The next day after Suzie’s broken arm Spencer woke with the sun, as always. He put his bed back away from the door and sat waiting. Trying to be stoic about what was in store for him and failing. Back in Nowhere Blvd. he’d lived in constant fear, but at least there he had had some control over his destiny. Here he didn’t control anything. He used to take what he wanted, now he only had what he was given.
After a while he heard something at the door. It was Baby Suzie peeking in. His first thought was that she came for revenge, trying to catch him while he slept. After a moment he realized how ridiculous the idea was and actually smiled at the thought of it.
Suzie came in the rest of the way, a purple caste on her right arm and a pink pony in her left hand. She walked up to the bed he was sitting on and handed him the pony. He looked at it, at a loss for what he was supposed to do with it.
Well if she’s not going to hold a grudge then I guess I won’t, he thought.
He pranced the pony around the bed, nuzzling it at her face. She gave him an inscrutable look and walked out, leaving him with the pony. He sat there a bit wondering what it was all about before she came back in with more stuffed animals, held awkwardly between her good and bad arm. He danced them around, amusing her as best he could figure out how to. Occasionally she would giggle at an animals particularly acrobatic antic. After a while his mom came looking for her and stood watching them with a hesitant expression for a few moments. Eventually she made up her mind and left them, calling them for breakfast a while later.
To Spencer’s surprise, he was not expelled from the house. He father gave him a dangerous look, as one gives a wild animal who is docile for the moment but might turn on you, but did not say anything.
Spencer was extremely relieved, but he didn’t think it was because of this change of fate. After some thought it seemed he was more relieved at Suzie’s state for some reason.
He wanted to do something for her, and thought about how her room was still completely un-secured. He figured that after breaking her arm, the least he could do was make sure they couldn’t get her in her sleep. He took the nightlight from under his bed and put it under hers, contenting himself with a little used lamp he’d found in one of the houses other rooms. As far as the large wardrobe in her room, he wasn’t even sure Smiling Jack could use them. The only reason he knew Jack could use the area under beds was because in the early days some of the other children had said that was where Mr. Buttons had come from. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. The cabinets of the house were all secured with plastic baby locks, and he used an extra one he found to lock the wardrobe. If he checked it at night to make sure it was secure, at least if they tried to come for her that way they would be blocked.
That day in the cave was a turning point for Spencer. Because finally there was something in the world he feared more than Smiling Jack. Somehow when he had only had one option, it had seemed worth doing anything to find another one. But now that he had two, he could consider the first one in a new light. Because after all, there was another way out.
The same way he had come in.
He had thought about the closet at the end of the long hall without really considering it ever since his first escape. But he’d always been too afraid to go near Jack’s mansion, knowing that if caught while inside there would be no escape. But even Jack’s lab wouldn’t be as bad as that cave. He was convinced that nothing was, either in the world or under it.
And he knew he couldn’t stay in the woods forever. He was getting sick in a way that, unlike a cold, wasn’t getting any better. He skin had sores on it that didn’t heal. His joints hurt when he walked and he was getting thinner and thinner. He’d even lost two teeth that had just fallen out while eating. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, but he thought it would go away if he could get back to the real world.
So he began to plan.
First he had to wait until Smiling Jack was occupied. Although it was an unknown whether Jack ate or slept, this was still the easiest part. All he had to do was wait until a child was taken for Jack’s lab. There was the smallest tinge of guilt at this, like he should do something for that child. Maybe even a year ago he would have seriously considered it. But so much of his humanity had worn away that the idea of another dead child didn’t even warrant a fully conscious thought.
The Hollow Men were easy, rarely maintaining much of a presence at the mansion. He thought about making a distraction somehow to draw them all to the south end of town, but couldn’t think of any way to do it without raising alarms he’d rather avoid. Nanny Gurdy stayed in her house, which left only Mr. Buttons. His tree house was on the southeast corner of the mansions hill, which was a problem. It meant Spencer would have to approach from the northwest, the furthest corner from the stairs leading up to the hallway in the southeast. Also too close for comfort to Jack in his lab in the basement.
Ideally he would just have gone through the front door, which lead in almost a straight shot to the stairs that lead to the long hallway with the Great Closet at the end. But he remembered when those doors opened, they were loud. Also they were fully in view of Mr. Button’s tree house. No, he’d go in the same way he had before. He’d never found out whether they knew about the way he had come in that night, but given that they thought he was dead it was likely safe to use the same way again.
When the day finally came he was nervous in a way he hadn’t been in a long time. But he didn’t try and talk himself out of it. It was like he was too tired of being afraid to do it anymore. He left his pack behind, bringing only his telescope and his short bone spear. The latter wasn’t for fighting, it was to make sure they didn’t take him alive. And the former, well at this point it was mostly for good luck.
Spencer desperately wished that Jack would, at least occasionally, leave his house at night. He’d be happy to wait for the opportunity if he thought it would ever come. But with the exception of Jack’s manhunt for him, he’d never seen it happen. He thought about using that to his advantage, creating a distraction somehow. Even thought of a few scenarios, but ultimately it all seemed too risky. If he couldn’t get the closet to work, he needed the chance of sneaking back out and working on a plan B.
Spencer watched from the woods until he saw Jack and Nanny leave the guest cabin with a young boy around nightfall. He waited a couple hours after that as well, remembering the “waiting room” with the small chairs and shackles. Finally he decided it was time to make his move.
He made his way from the edge of the woods to the house with the stealth of a cat. At the basement window he was surprised to find that there was no light trickling down the hallway from the operating theatre as there had been before. He waited a bit with his ear to the glass, listening for something lurking in the dark. Finally he reached his fingers in the cracks and pulled at it, wondering if it would prove to be locked this time.
It wasn’t.
Jesus, he thought. Some people never learn.
Knowing the distance to the floor this time, Spencer quickly lowered himself from the windowsill and pushed off for the drop, crouching low on the landing to cushion the blow.