Alfred turned back toward Carrion and proceeded forward. “We just want to talk to you,” he said, raising his hands up to appear less threatening. “Just please don’t leap out of there and bite me or something.”
Carrion arched her neck and began backing further into the limited space she’d built for herself. She slid her lips across her teeth to bear them and furrowed her brow in a way Alfred found most unnatural. As he neared, a sound bored its way into his ears until it was clear he was hearing a low growl. Something occurred to Alfred just then, a concept he’d read about animals backed into corners. He was now within ten paces of her.
Alfred halted, dropped his hands, and slumped his shoulders. “Well,” he said in a voice louder than he intended, turning his head to speak to Tabitha without taking his sight from the thing between the chairs. “I’m not messing with that.”
Quick as a cat, Chela hopped down from the chair she was standing with a look of displeasure screaming across her face. “I told you to be quiet,” she said as she darted toward the locked door and put her back to the wall adjacent it. She looked at the other three and threw her index finger up to her lips, widening her eyes at them, silently communicating that they should shut it.
Alfred stood in the middle of the room, simply ducking his head low as if he might be able to hide in plain sight. Tabitha crept closer to the closed door. Carrion stared at it with the same intensity she had only just previously put on for Alfred.
Tabitha walked toward the door with deliberate focus. Between every step forward, she heard the beat beat of her heart followed by the fall of her foot. beat. beat. boot. beat. beat. boot. beat. beat beat boot. She could hear the blood drumming in her ears until it drowned out the sounds of her steps altogether. She was being propelled forward by a force outside of herself, deafened by the internal circuitry of her body or the army of boots descending on them from the hall opposite this door or both. beat beat beat beat beat. From her periphery, she could see Chela .beat. bathed in orange glow .beat. slowly, silently motioning her away: Get away from the door.