Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I hadn’t heard of Labradors in the sewers or many bird attacks, which made me suspect Sheila had used her powers to subdue these creatures. This was how she was getting food and supplies down here without being detected.
I managed to pry the birds off me, then sprinted through the tunnel. I could speculate later what other creatures she’d enlisted to do her bidding. Right now, I had to get out of here. It was one thing to face off against Sheila with a few syringes of my sedative, but that wouldn’t help me against her army, however small they may have been individually.
I scrambled into a neighboring tunnel, and just as I tossed away the last of my pigeon nemeses, something dropped from the ceiling. I jumped back, attempting to keep away from it, and my leg slammed into a pipe. It burst, the edges tearing into my flesh, drawing blood. As I cried out in pain, my attacker crawled on my head, and I snatched it, pulling it into my eyeline to see what this new villain was. I recognized that small head, buck teeth, and bushy tail—a squirrel. Nasty vermin.
Evidently, Sheila had no issue controlling a variety of species on this planet, and it was one thing to stop a few feral birds, another to stop the mass of animals that made up the blob I’d seen. I continued rushing through the system, as fast as my Vorcon body would carry me, considering if I had any forms at my disposal that would be faster or naturally deter these creatures, though I wouldn’t be able to shift in my injured state, so I had to keep moving.
As I trekked through the tunnels, I heard a distinct sound behind me, a call that was so familiar and sweet.
Sheila.
It turned into a war cry, intensifying, moving toward me.
Once again, I’d underestimated her, and if I didn’t get the hell out of there, she’d capture me, and I couldn’t bear to even consider what would happen next.
As I neared the tunnel exit, I heard incessant barking just outside. The sound was relentless and so powerful, it echoed all around me. What sort of dog had Sheila enchanted? Something menacing and fierce, that was for sure. How big can canines of this world get? I wondered, a moment before the light revealed the creature.
Less than a foot tall and yapping away, seemingly unencumbered by the effort it was expending, and also, standing up to something ten times its size.
I believed they called this a Chihuahua.
20
TWINK
With every passing day, I found myself getting more and more nervous about Daddy.
What would he do if he found Sheila?
Even worse, what would he do if Sheila found him?
After my shift at the café, I returned to the Kaylog.
Daddy had given me a wristband to use for entry, and after ensuring no one saw me, I scanned it across the top of the vent to open it. I crawled inside, then headed to the main part of the ship, placing my phone and wallet on a table near the front, enjoying making myself at home in his place.
“Daddy?” I called out, scanning the main living area I’d designed with the reorienter.
“In the shower.”
His voice was low and sounded strange. Something was wrong! I hurried into the bedroom, to the en suite.
“No, don’t come in, Twink.”
Too late.
Crouched down in the shower was this giant creature, black as night, its long, oval-shaped head with an impressive set of pointy silver teeth that were fully exposed. A horrifying sight, but what caught my attention most was the tail—I recognized it from the video Roger had shown me—which reminded me of the stinger on a scorpion.
Even knowing Daddy was a shapeshifter, a part of me still couldn’t quite process what I was looking at. “Sheila?” I asked. No, that couldn’t be right. But if he managed to sedate and capture her, why was she taking a damn shower?
I stopped in the doorway, my mouth hanging open, before this figure said, “It’s just me, Twink.”
Daddy.
I pushed past my instinct to flee, instead rushing to him, hurrying into the shower. Yellow fluid spread across the tile floor, and it didn’t take me long to find the spot on his leg it seeped from. “What’s happening?” I asked.
Despite the many hard edges to his body, I didn’t hesitate to move close, water wetting my clothes. “Are you okay?”
“Still healing,” he replied.
“Healing?”
“It’s nothing. Sheila attacked me today. Well, not her; her drones. They just weren’t what I expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“A Labrador, pigeons, squirrels…a Chihuahua.”
“Well, a Chihuahua didn’t do this, did it?”
He described the attack and stumbling into a pipe before explaining, “I managed to get away, but I have to heal in the form that’s injured before my body will allow me to shift again. It was taxing enough to take on this Vorcon form to begin with. Then I had to get back here in this body, trying to evade people, which wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.”