Page 3 of Blade

What could I think about if escaping my own rope hell wasn’t on the list either?

“You’re going to be proud of yourself for making a competent trap that would hold The Beast of Bladenboro. That’s something.” As long as the big cat-like monster wasn’t too much bigger than the locals had estimated, I’d done a great job at designing the trap. “You found a legit monster that’s causingproblems and you got stuck before the weird half-swamp, half-sandbox gets too hot.”

It didn’t matter if they had some kind of zoo animal that’d escaped and bred with something local or a real man-eating type monster, I’d found something dangerous and that I couldn’t have a coffee with. That meant I could kill it without feeling guilty or ending up in jail. This was just a tiny setback in the grand scheme of things and one I wasn’t going to tell my family about.

“Alright. You need a plan.” I could do that. “You just need a starting point. After that you can change whatever you need but a place to start is a must.”

Yes.

It was just like that writing meme I’d seen online. I couldn’t edit something that wasn’t on the page…or something like that. I could edit as I went. I just needed to have something on the page…or in the plan in my case.

“You’re going to get out of this. You’re going to kill the monster that’s eating the local livestock. You’re going to find a fucking therapist who won’t have you committed.” I was also going to learn how to stop wiggling so much because the net was getting tighter and that was turning me on even more. “You’re also going to have a firm conversation with your cock about when it’s appropriate to ask for attention.”

My to-do list was getting ridiculous but I’d do nearly anything to be able to stay away from my family.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and forced the rest of my body to stop squirming. It didn’t help the erection situation, but it did slow my heartbeat down to a functional level. “I can wait for someone to come walking out here. I’m technically not far from civilization even though the South forgets what that word means sometimes.”

North Carolina wasn’t the worst with that but towns rapidly faded to nothing and sometimes were very far apart considering what year we were living in.

“A local will come hunting for something eventually.” I just wasn’t sure how long I could go without water. My brain gave a random two days answer but that couldn’t be right. “You can try to start pulling on the ropes.”

I was starting to wish I hadn’t been so confident about asking that mage for help with my supplies, though.

He’d been weird but really helpful and I wasn’t sure anything could saw through the ropes that were currently rubbing against my ass every time I wiggled. I needed thicker pants next time I did something stupid involving ropes. “If a dinosaur couldn’t bite through them, my fingers probably aren’t going to do much.”

To say he’d been odd would’ve been an understatement, but I’d fallen back on theI could have coffee with himrule and had behaved myself.

“What else?”

There had to be something else?

Fuck it.

“HELP!”

I was just going to say it was a college prank gone wrong and do my best not to end up on the internet…and if it came down to it, I’d just tell my rescuers I was from Florida.

“HELP!”

Ten minutes and a sore throat later, I’d just about given up calling for attention when something moved behind me and I heard a deep breath.

Had that actually worked?

Where were they?

Uh. Trying to turn around just made the ropes tighter.

“Please don’t take pictures. My parents are nuts and I can’t afford to end up online because I did something stupid.” That seemed like a good place to start and I looked young enough to pull it off, but no one answered. “They’ll stop paying my tuition if I end up online.”

I wasn’t that young but generally people couldn’t tell unless they looked close enough to see the stress lines forming around my eyes.

Had they already pulled out their phone?

That was rude.

“I’m serious. My world ends if they see this.”

Literally.