Chapter 276: Loops and Laughter 2

  "That's so cool," Ollie breathed, looking at Lake with something approaching awe. "You made a trap with your portals! Can you show me how you did it? Could we trap bad guys like that if they come here?"   Lake's expression shifted, the playfulness fading into something more serious. "Maybe. But you'd need to know exactly where they'd be walking, and you'd need them to commit to the movement before they realized what was happening. It only worked because the nightwalker was in shadow form and moving fast----it didn't have time to react before it fell into the loop."   "Still cool though," Ollie insisted.   "It was pretty cool," I agreed, and was rewarded with a shy smile from Lake. "Though I imagine it was also terrifying, setting up a trap for something that could have hurt you badly if it figured out what you were doing."   The boys went quiet for a moment, the weight of that truth settling over the room. They'd both been living in a situation where creative problem--solving meant s