Page 44 of Ensnared

“Like, I have to ‘keep you in line,’ or whatever, but I’m not going to control you.”

A woman on the end with long hair and pronounced crow’s feet asks, “Are you freeing us?”

I cough. “I mean, I’d like to free you, but if I do, they’ll just kill you or round you up and bring you back to another ensnared.”

“So you aren’t freeing us.”

I shake my head. “Look, I’m an underling. I’d love to free you. I’d love to free myself, and believe me, I’ve tried.”

The woman frowns. “How is this any different than the last assignment, then?”

I sigh. “It’s not really, I guess. Except I would prefer to just list the things we need to get done, and once they’re done, you can just do whatever you want to do with your free time.”

“I want to be with my family,” a bald man says.

“I want to play Minecraft,” a chubby guy says.

“I was only here on a business trip,” a skinny woman with dark hair says. “My boyfriend didn’t even want me to come.”

I close my eyes, hating Axel a little bit more for making me do this. When I open them, they’re all still standing there, but instead of the homogenously impassive expressions, they’re frowning, irritated, or confused. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like all of you. I went to my brother’s Halloween party for his school, and an electro dragon ensnared my mom.”

They’re all watching me now, at least.

“I took my siblings, my brother Sammy and my sisters Coral and Jade, and we ran.” I sigh. “Only, we got caught right in front of our house, and after I tried my best to fight my way free, I was ensnared as well.”

“I hear it’s an earth blessed who ensnared you.”

“The prince of the others, if that helps,” I say. “But yes, it was. His name’s Axel, and he’s horrible like they all are, but he puts up with a lot from me. And.” I pause to make sure they’re all really listening. “He let me keep my siblings here with me. He’s vowed to keep them safe.”

They’re all murmuring now, and I can’t keep up with the directions their conversations are all going.

“You’re saying we can do whatever we want?” the chubby guy asks. “Because I hated scrubbing floors all day.”

“Is that what they had you doing?” I shake my head. “I’m pretty sure that you’ll need to keep this house and the one next door clean, but I don’t think that will take too long.”

“I can scrub the floors once a week in both,” the chubby guy says.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Joseph,” he says. And then he smiles. “No one’s asked me that in a while.”

“We weren’t allowed to talk unless necessary,” the dark-haired woman says. “My name’s Rachel. I’m from New York City, and to be honest, I hate Texas.”

I laugh.

They all do.

We introduce ourselves. We make a plan and assign tasks.

“So you’re not planning to, like, fight them,” Rachel says. “But we’re going to try and live as normally as we can?”

I make eye contact with each of them in turn. “I can force you to do things, just like all the other ensnared can.” I think about all of them folding their arms, and I push the thought.

They all do it at exactly the same time.

“I can be just as awful as the last ensnared human you worked for?—”

“They call themselves Master,” Joseph says. “Like they think that being called that makes them less slaves themselves.”