It worked.

From the moment the ring reached his ears, something changed. He reared back in surprise, crashing into the door and, subsequently, slamming it shut behind him. Trapped... for now.

Remembering her part, Christa flicked the flashlight up, shining it in his face. He froze, stunned by his sudden blindness. His tail dropped and writhed on the ground as if gravity was wrestling it down. She kept her eyes on him, noticing two antenna-like spines sticking straight up on either side of his head. She hadn’t seem them before.

If he weren’t bound by some strange vow of silence, she was sure he would have hissed at her. Trying to get his bearings, he brought one arm up to shield himself, blinking rapidly. It was while he was doing so that Caleb wrapped a hand over Christa’s to guide the beam of light back to the floor.

The gesture got his attention, it seemed, for he followed the light trail across the tiles, eye settling on the book lying open before him. Once again, his demeanour shifted, the two spines above his ears tilting forward as his head cocked in thinly veiled curiosity.

He took a glance- or perhaps it was a glare- at the bell which Caleb held for him to see. A silent warning. Then, as if crawling over the floor rather than across it, he stepped closer silently and peered down.

Christa watched him intensely, reciting the words Caleb had asked her to write on the page in her head.

Are you trapped here?

We are trapped, too.

We can help you.

Will you help us?

Did he know what he was looking at? Did he understand? It occurred to her that it might be considered strange to question whether a grown man could read... but then, this wasn’t just any grown man. Was he a man?

...

Flip.

The man with the mask tried to hurt us.

If he’s gone, we can leave.

If we leave, we can help.

Will you keep him away?

They waited for a response, anything that would indicate agreement... or disagreement.

Flip.

To their surprise, he picked up a pen from a desk with his tail, placed it in his bandage-wrapped hand, and, very messily, scribbled something on the page before sliding it across the floor.

iF YoU LeAve

YOu WiLL not

coMe BAck

“...Of course we-“

As she spoke, his antennae spasmed, and he jumped back to the door, glaring at her in irritation. She went silent, realizing her error, and knelt down slowly to pick up the book.

When she started writing quietly, he relaxed and leaned forward again, pinning the notepad with his hand once she slid it back to him.

We will come back.

The man went still. His tail slipped from gravity’s grasp and swayed idly behind him, the only indication that he wasn’t a statue. It drifted to one side, then twitched to the other and back again, like a scale keeping track while he weighed his options.

That or he was just dissociating, reverting back to a mindless animal. Either way, he eventually cocked his head up to stare them down, eye narrowing to a thin slit as he backed away and to the side, still in a perpetual crouch.

A slide to their right to make room and open the door or a reposition to strike at the weaker one of the two? They’d know soon enough.

Christa stole a glance at Caleb from the corner of her eye. As if sensing her stare, he tensed, but he didn’t look back, still holding the bell for all to see. They waited for the verdict.

Click.

Turning the knob with his tail, their guest opened the door and slinked through the opening, not bothering to seal it behind him. As the pair crept to the opening and peeked around it cautiously, he swivelled his head to look at them one more time, then spun around and sprinted down the hallway from whence he came.

Without ever making a sound, he was gone.