, here at the Center was a bad idea. Her food was drugged that much was clear.
They needed her to fall asleep to have the visions that would make them and keep them rich, powerful and untouchable.  Selma eyes were open now--she would no longer help them. 

“It’ll help keep you up.” The old gray nurse whispered encouragingly. Looking at her conspirator and old friend Selma nodded in understanding. She grabbed the bottled drink unfastening its lid. Whatever Jenny put in in the drink would be powerful stuff; it would keep her up for a long time.

"Thanks, I'll see you later. The usual place and please make sure no one follows you this time. I don’t want to deal with another Centre creep following me around." Selma said gesturing with the bottle before taking a sip. Making a face she forced down the shockingly bitter drink.

“I’m sorry Jenny but this is gross. Where’s the sugar?” Selma said eyeing the bowl sitting on the counter.

“Sorry but beggars can’t be choosers.” Jenny said pulling the bowl out of reach as Selma tried to grab it. “If you can find someone else to knock together some meds to keep you awake then you can ask them to poison you with sugar.” Jenny said 'sugar' like it was a curse word.
Selma rolled her eyes and Jenny clucked her teeth.

“So, has my mom asked about me?” Selma was looking out the window. Her face was difficult to read.

Jenny watched Selma carefully before she answered. “No, not yet.”

Selma pressed her lips together and looked away from the window. Sighing she capped her drink. Her hands were shaking. “I can’t wait for her to answer. We’ll do it now.”

“You could wait.” Jenny looked uncharacteristically anxious; her usually stoic face seemed torn and indecisive.

“I could wait for what, for her to answer? That could take weeks, and that’s even if she wanted anything to do with me.”

“Selma I think you should stay little longer, not to wait for your mom. But for a better chance we could regroup and find a way to...”

“I can’t do that.” Selma interrupted. “That machine they made changes everything. If I wait I’ll go into a coma. If I go into a coma they’ll use the machine. If they use the machine they can read my mind. If they read my mind a lot of people will get hurt whether or not I want to help them or not.”

“We don’t know if it works.” Jenny said with a frown.

“I don’t want be an experiment. We go today.”

The Jenny’s face suddenly took on its more natural stoic expression “Fine. If you’re absolutely sure it has to be today.”

“Thanks, Jenny.” Selma relaxed and then stood up and stretched but she didn’t leave. She still looked uncertain.

Jenny opened a cupboard and pulled out a mug. Then she glanced at Selma as she turned toward the coffee maker.

“Is there something wrong?”

“No, I was just wondering if you were going downstairs.”

“You want me to check on Will.” Jenny said not questioning, not judging but simply.

“Yes, since I can’t say goodbye.”

Jenny poured coffee into her mug and took a long sip. “He won’t hear me.”

Selma shrugged her shoulders a hopeful smile played across her lips. “There’s a chance, he might come too.”

There was an uncomfortably long silence as Jenny continued to sip her coffee, presumably thinking through Selma’s request. Jenny’s impressive and passive expression had little effect on Selma. She smiled expectantly until Jenny answered.

“Okay.” Jenny said without a smile. Selma jumped forward and gave Jenny a long hug over the counter. Jenny lifted her mug out of the way just in time.


As Jenny looked over Selma’s shoulder she caught sight of a figure leaning against the wall. He wore a baseball cap low over his face and looked unfriendly toward Jenny from where he stood.

As Selma stepped back, she didn’t seem to notice him.
That was when Jenny recognized Liam.

“You’d better get going.” Jenny said suddenly shoeing Selma out the room. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Swinging her bag over her shoulder, Selma grabbed her drink and left the nurse station.
Selma grinned as she took out a packet of sugar from her pocket. Ripping it open she poured it into the green drink, glancing back to be sure Jenny wasn’t watching. Satisfied Selma recapped the bottle. Giving it a good shake she walked down the hall.

“Liam.” Jenny mouthed nodding hello, as soon as Selma was out of earshot. Jenny suspiciously looked around the room as though a spy would pop out from under the counter or from behind the fridge.

“I don’t get it,” Liam said casually stepping out of the corner. As he shuffled closer, Jenny groaned at Liam’s clothes. His raggedy black hoodie, tattered gray pants and dirty bare feet clashed with the Center’s hospital clean floors.

“You know she puts her own sugar in her drinks, so why bother banning it?” His long brown hair had grown longer; it now obscured half his face. He was badly in need of a hair cut, but there was very little chance Liam would let anyone near him with a pair of scissors. Liam’s arms were crossed over his chest, other then his clothes he looked like an ordinary sixteen-year-old, but Jenny knew better. Liam was not human.

“Selma isn’t your daughter and sugar has little effect on her.” Liam said coolly stepping up to the counter.

Jenny gave Liam a blank look. It was hard to understand where Liam was coming from sometimes.

“I heard you dislike sugar because of your kid, she was diabetic.” Liam paused for a moment and looked Jenny in the eye.
“So I repeat. Selma isn’t your daughter.”

Jenny took a small breath, the last thing she needed was someone to walk in on her shouting at air. If she believed Liam’s word, ordinary people could not see Liam unless he wanted them to see him, something that had made protecting the patients from Liam possible.

“It’s not like she’d become diabetic by eating sugar either. Not in the amount Selma eats it, I looked it up.” He continued as he picked up a spoon and began to stir the sugar around the bowl.

“You don’t have to understand it doesn’t affect your mission.” Jenny said quietly, glancing at the door.

“What is my mission now? You were supposed to convince her not to runaway today.” Liam glared at the old women, he was practically snarling.

“She can’t be convinced.” Jenny frowned remembering the determined way Selma had set her jaw, the way her hands had stopped shaking when she had made her decision.

“Fine.” Liam paused, “Am I wrong to assume that we are moving on to plan B?” Liam continued.

“No, you’re not wrong.”

“Good, so are you going to tell the Centre or do you want me make an anonymous tip?” Liam was smiling but it didn’t reach his eyes, the smile looked wrong on his face.

“No,” Jenny said shaking her head slowly “If we did that the Centre would make sure she’d never escape. She’d be in the basement.”

“You need her alive and outside the Centre.” Liam paused before he smiled his hollow smile again, “Easy, I’ll grab her after she escapes.”

“And how exactly are you going to find her when the Centre won’t be able to?”

“Selma still carries the necklace Will gave her. If she touches it I’ll be able to find her. Then I’ll knock her out and wait for you to show up.” Liam mouth stretched further into his eerie grin, he made a noise that might have been a laugh. Somehow it made him seem more sinister then before.

‘It’s his eyes’ Jenny abruptly realized ‘they look dead.’

Jenny nodded slowly with her usual grave solemnity, “I have to finish my shift. So you’ll have to—w”
“—Wait until she’s a few blocks away from the Clubhouse. I figured that much.”

Jenny raised her eyebrow as Liam bent close to smell the sugar bowl.

Liam frowned, disappointed. It didn’t smell sweet like he thought it would. He tasted the spoonful and widened his eyes in mock surprise.

“How are you going to knock her out?” Jenny firmly interjected barely blinking at his strangeness.
Liam looked at Jenny and grinned, a real smile this time. There was real emotion in his eyes, something that troubled Jenny more then his usual smile.

“You won’t hurt her.” Jenny grabbed Liam’s arm and stared him down. Liam looked down at where Jenny was holding his arm and laughed coldly.

“Alive and outside the Centre. That’s what you want, no?” Liam’s new grin was transforming his face toward something more human. For the first time in a long time Jenny saw the resemblance.

Jenny stared at Liam a moment longer before muttering, “You really are different people. I forget sometimes because you look so much alike when—y” Jenny trailed off, ‘you smile.’ She had wanted to say.
 
She dropped Liam’s arm as Liam smile became dark again and Jenny thought of Will; Liam’s human duplicate.

“Technically, Will and I are the same person, I was just born in a different world.” Liam’s grin had disappeared and for a moment he looked sad but then that expression too quickly disappeared.  He pushed back some of his hair allowing Jenny to see the brown birthmark that Liam and Will shared.

“Well you certainly look the same.” Jenny stated regaining her passive air but Jenny had already set Liam off.

“We’re not the same though, Will is weak and sentimental. And me? I’m stronger, fiercer, better and I get things done. Things he’s too weak to even think about. I’m what Will could’ve been, would have been if he’d just grow up a little.”
Liam picked up a spoonful of sugar. “He was stupid enough to think a girl was equal to nightmares that never end. His life here made him soft.”

“Will has a soul, he’s better that way.” Jenny whispered pointedly. She chose not to add that Liam would be better that way.

“He has a soul? What does that even mean? How the hell is being soft better?” Liam’s looked angry, “And how do you know that Selma and Will want the same thing?”
Liam dropped the spoon he had been holding. It fell against the sugar bowl leaving a mess.

“It's not like anyone asked her what she wanted.”

“There wasn’t anytime.” Jenny’s eyebrow wrinkled as she watched Liam. This was more emotion she’d seen from Liam ever, but Jenny couldn’t fathom what emotion it was. Was this anger?

“That’s not true, and you know it. It wouldn’t take any time at all. She just wouldn’t agree to it, and you know that just as well as Will or I.” Liam stood up and leaned close to Jenny. “Will wants to be with Selma, no matter what. Even if he had to get hurt and disfigured, even had to kill or get me to kill, even if you were to get caught and tortured and even if Selma hated him, I’d never do that. Sacrifice myself, I mean for something so silly.”

“That there is something you could learn from Will, sacrifice. Will knows what he’s given up. You aren’t able to understand.” Jenny said as she watched the sugar that had fallen on the counter.

“Will’s gone crazy, Jenny and we’re enabling him. That’s what I understand.” Liam leaned back with a sigh. He began tracing shapes into the sugary mess on the table.

“He hasn’t. It might seem crazy to you but there are things, important valuable things people would sacrifice for each other.”

Liam leaned in close to the counter. His nose was inches away from the overturned sugar bowl.
Jenny stared; she was half expecting him to lick sugar off the counter. Liam had recently discovered his taste buds and was fascinated by sugar.

“I don’t care why anyone sacrifices anything as long as it doesn’t interfere with the plan and as long as the plan gets me what I want.” Liam shrugged uncaringly.

“What is it you want?” Jenny was curious; Liam was resourceful and strong enough to get almost anything he wanted what would he want from a teenage boy. Jenny shook her head Will was extraordinary yes, but not in anyway that would help someone as calculating, intelligent and icy as Liam.

“That’s between me and Will. You don’t have to worry.” Liam looked at Jenny without any warmth.

“So you say.” Jenny said skeptically. Jenny wondered what this cold strange and powerful boy would and could want and what it would cost for whom.

“Whatever,” Liam didn’t bother trying to convince Jenny, “as long as you’re committed. You are committed to doing whatever it takes, aren’t you?” Liam asked pointedly.

“You know I am.” Jenny said giving the boy a look but he’d already disappeared.

Jenny sighed and noticed the sugary mess he’d made had gone with him; it was like he was never there at all. She still wondered how he did that part.


******************************************************************************
Will breathed slowly once the shadow had floated by him. Will sat beneath a torch in a dimly lit stone passage the never ended. The cold stone felt nice on his warm back and briefly he considered a nap, but the screams of someone getting caught by a shadow changed his mind.

He sighed as he sensed as far as his mind would let him. The shadows, were one of the things Liam had warned him about in this dream how they were practically invisible in this gloom, silent in the quietness and deadly in this deathtrap.

Liam used his gift for invisibility to survive here and even with his experience he had died regularly in this dream. Will could not afford that luxury, and he still was not sure if dying in someone else’s dream meant dying for real. Unlike Liam he was human, there were different rules for him. Already he was pushing his own strange empathetic gifts to their limits taking crab naps when he felt it safe. This life style was wearing thin by the second and Will understood Liam, more then ever.

Will could sense the shadows, all four of them, as they moved in the dark he could feel their bloodlust and their perversity as they searched for, listened to and stalked for fresh prey. The shadows were blind and hunted by sound alone.
The shadows were not the only things Will could feel, he could feel an ogre as it attacked someone from inside one of the rooms that lined the passage way. These rooms were the only other safe place from the shadows other then beneath the lights. Will exhaled; he was exhausted from using his powers all the time.

The light above Will began to flicker, it was about time he found a new spot to hide. Sensing that the shadows were far enough for Will to move, Will stood up as quietly as he could and ran on his toes to the next light down the passage. There Will held his breath, his ears were ringing with the sound of his own heart.

It was only then that Will noticed that he was not alone, across the passage a little way down beneath the next closest torch sat a middle aged women with very blond hair. She looked as tired as Will felt.
Will swallowed and tried not to make eye contact but the woman’s grey eyes seemed to have a gravity of it’s own. This was a place with dozens of cold violent people with who knows what sort of abilities.

‘What’s you’re name kid?’

Will flinched expecting one of the shadows to appear chasing after the sound of the women’s voice.

‘I can talk without speaking. They won’t here us.’ She said, and Will looked up noticing that her lips did not move.

‘How do I talk back?’ Will half thought to himself and half to the women.

‘You already are. My name’s Gina what’s yours?”

‘William.”

Suddenly her eyes shone and her body began to shake Will paused in fear for the women. That is until he saw her smile and it suddenly occurred to him that she was laughing silently. The laugh did not reach her eyes.

‘You’re the infamous Liam I take it.’ She said at last. ‘Well isn’t this my lucky day, did you know there’s a rumor floating around about you?’

Will did not answer he did not like where this conversation was heading.

‘There’s a rumor you’re an aberration. That you can go to the human’s earth anytime you want.’

‘That’s impossible.’ Will said sensing from Gina apathy so deep that it nearly blocked out all her emotions except for one—glee.

‘I wasn’t finished kid. I can’t remember what the bounty on you was but it went one of your death’s gives us a few extra ones or was it that we go out of these nightmares for good. Which one is it kid?’
Will looked around to the torch he had been sitting under it had gone out and Gina was sitting at the only other viable option.
‘There’s no where to run kid.’ Gina was gleefully laughing out loud now and that’s when the shadows descended upon them.


******************************************************************************
Selma slipped into the bathroom and kicked opened each stall. Content that the bathroom was deserted, she took the maintenance ‘closed for service’ sign from under one of the sinks and attached it to the outside door.
Selma pulled on the chain around her neck, checking the watch that hung on it. She pressed it to her lips.

“I’m sorry Will. They’ll kill someone if I stay.” She sighed.
Liam materialized behind her the moment she’d touched the watch. He watched Selma curiously with his hands in his pockets blinking in and out of existence like a flickering light bulb. He didn’t want her to see him watching it was one of Will’s ‘stupid’ rules.

Selma smiled wistfully before she hurriedly replaced the watch; there wasn’t time for sentiments. There never really was. Liam tilted his head at her and disappeared when she turned towards him.

Selma frowned; she thought she’d felt someone standing behind her but she was alone not even one of the strange grey creatures were around.
Selma unzipped her bag and laid out some of her escape tools for what she hoped was the last time.

She quietly hummed a song as she tied up her long copper hair. From her collection of escape tools, she chose a tiny screwdriver she had taken from her aunt on her last visit home. Selma stepped on the trashcan as she unscrewed the lock on the bathroom window. She hummed to herself as her tan fingers worked quickly and nimbly at taking apart the window.

She pried off the grate that covered the windows, and tossed her bag out the moment the small window was open. Selma smiled as she heard a thud and predicted it landed on the shelter that held the Center’s back-up generator.
She lowered the grate out the window until she hung precariously by her feet against the top and bottom of the window.
It landed with a quite thump on her bag. Selma pulled herself back into the bathroom and quickly stashed her escape tools -- the screwdriver, a set of lock picks and a security key card behind the sink and inside one of the stalls, just in case she needed a second or third chance at escape.

Using the trashcan and the hand dryer as footholds, Selma lifted her self out the small window. She noticed the shoe prints she left on the dryer but decided that no one would notice it until it was too late.

Selma carefully lowered herself onto the generator. She patted the building goodbye, replaced the grate, grabbed her bag and leaped off the shelter landing gracefully on her feet in the building’s shade.

She breathed out, hoping Jenny would remove the sign from the bathroom after she had left the property or better yet was out of sight from the bathroom windows.

Selma stayed in generator shed’s shade crouched for a moment longer gathering herself before she peaked around the edge. The bright sun burned her tired eyes.
She blinked hard and gauged the distance between the shelter and a large bush with a blue hat caught stuck on one of the branches. Behind it a cut in the fence large enough for her to fit through was hidden. All she had to do was run.


******************************************************************************

Will watched in horror as a shadow timidly reached out and attached itself to his feet.
‘How long do you think you can last holding you breath William?’ Gina said as a second shadow did the same to her arm. ‘You know if you move before I do that this little shadow on my arm will grab you by the head and start pulling. Do you know what it feels like when two shadows slowly rip you apart. You’d die a real true death you’ll never come back from.”

‘The rumor is a lie.’ Will breathing out silently, ‘You did all this for no reason.’

‘A little late for that, kid. Besides who said I needed a reason, I was just bored.’

Will swallowed slowly, ‘The way I see it Gina, this’ll turn out one of three ways. The first is one of us makes a noise and the shadows give one of us a true death while the other escapes.’

‘Tsk, tsk William, that’s the only way this’ll play out.’ Gina replied, ‘But do go on, this is pretty interesting.’
Will smiled relieved that she had taken the bait. ‘The second way is that someone somewhere will make some noise and they’ll leave us alone.’

‘Not likely to happen. What’s the third way kid?’

‘That we’ll both die slowly as these shadows eat us alive.’

‘Your out of explanations but for some reason I get the feeling your not done talking.’

Will turned his head smiled at Gina confidently. ‘Well until I got tired of it and went to Earth. There’s a reason why I’ve got a bounty on me. Did you know I’ve never died, ever in this dream.’

‘That’s not possible.’ Gina said ‘You’ve been locked up in here for years ever since you broke the laws.’
‘Look me in the eyes Gina, I know you can tell if I’m lying. Am I lying?’

Gina looked Will in the eyes. Will sensed the apathy in Gina begin to dissipate; now she was curious, scared and angry.

‘You aren’t the first to try to collect the bounty.’ Will lifted his hand slowly, silently and dramatically into one of his pockets. He watched Gina follow his hands with her eyes.

‘What are you doing? You aren’t going back to that human place are ya?’

‘I’ll let you deal with these shadows on your own Gina,’ pausing theatrically Will glanced at the blond women. ‘Unless you can offer me something I want to get you out of this mess you made for yourself?’   

‘Your bluffing.’

‘Am I? Fine, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.’ Will reached into his pocket taking out a piece of cloth Liam had given him years ago when they had made their deal. Will couldn’t go home unless Liam let him, but that didn’t mean that there were ways to look across.

Slowly an image of Selma sneaking out a bathroom window appeared in front of him. Will scowled Selma looked like she was running away, that was not part of his plan. Will barely noticed Gina when she said ‘I believe you, I know of a torch that never goes out and I know how to get to it.’

Will looked at Gina skeptically before letting both the cloth and the image of Selma disappear into his pocket ‘And you’re not sitting under it because?’

‘There’s always a shadow next to it. Like a guard dog.’

‘I see.’ Will slowly reached forward and silently untied his shoe. When he finished rested his head against the cool stonewall. He sat there moment thinking.

He could throw his shoe out in the opposite direction but there was no guarantee Gina was telling the truth. He couldn’t sense very much from her and he knew that she must have had her own plan for escaping the shadows.

‘What are you doing now?’

‘Shhhssshh let me work.’ Will replied.
 
‘Your going back on our deal?’ Gina was angry now. Will smiled as he finally figured it out, “Are you laughing at me?” Gina hissed angrily and out loud.

The shadow that had been attached to Will’s leg sped across the passageway toward Gina. Will thinking quickly took his shoe and slid it nosily across the passageway in the opposite direction. The shadows followed.

‘See. It worked.’ Will said looking sheepishly at a furious Gina.