Just do it already.

I unlocked the doors and opened them wide, brandis.h.i.+ng the garden shears and turning on the lamp by the door. It took a moment before I actually saw what was in front of me. Aside from the fact that there was a naked guy tied up on the floor of the shed, everything seemed pretty normal. I worried for a second that I'd have to lean over and check his pulse, but he reacted to the lamp turning on, and I knew he was alive.

Should I wake him?

Well, I couldn't just stand staring over him like that. It was kind of creepy.

"h.e.l.lo?" I asked softly. Probably too softly. He didn't move. I cleared my throat a little, felt the panic start to rise. "h.e.l.lo?" I asked again. This time I might have been a little too loud.

The guy heard me. He turned his head toward the sound and opened his eyes a bit. He closed them again, turning away from the light a little. This time he opened his eyes looking into the dark part of the shed. I think that's when he realized he was bound and gagged because he suddenly jerked violently trying to stand up and fell back down hard. He turned and looked at me again and made to move toward me.

"Don't!" I said aiming the shears in his direction and taking a step back. He looked at the shears then up at me. He squinted a bit and then sat back.

"Now I'm going to take the gag out of your mouth, but you can't call for help or be noisy or anything. And if you try to hurt me I'll use these, I swear." What I'd use them for I hadn't any idea.

The young man, on the other hand, seemed to find the large scissors I was aiming at him particularly threatening and eyed them with obvious concern. He nodded at me and I said, "Okay, good."

I kept them up before me as I entered the shed again. This was pretty stupid of me to do when you thought about it. I mean, okay, so he didn't look a lot like an angel now, but it wasn't like he was just some guy tied up. This guy had powers. I'd seen him disappear right before my eyes. Then again, he was still tied up after all this time, hadn't gone anywhere in the night.

Was this all a big trick?

Well, I'd find out soon back-to-school party ak enough.

I leaned over and took the gag out of his mouth. The second I did, I ran back to my position at the door in front of the lamp.

The young man opened and closed his mouth a bit. Then he stopped and looked at me again. We stared at each other in total silence. I wasn't about to speak first. Besides I didn't know what to say.

Then he smiled. It was the first time I'd seen him smile, and it threw me. It was kind of...awesome.

He spoke: "I can see through your dress."

"What?" I said automatically.

"The light coming from behind you like that. Can see right through it." The smile widened.

"I..."

"Look, I'm not complaining. And since you haven't moved, I'm guessing you don't mind me looking."

I had no idea what to do, so I stumbled further into the shed and walked to the side into the dark so I wasn't being backlit anymore.

"And you've come inside, so you want to be closer to me."

"No!" This I shouted a little too loudly. And to prove how "no" I was, I pointed the shears at him.

"You gonna cut it off?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Cut what off?" d.a.m.n it. I had to stop answering him automatically like that. Think before you speak, Riley. Think!

The young man glanced down at himself, and I almost followed his look until I remembered that he was totally naked, and then I understood what he meant.

G.o.d, no, I hadn't even thought of that! Who did he think I was?

Maybe the girl who shot him in the face maybe?

But I wasn't that kind of a person normally. Then again...he didn't know that ...

"Maybe," I finally answered. "Depends."

He made a small laugh. "Oh yeah? On what?"

"On if you answer my questions and don't make a fuss."

"Look, sweetheart, if you want to ask encoding="utf-8"?>< me="" out="" the="" answer's="" yes.="" you="" don't="" have="" to="" threaten="" me.="" though,="" okay,="" i="" admit="" it,="" it's="" kind="" of="">

"Shut up, just shut up!" I could feel the tears burning in my eyes again. This wasn't fair and made me really uncomfortable, and I had nothing else to say back to him. "You don't get to say stuff like that, just stop it."

"Sweetheart, I'm the one who's all tied up, doesn't know where he is, who has some crazy girl threatening to deprive him of his manhood, and you're the one who's crying?"

"Stop talking, just stop talking!" I turned around and stared out the shed into the garden. I couldn't think. I didn't know what to say. This was not angelic behavior, and I was totally thrown for a loop. Not that I knew what angelic behavior was. I should have planned this before, should have come up with a line of questioning so I'd be ready. "I don't know where to start," I said quietly, my back still to him.

"How about you tell me what I'm doing here, how I got here in the first place."

"I'm asking the questions."

"Okay. You ask a question, then I ask a question, how 'bout that?"

I turned back and glared at him. He seemed to find my expression amusing, and his smile widened.

"Where's Chris?" It's all I could think of href="kindle:flow:000 m felt , and it's all I wanted to know.

"Who the heck is Chris?"

"What have you done with him?" I could feel the rage start to build up, and my voice started to shake.

"Are you crazy?"

"Where is he?" I took a step toward him.

"Wait, stop," he said and I stopped. "I think we screwed up with our rules. One of us has got to answer a question before asking a new one."

"Where's Chris?!" With instincts I didn't know I had, I opened the shears, kneeled down, and placed the edge of the blade along his neck.

"Dollface, I swear by everything that's holy, I haven't a friggin' clue who you're talking about." He seemed to take my threat seriously. His breathing got shallow and his expression deadly serious.

I didn't believe him. But I didn't think there was any way he was going to tell me. At least not now. At least not with these tactics. I sighed. For now, just right now, it probably made sense to play by his rules. That is, until he told me what I wanted to know.

"Let's try your question thing again," I said as I lowered the shears.

He nodded. "Where am I?"

"In my shed. Where are your wings?"

"I left them in my closet. Why am I in your shed?"

"No, you didn't answer me seriously."

"That was a serious question?"

"What happened to your wings? What happened to you? You didn't look like this when I shot you."

"You shot me?"

There was a silence after that. I couldn't answer. I felt terrible.

"You shot me?" he asked again, looking down at himself. "Where?"

"Your face." I sat back, leaning against the side wall.

"You missed."

"No. I didn't."

"Sweetheart. You're nuts."

"No. I'm not."

"You have me naked, bound, and gagged in your shed, and you say you shot me in the face, but it's pretty clear you didn't. Honey. You belong in a mental inst.i.tution. It's too bad, you're quite the looker."

I shook my head. "Don't say that."

"Babe, it's the truth, you're crazy."

"Not that, the other thing."

"Other thing?"

"Never mind. Look. I'm not crazy. You're an angel and..."

He laughed. "An angel?"

"...and you were in my yard, and you were going to take me, except you didn't. You decided to make fun of me instead, and then I shot you. And I thought you were dead, except when I came back you weren't. You also were a lot smaller..."

"Hey, now..."

"And didn't have any wings. And that's when I locked you up in the shed and tied you up in case you tried to escape because I was scared. And because I wanted to find out where Chris was. And because I was angry."

"I stand by my statement. You're nuts."

"And you're just trying to trick me. I know your kind."

"What? Us angels?"

" the tears welled up"K2Yes. I mean, I don't know your kind well, but I've seen what you do, how heartless you are. I know you would stop at nothing to get what you wanted."

"Sweetheart...I've been called many things, but I ain't no angel."

"What are you then?" This wasn't working. He was just going to keep on denying it. This was all so stupid. What was I supposed to do with him?

"I'm a guy."

"Yeah? And where are you from?"

"Hartwich."

I started to laugh. I shook my head. "That's the dumbest lie ever. You think I don't know every single person in this town? Even all the newcomers? This place just isn't that big."

"Look, I was born here, raised here. Went to school here. Well, till I dropped out."

"When did you drop out?"

"End of last year."

I started to laugh harder. "Why are you doing this? This is the dumbest lie ever. I think I'd remember you if we'd been at school together."

"We weren't at school together."

"No, definitely not."

"So we finally agree on something." He c.o.c.ked his head to the side and appraised me carefully. "You telling me that we're still in Hartwich?"

"That's what I'm telling you. And there's only the one school here. You, sir, are totally busted."

"Hartwich High?"

Well, yes, that was obviously the name of the school. If you knew the town's name, it was pretty easy to figure it out. He was trying something here but obviously hadn't thought it through.

"Of course."

"Princ.i.p.al's Mr. Anders?"

"Mr. Anders? There's no Mr. Anders. It's Mrs. Johnson."

"Well, see, that ain't right. Who you got for math?"> "Mrs. White."

"Nope. Science?"

"Mr. Sutherland."