Fear the Night

Chapter 4: The Explanation

Maverick lifted the door and let Yukio go in first, followed by Isabella then himself as he shut the door and called to Yukio, “Just head all the way down the stairs.”

He heard a gasp and knew exactly who it was and what she was gasping at, and as he reached Isabella and Yukio at the bottom of the stairs he placed a hand on Isabella’s shoulder and murmured, “Don’t worry. She’s asleep. She won’t wake up for anything. It’s safe.”

“What is that?” Yukio asked, pulling Isabella closer as Maverick walked past them and knelt down next to the cage.

“This, my friend, is a Drone,” Maverick replied, pulling at the chain with the dish attached to bring it out of the cell.

“How did you capture one?!” Isabella breathed as Maverick stood and headed to the freezer.

“Oh, it was simple, really,” he shrugged, throwing a piece of meat on the dish with a clang the made Yukio and Isabella jump. “All I did was take a piece of meat, about that size…” He pointed to the piece of meat. “…and left it at the top step of those stairs, then took a bigger piece of meat and put it in the cage. When she went for the second piece, I slammed the cell door shut. She wasn’t too happy, though.”

“Why would you want to keep one?” Yukio wondered as Maverick walked into the part of the cave he called his bedroom.

“Observation,” he called back as he rounded the corner with a notebook in his hand. He stood in front of the pair and handed the book to Yukio. “In this book is everything she’s been doing since in captivity with me. Her progress.”

Yukio took the book and flipped through it as Isabella glanced between the sleeping Drone and Maverick. He stared back at her when her gaze landed on him again.

“How do you know it’s a girl?” she wondered and Maverick only shrugged.

“I don’t,” he admitted as she looked back at the Drone. He smirked at her obvious worry and stepped next to her to place his arm around her shoulders.

“Remember I told you they have trouble with doors?” he reminded her, stepping closer to the bars and she nodded nervously. “They have even more trouble with bars.”

Yukio glanced at the two and couldn’t help smirking. He knew Maverick would like her, and he had a strong feeling, as soon as he’d laid eyes on Maverick, that Isabella would like him. Turning his attention back to the notebook, he decided to mind his own business and let them go with the flow.

“Why do they have more trouble with bars?” Isabella wondered as she and Maverick stood directly in front of the cell.

“The same reason you and I do,” he replied. “Bars are metal, harder to break, or even saw through. Not to mention, their intelligence level isn’t very high. I could give her the key and she wouldn’t know what it was or what the hell to do with it.”

“That won’t last long,” Yukio observed, making the other two turn their attention to him as Maverick let go of Isabella. “According to your last entry, she’s been making quite a bit of progress.”

“Yes,” Maverick nodded, taking the book back from the other man. “I have a theory that it’s possible for Drones to become human again. That is, if they were to interact with humans more and eat them less.”

“This is why the Suits are after you, isn’t it?” Isabella guessed as Maverick went to the safe in the wall next to the cell. “If they found out you caught one of these, they’ll want to examine it themselves.”

“Yeah,” Maverick sighed, opening the safe and tossing the notebook in. “But they can’t have her.” He slammed the box shut and turned to his new friends. “Believe it or not, I’ve grown attached to her. She trusts me in an odd way because I feed her regularly, and let her pretty much do whatever she wants and get her whatever she wants. I’ve weaned her off of human meat, but she still craves meat no matter what I do. If those Suits take her, they’ll beat her and dissect her…” He trailed off as he turned to the cell and knelt down to stare at the still sleeping Drone then breathed, “…I won’t let them hurt her.”

“Well, you can’t run from these Suits forever,” Yukio said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And you certainly can’t live alone anymore. We won’t be able to live up there now that we know all this. We’ll have to move down here with you.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Maverick said, shuffling to face them then sat down to lean back on the bars.

“I’m pretty sure we do,” Yukio retorted. “No way those Suits are gonna give up looking for you. We can take turns heading up to get groceries and stuff. You won’t have to go up at all between the two of us.”

“You really don’t need—”

Maverick was cut off when two gentle fingertips touched his lips. He’d seen Isabella kneel next to him and thought nothing of it, but now he stared wide, startled eyes at her warm, smiling face.

“You look so tired,” she observed, moving her hand away from his face. “Why don’t you just let us help you? You could use the help.”

Maverick stared at her with wide eyes, speechless and before he could start thinking again, she leaned forward and left a small kiss on his cheek.

“I’ll go get some things we didn’t use last night, and Yukio will make lunch for all of us before he and I get our things, ok?” she smiled then stood and ran up the stairs.

Maverick was speechless again as he looked to Yukio who only smirked as he turned to the stairs himself then said, “Yeah, she can do that.”

“D-Do what?” Maverick finally sputtered with a slight frown.

“Render a man speechless,” Yukio replied, heading after Isabella. “Lord knows she’s done it to me more than once.”

Maverick watched Yukio head up then heard the slam of the door shutting behind them. He scoffed and leaned on one of his knees then glanced at his left arm.

“I didn’t tell them everything,” he murmured to himself then looked over at the sleeping Drone. “How ‘bout it, babe? I’ll tell them later, huh?”

No response but the steady breathing of the Drone followed his question and he scoffed as he nodded.

“Later,” he said, definitely then leaned on the bars again with a sigh.