The Tiny Curse: Werewolf High Book 2(25)

I cautiously walked along the wall, which was now the bottom of the box,  worried that each step might overbalance the box from whatever it was  sitting on, maybe a table or a dresser? It had definitely been on  something, because Astor hadn't had to bend down to the floor to put me  in the box. I was still walking blind, but if I was careful about it, I  could throw myself backwards if I felt the box starting to fall.

I didn't fall. When I hit the lid of the box, I pushed at it until it  cracked open and I could crawl out. The room was dark but enough  moonlight fell through the window that I could make out that I was on a  messy desk. There were empty food containers that had been there so long  they'd started up their own eco systems, some crumpled up tissues, a  bunch of empty soda cans …  soda cans, that was just the thing I needed. I  hoisted myself up onto one of the cans to relieve myself.

It wasn't until I finished and climbed back down that I noticed the pair  of big, golden eyes staring at me. My heart leapt - first with hope  because I'd obviously been conditioned by werewolves, but then with fear  because this wasn't a werewolf, this was a big floppy eared hound dog.  And sure, hound dogs were cute and sweet but they were also bred to hunt  little things like me, and they didn't mess around about it.

"Hey cute doggy," I said to it. "What's up with you? Me? I'm just here  hanging out in this box." The box I was edging back toward before Snoopy  here could get any bright ideas. "Just hanging out like a human who you  should definitely not eat."

The dog's tongue lolled out the side of its mouth as it stared up at me. It seemed kind of familiar.

"You live here with that jerk, Astor?" I asked it. "Is he as much of a jerk to dogs as he is to humans."

The dog sniffed up at the air and then circled around a few times before  settling in, curled up in a ball with its feet tucked up under its  chin. Probably thought I didn't seem delicious. That was fine by me, but  I still needed to figure out a way down from the desk and out of the  room. I had no clue where Astor was or when he'd be back. My best guess  was that he was contacting his boss, and normally I'd be all set to spy  on him about it, but right then I just wanted to be back safe in the  Golden House. I could see no way down from the desk that wouldn't end in  broken bones but what I did see was Astor's desktop computer. I used  all my forced to click the mouse and wake it up. If I could send off a  message to Sam to say where I was, then if my escape attempts failed, at  least someone would know where I was. The mouse was heavy and hard to  maneuver but finally I dragged the cursor over to the school app and  opened it up. I sighed as I waited for it to load, tapping my  fingernails against the plastic of the mouse. It was so slow. Astor  would be back before it loaded. Astor would be back and have tortured me  to death and then repopulated the planet with mini Astor polo kids  before it loaded, that was how slow it was.         

     



 

I got up the messaging system and noticed that Tennyson Wilde was at the  top of the list from when Astor had contacted him earlier with the  video, so I clicked on him, because it would probably take another ten  hours to find Sam if I did a search. Then I ran over the the keyboard  and started to type. "helplu" I got out before I heard the door open. As  fast as I could, I ran for the enter button and dove for it, banging my  fist down on it to be sure the message sent.

The light flicked on and I stayed totally still, my face squished down  somewhere between the "P" and "[" keys and my arms sprawled out on  either side, not wanting to look up and face the inevitable.

"Get out of the way, dumb dog," Astor grumbled. There was a thumping noise, and I heard the dog yelp.

I wanted to get up and stab Astor in the eye for hurting the dog but I  also didn't want to make him aware that I'd escaped the box. As few  things clattered around and I squeezed my eyes shut tight. It was the  most pointless form of denial but I couldn't help but hope when I opened  them again, everything would be okay somehow.

It was easy to tell when he noticed me, because he stopped clomping  around and everything went quiet. Then the world swirled around in a  rush of color and movement as Astor picked me up by the leg, dangling me  in front of his face.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't answer him so he shook me.

"I was going to leave it until tomorrow to teach you a lesson but if you can't wait, I guess I'll start now."

He took something out of his pocket with his free hand, and there was a  flicking sort of sound. After I moment, it became horribly apparent what  the sound was. A lighter. He held me above the flame for a moment,  still dangling me by the leg, then lowered me down closer to the heat,  laughing. The more I squirmed to get away, the more he laughed. My hair  hung down, and there was a sizzling smell as it burned, and the air  filled with the stench of it. He moved the flame up, closer to my body. I  twisted around, trying to lift myself high enough to get a hold on his  hand, to bite his fingers off so that he'd let me go, but he just  thought it was funny.

Eventually he got bored. He tossed me onto the bed and I went rolling  across it. As soon as he turned away, I tried to flee, using the unmade  quilt to climb down. I could see the dog hiding underneath, quivering,  and it made me wish I was big again so I could punch Astor really hard  in the face. If I somehow managed to escape, I would definitely be back  to liberate that dog and serve up some cold justice to Astor.

He was standing at the computer, typing something, so I ran as fast as I  could toward the door. It seemed like a bad dream, running and running  but never getting any closer to my goal. Astor laughed and plucked me  up, holding me by the arms between pinched fingers. He pulled my arms  out to the sides, stretching them as far as they'd go until I thought  he'd rip them off.

"This is going to be more fun than I thought," he said, then dangled me  in front of the computer. Under where I'd so arduously typed my message  to Tennyson Wilde, Astor had sent another message. "Sorry, typo. I meant  hello."

My heart sank and my arm felt as though it was going to tear away from  the rest of me. Things were definitely looking grim. That was definitely  believable enough for Tennyson Wilde to pass off as nothing unusual,  definitely not as a cry for help. I was so mad at myself for not telling  anyone where I was going or at least leaving a note or something. If  I'd been watching myself in a movie or something I'd be screaming at the  screen about what a dumbass I was being. Though, in my defense, I had  been expecting to be captured and my main goal was to fix the whole mess  with the werewolf video, which I'd accomplished nicely. Good work, me.  If it saved the others, then anything Astor did to me was worth it,  death or torture or whatever. Though, if I could get out of it, that  would be better.

But as Astor placed me up on the highest shelf in the room and then  wandered off, humming, I thought maybe getting out of it would be harder  than I thought.





Chapter 18


The good thing about being stuck up on the shelf was that I could see  the entire room clearly, and gather information with which to hatch a  daring escape plan. The bad thing was I was up very, very high, with no  apparent way to get down that didn't involve cracking open my skull.

Astor wandered off toward the bathroom, and without his attention on me,  I took some time to see what was at hand that might be useful. There  was a dead cactus in a pot at the end of the shelf closest to the  window, at the other end was a pile of books that we'd had to read for  class, which looked as if they'd never been opened. There was a bowl of  moldy cornflakes and some coins but nothing else except what would've  equated to a 100 foot drop over the side. I wasn't especially afraid of  heights, but my head swam when I looked over the side and I edged back  behind the books so that I had a bit of a barrier between myself and the  fall.         

     



 

All in all, there was very little for me to work with. If the windows  had been open, at least, I could've somehow climbed over to it and out  to freedom, but they were firmly closed. Nothing on the shelf could be  fashioned into something to use as a rope to climb down. I had no choice  but to bide my time and wait for an opportunity, because no way was I  going to give up and submit to being Astor's plaything.

He sure was taking his time in the bathroom, which I didn't want to  think too hard about. If I knew how much time I had before he got back, I  could work on a more elaborate plan. I could rip up pages from the  books into strips and use them as a rope. Just one strip wouldn't hold  me, but if I somehow braided several strips together, they'd be  stronger. As soon as the idea came to me, I knew it was my best chance  to escape and I got to it right away. I'd made really good headway when  someone started pounding on the door. I hastily tucked my work into the  cover of the book and ducked down out of sight.