Shifted

21. Kalaya

"No," Matters looked at me horrified. "We can't kill children, what the hell is wrong with you?" The air was tense as everyone listened in.
"We aren't going to kill children," I ignored Snakegirl nudging me in the side. "We are going to hold children hostage and threaten to kill them if they don't open that gate, stand by and allow us to be free. A group of us will hold the school up, meanwhile every single one of us, the old, the small; the weak; every single one will be waiting at the gate entrance. Show them we are ready to leave."
"So simple, so easy," Sail giggled, drunk as she shook her head. "You're a very bad kitty cat," she waved her webbed hand at me.
"This plan is too desperate," another shifted called out. He looked half man, half bull. "It won't work that way. You aren't thinking clearly."
"Well then, by all means, someone else take over," I spread out my arms and looked around. "No one? No? Ok then. This is the plan. The only plan I have right now."
"But children? That's beyond fucked up," Games pipped up. "The townspeople will just hate us even more."
"And what of our children? Have you all not reflected this past week? Have you not noticed missing faces? Are you not sick of the suffering yet?"
A murmur came over the bar. "The townspeople hate us already. They don't care, they don't even see how we live because we are behind this wall!"

"Before we start killing off children," Matters fixed me with a look. "Why not kidnap a group of adults," he said in a condescending tone, obviously judging me hard over my suggested plan. "And force them to see how we live, we march them through our streets, in our homes, then we bring them here, give them a drink and have a conversation and send them on their way."

Huh. I grinned as I thought about it. And then i shook my head. "It's one thing, sneaking under the fence and inside a public building like a school, barging into the place and barricading ourselves inside along with a group of them, but to actually get a whole group to follow us into the gate?" I shook my head. "We'd never make it through the front as heavily guarded as it is these days. And we'd never get a bunch of them to crawl under the gate before getting caught. Then, if we do somehow manage, what about all the guards patrolling? They'd put a stop to it immediately."
"We wait for one of their stupid holidays," Sail offered before tipping back more alcohol. My eyebrows drew together as I looked over at her in concern. She's been out of her mind lately, staying drunk and I made a mental note to pull her aside later to see how she was doing.
"Exactly, that's when they don't have many guarding the front," Matters nodded. "And they take a break from guarding inside too."
Snakegirl huffed in annoyance next to me. What a blood thirsty little thing. "Do we even remember what day that would be?"
"I'll find that out," I told everyone, that was, if Josalena ever visited again. I would get answers from her, by force if necessary. "Well , it won't have a big impact as the school plan. And it could backfire just the same. After letting go of the group we kidnap, the general and guards will come in and kill the lot of us. And without knives to their children's throats we will be helpless to a slaughter. And then on top of that, what if the group, instead of pitying us and spreading the word, what if they do what they've always done? Nothing. And nothing happens and it's all for nothing. So let's put this to a vote," I called out to my fellow bar mates. Maybe a bunch of drunks weren't the best to plan these things out with, but they were my best team players.

"This is horrible," Snakegirl pouted on the way home. "How can they think being civil will still work when it's never before?" She kicked at the ground, angry that everyone voted for Matters idea rather than ours.
"One day they'll see, we'll have no choice to be everything the humans fear from us," her words echoed around inside my head for the rest of the night and I hoped beyond hope they weren't the truth. But I knew it too. Because it was easy for the humans to fade back into their own comforts than causing trouble for themselves by sticking up for us.
Did they even see us as anything more an abominations? We weren't even human in their eyes. I just couldn't imagine this plan going well. But it just might be the push everyone needed to see that no human would stick out their neck to help us. That we would have to end up cutting their necks to save ourselves.