Chapter 9: Hide and Seek
Later that night, Peter felt someone shaking him roughly awake. He opened one eye and saw Vixen staring at him with a nervous look on her face. She had taken off the baggy sweatshirt and pants and was now wearing a short pink frilly dress with no straps and long white fingerless gloves on her arms while her feet were covered in pink lacy heels.
"What is it?" Peter mumbled.
"You have to get up," Vixen said and then a sharp knock came from the door. "Now."
"Who's there?" Peter said as he slowly got out of bed.
"The one I care about," Vixen said helping Peter up. "He's here."
"Then I should get dressed." Peter stumbled to a pile of clothes next to his futon bed but Vixen pushed him away.
"No, you need to hide in the closet," Vixen said opening the shuttered closet-door which was located across from the kitchen on the other side of the futon bed.
"Why?" Peter asked as he was shoved into the closet by Vixen's strong hands.
"Just be quiet and don't move," Vixen replied and closed the closet-door.
Through the shutters, Peter watched as Vixen moved toward the front door and opened just as a second sharp knock began. Three people stood in the hallway outside Peter's apartment. The one in front was a tall figure wearing a black hooded raincoat and a white mask over its face. Next to the tall figure stood a small boy with a round figure, cold blue eyes, and red circles on his cheeks.
"Marion, BB," Vixen said opening the door wider. "You came. Where's Fawkes?"
"Right here."
The tall figure and the small boy stepped aside to reveal a short man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. He stepped into the apartment and removed his hood. Like Vixen, this man had pointed ears as well, but they were red instead of white. His shaggy hair was the same color as his ears, though it barely covered the black eyepatch that was on the right side of his face. With one eye covered, his other eye shone bright-green in the dark.
"Fawkes!" Vixen immediately stepped forward and hugged the short man tightly. "I thought I would never see you again."
"So did I," said the short man named Fawkes who slowly wrapped his own hands around Vixen.
But when Peter looked closely, he noticed one of Fawkes' hands was a curved metal hook that looked incredibly sharp.
"Where's Bonetti?" Vixen asked when she looked over Fawkes' shoulder.
"He'll be here later," Fawkes replied as Vixen looked at him. "Someone was following us."
"Who?"
"I'm not sure, but Bonetti's taking care of him now."
"I see."
"Guys," said the small boy named BB who was looking around the room frantically. "My facial scanners are picking up a human presence."
"Where?" asked Fawkes, who gritted his teeth which included two pairs of sharp canines on the top and bottom rows.
BB stepped into the apartment and looked directly at the closet-door. "There."
Peter froze stiff as Fawkes quickly made his way across the one-room apartment and slammed open the closet-door.
"Who are you?" Fawkes growled as he grabbed Peter by the collar of his pajama shirt and pulled him out of the closet.
"I-I'm P-P-Peter G-Giles," Peter said nervously.
"Is this your apartment?" asked Fawkes.
Peter nodded.
"Then how did Vixen get in here without him noticing?" BB asked.
"He let me in," Vixen said, causing everyone else in the room to look at her.
"Does he know what you are?" Fawkes said as his head suddenly turned one-hundred and eighty degrees to look at Vixen.
"No," Vixen answered.
"Then why didn't you kill him?" Fawkes wondered. "That certainly wasn't a problem for you earlier today."
"That was different!" Vixen snapped.
"Guys, can you keep it down?" Peter said getting Vixen and everyone else's attention. "Someone might hear you and tell the landlord about it."
"Not if I kill you first," Fawkes said and pressed his hooked hand against Peter's throat.
"Wait a minute," BB suddenly said. "Peter Giles…P.G….could this human be the Purple Guy?"
"Let me check," said the masked figured named Marion who stepped over to where Fawkes stood and stared at Peter. After several minutes, Marion shook her head. "It's not him."
"Then who is he?" BB asked.
Marion looked back at BB and said, "This human is an Engineer who works at the factory that makes and repairs our kind."
Peter's eyes widened. "Then you're…Animatronics."
Everyone in the room went silent.
"You catch on pretty quick, for a human," Fawkes said, pressing the sharp end of the hook harder into Peter's neck but not drawing blood. "I could kill you right now, but then again you might prove useful to us."
"How?" Peter said nervously.
Fawkes glared at Peter and said, "If you promise to keep our presence secret and do as I say from now on, I'll let you live."
"I-I promise," Peter replied.
"Do you swear it?" Fawkes said dubious.
"I swear it, on my life."
"Fine." Fawkes made a long thin cut on Peter's throat with his hook before withdrawing it. "I'm letting you off with a warning. If you betray me or anyone else in this room, your whole throat's going off. Understand?"
Again, Peter nodded and quickly ran into the bathroom to change his soaked pajama pants.
###
The next night after work, Peter came home carrying several bags of groceries. He was about to ascend the stairs to his apartment when a big man with a bulging gut suddenly approached him from down the hallway adjacent to the stairs.
"Mr. Giles," said the big man in a friendly tone. "How've you been?"
"Uh, good," Peter said nervously.
"All right, then let me get straight to the point," the big man said and moved closer to Peter. "A got a complaint this morning from the old lady who lives one floor below you claiming that she heard loud noises coming from your apartment last night. Can you verify this?"
"Oh, that, um," Peter thought of something and said, "I was, uh, watching a movie on TV. It was pretty loud and I guess I forgot to turn down the volume."
"What movie were you watching?" the big man asked.
"Um, Chopping Mall," replied Peter.
The big man gave Peter a confused look. "What's that?"
"It's about, um, killer robots going after teenagers, in a mall, and killing them."
"Sounds disgusting," the big man said and noticed the grocery bags Peter was carrying. "That's a lot of groceries. Having a party?"
"Uh, yeah, with my coworkers," Peter said. "Is that okay?"
"I don't care, just don't make a lot of noise," the big man said and walked away.
"Who was that?"
Peter jumped and saw Marion standing next to him. She had just come down the stairs and while wearing the same mask her clothes had changed. Instead of the black and white raincoat, she wore a black-and-white striped blouse with a visible black bra, fingerless gloves with the same pattern, black shorts, and black-and-white stripped stockings with black strap-on slippers. Peter also noticed that Marion's skin was deathly pale and her long hair was black and silky.
"That was the landlord," Peter answered and then asked, "Where are you going?"
"To the Cat's Paw Theatre," Marion answered as she walked past Peter. "I'm performing there tonight in the ballet Petrushka."
"Who are you in the ballet?" Peter asked as Marion reached the bottom of the stairs.
"The title character, of course," Marion said and waved as she went out the backdoor. "Wish me luck, human."
"It's Peter!"
But Marion was already gone.
To be continued…
