My eyes darted around the room, looking for an answer. I could go out the sliding door onto the balcony...but there was nowhere to go from there unless I wanted to drop the eight stories to my death. All the other windows carried the same problem. I could try to hide under something? Hiding under a bed was pretty cliche and I doubted it really worked very well. If I was found there I would just feel foolish. I could try to run or fight, but I was doubtful whether I would succeed without using my powers. Or a weapon. No, no way I was going to hurt a woman just for doing her job if I could help it. I couldn't just put up the t-shirt mask I had been using because although it would hide my face, my identity wasn't in question here. In theory the PRT knew my identity already, but it wasn't like every employee or contractor they hired would be briefed on it, and I didn't want it any more widely known than it already was.
I had been so stupid, unmasking to Director McCurdy when I did. I hadn't even gotten to be a Ward and now the PRT probably had a file somewhere with my name and my relationship with Myrddin and my powers. Why hadn't I been more careful? Well, there was plenty of time to beat myself up later, when I wasn't about to get captured and forced into a life I probably didn't want. I refocused my mind on the problem at hand.
Part of the problem was that if I tried to hide, and failed, it would be obvious I was trying to hide. That would bring up more questions that would pretty much guarantee a worse time if I did get taken in. Whichever the case, I was certainly not going to answer that door.
I stood stalk-still for several seconds, debating my options in my head. Finally, I rushed as quietly as I could to the closet that contained our heating/air conditioning unit. I couldn't remember with certainty how much room was in there or if there was a way for me to crawl up into something up there and be inconspicuous. Swinging the door open, my hopes began to plummet. It was very tightly packed, and there really wasn't anything I could climb up, over, or into. Maybe if I was six, but certainly not now. I closed the door.
What else? A person might be able to fit into the fridge if it were empty...I congratulated my brain on thinking outside the box, but that was no solution. I was pretty sure it was both dangerous and probably wouldn't work. In the oven? Underneath the sink? Okay, under the kitchen sink was an idea I could try. Like kitchen sinks everywhere, there was a cupboard beneath it to hide the plumbing while giving a person easy access to it if they needed to work on it. Life families everywhere, we stored cleaning supplies down there. I opened the cupboard and bagged everything inside.
I got my legs in no problem, but that's where I ran into trouble. The cross-beam between the two doors was making it very difficult to crumple my body into the space, and that wasn't my only issue. If I could somehow contort my torso past the cross-beam, the plumbing and garbage disposal was still in the dead center of my working area. I sighed in frustration. There was no way I was getting in there and getting the doors closed behind me.
As I began extracting myself from the progress I had mad under the sink, I could hear voices again. This time, it wasn't just Agent Reaves, I could hear two more: another female's voice, and a deeper male's voice. Crap, I was out of time. I flung the sink cupboard doors closed hoping they were too involved in their conversation and didn't hear the ruckus I had stirred up. Coming around the wall to see my living room once again, I finally hurried over to the balcony door. I couldn't think of anything to do but I certainly didn't want to stay here and be caught by the same people that had stolen my father away from me.
I slid the door open and stepped out into the humid night air. I looked around for inspiration, and was struck by a realization. I didn't necessarily have to make it eight stories down: every apartment had a small balcony just like the one I was standing on. There were four more I could see on my level, and there should be six below me. For now, all I had to do was go down a single level. I reached inside the apartment and slowly drew the vertical blinds closed as quietly as I could. I stepped between them and closed the sliding door behind me.
As I turned back to my task, a coil of nylon rope appeared in my hand. Bending down, I stuck it between one of the flat boards I was standing on and tried to thread it back up through the next slot so that I could tie it around the board. It was harder than it should have been, but eventually I got it back up and had fed enough rope through to get some slack, and that's where I ran into my next problem. I could tie my shoes, I could tie a pretty good knot for a kite string, but could I tie a knot that I trusted with my life? Instinctively, I looked over the ledge of our balcony and down to the ground far below just as a solitary car that looked the size of a toy meandered by. Until this moment, I had always loved the view from our balcony. Right then, I hated it.
Suddenly, I heard voices again. As my head whipped around I saw three people entering the apartment, conversing with one another. Agent Reaves shushed them and called out again "Lily, are you in here?" I froze like a rabbit.
I wasn't ready. Oh please don't let them come out here first. I hadn't even started on this knot that I probably couldn't tie, and I needed to go now but there was no way I was trusting my life to an untested knot and what was I going to do?! Usually, panic makes a person think less clearly, but occasionally, with panic comes a strange sense of clarity. I thought about the makeshift mask I had made from a t-shirt, and then I very nearly slapped myself in the head at my realization. I bagged the rope and then visualized a knot. It wasn't pretty, it was basically something like a double-knot, and then another double knot, and then the rope wrapped around itself several times, followed by another knot, and then the rope going under the original double knot, and on like that for a bit. Moments after visualizing it, I had it materialized just as I had imagined. Frankly, it looked like a rat's nest.
I glanced up. Only moments had passed, so they were still standing in the living room talking. I took a moment to watch as Reaves glanced into the kitchen and then made her way into the hallway toward the rest of the apartment. She said something and made hand-motions to the male PRT agent who then went back out the door. I pulled both ends of the rope to tighten the knot, and then leaned my full weight against both ends to tighten it further. Then, I threaded the rope through the slats on the guard-rail and coiled it around my right hand a few times. After giving it a few more hard tugs, I stepped over the railing.
Placing my feet into the spaces between the slats on the guard-rail, I looked to my objective: the next balcony down. I took a deep breath...and let it back out. I glanced inside to make sure they weren't coming out, then I tugged on the rope again to make sure it was secure. I crouched and re-secured my grip. Okay, I had to do this, they knew I was here and they would look until they found me. I took one foot off the balcony and let it dangle, then slowly transferred my weight from me legs to my arms. Slowly, I pulled my other foot out of its spot and dangled for a moment.
Okay, this was harder than it looked in the movies. The rope coiled around my right hand pinched and my arms were already fatiguing after only a moment supporting my weight. I placed my left hand lower than my right, and coiled the rope around it, then extracted my right hand from its own coil. Then I transferred my right hand. The balcony was right below me, it wouldn't take long to get my feet on top of its own guard rail. I could see into their living room now, and all the lights were off. Either they were asleep or not home. Either way, I was hoping that their balcony door was unlocked.
My hands felt raw and my arms burned from the exertion, but I made it to the railing of the balcony below mine. Once my feet could support my weight, I made short work of clambering down onto the safety of their balcony with the rope's help. I was breathing hard and the burn on my leg itched from the sweat that had sprang out on my skin, but I was safe! Apparently a knot that's the size of a volley-ball can reliably hold a person's weight. Who woulda' thunk?
I still had the rope in my hand and I looked up as I bagged it. The rope disappeared from my balcony leaving no evidence of my cunning escape. Man, sometimes my power was cool. Turning to the sliding door of the apartment below mine, I gently tugged the handle to see if it would open. It was locked. I tugged harder to make sure, but to no avail. Great. Now what was I going to do? I guess I could try climbing down another level, but I was certainly going to rest here a bit before I decided to do that.
I sat. The exhaustion of the night washed over me again as the adrenaline stopped pumping frantically into my system. It had felt like longer, but it probably hadn't even taken me a full minute to clamber my way down the rope to this balcony. My heavy breathing hadn't even begun to slow when I heard the sliding door above me open. My body stiffened and I froze, hoping she didn't peer too closely between the planks of wood holding her up. Fortunately, she barely stepped outside before turning back around. "Nope. I guess we'll have to actually..." she began before her closing the door cut off her words. I let out a loud breath I hadn't been aware I was holding. Good, that was taken care of.
If they knew that I was supposed to be there, I was a bit worried that their continued inability to find me would make them desperate enough to check the surrounding balconies, so before I was entirely ready, I had unbagged a knot similar and just as bedraggled looking as the last one around this balcony's floorboards and threaded it through the guard-rail planks. I was wrapping the rope around my hand again and getting ready to step over the guard-rail when I heard a voice.
"Lily. What are you doing?" Myrddin asked, hovering a few feet away.
