My Best Friend's Werewolf

35 Well I Hope They Hold

School the next day is awkward to say the least. I sit in the living room with my books while Eliza takes the kitchen table. My mom used to teach us both, but once we both got self-sufficient she was able to get a job.

There's a knock on the front door and as I'm the closest, I answer it.

Travis stands there, a suitcase at his side. "Can I come in?"

I step to the side, and he wheels the bag in.

"Who is it, Addy?" Eliza walks into the hall. "Oh, hi. You're Travis, right?"

He nods, looking uncomfortable.

"I'm Eliza. I don't think we ever had an introduction."

Travis briefly smiles like it takes a lot of effort for him to perform that small task and turns to me. "Do you have a basement? Cement walls work best."

"Yeah, follow me."

He and Eliza follow me to the basement door and down the steps. The basement smells musty, still better than the urine and blood stench of Xavier's basement. Travis inspects the cluttered room, moving boxes and junk.

"Here," he says, pushing the freezer chest to the side. "I'll attach the chains to the wall and call you down when I'm done."

I watch him pull the silver chains that glisten and rattle from the suitcase. I'm going to be locked in them.

Eliza grabs onto my upper arm. "Come on. Let's go finish our work."

As we walk up the steps, Travis asks, "Your parents won't be home soon?"

"Not until five."

As we work, now at the same spot—the kitchen table— my mind keeps flipping back to the chains. Will they hold me?

"Addy, seriously, chill."

I run my fingers up the smooth sides of the pencil. "You're not the one who's going to be chained up."

She jots something down in her notebook. "Fair point."

Two hours later, Travis comes up to get us. As he leads us down the stairs he says, "Eliza, you need to make sure Addy's parents stay out of the basement once she's locked up. She'll shift back once the sun starts coming up."

Him talking about me shifting back into human form is surreal. Shifting back means I have to shift to wolf first.

He pushes the freezer chest to the side again, revealing the chains now bolted into the wall. "Addy, won't shift until midnight her first time. Unfortunately this time will be the only time it's that easy. After this one, she'll shift once she can't fight it any longer."

I wrap my arms around myself. "Any instructions for me?"

"Not really."

"Her parents go to sleep around eleven," Eliza says, "and get up around six. I hardly see them come down here."

"All right, Addy, sit down here." Travis steps to the side, and I sit down in front of the chains. He explains to Eliza how to lock me in. With ankles and wrists, they have to go around the smallest part of them and if the bonds aren't cutting off my circulation then there's a problem as when I turn wolf, my ankles shrink. The parts that will really make a difference are around my torso and neck. With Travis' instructions Eliza locks the collar on my neck, and I really feel like a dog.

"You cannot be down here while she's shifted," Travis tells Eliza. "The chains are only strong enough to hold her until she sees prey. Once she sets her eyes on a potential. . . uh. . . food source, the chains won't hold for long."

A/N
Do you think it was selfish of Addy to take Eliza away from Xavier?