The Lost Duckling

Chapter 18: Mary

Mary's icy hand gripped Lilo's wrist tightly as the sounds of hushed voices and soft footsteps on pavement drew ever nearer.

"What are we going to do?" She hissed as loudly as she dared, her pink T-shirt covering her nose and mouth as a poor attempt at creating a barrier from the repulsive stench permeating the enclosed dumpster.

It was too dark to clearly see, but Mary pictured Lilo scrunching her nose in concentration. "If we leave now we might have a chance of escaping unseen, they sound pretty far a-"

"Hey, I think I smell something," A voice called so near the girls that they both jumped in terror, trembling ever so slightly as they unintentionally began to hold their breaths.

"Like what?" Someone a little more distant replied, followed by the sounds of boots on pavement.

A long, audible sniff sounded through the tense silence, a mere yard or so from Mary's hiding place.

"I don't know," the first voice confessed. "I think I lost it."

"Yeah well scope the area, we gotta make sure nothing else came through."

More footsteps echoed against the buildings, never seeming to leave the alley housing the dumpster.

Heart pounding, Mary risked releasing her breath and leaning in towards Lilo, meaning to whisper an idea in her ear when a sharp clang from outside caught both of their attention.

"What now?" The first voice groaned. Two sets of footsteps drifted briskly away from the alley, and when their sounds grew so faint that they nearly disappeared, Lilo cracked open the dumpster lid just enough to peek out of.

Mary joined after a moment, supporting the heavy lid with her forearm.

The alleyway was empty, without a trace of anyone else having been there. To their right, Mary could just faintly make out what sounded like barked orders and a rush to obey.

"It's now or never," Lilo whispered, meeting Mary's frightened eyes in the dull slivers of light cast by a flickering lamp down the street.

On the count of three, they lifted the lid wide enough to barely squeeze through. Lilo went first and helped Mary down, quickly taking a moment to gather their belongings. Before Mary could register what she was doing, Lilo had pulled out what appeared to be a folded piece of metal from her newly garbage-stained backpack and was quickly kicking it flat.

"Lilo, wha-"

She gave the metal a final nudge with her toe and the apparatus silently sprung to life, hovering a few inches above the ground. When fully extended, the hoverboard was only about three feet long, hardly leaving enough room for two people. Even so, Lilo quickly urged Mary to place her right foot on the back of the board while Lilo stood in front with her left in an attempt to create a counterbalance.

Mary shut her eyes, took a last breath of the late night air, and clung to Lilo's torso as her roommate kicked off the ground and sent the pair whizzing forward at a dangerously high speed in an uncontrolled zig-zag of a line.

After a few moments, the shock of flying wore off of Mary and she managed to take in snippets of information as it zoomed past her:

Lilo was wisely sticking to unlit, unpopulated back streets while keeping an eye on whoever was looking for them.

Mary could make out red jumpsuits, covering oddly shaped bodies and forming over extra limbs, scales, even tails when viewing through the gaps in between the buildings.

Perhaps it was because Lilo began to slow down the ride as she found herself winding up in more and more dead ends nearer and nearer to their persuers, or maybe it was because of some sense of adrenaline fueled hyperawareness, but Mary noticed for the first time that little name plaques adorned each doorway. They read things like "Bantook Household" or "Yond Residence".

As she  quickly scanned each consecutive name plaque, Mary dismissed each as soon as her eyes left the engraved words. Countless houses passed right by her without so much as a batted eyelash.

Until they passed one so suddenly that Mary wasn't sure that she had read it correctly. 

"Stop!" she begged, squeezing the air abruptly from Lilo's lungs. "Go back, three houses back! I thought . . .  I think I saw something."

After only a moment's hesitation, Lilo stuck her foot on the pavement and pivoted the hoverboard 180 degrees, proceeding to coast to the house Mary pointed to.

As they drew near, a spare moonbeam found its way to the shiny rectangular plaque mounted on the stone stairs banister. The words engraved in the metal sent a little tingle of familiarity down Mary's spine, and in almost no time at all, she hopped to the ground and took the few stairs two at a time.

Her fist knocked three times softly on the tall, purple painted door. She noticed little windowboxes filled with small blue flowers and a small tricycle resting by the porch corner, protected by stone walls around it. Mary stole a glance at Lilo, who was standing in the middle of the street looking just about ready to make a mad dash away from whatever Mary thought she was doing. A small knot formed in Mary's stomach when there was no answer, as she could hear the monsters in jumpsuits growing nearer with each passing second.

She could feel her heart pounding. A streetlamp a few feet away blinked on and off twice, distracting both Mary and Lilo from the scurrying coming from inside the house. Mary was just about to knock on the door again when a tiny peephole above her head forcefully slid open to reveal a single, widened, teal colored eye looking down on the two girls gaping up.

Mary took a deep breathe before a small smile threatened to tug at the very corner of her lips, despite the utter fear she felt coursing through her body. "M-Mike Wazowski?" she asked.

The single eye, though partially obstructed by the small limits of the peephole, visibly widened.

"Boo?"