Chapter 2: Prisoner of the Shadow Monsters

That evening, Sarah stopped by and asked if we wouldn't mind coming over to meet her parents. Mom and I followed her across the way to her house. Her mom greeted us at the door and welcomed us inside. The smell of freshly baked cookies filled the house, and I spotted a plate of them on the coffee table in the living room. Her dad sat in one of the chairs.

Mom and I sat down on the couch, and Mrs. Laurent took one of the other empty seats. Sarah passed around the cookies, then disappeared into the kitchen momentarily, returning with a tray carrying five glasses of milk.

As we sat around and ate the cookies, our two families got to know each other. Mr. Laurent was a regional manager for a construction company, and Mrs. Laurent was a teller at the bank. Sarah's dad had recently been promoted to his new position, which required him to move to a new city. Fortunately the bank where her mom worked was able to arrange for her to be transfered to a different branch in the new city. That left Sarah alone during the day. Both of them had been encouraging her to look for work, and she had put in a few applications around town, but with the move from out of state, she had been a little late and most of the summertime positions were already filled.

That brought up the subject of her "babysitting" me. I didn't really consider it babysitting, but I decided not to argue the point. I was old enough to know that most parents didn't like the idea of two teenagers of the opposite sex alone together. But if we emphasized the unequal nature of the relationship-- Sarah as the authority figure and me as the child-- then her parents were much more likely to go along with it. I sat there quietly, trying to be as childlike as possible.

It must have worked, because her parents readily agreed. They were especially happy that Sarah wouldn't even have to leave the neighborhood; like all parents they were just a little overprotective and wanted to know she was somewhere safe. They haggled on a price (by haggling I mean that Mom suggested a price and they all agreed immediately), which left only the details. Every weekday morning, Sarah would come over just before Mom left for work. Mom said I was allowed to go anywhere Sarah was willing to take me, but unfortunately, although she could drive she didn't have access to a car since both of her parents needed their two vehicles to get to work. That limited our options, but I really didn't mind. There was plenty to do around here. Maybe we would go explore the mountain one day, or make our way down into the valley to battle the barbarians.

That night, as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed the light on in Sarah's bedroom window across the way. I went to my window and peeked out. Despite her earlier promise to keep the curtains closed, she had them wide open. I could see her sitting there on her bed in just her bra and panties, thumbing through a magazine.

Before I could turn away, she glanced up and saw me there. I had been caught! It wasn't that I wanted to see her in her underwear-- Okay, I did, but that wasn't why I had looked out my window. I wasn't trying to spy on her. If she had given me half a second longer, I would have turned away like any gentleman. Or at the very least, I would have turned out my light and taken a step back into the darkness so she couldn't see me.

I expected her to get mad, or stomp to the window and close the curtains. Instead, she simply shook her finger at me in an accusatory fashion, but to my surprise she wore a mischievous grin on her face. Then she disappeared out of my view for a second on the other side of the room. When she returned, she wore a bathrobe. She came to the window and popped her head out.

"Hi Kenny," she said cheerfully. In the silence of the night, her voice was able to carry to my house.

"Um ... hi Sarah," I replied, hoping the darkness of the night would cover my red face from the embarrassment of being caught peeking on her.

"Tomorrow we'll do the rescue scene, okay?"

"The rescue scene?"

"Yeah, where I get captured by the Shadow Monsters and you come and rescue me."

"Oh. Sure."

"So make sure you dream about it tonight, so you'll have it firmly in your mind for tomorrow. You have a better imagination than me, so you have to make up the details."

"Fine," I grinned. "Good night, Princess Allura."

"Good night, Kenny. Or should I say, my dearest Kenneth Shadowbane."

"Hey, you don't have to get all mushy," I complained.

"Oh, that's right. We won't get betrothed until after you rescue me. So you won't be 'my dearest' until then. Anyway, see you tomorrow." She blew me a kiss, then stepped back, closed the curtains, and turned out the lights.

I woke up the next morning as excited as if it were Christmas. I really wanted to see Sarah again. That surprised me; in the past couple of years I had begun to recognize the beauty of the opposite sex, and even started having certain feelings toward them, but for the most part I didn't particularly like them. I had absolutely nothing in common with girls my age after all. But Sarah was different. She was the first girl I had ever met who was actually fun to be around.

I went downstairs to breakfast. Mom was in a rush, with only a few minutes to spare before she had to leave for work. She was still new on the job, so wanted to get there early to make a good impression. I have to admit, I wasn't much more patient, so anxious was I to see Sarah again and spend the day with her.

When I heard a knock at the door, I immediately hopped up and practically dashed out of the kitchen to answer it. There stood Sarah, her face brightening up with a big smile when she saw me. "Hi Kenny," she beamed. Then she peeked into the dining room and saw my mother there. "Hi Mrs. Grant!" she called.

Mom came to the door. "Hello, Sarah," she said. "Thanks for coming by."

"It's no problem, Mrs. Grant," said Sarah. "I don't mind babysitting Kenny. He and I get along really well."

"He's a good kid. Just a little over-imaginative."

"That's what I like about him. He's got a great imagination. It reminds me of myself when I was his age."

"Well then, I'll leave you two here. Do me a favor, Sarah. For now, keep him here or over at your house. Later we can talk about going on outings."

"Sure," agreed Sarah. "I was thinking of spending the day with him over at my house anyway. In fact, we can go over there right now if it's all right."

"It's all right with me," I replied. Mom agreed, so Sarah and I left my castle and ventured across the land to Silverfen Castle. The king and queen of Silverfen had already departed, I could see, leaving the whole realm available for our adventures.

First we sat down on the couch to make plans for the capture and rescue. She asked me plenty of questions about the Shadow Monsters, and I was a little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't thought of some of the things she asked about. But she didn't seem to mind; in fact, she was more than happy to help me flesh out my ideas. It was fun to collaborate with someone else on my world. Until now, it had always just been me and my imagination. That had always been enough, until I met Sarah and discovered what I had been missing. I hadn't realized just how lonely I had been in my fantasy world, until I met this princess with whom I could share it.

Of course, it didn't hurt that she was pretty. She really did look like my idea of a princess, a beautiful damsel that would cause any man to fall at her feet or swear to protect her upon first seeing her. But she had chosen me, Kenneth Shadowbane, out of all the princes and heroes of all the realms, and that made me feel good.

As we sat and talked, my mind kept drifting back to that first time I had seen her. Yes, it was because of what she had been wearing, or not wearing, more precisely. I was a thirteen-year-old boy, just learning to appreciate the fairer sex, and finding mystery and excitement in their beautiful form, especially since I had no prior experience seeing a girl's body before.

But Sarah was more than just a body, or a face. Her friendliness and enthusiasm had both surprised and captivated me; I had never met a girl quite like her. I think even if she were the most hideous creature on the planet, I still would have enjoyed her company.

I was having so much fun that I didn't even realize how much time had passed until Sarah announced that it was time for lunch. We dined on such royal delicacies as microwave burritos and apple juice.

After lunch, she suggested I run next door to retrieve my sword. I was about to do battle with a bunch of monsters after all. I hurried across to my castle and then made my way back to Silverfen, where I found her upstairs in her bedroom. She patted the bed next to her as an invitation to sit down. I did so.

"So let's see..." said Sarah. "If the Shadow Monsters captured me, where would they keep me?"

"Probably underground," I replied. "That's where they live. They like it where it's dark, because the light hurts them."

"Okay, so my bedroom is the cave where they're holding me captive. You're going to come in, fight them off, then untie me and carry me off back to your kingdom."

"Untie you?"

"Yes. They'll need to tie me up to keep me from escaping. Of course, you're going to have to do it for them, since they don't really exist."

"Oh. Okay," I shrugged. Having never been a Boy Scout or a sailor, I didn't know much about tying knots, but how hard could it be?

"I think there's some string out in the garage," suggested Sarah. We left the room and headed out to the garage to search through the shelves of tools and supplies that her dad kept out there. After about five minutes of searching, we found some twine that would serve well enough. It looked kind of rough and probably wouldn't feel too good on the skin, but Sarah said she had some handkerchiefs that she could wrap around her wrists to keep the twine from actually touching her.

We headed back to her room then, and she went over to her dresser to retrieve several handkerchiefs, then sat down on the bed. "Okay," she smiled. "Let's say they tie me onto a stone table, like they're going to try to cut out my heart or something. We'll use my bed because it's much more comfortable."

I agreed, so she lay down and spread her arms and legs out toward the bedposts. I had expected to just tie her wrists together, maybe behind her back, but apparently she had other ideas. I didn't mind; there was something particularly sexy about seeing her lying there prone, completely open and vulnerable.

I took one of the handkerchiefs and wrapped it around her wrist, then pulled out my pocket knife and cut a piece of twine and wound one end around her wrist over the top of the handkerchief. I managed a halfway decent knot, then reached over to fasten it to the bed post.

"Wait," said Sarah, and I stopped. I wondered if she had changed her mind after all. Maybe she didn't trust me yet enough to have me tie her up.

"What?" I asked.

"Something's not right," she said. "The Shadow Monsters went through all the work to capture me and bring them back to their cave, and all they're going to do is kill me? Why didn't they just do that at first?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "You're the one who wanted to get captured."

"Okay, let's think. There are three reasons why you would kidnap a princess. The most obvious is ransom."

"The Shadow Monsters have no need of money," I told her.

"Right. So scratch that one. The second is intimidation. To make the king afraid, to show him that they can come in at any time and take what they want from him."

"But the Shadow Monsters aren't that powerful. It was just a fluke that you got captured."

"Okay, so then the only other reason I can think of is to make the king angry."

"Angry?"

"Yes. So that he'll send out his army to rescue me. The Shadow Monsters are probably planning an ambush. Once the army is destroyed, they can take over the kingdom."

I thought about it. That sounded plausible enough. I nodded, and Sarah smiled.

"Okay," she said, "then they probably wouldn't just leave me here tied up. They would want to make the king really mad."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They're going to torture me."

"Torture you?"

"Yeah. Hot iron pokers, pincers, needles, the usual stuff. At least, that's their plan. But you're going to come in just in the nick of time. That way I'll be so overwhelmed by your heroism that I'll fall madly in love with you."

Normally I would have been turned off by all that sappy romantic lovey-dovey stuff, but with Sarah I didn't mind so much. I wondered if she would want to do some cuddling or snuggling later. Girls liked that sort of thing, and I realized that with her, I might actually enjoy it too.

"Okay, so they're going try to torture you," I agreed. "And I'm going to come in--"

"Just as they're about to start jabbing me all over my body with hot iron pokers."

"You know, you've got a really twisted imagination," I grinned.

Sarah laughed. "It's not me, it's the Shadow Monsters."

"Okay," I conceded, chuckling. Yes, Sarah really was fun to be around. I was really looking forward to spending every weekday with her for the rest of the summer. Maybe even when school started in the fall, we could still play together after school.

Then she did something completely unexpected. She reached down, took hold of the bottom of her shirt, then lifted it over her head and pulled it off. I stared in astonishment at her chest, now clad only in a lacy bra.

"What..." I gasped, my mouth dropping open and my eyes wide.

"The first thing the Shadow Monsters would do is strip me," she said casually. "It makes the torture that much worse if I'm completely exposed and at their mercy like that."

"I..." I stammered, still gaping.

"What's wrong?" asked Sarah.

"I..." I repeated, somehow not being able to get past that one word.

"Oh, come on. Don't be so bashful. You're not the one taking your clothes off, after all. Besides, this isn't the first time you've seen me naked."

"Well ... I mean ... that was different."

"Why?" she asked. "Because you were spying on me the first time?"

"I wasn't spying!"

"Okay, you weren't spying. Either way, I don't mind you seeing my body. We're going to be married soon anyway, then we'll have our wedding night."

"W ... Wedding night?" I asked.