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Finish What He Started

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“You’re kidding me.”

I stared across the little living room at the sour-faced, shriveled old man sitting on the couch, my uncle’s will held in his claw-like little hands. I heard his words bouncing around in my head, but they still didn’t make sense.

“I assure you, Miss Tate, I’m not joking,” the lawyer repeated stiffly, regarding me with a combination of annoyance and patient disgust. “As I said, the will stipulates that you will be left five million dollars, if you finish what your uncle started.”

“But Uncle Ryan…” I trailed off, trying to make sense of it all. “Where did he even get five million dollars from? He worked up until he died! My parents told me that he could barely afford to keep his house, that he’d have lost it if it wasn’t for my helping him with the rent!” Continue reading →

Clockwork

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I made my way through the press of bodies towards the back of the tavern, my heart pounding. None of the men milling about spared a second look for me, but I still shrank away from their incurious looks.

There. Set into the back wall of the building, a bare wooden door – and a huge, hulking bouncer leaning against it, his arms crossed.

I moved closer, my heart pounding in my throat. He had to have strains of ogre in his ancestry. No human possessed arms so big, such gray skin. His hand could easily close on my head, and likely pop it like a grape. I nearly turned and fled, my courage all but exhausted, but forced myself closer.

He looked down at me, his heavy brow furrowing. “Yuh?”

“Hextech,” I choked out through dry lips. “I need to see him.” Continue reading →

Turncoat

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I grimaced as I followed the young man into the palatial mansion. The man couldn’t be older than seventeen, and his scrawny frame looked barely capable of handling the scratched and battered AK-47 in his hands.

Even inside the house, with banks of air conditioners likely running at full steam, the oppressive tropical heat still left me sweating in my suit. The fabric was light, but I reached up and loosened my tie by slipping a finger in between it and my collar. My feet felt uncomfortably damp in my leather shoes.

We came around the corner, and there he was, lounging in an armchair, holding a glass of some dark liquid in one hand and smiling up at me through flat eyes. “Ah, the turncoat arrives,” he greeted me, grinning fiercely. Continue reading →

The Girl with Purple Eyes, Part II

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Continued from Part I, here.

“Magic.”

I glared across the table at the woman sitting there, her eyes not meeting mine as she toyed with her cup of mead. “Magic,” I repeated. “You can use magic.”

Purple eyes flashed up at mine, anger and distrust warring in her irises. “Yes.”

I took a deep breath, and then let it out in a whoosh as I realized that I didn’t have any real response to this. “Good gods, woman, what have I gotten myself mixed up with?” Continue reading →

A Company Is Born

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I glared around at my friends. “Focus, would you?” I grumbled. “Stop goofing around!”

“That should be our focus!” Jimmy shouted, from where he lay slumped over the arm of my couch. “Goofing Around, Incorporated! Throw me another beer, would you? Do you have any food? Freaking starving, man.”

“Look, I still don’t understand what we’re doing here,” Nelson piped up from his seat on the floor, pushing at his glasses. It was a futile gesture, as they immediately slid back down his nose, but he kept on doing it anyway.

I sighed, rubbing my face. “For the last time, we’re starting a company!” Continue reading →

The Girl with Purple Eyes

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My eyes caught the girl as soon as she stepped into the tavern. She couldn’t have looked more out of place if she’d been draped in glow-worms.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one to spot her arrival, her appearance, and I knew it. All around the dim, damp, musty room, the scum of Calaphel shifted in their seats, hands straying towards weapons.

We all sensed wealth, and we hungered for it. Continue reading →

A relationship is dying.

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“You know, I almost laughed the other day.”

Her eyes focused a little, panned over to me. “Why?”

“Well, I was walking through the halls out there, just getting some exercise. Stretching my legs.” I gestured at the door to her room. It was propped open; she told me that she liked watching the nurses bustle about, running on their errands.

“And?”

Her eyes still looked bright, alive. I loved those eyes, no matter how the rest of her body shrank and withered. “Well, I thought to myself that I could probably walk through the hallways with my eyes closed, by now. I think I’ve memorized the entire layout of the hospital.” Continue reading →

Almost Real

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I gazed out at the world in front of me, beauty and serenity for as far as my eyes could see.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” piped up Serena, standing next to me. I felt the warmth of her hand as it slipped into mine, saw the shadows shift a little as she adjusted her grip on the lantern in her other hand. “So much possibility.”

“It is beautiful,” I replied, trying to clear my mind, to think of nothing but the world that lay in front of me, open for me to explore.

How long would it last? I knew that time worked differently here. It could pass faster, here. Entire lifetimes, I’d heard, could fly by in the span of just hours. Would that happen to me? Would I last long enough?

I hoped so. It all seemed so real, so perfect. I could almost believe it. Continue reading →

One Digit Off

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She reached out for the ringing phone. For a moment, her stiff fingers fumbled over the buttons, and she cursed the arthritis that stiffened her joints. She managed to hit the green button, and lifted the handset up to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Hello – I, uh, I just needed to talk to someone. I don’t think I can keep going any longer.”

Another one of them. No matter how many calls she took, there always seemed to be more of them, each with their little problems, so convinced that no one else in the world had ever experienced what they were now going through. Her eyes drifted over to the two piles of stationary on her windowsill.

“Well, you can talk to me, although you best make it quick – I’m 92, so who knows how much time I’ve got left.” She settled back into her chair, trying to find a more comfortable position for the phone against her ear.

“92? Um, is… is this the suicide hotline?”

Ah, one of the faster ones. He’d caught on more quickly than some of the callers. “Afraid not, dear,” she replied. “You’re off by a number.” Continue reading →

A Narrator Takes Control

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Captain Jack Gallant dashed across the war-torn and scarred battlefield, keeping his head low to avoid any stray blaster bolts. His coat flapped behind him as he ran, the active camouflage patterns shifting in an attempt to keep up with his changing surroundings.

He gritted his teeth as he skidded to a stop behind a boulder. He counted at least four Xorg walkers, and they knew that he’d made it out of the flaming wreckage of his own ship. He was alone, outnumbered, and without any way to contact his own soldiers.

Not that it would do him much use, he thought blackly to himself. They didn’t have the manpower to spare for a rescue. Continue reading →