12 I Learned That as a Kid

Keel, finally thinking straight after firing his gun off a few more times, began to wonder what LDS Church Michael Flatt had come from. He walked up and down his street, past ornate houses guarded by wrought iron gates and decorative paths up to lush green hills, in search of such a place.

He didn't find it, and Keel became very confused. Michael Flatt really hadn't been from a church. Had he been a thief? Carefully, Keel went over his encounter with the man.

Michael Flatt had claimed to be a church member, assumed Keel had drugs, and shrugged it off. He'd wandered about the house, and taken particular interest in the photos on the mantle. At the time, Keel had assumed he'd wanted a pretty girl to masturbate to, but…

Keel took off in full sprint. Someone knew about Steed and Emma in his basement, and they'd sent Michael Flatt to confirm. All he'd needed to see was their pictures; it was enough evidence for the police to come and take away everything he'd worked so hard to achieve.

Something clicked in his brain. Of course! Why else would Lois not come back? She'd turned on him, given everything away. He cursed her silently, and vowed that after Steed and Emma were dead, he would go for her next.

He had to get home. If he was going to be found, he was going to finish the job first.

***

The cookies were gone. I stared at the empty plate sadly, wishing there had been more. Cathy's sniffling was the only sound in the room. The twins were watching their mother with unreadable expressions, while Grandma had disappeared into the kitchen for more of the alcoholic drink she was sipping so lightly. I had a feeling she was chugging the bottle now that we couldn't see her.

Mel and I, in fact, were the only ones not staring at Cathy. Nancy was eyeing her sister with a look somewhere between disgusted and pitiful. Mel, however, was texting. "Emery," she said, and it seemed all too loud for her to be talking, "Keel is two houses down."

I blinked. I'd almost forgotten about my parents, trapped in someone's house. "Okay," I said numbly. "Let's go."

"Is there a back way out of here?" Mel asked Cathy as we headed for the door.

After a pause, Cathy nodded. "I'll show you."

She slowly got up from her chair and wandered out the door. All of us followed her, including Nancy and the twins. The house had lost its cheerfulness, the echoes of our footsteps foreboding and sinister.

Cathy led us to the back of the house (which was a very long walk) and opened a rather bland and unimpressive door. Outside there was, as I'd guessed, a pool with a giant diving board and a gazebo, with giant willow trees strategically placed across the yard.

"Thanks," Mel said, and tried to step outside.

Cathy's hand shot out, stopping her. "What, you think it's just going to be you two?" she asked with a glare at me. I shuffled backwards, frightened. "I'm coming with you whether you like it or not."

"I don't like it," Nancy stated. "Stay here like a good girl."

"You can't boss me around," snapped Cathy. "I'm older."

Nancy folded her arms. "Yeah, and I've been taking care of your kids for the past ten years because you weren't grown up enough to face your problems."

Cathy looked as if her sister had slapped her. Her eyes welled again, and she looked away. "Okay," she choked. "Thank you for taking care of my children, for being the greatest little sister a girl could get, and for letting me come with you now to save the man I love."

My jaw dropped, as did Nancy's. "You are not coming with us!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Just you try and stop me," was Cathy's reply.

"Time's a-wastin'," Melody alerted us unhelpfully.

Alex nudged Ayla. "Our lives have become a soap opera," he muttered.

Ayla shook her head. "Not really. If Mr. Steed was our father, then it'd be a soap opera. We could replace Desperate Housewives."

"Fine!" Nancy barked. "Come with us, whatever, I don't care!"

Cathy looked smug. "Thanks, Nance," she said with a smirk.

Nancy sneered and pushed her way out of the house, not looking back to see if we followed.

***

The most wonderful things about backyards is that that's where they put everything people don't want to see, like control boxes and important wires and plumbing things. When I was little, I had been playing in the backyard, digging a hole, and had come across these white pipes. What I thought was, "Dinosaur bones! I found a fossil!" because I was going through that obsession every kid has with dinosaurs.

So I tried to dig it out, and came across a valve. Being a little kid, I thought the red valve looked like a flower, and I tried to pick it. After all, a flower stuck to a dinosaur bone must be something no one else had at school. I twisted the valve, and because it's me, the pipe exploded.

Mom, of course, came running, and I was crying because I was being sprayed with water and my dinosaur bone was in bits and pieces. Our showers and sinks didn't work for days, until we finally called the plumber. I got a lecture on how dinosaur bones weren't in our backyard, and that I shouldn't dig for them again.

Then, a week later, I discovered that forks could do amazing things. Like if you put on in the microwave, lightning would strike it. Or if you stabbed one in an outlet, it turned off all the lights. Much more efficient than getting up and going all the way to the light switch, and it turned everything off at once! That was when I knocked out the power for the whole block. For the next two years, we had only plastic silverware.

I found the control box on the day my parents left me at my grandma's house. By the time they found me, I had rewired all her circuits and even cut a few wires. I didn't see Grandma for a long time after that, probably because my tampering caused a short circuit that electrocuted her when she plugged the blender in.

Now, I was crouched in Keel's backyard, flicking switches in the control box on the side of his house. I pulled off the panel to reveal the wires behind, picked a color, and yanked out a handful.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Nancy asked me.

I shrugged. "I know red is positive and black is negative, but these other colors are a mystery to me." I turned and smiled. "At least I know I won't get shocked."

Mel grinned. "I like this one. Emma did a good job."

I looked at the panel and traced the wires from the switch to their sources. Generator? I thought. Oh ho, this could be promising!

Biting my lip in excitement, I ripped out the yellow wire. The air conditioning unit a few feet from us fell silent. All the windows that were glowing yellow were suddenly dark. Which also meant that any burglar alarms Keel might have had been disabled.

Alex stepped up to the back door and pulled it open. "Ladies first," he said with a bow.

***

"John?" Emma whispered. "I can't see anything. Where are you?"

"Here," came Steed's voice from somewhere to her left. "Fiddling with the lock again." She heard a clunk. "A fine time for the power to go out, mind you."

Emma smiled. "Maybe it's Emery."

There was a bang upstairs, like a door being thrown open. The same sound again, but much closer. Angry and speedy stomps coming down the stairs alerted Steed and Emma that Keel was on another rampage. Emma scrambled to the other side of the cell, panicking.

"Dammit!" Keel screamed, and it sounded as if he kicked his wall of cans. "Where did the power go?"

Emma realized something then, something fantastic. If the power was out, then there was no way Keel could shoot her, as long as she remained silent. She thanked God for His superb timing to knock out the electricity, and took it as a sign that she wasn't going to die here.

In his fury, Keel fired a few rounds into the ceiling, bright and sudden flashes in the darkness. But Emma and Steed said nothing, because they knew very well that those bullets were meant for them.

***

The bullets flew out of the ground, invisible in the dark. We jumped and screamed and danced, unsure where they would strike next and unable to see anyways. Suddenly, the world fell quiet. None of us moved, terrified that if we stepped wrong another would fly out of the floor.

"The place is frickin' booby trapped!" Ayla hissed.

"No," Mel whispered. "Someone is firing a gun up."

Nancy sounded panicked. "So he knows we're here?"

"Seems like it," she replied casually.

"How can you be so indifferent about all this?" Cathy cried. She broke off with a squeak, afraid that if she were too loud more shots would come.

Mel sighed. "Because," she explained, "I'm a bad guy. I expect to die every time I'm out in public. Being the most sought after fugitive in the world does that to you."

"Okay!" I exclaimed, my hands up in case I had to jump again. "Let's all just be quiet and take it really slow." I enunciated the last two words to get my point across. "Ready? Everyone… step."

We all took a step forward and awaited the reverse bombardment of bullets. Nothing happened, so we moved again. Nothing. I exhaled with relief. For the moment, we were safe. I placed my foot down confidently, jumping when the floor creaked. "Careful," I warned them all.

***

Steed could hear Keel huffing with rage, and wondered how much time he and Emma had before Keel started firing in their direction. He recalled how the room was set up, mentally picturing where Keel was. If only the lock weren't jammed! It would be the perfect moment to make an escape.

Something creaked above them, followed by a… a voice? There were others in the house, Steed was sure of it. Did Keel know that? Whose side were these people on? Panic rose in his chest as one terrible possibility came to his mind.

What if it was Emery?

He heard a click, and knew the gun was being cocked. "There's someone up there," Keel muttered. Steed imagined him sweaty faced and staring at the ceiling, his gun shaking in his hand. "I can hear them."

There was another creak, and suddenly the gun went off, firing round after round in the direction it had come from. A small thump sounded, alerting them that the target had been hit.

***

"Goddamn bastard!" Ayla hissed. My eyes had somewhat adjusted to the darkness, and I could see her curled on the floor. "He fucking shot me."

Nancy was by her side in a heartbeat. "Watch your mouth," she chastised. "Where were you hit?"

"My foot and my side," she said through gritted teeth. Clearly she was trying not to cry. "Ow."

For some reason, I expected Cathy to get down beside her and coo about her daughter's wounds, but it obviously wasn't going to happen. She remained where she was, trying not to look at the outline of Ayla on the floor.

Nancy turned to me. "Go," she commanded. "Ayla doesn't need you; your parents do. Go!" she cried when I didn't move.

Blindly, I ran. Alex, Mel, and Cathy raced after me. I didn't stop until something got in my way, and I assumed that whatever it was was expensive, because it broke with an almighty crash. Of course, it scared the heck out of me and set off another flurry of bullets, which would have hit me if Alex hadn't run into me and sent the two of us flying.

"C'mon," he said in my ear, and he pulled me to my feet. I coughed in the dust of whatever broke. Alex yanked me forward, after Mel and Cathy, who were gesturing for us to get a move on.

"The shots are coming from downstairs," Melody said quietly, "which means that whoever is shooting us is down there, and most likely your parents are too." She swallowed, but it was too late. I'd already seen the suspicion in her eyes. If there was a guy as trigger happy as this one was in the same room as my parents, chances were that my parents had already kicked the bucket.

"They're not dead," I hissed defiantly. "Not. Dead."

***

"There's more than one," Keel growled. Steed could barely see him now, with his eyes adjusting. "I can hear them."

Emma was breathing heavily from the ground, trying to keep her panic in check. Steed sincerely hoped Keel ran out of bullets soon.

***

We stumbled around as quietly as we could, searching for the stairs. "The stairs in Grandma's house are behind a door," Cathy told us. "This house seems to have the same design."

There was a door to my right. Cautiously, I placed my hand on the knob, mentally preparing for the onslaught of bullets, and yanked open the door, jumping with it to avoid any shots.

But there were none. Nervously, I peered around the door. It was just a coat closet.

***

Like an anxious cat, Keel paced back and forth in front of the stairs, reminding Steed of the tiger he'd taken Emery to see at the zoo when she was young. The great cat had rushed from one said of the enclosure to the other, as if it were contemplating how to get through the glass. Keel, however, was waiting for what could either be his prey or his predator to burst through the door.

Either way, as soon as the door opened, he was going to shoot like mad.