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to behold it,” Nibs says, sounding eager. “Perhaps he hid it with you?”
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” I say caustically, “I forgot I had it tucked away in my diaper at the time, but I find it more practical to stuff it down my socks nowadays.”
    “No need to be snotty with me,” Nibs says, his enthusiasm snuffed out. “
I
’m not the one who started with all the pointless questions.”
    He sniffs, making it clear our conversation is over and done with. With, I resume my pacing around the room, waiting for help that’s not coming.

    Bong
.
    I hit my head against the door, the sound resonating like that of a gong.
    Bong
.
    A few more brain cells have been killed off, another hundred billion to go.
    Bong
.
    “Will you stop that?” Nibs snaps. “I can’t think with all that racket.”
    “What’s the point in thinking at all anymore?” I ask. “We’re both doomed to spend the rest of our lives here until our skin rots off our bones.”
    Nibs lets out a disgusted sound. “Your father must’ve been the most annoying prick in the world.”
    “Don’t you dare talk about my father like that!” I shout, pulling away from the door.
    “Well you obviously don’t get it from your mom,” Nibs retorts.
    I’m about to scream for him to shut up when the other shoe drops. “You know my mother?”
    Nibs sniffs loudly. “I’m done talking to you. You always want information from me, but you never give me anything in return.”
    I crawl over to him as fast as I can, scraping my knees in the process. “You know my mother?” I ask again, unable to keep my voice from pitching dangerously high.
    “Like I told you,” Nibs says petulantly, “I have nothing more to say to you. Except to get out of my face, you’re invading my personal bubble.”
    Before I know what I’m doing, my hands are shaking him like a rag doll. “Who is she?” I ask, spitting the words in his face.
    “Get… Off… Me!” Nibs gurgles.
    My anger boils over and I shake him harder. “Tell me who she is,” I yell, “or I swear being disfigured will be the least of your worries!” I freeze, hands trembling with the shock of my own words. “I’m sorry,” I start. “I didn’t mean…”
    “Spare me,” Nibs wheezes.
    A loud, grating sound makes us both jump in surprise.
    “What was that?” I whisper, my hands still clutched around Nibs’s iron collar.
    “Someone’s here,” Nibs whispers back.
    We both hunker down as the door squeaks open and a thin ray of light penetrates the tenebrous depths of our cell. There’s another push, and the flickering beam of light thickens a full foot, outlining a long, horned shadow on the floor.
    “St. George’s balls,” I squeal, “he did it!”
    I rush to Puck’s side and grab the hairy hobgoblin into a tight embrace.
    “You came!” I shout, twirling Puck around in the air until he’s about to get sick.
    “Could someone please explain to me what’s going on?” Nibs asks, bringing me back down to the emergency of the situation.
    I carefully set Puck back down and he teeters over to Nibs, sniffing about the clurichaun like a dog hunting for a bone. Nibs recoils from the smaller creature as Puck tries to lift his leg to sniff the floor underneath.
    “Tell your pet to get away from me,” Nibs growls.
    I laugh. “He’s not my pet,” I say, “and he’s here to free us! Which reminds me…” I reach around the door and hear an answering
clink
as my fingers grasp the round of keys still stuck inside the lock. “It’s time to get you out of your fetters.”
    Nibs eyes me suspiciously as I go through the different keys on the ring to find the one that fits his locks. But when the chains finally come off, he doesn’t move.
    “Well don’t just stay there,” I say. “Someone’s bound to find the keys are missing at one point or another, and when they do we better a thousand miles away.”
    But, sitting in his tattered red clothes, the clurichaun looks lost, his one good eye staring