“Drop down, and I’ll catch you.” He held both his arms out.
“I can’t.” She croaked, tightening her grip as her hands started to sweat. “I’m freaking out.”
“I know.” He rubbed his hand down his face. “But I need you to trust me, okay. Just drop down.
They glanced down at the ground seeing one of the guards coming around the corner. Conner pulled back inside, and Jillian clenched her eyes shut, hoping that if he didn’t sense her looking at him, he might keep walking. She held her breath, fingers slowly slipping off the edge.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck-fuck!
She felt herself slipping and jumped back a few inches, dropping down. Conner caught her around the waist, but her shins smacked into the concrete windowsill. She clenched her teeth as he pulled her inside. She looked down at her bloody shins, confident that nothing was broken, but it hurt like a mother fucker.
“You okay?” He grimaced at her shins.
“Peachy.” She put her hand on one of the scrapes and immediately regretted it. “Did he see us?”
Conner looked out the window one way and then the other. “I…” He panted.
“Conner, did he, or didn’t he?” She got to her feet and rushed to the computer desk.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head and closed the window. “I don’t see how he couldn’t have at least heard something, but maybe we pulled you in before he looked up.”
“Can you barricade the door while I try to get in here?” She typed her name and birthday into the password field, first capitalized, and then not capitalized.
Nope.
She typed her mom’s name and birthday to no avail. Conner scooted a massive bookshelf to the center of the room and then scooted it a few feet in front of the door before carefully tipping it over and leaning it against the doorway
She knew on the fifth try, it would lock her out, so she needed to think about it carefully. She sat back in the seat and stared at the tank of predatory fish.
Would he use Parana plus his own birthday? She quickly dismissed the idea. Her father was morbid and egotistical, so that would make just as much sense as anything. And yet, something in the back of her mind was telling her that wasn’t the answer.
I’m an oracle. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. It’s supposed to be within my power to see the unseen.
She looked at the leather couch that was looking well-worn from all the nights he’d spent in here before he and Mrs. Lox finally decided to have separate bedrooms. She remembered her mother yelling something about “that fake redheaded whore.”
What was her name?
She placed her fingers on the keys.
DanikaDelRio
That was definitely her name. But something was missing. She added the missing characters and looked at the screen.
DanikaDelRioXOXO$$$
She swallowed hard and gave the return key a decisive and deliberate tap. She held her breath as it processed before illuminating a welcome message and opening his e-mail.
“Holy shit.” Her eyes lit up as she smiled in the light cast off by the screen. “I’m in.”
She went through his inbox and trash folders, forwarding everything she could use against her father. She beckoned Conner over and unzipped the front pouch of the backpack. Using the thumb drive, she backed up all the files on his hard drive before putting it safely back in its little zipper pouch.
The doorknob to the office turned, slowly the first couple times. Then there was a thump as someone shoved their body weight against the door. Jillian and Conner looked at each other, their eyes as big as saucers.
“It’s not locked.” Her father’s voice was clear as day. “Somethings up against it… Jillian?”
She didn’t answer but stood up and tried to lift his massive desktop tower. It was big and bulky. Her father could have afforded a much nicer one, but he clung to this dinosaur for some unknown reason. Conner took it from her.
“What do you want me to do with it?” He mouthed.
She pointed to the fish tank, yanking the power cord out. He wrinkled his chin, shrugged, and dropped the computer into the fish tank.
“I need to get in here.” She pointed to the filing cabinet. “Can you pick the lock or something?”
“Sure.” He grabbed the handle and yanked hard, pulling the handle off. “Oops…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She groaned as the thumping grew louder and louder.
“Who’s in there with you, Jillian?” Her father yelled. “You know that what you’re doing is breaking and entering right now, don’t you?”
Conner and Jillian looked at each other, and he quickly stripped down. This time Jillian didn’t bother looking away as he hunched over, growling as his body stretched and distorted, spouting thick, golden fur that, just as before, started at shoulders and spread outward. The hardwood floor groaned, bowing under his weight, and he bellowed, shoving his claws into the top outline of the drawer.
The metal screeched as he bent the top of the drawer outward.
“Good enough.” Jillian patted him on the shoulder, and he lumbered over to the other side of the room. She thumbed through the files, finding the ones she knew could do the most damage and shoved them into the backpack.
“Okay, let's go.” She spun around to find Conner’s bear, elbow deep in her father’s fish tank, chasing around the three remaining fish.
“Conner!” flexed her jaw. “Please tell me you didn’t eat his fucking fish.”
The grizzly
