Everything Vreene said should have shocked her, but it was the “Little Wolf" comment that grabbed her attention and held on.TheLinkname made her think of Gage, which made her pissy all over that he hadn’t texted her.Not that he owed her a text.Why she felt like he owed her a text, she hadnoidea.They’d met each other yesterday, spent all of thirty seconds in each other’s presence, and that had been that.
“It’s been real.”Vreene tossed a butter knife in the sink and headed for a doorway leading out of the kitchen.“I like you, Katy.I hope you stick around.”
“Thanks, Vreene.”She gave a shrug.“No offense, but I got two best friends back home that I miss, so I hope I don’t.”
“I feel ya.”Vreene nodded and then waved over her shoulder.
The silence left behind was palpable as Katy leaned onto the counter over her half-eaten sandwich.She didn’t even want it anymore.She looked over at Otto, who was still in his hunched position in the corner, as if he’d been scolded and told to go stand there.Katy sighed.“What are you doing over there?”She motioned him to the chair at the massive island in the middle of the kitchen.“Come sit down.You can eat the rest of my sandwich.I’m full.”
Otto looked up at her, his big, yellow eyes full of apprehension.“I not going to bite you,” he said softly.
“I know, but I make no promises that I won’t biteyou.”
He frowned at her as he walked over and scurried up the stool.“You teeth flat.I not feel them.”
“You could pretend it hurt,” she suggested.
Otto scrunched up his face.“Why?”
“To make me feel better.”
He harrumphed as she pushed the plate in front of him.“Eat.Then can we walk around some more?I’m sick of sitting in that room.”
Otto’s eye darted about as he nibbled at the sandwich.“We careful or King Azure?—”
“Will torture, maim, and otherwise make us miserable,” she cut him off.“Got it.”Katy gave him a thumbs up.“I like to live life on the edge.”She drummed her hands on the counter next to him.“Come on, hurry up.I’m antsy.”Katy pulled the cell phone from her pocket.She felt as if it was burning a damn hole there.She kept it covered, low, and close to her body as she glanced at the screen.One text.“Yes!”
“What?”Otto hissed.
“He texted.”
“Master Gage?”
Katy slipped the phone back away and lifted a brow.“MasterGage?”she asked slowly.
Otto visibly swallowed.Then he suddenly scurried down.He grabbed her pant leg and began pulling eagerly.“You want to see the things.I shows you.”
Katy bit her bottom lip as she narrowed her eyes on the little lizard.He was trying to distract her, the twerp.Fine.She’d let him.For now.But, later, she’d find out what Otto was hiding.
They walked through what had to be the five-hundredth—okay not really, but it sure felt like it to Katy—door.“There’s a movie theater in this old mansion?”
Otto shut the door behind them.“Old house, been dated up.”
“You talk so weird.”Katy walked into what looked like a legit cinema, except it was slightly smaller, containing two aisles and four rows of stadium-style seating.
“Movies.”Otto’s face broke into a brilliant smile.
Katy couldn’t help but return it.“You like movies.”
He nodded.“Yes.Much.”
“How come?”Katy plopped down into a seat in the middle row.
Otto picked up a remote and climbed up into the seat beside her.His short legs didn’t even make it to the edge of the seat.He pointed the remote at the enormous screen.“Escape.”The simple word was said with such reverence and awe.
Katy tilted her head, studying her reptilian companion.“Escape?The movies are an escape for you?”
Otto nodded enthusiastically, his bulbous eyes growing distant.“In movies, bad things can happen.But then…” He waved a clawed hand expressively.“There is the happy!Good overcomes.The evil is tramped.”He turned to Katy, his expression earnest.“Here, the happy is scale deep.But the bad, it goes deep, deep.They hidden things.Shadows.Dark things.But in movies…” Otto’s voice took on a tone of wonder.“Free.Lights.At the end, sunshine comes, music plays.Everyone good.”
