Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Twenty Five

     The visit to Home Depot didn't last very long, as they'd found the solar lights in landscape lighting with the help of a bubbly employee. There were floodlights, lanterns, spot lights, and motion sensor lights. The two of them scanned the shelves with their hands on their hips, when Link exclaimed. He knelt to the ground and pulled a 10 pack of black walkway lights off the lower shelf. He rose to his feet and showed Rhett. "4.2-lumen peak light output, three times brighter than the standard 1.2-lumen solar lights."

     "More power to the zap," Rhett said with a wriggle of his eyebrows.

     Rhett's quip drew a chuckle out of Link, but it quickly faded. While he was thrilled that they had discovered a way to stop her, he could only hope that it was actually going to work. Who were these people to say they had experience in tackling werewolves when they didn't bother to provide evidence that they actually existed? "It holds a 10 hour charge after an average day out in the sun. Factoring in cloud cover and whatnot. So if we run these home and stake them in my front yard, they'll definitely be charged before Sunday night." 

     Rhett nodded his head, then made a face as if he'd stepped on a lego barefoot.

     "What?" Link asked worriedly. "You don't think this is going to work, do you?" 

     "No man, that's not it. Christy. How are you going to explain this to her?" He gestured to the pack in Link's hands. Link leaned in close to Rhett and used his hand as a barricade to conceal his lips from any passerby. 

     "It's for our show, remember?" Link raised his eyebrows as he spoke, and he hoped Rhett would catch the drift.

     "Ahhhhh, that's right!" Rhett leaned back and held his arms out in a wide stance. "We're doing an experiment with solar lights!"

     "Yes! It's uncanny how we think so much alike." Link grinned but his face soon fell once again. "We're also getting better at becoming pathological liars."

     "Well in any case, it's for a good cause," Rhett said with a wink, and he clasped Link on the shoulder as they headed toward self-checkout.

☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️

     After they'd purchased the lights, they raced to Link's house. Christy had taken the kids to the local park, so Link had plenty of time to get the lights staked into the ground before they came home. He bolted inside to grab a knife to open the plastic packaging, and walked briskly back outside. He struggled to get the blade wedged in the plastic and Rhett shook his head with a horrified look on his face. He gently took the knife and package out of Link's hands. "Remember what happened the last time you tried to open something with a knife, Link?" 

     Link eyed Rhett for a second before he released the package and he held his hands up in surrender. "You have a good point. I'll leave that impossible task up to you." 

     It took Rhett a few seconds to pry the package open, and he started to hand the lights to Link as he pulled them out. Link popped the cover off of one of them, his engineering curiosity piqued. He looked at the battery, LED, and controller board.

     "Hey! You're supposed to be sticking them in the ground, not tearing them apart." Rhett looked at Link incredulously as he struggled to pull the last two out of the plastic.

     Link laughed and put the thing back together, then he made that one his first victim to pierce into the earthen floor. He crouched to the ground and pulled his arm back like he was wielding a knife and was about to stab an intruder. Rhett watched Link with a loose eye as he lined the lights all up in a neat row along Link's front step.

     He didn't waste another moment and he careened his arm to plunge the light into the ground. Right before the light had made impact with the soil, Link saw a muddied hand sprout out of the ground and clasp him around the wrist. He cried out in alarm and dropped the light, and he used his other hand to try and forcibly pry the hand off of his wrist. Its grip was so tight that Link's wrist had turned red and the tips of his fingers a light shade of purple. Rhett heard the struggle and darted toward Link. 

     "Let go of me!" Link screamed.