29 Monday Sep 2014
Posted in Stories
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So, I’ve been distracted as far as blog-worthy writing goes for the past two weeks. It’s not that I haven’t been writing, but instead, I’ve been working on a bit of a Choose your Own Adventure story on Reddit, in the /r/WritingPrompts community. If you’re interested, the story starts here but for obvious reasons, I can’t really re-post it here easily.
It’s gotten pretty long so far, even though it’s not yet finished. I’m pretty proud of it so far.
16 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Stories
“Come on!” Mary said as she raced down the path. “You’re so slow, Luke.” Luke chased after his sister on his short, 6 year old legs, but couldn’t keep up with Mary’s longer strides.
“Slow down, Mary! I’ll tell Mom!” Mary let out an exaggerated sigh, but slowed her pace. Their dog, Cooper, did not slow down his pace, but instead started running back and forth between the brother and his 10 year old sister.
“You’re so annoying Lukey, I don’t know why Mom says I have to take you with me.”
“Well I don’t even know where we’re going.” Luke retorted.
“We’re going to meet Sarah in Terabithia and catch fairies.” Mary said matter-of-factly, holding up her red bucket.
“What’s Terabithia?”
“It’s a magic land where everything you imagine comes real. I read it in a book.” Mary said proudly. “Look, there’s the gates over there!” She pointed at two massive willow trees, with low hung branches that almost seemed to curtain the path. Behind it, a small swampy pond hid within some reeds. Luke eyed it suspiciously.
“Mom says magic isn’t real. That just looks like a tree.”
“Well Mom doesn’t know everything. She didn’t even know that mermaids can sing underwater.” Just then, Sarah came bounding down the path, red hair twisted back in braids.
“Yay, Mary, you brought Lukey!” She exclaimed.
“Mom says I haveta.” Mary pouted.
“Well, he can help catch the fairies! They’re slippery.” Sarah started off towards the part in the willow branches. “Come on, Lukey.” Luke stared disbelievingly at the trees, as Mary and Sarah went through towards the pond.
“There’s one!” Cried Sarah, as Mary launched herself towards a dart of movement near the ground. She came up empty handed just as Sarah jumped for another, a quick leap of green. Laughing, Sarah stood up with a squirming handful and quickly dumped it in the bucket. Luke edged his way closer to the willows with Cooper on his heels as Mary popped out of the reeds with another squirming handful. She dumped that one in the bucket too, and this time, Luke was sure about what he saw.
“Those aren’t fairies! Those are frogs!” He exclaimed, walking up towards the bucket. Mary opened her mouth to argue, but her expression changed as she looked at Luke.
“Oh my god, Luke! Look beside you!!” She said, pointing hurriedly. Luke looked to his feet to see the biggest, fattest bullfrog he’d ever laid eyes on, . Even Sarah was staring now.
“Catch it!” Sarah urged. Luke didn’t need any more urging, fairy or no fairy. The bullfrog made a noble attempt to get back in the pond, but soon Luke’s hands were wrapped about it, and it was struggling to push off against his chest.
“See!” Luke proclaimed to the girls, “It’s a frog!” Mary looked at Sarah mischieviously.
“Maybe you should kiss it then.” She told her brother. Luke looked confused.
“Yeah!” Sarah chimed in. “Everyone knows if you kiss a frog, it’ll turn into a princess!”
“But I don’t want to kiss a princess!” Luke said disgusted.
“Princesses aren’t for kissing! That’s yucky. Princesses are for rescuing, and then you get to go live in a castle and eat ice cream all day.” Mary said with an authoritative nod. “That’s what my book says.”
Luke stared at the frog questioningly. It had stopped struggling and was staring up at him. Luke thought it looked almost… Hopeful? Even Cooper seemed to be urging him on with his stare. Sarah and Mary were quietly chanting “Do it” beside him. Luke screwed up his eyes, and placed the tiniest kiss on the frog’s nose.
The frog reacted violently, kicking it’s legs back at Luke’s face. Luke threw his face backwards, but he threw himself off balance on the slippery rocks around the pond. He started pinwheeling his arms desperately as the frog went flying at Cooper. Cooper panicked, and bumped into Luke, who went flailing backwards and landed with a solid thump into the muddy pond.
Ten minutes later, Luke and Mary’s mother looked down at the sorry tableau in her kitchen. One boy covered in mud as he bawled his eyes out, two muddy girls staring sheepishly at the ground trying not to laugh, and one soggy golden retriever, all dripping mud on the floor she’d spent all morning cleaning.
07 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Odds and Ends
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Zack shrugged Amber up onto her feet. He could feel her fighting her way back to consciousness as he did so, muttering something that Zach could barely hear. He addressed Daven first, mentally walking through his map of the layout.
“Only way out of this place is straight through the thick of it all. We’re lucky this was a secluded room, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a pair of guards sitting just outside the door there. ST hardly goes anywhere without his crew.”
Daven nodded, eyeing up the closed door. “Yeah, the Doctor was always a cautious one. That’s only the second time I’ve seen the man since I took the hit. You must have impressed him a lot that he came in alone.”
Zack smiled, “That part was easy, I just tried to do you proud. Took some high risk gigs, told them you killed my parents and I wanted revenge… He never suspected I knew he put out the hit on them.”
“Well lets see if I can do you proud then.” Daven said, “Which way to the loading bay?” Zack pointed out a direction as Daven kicked open the door, deftly putting two bullets into the mooks outside and one in the overhead light. In the half-light that followed, Zack could just see him take off in the indicated direction. He half dragged, half carried Amber along, following behind the footsteps of his foster father.
“Get down!” Daven hissed, harshly pulling Zack to the floor as a bullet whizzed through the shelves overhead.
“I did not bring enough bullets to get into a shoot out.” Zack muttered as Daven fired off another shot down the corridor of the shipping room. It pinged off the shelving, sending another guy darting away.
“Should have thought of that sooner.” Amber said sluggishly, reaching up to gingerly touch her forehead. Zack gave her a worried look, trying to see the gash beneath the blood, but Daven just smiled.
“Hey girl, if you’re good enough to snark, you’re good enough to run.” He winked at Zack, “Get her onto a truck on my count.”
“NOW!”
As Daven shouted, Zack took off running with Amber down the rows of boxes, heedless of the gunfire in the background.
The loading bay was empty save for one small truck, thankfully also empty. Amber slid into the passenger seat, and started poking the growing lump on her forehead while Zack sat behind the steering wheel. Luckily the keys had been left in the ignition as he nervously drummed his fingers on the leather wheel.
“Pass me the gun.” Amber said casually, brushing dried blood off her face. Zack looked at her swollen eye and hesitated momentarily. Noticing the pause, Amber turned to fix a steely gaze on him.
“Even with one eye, I can still shoot better than you.” she said. Zack passed her the weapon unquestioningly. “Thank you. I swear, first time they take a loved one and you get all protective like I’m not the one who taught you how to shoot in the first place. Just keep watching for that lump of a man to get out here.”
She went back to fussing and Zack was struck by how young she looked. It’d been 4 years since he last saw her, she should be just under 50, but then, he was hardly a child himself any more. He realized more and more what Daven had told him all those years ago. They’d just been a pair of stupid kids when they took out his parents, all hopped up on lies about dangerous weapons dealers. Not that they’d been terribly far off the mark.
It felt like an eternity before Daven came whooping his way out of the warehouse, grabbing onto the carriage of the truck. Zack gunned the ignition, heading straight out of the complex. They’d try to pull the gates across the road, but the headquarters was designed to keep people out, not in. Zack had no fear as he manoeuvred the truck through the chain link fence, heading towards the road as Daven slipped into the cab behind him.
“So then, kid, what’s next on the list?” he asked, squinting into the setting sun out the front window.
“I dunno,” Zack said, “I had some money saved up from that last gig, I was thinking retirement in Bora Bora sounded like a fine idea.”
04 Thursday Sep 2014
Posted in Odds and Ends, Stories
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The room in the warehouse was pitch black when Zack slipped into it. He barely needed the flashlight to confirm what he already knew was inside, but he used it anyway. The two people sitting before him, tied to a pair of wooden chairs, were as familiar to him as his own parents. More familiar, perhaps. They were the ones who had killed his parents, Deadly Daven and Avenging Amber, and set him down the path he was on today. They were the reason he’d become a hitman
He could remember the day if he thought back hard enough. His parents, huddled in the back of the sloppily built house, his father begging the pair to spare him for the sake of his son and wife. Of course, the pair had no intention of leaving his wife alive either as they shot her immediately afterwards. Zack had tried to keep silent, and obey his father’s last command. But there was only so much that could be expected of a 6 year old, hiding behind the curtains while his mother’s blood stained his shoes. Amber and Daven certainly hadn’t expected the small ball of fury that flew at them out of the hiding spot.
Suddenly, the warehouse flooded with light, and from behind Zack he heard the footfalls of Dr. Sean Trenton. The name Dr. ST was well known in the underground world where Zack had found a home. It was said that no on survived a run in with his type of gang. It had taken Zack 4 years to work his way into Dr. ST’s inner circle, and now the fruits of his labour were about to come about. He’d never laid eyes on the man, but he recognized his voice immediately.
“Well well, Zachary, how’s that for a coming home present?” Dr. ST chuckled, gesturing at the two trained killers tied to the chairs. “I’ll admit, the pair was tricky to hunt down, but after that job in Japan, I figured I could go the extra mile. It’s not everyone who manages to whack off an ambassador and get away clean.”
Zack smiled to himself as he inspected the pair in front of him. Tied to chairs and gagged, they hardly looked like the menacing pair of his childhood. Beaten and swollen, they both looked rather pathetic. Daven gave him a pleading look over the dirty gag, imploring him with his eyes. Zack wondered if that was a similar expression to what his father had worn, 27 years ago. Amber looked barely conscious, her head rolling at an awkward angle with blood crusting over half her lovely face. Dr. ST walked over to her, lifting her head with one hand to stared into her one barely opened eye.
“So what are you thinking, Zack?” the Doctor moved behind her as he spoke, running big, filthy hands through her gritty, auburn hair. “Shoot them quickly and be done with it? Torture them slowly for their crimes against your parents? This is your big moment.”
Zack hemmed as he pulled his gun out of it’s hidden holster. It was a good gun, it had served him well over his years. Hitman was hardly a typical career path, but his had hardly been a typical life. It was a small handgun, not nearly as useful in the long range kills he specialized in now, but at this range, he could hardly miss the shot.
“I’ve always been a believer in making it quick.” Zack said, raising the gun. It let out a quick bark that echoed in the warehouse, as Dr Sean Trenton fell to the ground, a bullet hole through his forehead.
Zack moved quickly to untie Daven, slicing through the ropes that bound his wrists before moving over to Amber. Daven pulled the gag from his mouth before working on the tight ropes that bound his ankles.
“I really thought for a moment there you were going to shoot her,” Daven said quietly as Zack pulled Amber’s limp form up from the chair, draping her arm around his neck.
Zack scoffed, “Shoot you guys for one more scumbag weapon’s dealer? Come on, Dad, you know me better than that. You’re the one who taught me to lie when I was barely 8 years old.”
Daven gave him a wry smile as he rummaged the crime lord’s body, coming away with a spare gun.
“I suppose I did, Kid. So then, what’s our best path out of this wasp’s nest?”
