By Elizabeth Jane Shelton

Therrus tried to quiet his heavy breathing, back pressed to the door, hands bound before him. He attempted, again, to pull apart the bindings. Stars, these are tight. How do they have access to such advanced restraints? He’d been led to believe that monitoring these particular humans would be simple.

He’d been wrong.

He held his breath and listened but was unable to hear the footsteps of his pursuers. The tight space he’d ducked into was pitch-black, but the light filtering in beneath the door was just enough to make out shapes in the darkness. Coats and shoes filled the closet, but nothing useful for breaking his bindings.

Therrus sighed. This was supposed to be a simple assignment: observe the targets. How was he supposed to know it would devolve into this high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse?

Or that he would be the mouse?

They would be back soon. If he didn’t escape now, and they found him, there would be nowhere to run. Game over.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture the building. Perhaps he could make a break for the back door, but there was a lot of ground to cover. He wasn’t far from the main entrance, but wouldn’t they be guarding that?

Besides, he couldn’t leave completely. He still hadn’t fulfilled his mission, as sideways as it had gone. No, even though his targets had turned on him, he needed to remain in the building until his contacts returned to rescue him. Otherwise, who knew what the targets might do?

Therrus swallowed. If his superiors in the Galactic Union could see him now, they would laugh him out of the Earthan Initiative. What Civaran couldn’t handle a couple of primitive humans? They hadn’t even figured out space travel yet.

Unfortunately, he was a researcher, not a military operative. He was supposed to observe without interfering. Even taking this mission had been a breach of protocol, but he was determined to see it through to the end.

He checked his watch and breathed a sigh of relief. His contacts should return any moment. He just had to hold out a little longer.

A series of thumps rattled the ceiling. The targets had moved upstairs.

This was his chance.

He managed to maneuver his hands enough to grip the handle of the closet door. He turned it gingerly, careful not to make a sound, then peeked through the crack.

All clear.

He glanced around. Where could he go? He needed a concealed place that would still allow an escape route if he were caught.

Therrus dashed around the corner, zeroing in on the sitting area near the entrance. He could hide behind the couch! That way he would have plenty of warning when his pursuers returned, and if they found him, he could vault it and escape toward the back of the building.

Therrus glanced nervously behind him, but his pursuers were still upstairs. They’d resorted to calling for him, though they used his alias. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Luke!” The words were punctuated by laughter. Therrus grimaced.

Moving quickly, he pulled the couch out from the wall at an angle to hide the gap from his targets then ducked behind the other side. His heart pounded, and he struggled to calm his breathing before it gave away his position.

Then he heard scratching on the hardwood floor, and he froze.

He’d forgotten about the dog.

The nose of a large, shaggy black Newfoundland peeked around the corner of the couch, sniffing. When the dog noticed Therrus, it perked up, then wedged itself into the opening Therrus had created, moving the couch even more. “Go away!” Therrus hissed, motioning for his captors’ hellhound to leave. “Come on, Ebony, you’re going to give me away!”

Ebony just barked, settling down next to Therrus and licking his face. Therrus grimaced and was wondering if he had enough time to get back in the closet when he heard footsteps on the stairs.

They were coming!

He slouched farther and shushed the dog, but Ebony just barked again, drawing the targets.

“Ebony?” The female sounded confused. “What are you doing back there, girl?”

The male gasped close by. “Did you find him?”

Before Therrus could react, two heads popped over the top of the couch, peering down at him. The female grinned. “Good girl, Ebony!”

The male smirked. “I told you, Luke. You can’t hide from us.” He reached down, and Therrus braced himself, but just before the male’s hand touched the top of Therrus’s head, the door to the main entrance swung open, and Therrus’s contacts burst in.

“We’re home!”

Therrus closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, resting his head against the wall. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Esteppe.”

“Luke? What are you doing back there?” Mr. Esteppe approached the couch, laughing when he saw the expression on Therrus’s face. “You look a little stuck.”

Therrus held up his bound hands. “The children dared me to escape from these… things. Once I was stuck, they insisted we play hide-and-seek tag.”

Mrs. Esteppe appeared from behind her husband and snorted when she saw Therrus’s hands. “You’ve never seen a finger trap before?”

“A finger trap?” So that’s what they were called. The three tubes bound his longest fingers on each hand together. “No matter how hard I pull, they don’t come off.”

“That’s the point.” Eight-year-old Sadie grinned, revealing a gap where she was missing a tooth.

“Oh! You have six fingers?” Mr. Esteppe noticed as Sadie and Carter freed Therrus from the finger traps.

“I do,” Therrus admitted. “I live in fear of encountering Inigo Montoya.”

Mr. Esteppe laughed and hauled Therrus out from behind the couch. “Thanks for watching the kids, Luke. Linda and I haven’t had a date night in a while.”

Therrus grinned. “My pleasure! I had fun.”

As he left, he heard Carter showing off a drawing to his mother.

“What a wonderful picture of Luke! But why is he green?”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Jane Shelton has loved stories of every kind since she was young, although fantasy is her favorite. She strives to write stories that are both entertaining and meaningful, and she hopes to impact others and honor her Creator with her writing. If she’s not working on a story, it’s probably because she’s writing code at her job as a software engineer.

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