Promptly Penned

“Girls” Night In

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promptly penned

Welcome! If you’ve never seen read Promptly Penned before, we’re given a . . . wait for it . . . prompt and we have to use it to write a short piece. Easy peasy! The prompt this time is dialogue and it will be in bold so you know what it was. Enjoy!!

 

Maggie settled back on the couch with her feet kicked up. She hadn’t been sure she could swing hanging out with her two best friends, but, once Mrs. Hutchinson had convinced her she would take the kids Maggie had agreed. It was tough being solely responsible for her two younger siblings, but Maggie couldn’t do anything else. She loved them.

Grace pranced out of the kitchen followed by Joey. Both were carrying bottles and glasses as they sang off key at the top of their lungs. Good thing Grace’s apartment had solid walls or else the party would end before it got started.

“Have we missed anything?” Joey asked, handing Maggie a champagne flute.

“No, the Grammy’s aren’t on yet and I can’t drink this.”

“Oh yes you can, it’s sparkling grape juice. What do you take me for? I know very well pregnant ladies can’t have alcohol”

“Yeah, he’s way smart,” Grace said with a smile. “He graduated from Yale and is a lawyer.”

Maggie laughed since that was Joey’s pat line for explaining why he was always right. Grace had taken to tossing it in before he could. It always made the three of them laugh.

“That’s right,” Joey said. “Yale. Lawyer. That’s me.”

“Joseph P. DeMarco, Esquire,” Grace said, putting on what she called her haughty rich lady accent, which really consisted of her attempts at a bad British accent.

Maggie sipped at her drink and shrugged. It wasn’t bad for sparkling grape juice, of course, to her, anything was better than champagne. She couldn’t stand the stuff while her friends guzzled it like water.

“Here’s to our first official Girls Night In,” Grace declared, holding her glass up.

“I love this,” Joey said. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Dude, you’re one of the girls,” Grace replied.

“It wouldn’t be the same without you,” Maggie told him.

“Ah, thanks girls. So, let’s dish. Grace, how’s it going with Calvin?”

“He’s old news. I haven’t talked to him in ages.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Ages? You saw him last week.”

“Whatever, it’s been so long I’m probably not interested in him anymore.”

“I’ve seen his Instagram,” Joey shot back, “you’re definitely still interested.”

Maggie nodded. “You’re liking and commenting on his feed all over the place. Not that there’s really much to like. The man isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack.”

Joey nodded. “Sharpest pencil in the case.”

“Brightest crayon in the box,” Maggie continued.

“You two are mean,” Grace declared.

“She only says that when we’re right,” Joey told Maggie.

“The Grammy’s are on,” Grace pronounced primly. “We should watch it.”

“Avoidance,” Maggie said, “that means we’re really, really right. And she knows we’re right, but he’s called her and she’s going to go out with him.”

Grace ignored them by turning the TV up and Joey sighed dramatically.

“Yep, she’s going out with old dim bulb. He must have a big peen since he really can’t carry on a conversation.”

Maggie burst out laughing and finally Grace broke and began to laugh too. Yep, Maggie decided, Girls Night In was a success.

 

Now head over and see what my amazing friend Siobhan did with the prompt.

 

Working for the Dead

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promptly penned

Welcome to May’s Promptly Penned. If you’ve never encountered this before, two members of our blogging group give us either dialogue or a scenario and we write a short piece. This month the prompt is:

He is a hitman for the supernatural, because sometimes, ghosts need revenge so they can rest in peace.

And with that, I hope you enjoy!

 

“Hurry! It’s over here.”

Dekker glanced at the woman who accompanied him. What the fuck? He’d been doing the job for a very long time and he didn’t need a newbie along. He knew where they were going. He knew what to do once they reached the destination. He was the best. That’s why he was the one currently walking through the darkness. Where they were going wasn’t for amateurs.

“Are you listening?”

“Lady, you’ve been yammering at me non-stop for over an hour. I can do nothing but hear you. Tell me again why you’re here?”

“You’ll see. Now pick up the pace.”

A growl rumbled out of his throat and he grit his teeth to pull back. The otherness inside of him loved the hunt. This too was another reason he was the best. Though one had nothing to do with the job itself. It was actually the length of time he’d been at it. Most headsman lasted twenty or thirty years, but Dekker had only been hitting his stride at that point. When you were good at something why give it up? Now he was entering his . . . two hundred and fifteenth year? Really? It almost gave him pause, but let it go. Now was not the time.

“Hey, are you awake?” the woman shouted back at him. “You’re really slow. Come on.”

He approached the dark house as the woman practically danced in place. Or, she would have if her feet actually touched the ground. Something about the spirit plane being just slightly off of the human. Either way, ghost always floated.

Ignoring her, Dekker held out his hand and the front door unlocked. He stepped into a living room and listened. He heard nothing, but knew people were home. He could feel the life force of two humans in the house. Following, the way a blood hound did a scent, he tracked through the living room and into a kitchen. A door, tucked discretely in a corner, flared bright to his eyes. The one he sought was there.

As he approached, the door opened before him. Once a headsman caught the scent, nothing stood in the way. He moved down the steps and could scent blood, old and new flavoring the air. The basement was dark and dingy. And empty. He knew this wasn’t all there was to see, since he was never wrong.

“Over here,” the ghost called. “It’s over here.”

“Lady-” he began.

“Kim, my name is Kim. You have to hurry. He’ll kill her too.”

Dekker hated complications and this was going to become one. He wasn’t supposed to interfere. Go in, do the job and leave. The other inside of him wanted to kill both humans. Dekker knew he couldn’t. That would spell the end of him doing the job. He’d done a lot of stuff he wasn’t proud of, but he’d never killed an innocent. Ever.

He stepped forward and the door swung open. The man had obviously sound-proofed the room because a woman was screaming. Pain such pain tainted the air. And fury. So much fury. It touched the other in him, pulled at it.

She was petite and, at first, he thought she was a child. Not until he got a good look at her did, he realize she was a grown woman. A woman who was tied to a table and covered in blood. Her own blood. Cuts ran the over her body. Shallow cuts and deep ones. Still though she fought. She pulled at the bindings on her hands and feet as the man calmly stood beside her holding a bloody blade.

Dekker stepped forward and her eyes flicked to him, then held. Deep blue green, like the ocean on a crystal-clear day. She shouldn’t have seen him, not with the shadows cloaking him, but she did. And in that instant, he and the other calmed. He understood.

Pulling the shadows away, he cleared his throat. The man with the blade spun and staggered.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?”

No matter how long he did the job, Dekker was always vaguely surprised with the stupid questions that popped out of people’s mouths. Nevertheless, he did what he’d been trained to do so many years before. First, announce who he was and why he was there.

“I’m Dekker, Headsman for the Supernatural. Tom Phillips, your name was brought before the tribunal by twenty individuals. Upon studying the case, you are found guilty. I am here to carry out the sentence.”

The man blinked. “What? Nothing you say makes sense.”

He pulled a gun out and fired point blank into Dekker. Dekker, for his part, never moved. Humans had tried to kill him before. It never worked. He always carried out the sentence.

The man, Tom Phillips, fired three more times until the gun clicked. Empty.

“As I was saying,” Dekker continued, as though he was never interrupted. “The tribunal has granted the twenty individuals their due. Do you have anything to say in your own defense?”

Tom screamed and rushed forward. Dekker held up a hand freezing the human in his tracks.

“Since you don’t, I will administer justice.”

Darkness shot from his hand and encompassed the man who had been Tom Phillips. The human began to scream, then, was silent. Wiped away in a blink.

“Can you help me?”

Dekker moved to the woman’s side and released her bonds. “Tell me your name.”

The ghost who had accompanied him appeared. “Her name is Grace. She’s my best friend. Please help her.”

Shrugging out of his coat, he draped it around Grace’s body and picked her up. He’d help her, of course he would. Grace was his. His to protect. In a flash, he was gone leaving only emptiness.

Now check out what my friend Siobhan did with it.

 

Promptly Penned March 2019

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promptly penned

I love the prompt this month and as soon as I read it I instantly thought of my two favorite people Shay and Josie. It’s short, but I had a fun time dropping in one them. As always, the prompt given to us is in bold. Hope you enjoy!

 

Shay tossed her backpack down just a tad harder than needed. Was she pissed the summoning spell didn’t work? You betcha, but there wasn’t a hell of a lot she could do about it. It didn’t work. So, get over it and move on and think of something else. She wasn’t sure what yet. There was so much they didn’t know. It was almost overwhelming.

Josie pulled a soda out of their small refrigerator and slouched in their one comfortable chair. The living room of the apartment they shared was tiny and had room for a love seat, that might grow up to be a sofa, and the chair. That’s it. No artwork. No dust catchers. Nothing else. Just the tiny sofa and the chair.

“You know why we live like this?” she asked Josie.

 

“Live like what?” Josie looked up from the mystery gadget she’d pulled from one of her million pockets.

“Like this.” Shay waved her hands around. “Every one in the agency does it, but no one talks about it. It’s because when we die, which we all will, usually way sooner than we should, we won’t leave anyone with a mess to clean up. How fucked up is that?”

“I can understand you’re frustrated by everything that’s happened.”

Shay rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I don’t give a fuck.”

Josie burst out laughing. “Who are you kidding? You give so many fucks they’re visible from space. You can pretend all you want that you don’t care. But I know you do. Hell, so do I. Don’t you think I’m freaked out about this whole situation? We have an unknown entity, or, probably, entities out there munching down on our people and there’s not one good goddamn thing we can do about it.”

Shay ran a hand wearily through her hair. “Fine. I care. I give a fuck, but what does that get me? Telling you I care doesn’t change anything.”

“Bullshit. It changes everything. We know what’s at stake. So, we need to calm down and think. Up until now, we’ve been running from one fire to the next. Throwing shit at these things willy-nilly. No thought. No planning. It’s not just us doing this. It’s everyone. The entire agency. And what is it getting us?”

“More dead agents.” Shay sat on the couch that wasn’t a couch and took a breath. “You’re right. We have no plan. So, that means, we need to stop and think.”

“Not just us,” Josie said, sitting beside her. “We need to gather what’s left of the teams and come up with a cohesive plan. And, dude, you’re like freaking magic. You need to work on what kinds of things you can do.”

“Just because I said you were right, doesn’t mean you can call me dude.”

Josie smiled. “Whatever. You know you like it.”

“Like a punch in the head. So, yeah, let’s make some calls and see what we can come up with.”

 

Jess      Bronwyn    Kris    Siobhan

 

 

December 2018 -Promptly Penned

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PromptlyPenned

I can’t believe this is the last PP of the year. Everything has gone by so quickly. I will say, we saved one of the best for last, since the prompt made me laugh. Oh and I instantly thought of Shay and Josie for the prompt. Hope you all enjoy. And, as always, the prompt will be in bold type.

 

Shay settled her backpack more securely and worked her way up the small rise. The forest was quiet around them as the last rays of the sun were visible through the trees. As a child, her mother had always told her to trust her instincts and that’s exactly what she was doing. Which was good, since she didn’t have a clue. They needed help so she was going to use a spell from one of her great grandmother’s grimoires. It was called The Spell of Calling and was only to be used in a dire situation and only as a last resort. Well demon things lose in the world and eating people was pretty much a huge emergency.

As she reached the highest point of the hiking path, Josie staggered up and dropped to the ground.

“This is my life now,” Josie said, trying to catch her breath. “I have climbed this hill and now, I will die upon it.”

Shay rolled her eyes. “Shut up. We’ve only been hiking for twenty minutes.”

“You shut up, stupid face.”

Shay shook her head. “You need to shut up more. And, we’re supposed to utilize the training facilities to stay in shape. Aren’t you doing that?”

“Hey, I’m the brains of this operation not the brawn.”

“Are you done screwing around? We have to get to the spot before the full moon rises.”

Josie forced herself to her feet. “I’m not screwing around. I’m exhausted and sweaty. Oh, and scared, let’s not forget scared.”

Shay put her hand on Josie’s arm. “Me too, but if I can get this right, we’ll have help.”

“Then let’s get this done.”

They set off again, but the walk was definitely easier. The ground was flat and it hadn’t rained recently so there was no mud. Also, it looked as though they were on an established walking trail. Shay only hoped that if they strayed into the forest, she could lead them out. Of course, she didn’t say that to Josie. The girl was already flipped out, no need to add more to her plate.

She led them down a small incline then veered off to the left and over a fallen tree. She broke into a trot as the pull became stronger. She pushed her way through heavy brush and found herself in a clearing containing a small mound. Shay gently put her foot on the ground and found it solid. Then she climbed to the top and dropped her pack.

“Should I stay down here?” Josie asked.

“Yes, thanks.”

Shay knelt on the ground and began to pull items from her pack. Her great grandmother’s small cauldron, her grandmother’s wand, and herbs from her mother’s garden. Then she pulled out stones from her own collection. Pieces she’d collected over the years. None of them were particularly spectacular, but they’d spoken to her. Lastly, she pulled her great grandmother’s spell book from the bag and opened it to the spell she wanted.

Shay took a deep breath. Then another. She opened her senses to the forest. She could hear the wind rustling the trees and night birds calling. When she was ready, she picked up the wand and cast a circle. Settling on the ground she began to add the herbs and stones to the cauldron. Though she had the book she didn’t need it. She knew what she had to do.

Finally, she placed her hands, palm down, over the cauldron and pushed all her need, fear and want into it. At the last moment she said, “Send me who we need.”

The contents of the cauldron lit up and began to glow. Shay pulled her hands away in time as a beam of pure radiant light shot up from the cauldron into the sky. Then it shot into the mound she sat on. The earth vibrated under her for about thirty seconds then everything went dark. She sat for a long moment then glanced up to find Josie staring at her wide-eyed.

“Okay, that was freaky as shit,” her best friend declared.

“Yeah, but I don’t see any help appearing out of the forest. Do you?”

Josie looked around. “Maybe it will take a few minutes.”

Shay really didn’t think so, but began the process of cleaning up and closing the circle. She was exhausted though. She felt the same way she had in college after taking a huge final. Empty and fuzzy headed as if every ounce of knowledge had been drained from her.

The two of them waited around for another half an hour when Shay had to admit to herself and Josie. “Okay, that was a fucking waste of time.”

Josie rubbed her eyes. “You don’t know that. And before you say anything, true, no one appeared out of the woods and declared he or she was here to help, but maybe it’ll take time. Maybe this person will be waiting for us back at our apartment.”

Shay nodded. “You’re right. I need to stay positive.”

As they hiked out of the woods, Shay tried to keep that thought alive, but deep down she knew she had royally screwed up.

 

Bronwyn Green      Jessica Jarman

October 2018 Promptly Penned

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PromptlyPenned

Welcome to the October edition of Promptly Penned! I’ve been waiting for this PP since the prompt is so awesome. As always, it’s in bold print in the flash. Enjoy!!

Shay slowly pulled her knees up under herself as she placed her hands on the ground and pushed. Okay, yeah, this standing up business was for the fucking birds. Wasn’t happening, not right now anyway. Didn’t matter since she was able to survey the area just fine from the ground, or, at least, that’s what she told herself. From what she could see, the . . . monster, thing, whatever was gone. Sure, technically, it had been blown to bits, but still no longer able to cause havoc. So, yay, win-win for their team. About damn time.

She rested her forehead on the ground and concentrated on breathing. Yep, breathing was really good. Breathing and not throwing up was even better.

“Shay. Shay?”

The deep baritone voice spoke softly from her side and she couldn’t stop a shiver. Damn the man . . . Fae, whatever. Even feeling like warmed over dog shit his voice made her want to drop her panties. She had to stop thinking about that. Some how she had called him, she still wasn’t sure how that happened. Shay refused to question it. He and his companion were here to help them and she certainly couldn’t indulge in any fantasies that involved him naked. Him naked as he murmured to her in that voice. Him naked, murmuring to her as he licked her—

“Shay, please say something.”

“Shay! For fuck’s sake woman, sit up.”

Ahhh, Josie. If anyone could ruin a fantasy it was her. Shay couldn’t tell her that she was a fantasy cock blocker. Could she? Maybe?

“Come, let me help you.”

Shay looked up in Kearney’s face as he helped her sit up. Wow, the man was fucking beautiful. All that onyx skin and cobalt hair just did something to her.

He smiled at her. “I think you’re lovely too.”

Josie stuck her face close to Shay’s and smiled. “Oh, yeah you’re so pretty, girl. All that blood looks so good on you. It really brings out your eyes.”

“Fuck you,” Shay muttered, mortified that she’d blathered on about how beautiful Kearney was. And, in front of everyone. Great.

Siraj, Kearney’s partner, pulled Josie back. “Let her have some room.”

“What happened?” Shay asked, finally able to get a good look at their surroundings.

“You pulled a vast amount of power,” Kearney said, scowling. “You annihilated the drogath”

“That’s a good thing,” Shay declared, trying to stand.

He put his arm around her and she forced herself not to lean into him. No leaning. Nope. He was a fellow warrior. Nothing more.

“Yes, but not if you kill yourself in the process.”

He practically growled the sentence so it took a moment to understand what he was saying.

“I have this power and I need to use it,” she argued.

“Yes,” he agreed, “but you need to understand it. You need to learn to use it. You’re flinging all of your energy at the enemy without any thought to your own safety.”

“What am I supposed to do? Sit back and let people die?”

“No, you need to learn to pull the energy from your surroundings. That is what you should be doing? Have you not had any training?”

Shay shook her head slowly as Josie asked, “So, she was supposed to go to school or something?”

Siraj said something in a guttural language as he kicked at the dirt. Shay had a feeling that things had just gone from shit to totally fucking shit.

Now go and check out what my fellow bloggers did with the prompt.

Jessica   Bronwyn   Siobhan

Familiar Face

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PromptlyPenned

Welcome!! Our prompt this month is awesome. I’ve been waiting for it very impatiently. Instead of it being dialogue or a few lines, it’s actually a situation we’re writing to. The prompt says: You’re in an interrogation room. A man walks in and throws a bunch of photographs on the table in front of you. The photos are old and taken at different points in history. You’re in each one. He demands to know who you are.

So, here we go:

 

Detective Jason Davis walked into the interrogation room and stared hard at the man sitting at the table. He didn’t know his name, but he certainly knew his face. High cheek bones, up-tilted eyes, long patrician nose, and full lips. Shit, no, not full lips. Couldn’t think of him like that. He was a suspect . . . or something. Jason just didn’t know quite what yet.

The man looked up and raised one eye brow. Green. The man had pure green eyes. The pictures hadn’t shown that. It also hadn’t shown the bronze skin and white gold hair. Worn longer, Jason thought, unlike the pictures.

“So, are you going to tell me why I’m here or am I supposed the guess?”

The man’s rich baritone filled the room and it took everything in Jason to stop the shiver. Gritting his teeth, he tossed the small stack of images on the table so they spilled across the surface. The man didn’t look at them, but continued to watch Jason.

“Would you care to explain?” Jason asked.

Carefully, the man spread the images out so he could, presumably, study each one. He didn’t betray anything as he looked each picture over then calmly moved it aside. He did this until all eleven pictures were back in a small stack.

“They’re old photos.”

Jason wondered if the accent he had was fake. If almost sounded like the Wakandan accent from Black Panther, but he wouldn’t swear to it. Instead of asking, Jason sat across from the man who had captured his interest almost a year ago. Was it legal for him to bring the guy into interrogation? Probably not. Jason really didn’t have any proof he’d committed a crime. He just knew something was off. Way off.

“The first photo was taken about 1842,” Jason said. “The last about twenty years ago. So, Mr. Jackson, can you explain to me, how you’re in every single picture.”

“Kael,” he finally spoke. “My name is Kael.”

“I don’t see that in any records I have.:

Jason shuffled through the paperwork in front of him, knowing that name wasn’t in any of it. He knew because he had done extensive research on the man across from him. Extensive? Okay, obsessive. He’d done obsessive research. It was as if he couldn’t stop himself. There was something about the man that Jason found compelling. Every time he told himself to stop. To put it away. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. No matter what, Jason had to know, to understand.

Kael folded his massive arms and leaned back in the chair. The piece of furniture groaned audibly, but the man sitting in it didn’t seem to notice or care.

“You have nothing to hold me,” he finally spoke. “I haven’t committed a crime.”

He rose to go, but Jason shot his hand out to grip the man’s wrist. The first thing he noticed was the jolt he received from touching Kael. Jason knew it wasn’t physical, per se, like a lightning strike, but emotional. He immediately got hard. And that never happened. He was an adult male and had control over his body. This man though . . .

Looking down he saw his dark skin next to Kael’s much lighter bronze hue and wondered if he was that color all over. Fuck, he had to stop.

Kael didn’t shake his arm off. Instead, he placed his hand over Jason’s and it was as if Kael had grabbed his cock. Shit, it took everything he had not to moan.

Kael smiled and retook his seat. Jason wasn’t sure what the man had seen . . . sensed, whatever, but Jason was glad he stayed. Because he was right. Jason didn’t have a damn thing to hold him. Hell, if anyone found out he’d asked this man to come in and used the interrogation room he’d probably be fired.

“The pictures,” Kael said. “How did you find them?”

“This one is from my mom’s side of the family.” Saying this, Jason pulled an image from 1885 out of the stack. He knew all about it. He’d studied it as for years. The picture had hung from his grandmother’s wall and Jason was captivated the first time he’d seen it. The image wasn’t anything special, just four white men standing in place dressed in suits. Jason’s grandfather was the second from the left. An unassuming man in a suit. He wasn’t who captured Jason’s attention. It was the man at the far right. The tall, built man with the cheekbones and mouth who had captured his attention. His imagination. His daydreams and, as a boy, wet dreams. Now, here he sat, bigger than life.

“I wanted to know who the men were,” Jason finally said. “So, I did research. And the more I dug, the more I wanted to know. It took me about ten years, but I found all the pictures and now here you are. In the flesh.”

Kael smiled. “Here I am. And you’re curious?”

“Yes.”

“No one will believe anything I tell you.”

“I don’t care. I don’t care about anyone else.”

Kael leaned forward and grasped Jason’s wrists in his hands. “There are things in this world that you’re safer not knowing. Though, since you made it this far, I can assume you won’t stop.”

Jason didn’t say anything, but just watched Kael and waited. He had to know.

Finally, Kael nodded. “For millennium, evil has tried to gain an advantage on this planet. It wants humans, needs humans. And, for millennium, those of us who oppose the dark fight. Not all the time. In fact, the last major battle was perhaps four or five thousand years ago. After that have been skirmishes, but nothing major. That’s changed. Evil is rising.”

“That still doesn’t explain the pictures. You.”

Kael nodded. “Yes, it does. I’m a vampire and I have lived for thousands of years fighting the dark.” Saying this, the man opened his mouth and his incisors grew into fangs. Jason blinked his eyes and tried to pull away, but Kael held him.

“Evil is coming Jason. My sire is rising and all I can think about is how delicious you smell. And how very much I want to drink from your vein and fuck you.”

 

Bronwyn     Jessica    Kris    Siobhan

 

Promptly Penned – August 2018 Edition

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PromptlyPenned

Last month I wrote a short piece about Shay and Josie. This month I decided to use them again since the prompt is so awesome and totally reminds me of the two women. Hope you enjoy it. Oh and the prompt is in bold in the flash.

 

Shay limped through the darkened woods as she picked leaves out of her hair. The week had gone from shit to totally fucked up. Check out fake haunted house, no problem. Instead, the home owners hadn’t waited for them to show up and had employed a “ghost hunting” team. Dumb fucks. All of them. The home owners for not waiting and the Ghost Dusters or whatever they called themselves for somehow opening a portal into another dimension. A dimension with demons. Demons who had come right on in, slaughtered everyone in the house, and left.

Fuck. The agency had scrambled the major teams, but Shay knew it wasn’t going to do any good. The demons were strong, far stronger than anything they had faced before. And, now, for some reason, humans were helping the demons. Double fuck.

She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Josie said, “You know you should be a little more thankful. I saved your life back there.”

Shay stopped and stared at her best friend “You pushed me off a cliff.”

“Don’t be a baby. It was just a little cliff.”

She rolled her eyes ad started walking again. Josie jogged to keep up with her.

“Why would humans help those things?”

Shay shrugged. “Why do humans do anything? Most of them are self-centered fuck heads who only care about themselves. They think they’re special. I’m sure the demons promised them all kinds of stuff.”

“Now what? We both know nothing we or anyone else does is going to stop this. We’re just not strong enough.”

“Obviously, since I didn’t fly when you shoved me off a cliff.”

“Oh my gosh, are you going to keep harping on that.”

Shay thought for a long moment. “Yes, I believe I am. Or, at least, until I can shove you off a cliff.”

“Quit being a baby. This is serious.”

“So is me dying from a fall from a cliff.”

The two women walked in silence as the sun began to set. The trees threw odd shadows around them and it took everything in Shay to stop a shiver. There was nothing out there. Both of their senses as well as Josie’s gadgets would have sounded an alarm. Still she was afraid and it wasn’t a feeling she was used to. They’d never come across something they couldn’t handle. This time, though, this time it was so far beyond their pay grade it wasn’t funny.

“We need help,” Shay said.

“Dude, two demons devoured the top team at the agency. We don’t have anyone to call. Unless you know Aquaman and Batman personally. And if you do, I call Jason Momoa.”

“In your dreams, Jason Momoa is mine. You owe me for throwing me off a cliff.”

“I did not throw you, drama queen, I gave you a small push. To save your stupid life. Next time I won’t bother.”

“Yes, you will, you love me, I’m your best friend.”

“So, who’s helping us?” Josie prompted.

“I’m not sure. We need to send out a calling and hope we get an answer.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Shay stopped and stared at the woman who was closer than a sister. They shared everything with each other, everything but Shay’s family.

“I come from an unbroken line of powerful witches. I can trace my ancestors back to the Picts in Scotland.”

Josie stared at her for a long moment and burst into laughter. “Oh my gosh, you almost had me. Powerful witches. Yeah, so who, Samantha Stevens? Can you fly on a broom?”

Shay placed her hands on her hips and stared at her best friend. Stared until Josie stopped laughing. Stared until Josie looked away.

“You’re serious?”

Shay nodded. “And this is why I never told you. There was no point. My family is gone. I’m the last of the line. My mother died before fully training me. But, right now, I can’t think of anything else.”

Josie nodded. “Okay, so what do we do?”

Now go and check out my friend Bronwyn‘s flash.

 

 

Promptly Penned July 2018

/ gwencease / 4 Comments

PromptlyPenned

Welcome to July’s promptly penned. The prompt is in bold in the flash below. Hope you enjoy!

 

Shay cross her arms as Jeffery carefully explained their assignment. Yeah, her team was new, but no matter how many ten dollars words Jeffery tossed around the whole thing sounded like scutwork.

“So, let me get this straight,” Shay interrupted, “the upper level’s big thought on this is ‘the best of the best weren’t available . . .  so we got the best of the mediocre.’ The mediocre being us?”

“No, no, no,” Jeffery said.

“There were one too many no’s in there,” Shay replied.

“Look, this came down from the director . . .”

Shay almost rolled her eyes. Yep, first he tried to placate then jumped directly to an attempt at being assertive. Too bad it never worked, especially with her.

“I’m out of here.”

Shay shoved off the desk and moved to the door. Bless his heart, Jeffery jumped in front of her and held one hand out like he was a cop directing traffic. He blinked rapidly behind his glasses as she fixed her gaze on him and began to stare. And stare. And stare. He looked away and she had to stop herself from smirking. Yes, she was a bitch sometimes, but she liked it that way.

“Just check it out,” Jeffery pleaded, holding a piece of paper out to her. “Please.”

Shay snatched the paper out of his hand and left the office. Yes, it was scutwork, but she’d take it. Better than the alternative. If they found out about her power surge . . . better not to think about it. They won’t find out, she promised herself. She knew what happened to people with gifts. They were used up until they were nothing but shattered people who sat and screamed and screamed. That was not going to be her.

Shay motioned for Josie to follow her as she left the building. The two women crossed the parking lot and climbed into the vehicle. Josie pulled a device from her pocket and switched it on. Red lights flashed briefly before going green. They were clear.

“What’s going on?” Josie asked, tucking the scanner away in a pocket. If surveillance was in place, it wasn’t any longer. The device Josie created made sure of it.

“Jeffery wants us to check out this house over on Collins. The owners said they heard noises.”

“Noises?”

“Yeah, you know rustling in the walls.”

“Oh, you mean mice?”

Shay laughed. “Either that or something is majorly wrong with the electrical. Mice or electrical doesn’t matter.”

“How did it come in?”

“Some friend of the director bought a house and heard noises. Ergo, the house is haunted.”

Josie shook her head. “And we were given the assignment because . . .?”

“We’re the best of the mediocre.”

“I can live with that. Live. See what I did there? Better to visit the fake haunts and collect a paycheck than roll with the big units.”

Shay nodded. The people with talent collected huge paychecks but didn’t usually last more than five years. Tops. Then they were quietly shuffled off to the care facilities the department kept on the downlow. Once there, if it was determined the person was damaged beyond repair the man or woman went quietly to sleep never to wake again. Not something Shay wanted for herself.

“Okay, so once we check on the mice, we should knock off for the day and go to dinner.” Shay pulled out her phone and began to type. “There’s a new Thai place I wanted to try.”

Shay pulled up in front of a house and checked the paper. Yep, right address. The place was nice. Huge two-story brick with lots of windows and a pretty price tag. She bet it had to run close to a million five easy.

Josie whistled. “Damn this place is nice. Too bad it has an electrical rodent problem. Or the pipes shake or a million other issues the builders skimped on.”

Shay climbed out of the car and the two women moved to the front door. She rang the bell and when that didn’t bring anyone, knocked loudly.

“We came all this way and no one is home?” Josie moved to peek through the small windows flanking the door.

“Jeffery told me the home owners were going to meet us.”

Shay stepped off the porch and moved across the yard to circle the house. Maybe the owners were waiting in the backyard. Glancing over the fence she found it empty.

“Cool,” Josie said, “we can head to dinner now.”

Shay ran her fingers through her hair. She so wanted to agree with her friend, but decided they had to do their due diligence. Opening the gate, she moved to the back door and looked through the window. She could see a gorgeous kitchen, but no movement. Knocking on the door, she waited a moment.

“We’re not leaving, are we?”

“Not yet,” Shay said, “we need to check the house. Then if we don’t find anything we call it in and leave.”

She placed her hand on the door knob and gave a small push with her mind. The door unlocked and she stepped in. The sound of rushing air greeted them. It didn’t sound like an AC unit though, more like an industrial fan cranked up to high. Shay looked over at her friend and found her just as confused.

Cautiously, she exited the kitchen into a huge foyer with stairs that curved up to the right. The noise sounded as though it was coming from a room to the left with doors partially closed. Josie pulled another device from her many pockets and began to scan. Lights flashed like crazy as Josie punched buttons. Finally, she looked up at Shay and mouthed not mice.

Taking a breath, Shay shoved the doors of the room open and stared. Furniture swirled in the air as the whooshing noise got louder. Two people, at least Shay thought it was only two, since they were only body parts, were plastered against the walls that rippled and pulsed. Where the ceiling should be was a huge black hole that reminded Shay of what she thought the inside of a tornado would look like. Yep, this was not mice. Not even close.

The mediocre just became the A team.

 

Bronwyn     Siobhan

May 2018 Promptly Penned

/ gwencease / 5 Comments

PromptlyPenned

Welcome! If you’re new here, Promptly Penned is where we are all given the same sentence and we have to craft a flash fiction piece around it. I’ll let you know what the sentence is by putting it in bold. I hope you enjoy the piece:

 

The figure came out of nowhere, or, at least, that’s how it seemed. One-minute Anna was walking home from work and the next she was wrapped in someone’s arms. Yeah, it would have been awesome if it were Jason Mamoa, but it wasn’t. She didn’t have that kind of luck.

Her attacker wasn’t big, but he . . . she was strong. Really strong. And smelled of rancid meat. Anna gagged at the smell as she fought to get away.

“Let go of me, mother fucker!” she yelled.

She kicked back and connected with a leg, but still her attacker wouldn’t let go.

“Shit, fuck, damn.”

The person grabbed her hair and wretched her head to the side as something sharp dug into her neck. She sagged and gasped at the sudden bright pain. Pain as she had never known before and truly didn’t want to know.

From far away, someone yelled. She was jerked away from whatever held her and she fell to the ground. She tried so hard to roll to her knees and crawl away but didn’t have the energy.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she muttered.

“Do you want to live?” a voice asked her.

“Duh, fucknut,” she slurred. “Of course, who wouldn’t want to live unless they had shit for brains. Fuck, fuck . . .”

Anna then died doing what she loved—swearing profusely.

 

Anna gasped in a breath and struggled to sit up. What the fuck happened? Where was she?

“Relax.”

Gentle hands pushed her back until she lay flat. She wished she could see . . . why couldn’t she see? Was she blind? Was she dead and blind? No, fuck, she wasn’t blind, her eyes weren’t opened. Were they? No, they weren’t. So, why couldn’t she force them? Fuck, she was so tired.

 

The next time Anna surfaced she could actually open her eyes. She also didn’t try to sit up since she felt dizzy and hadn’t even moved. Was that normal?

“Oh good, you’re awake.”

She tried to focus on the voice, but everything was a blur. So, maybe she wasn’t awake. Maybe she was dead. Was this heaven? She almost laughed, yeah, she doubted it since she cursed way too much for heaven. Couldn’t be hell since it wasn’t hot and she didn’t believe in it. Huh, so if she didn’t believe in it could she still go there? The question made her head hurt and she closed her eyes again.

A cool hand stroked her forehead.

“You need to wake up now.”

The voice was soft and female. Yeah, it was a female. Anna opened her eyes to find a woman she’d never met leaning over her. Blonde hair, big blue eyes and a bright smile. Anna knew right away the woman was probably perky. She hated perky people. They got on her last fucking nerve.

“My name is Selene and we have a lot to talk about.”

Anna wanted nothing more than to close her eyes. She hated when people said they had to talk. That usually meant bad news. Really bad news. Fuck, she was dead. She knew it.

 

Bronwyn    Siobhan