When everything else felt impossible, having that alter ego was the crutch that kept me standing, the sword that kept me fighting, and the home that I could always return to.
I don’t think I’m alone in that.
“Ever?”
After what feels like the better part of forever, they nod. “All right. I’m in. Let’s make our stand.”
Twenty-Seven
Ever
“One condition, though,” I say, and I look to the others in turn. “I don’t want to harm anyone.”
“Even if that someone might kill us?” Finn asks, but not with conviction.
“It doesn’t mean we should do the same thing. That’s not how this goes,” I counter. “I’m not saying that nonviolence is the only solution. We should do what we have to do, and if that includes fighting for our lives, no one should hold back. I just think violence should be the last resort, not the starting place. This isn’t who we are. This isn’t who I want us to be. And more to the point, I want to see them brought to justice if we can.”
“It’s not like we have weapons,” Maddy says. “Unless you count the bread knife, but I’d rather not use that either.”
“Why did you take it?” Finn asks, with mild curiosity.
She laughs. “To fight off wild animals, I guess? It probably wouldn’t be particularly helpful there. Point is, I agree with Ever. I want to catch our ghost. Or at the very least, I want to make sure they’re neutralized and won’t be able to harm us. Besides, if we can stop them and trap them, maybe they’ll have a phone. We can use it to call for help.”
“Fine,” Finn says. “I want us to go home.”
I nod. Me too. “Okay, then. What do we have to work with? We need to come up with a plan. They’re ahead of us and have probably set up a trap near the boulders. Rocks fall, everyone dies. Something like that.”
Maddy twirls the bread knife around, making me faintly uneasy, but she isn’t even looking at it. “We have our cloaks,” she says. “Or at least mine and yours. I don’t think we want Finn to strip quite yet.” He scowls at that. “Once upon a time, Selina, my cat, caught a massive raven and brought it into the house, alive and mostly unscathed. My parents weren’t home and my sister was out playing somewhere, and I freaked. Selina chased it around the living room, ducking under the couch whenever it tried to attack her. I was on the verge of a full mental breakdown when Sav came back and helped me catch the bird. We threw blankets and towels over it, so it would be disoriented and not able to fly away. It worked then. It may work with humans too.”
“Disorient them, overwhelm them, stop them.” I tick the options off on my fingers. “That makes sense, but it can’t be our whole plan.”
Finn nods. “We’ll need to lure our Big Bad Evil Person away from the boulders. They have the upper hand there, and it’s dangerous territory. If something goes wrong while we try to overpower them, if the boulders start to move again, we’d all be in danger.”
“I think there are two options there,” Maddy says. “Lure them away, or sneak up on them.”
“How do you intend to do that?” The moment I ask that question, I wish I hadn’t.
“Easy,” Finn says. “Me. I’ll be the incentive. If I pretend to stumble on the boulders, they’ll have to come to me. But if one of you tries to climb them, they’ll know something is wrong. The one thing we have on them right now is they don’t know we’re all still together.”
Oh, I hate this.
“I can try to run up to the Big Bad,” Maddy adds. “I’m still good for short distances, I’m quite sure. Ever, you can flank them.”
I hate this so much. I am responsible for this group, and I want to be able to protect them.
“No.”
Finn grabs my hand and squeezes. “It’s not your call, Ev. I can do this. I want to do this. And we have no other alternative, because all of us are hurt. And we can’t keep going on like this.”
“Agreed,” Maddy says. “This is happening whether you like it or not. So we better figure out the second half of the plan.”
I want to speak, but I don’t have the words. Every time I try, my brain snags on a new thorn of fear, and I’m silent for what feels like an eternity. Long enough that it seems like the stars have changed positions, and bats fly overhead. “Right. I’ll trail Finn as closely as I can. I’m still the nimblest of the three of us, so I’ll be able to move around the boulders easiest. I’ll be there to make sure nothing happens to Finn if our Big Bad attacks—or to help out Maddy so we can overpower them. Once we have…”
“We need to find a way to immobilize them,” Finn says.
“Magic ward?” Maddy suggests, and I wince.
“How about this?” Finn unwraps the leather belt from around his waist. It’s a few feet long, and though it’s fairly narrow, it looks sturdy. “I don’t have a rope on me, but this may be the best alternative option.”
“I have the laces of my boots, but I think the belt is the better option.” I can’t believe how casually we’re discussing all this. It’s comforting to do something, but it’s not a discussion we should ever have to have.
More worrisome still: I’ve yet to meet an RPG group who sticks to their plan.
But Finn is right. What other options are there? We might as well approach this scenario with the little we know about survival and surviving.
“We can use your crutches as weapons maybe,” Maddy says to Finn.
