by Mark Fenger
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The day passed quietly. Around noon their guard came and gave them another meal, exchanged their bucket for a clean one and left again, refusing to let Nikki engage him in further conversation. A thick layer of clouds rolled in around sunset, and a chill breeze came in the open window. The gas lamp in the street came on and soon after the stars were out.
“I’d love to see the look on Charkart’s face when he finds we’ve flown the coop!” Tom did a little jig.
“Better yet, when he finds Hecate’s gone too.” Willow took his arm and spun with Tom across the floor.
“We’re not clear yet.” Agatha jumped and lifted herself on an uncut section of bars. “What time did the streetlight go out last night?”
Tom shrugged. “Dunno, it was full dark when I woke up. Don’t matter, we just have to wait.”
They were all full of nervous energy, pacing, jumping up to look out the window, trying to guess the time. Soon enough their evening meal, and bucket replacement arrived. Nikki didn’t even try to talk to the guard.
They were all quietly eating when the streetlight went out.
Tom jumped to his feet. “Hot damn, let’s get out of here.” He twisted the pre-cut bars free and tossed them down to Agatha, then dropped to the ground and offered his hands like a stirrup. “Ladies first.”
Agatha ignored his hands, took a run and planted a foot on the wall to propel herself upwards, then grabbed two of the remaining bars and slithered through the opening like it was nothing. Tom helped Nikki and Willow through, then jumped and hauled himself out the opening.
Tom’s eyes hadn’t fully adjusted yet, and it was near total darkness on the street. Only the faint light of from distant thoroughfare gave him some orientation. The others were just standing there, doing nothing. “Hey, let’s get a move on!” Tom hissed.
That moment the gas-lamp came back on. Ponderoy Charkart stood underneath it, eyes twinkling. “So, I heard you’d like to see the look on my face when I found out you’d escaped.” He grinned, showing all his pointy teeth and pointed a finger at himself. “Well… this is it.”
Each end of the street was blocked by a half-dozen thugs with cudgels.
Episode 2