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but please!’
    The chain fell from where it was anchored to
the ceiling and landed on the floor with a loud clang.
    Josh panted, quick shallow breaths. He felt
light-headed, his heart racing.
    When the echoes ended, the only sound he
heard was the pounding of his heart. He stared at the door,
expecting it to open any second. They had to have heard that.
    The door did not open. They weren’t
coming.
    ‘Maybe they didn’t hear. Even if they did,
there’s no way they would equate that sound with me pulling the
chains out of the ceiling. It’s impossible. A…’
    ***
    “ A miracle. That’s what it is. It’s a
bloody miracle you weren’t killed.”
    His mother, crying, held him against her
chest, tightly, and kissed a cut on his forehead.
    Josh was six years old. His body was covered
in scrapes. His head felt funny and he could not feel his left
arm.
    “ It’s nothing,” he said.
    “ Nothing? You were hit by a bus! Your body
flew into that tree.”
    “ Leave the boy alone, Therese.” His father
spoke from the doorway. He was dressed in a dark suit and
sunglasses, like he was heading to a funeral. “Get him to the
hospital. I’ll take care of the police here. And that driver. I
will definitely take care of him.”
    ***
    Josh pushed the memory away. ‘Focus. That has
nothing to do with this situation. I’m just lucky. Things just work
out for me.’ He looked around the room and laughed. ‘Yeah. Things
work out for me really well.’
    A voice he recognized as intuition told him
he couldn’t risk the second chain falling. He’d been lucky once. He
didn’t want to push the luck he had left. As quickly as he dared,
he lifted his right hand. The chain rose with it, a harsh metallic
sound trickling through the room each time a link moved across
concrete.
    By the time his right hand was halfway up, he
started to feel the strain. Each link was two inches of thick
steel. It was heavy and, after two car crashes, his body was
fatigued. Moving quickly would lessen the strain but increase the
noise. If his captors caught him with one arm free, they would kill
him immediately.
    When his hand reached the manacle, he
searched for clasps. Finding it locked, he searched the seams for a
weak point.
    ‘If I can pull the metal chain out of the
ceiling, I should be able to snap this right off.’ Only problem, he
had no idea how he’d done that. All he did was pull and ask
for…
    ***
    “ A miracle.”
    He looked down at Tommy Delonki. Once his
best friend, he was now just a frail 16-year-old lying in the dirt.
His body was battered almost beyond recognition. Tears smudged the
blood and dirt on his cheeks.
    “ It’s nothing.” Josh, crying, held Tommy’s
hand.
    “ Nothing?” Tommy coughed. A trickle of
blood dripped down his lips. “You took on those things. You beat
them and you’ve barely got a scratch. You did that all for me? I
guess we’re still friends after all.”
    Josh looked over his shoulder.
    Bodies burned behind him, scaly flesh now
blackened and charred.
    “ They’re called Edimmu,” Josh said. He
looked back at Tommy and squeezed his hand. Tommy blinked, the
movement slow like a snowflake falling from the sky.
    “ How do you know that? I’ve never told
you.”
    Josh swallowed and looked down at his
hands.
    “ I don’t….”
    ***
    “…know.”
    Josh froze. ‘What the hell is an Edimmu? It
had to be those winged things but Tommy was right. There’s no way I
could know that. Just like I couldn’t pull a chain out of the
ceiling. Or survive getting hit by a bus at six. There’s no way I
could…’
    The manacles on his both hands clicked open.
The left swung away while the right fell with a thud at his
feet.
    “Impossible.”
    He looked around the room hoping to find his
clothes. There was nothing in the room except him, the light bulbs
and the chains.
    And the door.
    Then, Jan screamed again.
    ‘Analyze later,’ he thought. He walked to the
door, assuming it would be locked. Still, when he