Monday 28 October 2013

500 Word Challenge: Don't Steal

Challenge: A character robs someone. A character becomes belligerent during the story.

- - -

    I couldn’t believe the guy was robbing us. I know that drug addicts don’t tend to think very clearly, or think at all, but people avoid robbing my brother and I.
    Mostly because we’re war-witches that are built like linebackers.
    But this guy had two advantages. One, he was a death-witch. Two, he had a gun.
    Death-witches are extremely dangerous. If they’re unskilled, they can cause excruciating pain to their victim. If they’re skilled, they can kill with a single spell.
    He was holding his gun out with one hand and building a spell with the other, but I could tell he wasn’t skilled with his magic. I was strong in combat and Liam was powerful with magic, but we were still human. Neither of us wanted to take a bullet, so we gave him all our money.
    “Gimme the rest!” he shouted, trembling black smoke forming in his other hand. I didn’t know what that spell would do if he used it. I didn’t want to know.
    “We did,” Liam said calmly. “We don’t have anything else.”
    “You got more! Inquisitors always got more!”
    I exhaled slowly. I didn’t like that he’d caught us on our way out of the office, while we were still in our Inquisitor uniforms. If we lost anything from our uniforms, our boss would skin us alive.
    Literally.
    “Gimme your belts!”
    Liam made an awkward face. I stared blankly at the robber. “Look, we can’t okay? You wouldn’t get a lot for them anyways. Just leave.”
    He scowled at me, then threw his spell at Liam.
    The black smoke hit his chest, making him cry out sharply and buckle a little. He clutched his chest and breathed in gasps. Every time he did, he winced in pain.
    The only reason I didn’t grab the robber and beat him to a pulp right then was because he shoved the barrel of his gun into Liam’s head. But I was furious.
    And you never want to piss of an Ares war-witch.
    “Damn. That hurt,” Liam breathed.
    “Shut up!” the robber shouted. He snapped his greasy head up to me. “Gimme your belt, or I kill the brat!”
    Liam lifted his head. “Did you really just call me a brat?”
    The robber raised his hand to pistol-whip Liam. But I moved too.
    I threw a blast of soulfire at him that engulfed his arm and made him scream. Liam suddenly shot up and punched the robber in the face rapidly.
    Soon enough, the robber was unconscious on the alley floor, and Liam was reclaiming our stolen items. I looked at the place the spell had hit him.
    “You moved quickly for someone who just had a pain-spell used on him.”
    Liam waved it off. “Pfft. That wasn’t a pain-spell. It was a stun-spell. Totally amateur.”
    I frowned. “Thanks for the warning, kid,” I grumped.
    Liam grinned at me. “Wouldn’t have been fun if I’d ruined the surprise, would it?”

- - -

I did some more test scenes for Hollow Hill today on the bus, and I think I'm close to getting the mindset of Derek and Liam. Right now the tricky part for me is figuring out how spells work for other witches. I know how it works for Derek and Liam, but everyone else is a little sketchier. I'll probably figure it out once I get going, though. I have a tendency to come up with ideas on the spot.

Only 3 more days!

Amy

No comments:

Post a Comment